The Royal Opera, Christopher Wheeldon, Joby Talbot

Following his delightful full-length ballet Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Christopher Wheeldon continues his highly successful collaboration with designer Bob Crowley and composer Joby Talbot to create his first ballet based on a Shakespeare play, the late romance The Winter’s Tale.

The story follows the destruction of marriage through consuming jealousy, the abandonment of a child, and a seemingly hopeless love. Yet through remorse and regret – and after a statue comes miraculously to life – the ending is one of forgiveness and reconciliation. It is powerful material for ballet, with a story that allows for the portrayal of intense emotions between and within the characters, and the opportunity for the Company to create not just new central characters but the whole world around them.

A pre-show supper is available in the Flavel cafe before the evenings performance.