Stravinsky double bill

Two enterprising young companies, Constella Ballet and Orchestra and Helios Collective, are collaborating to present an all-Stravinsky programme at the Bloomsbury Theatre on 31 March and 1 April 2015. The programme is a double bill of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale choregraphed by Jaerad Glavin (first presented in 2013, see my review) and a new production of the opera-ballet Renard with choreography by Erico Montes of the Royal Ballet. Far less well-known that Soldier's Tale, Renard is a work based on Russian folk-tales.

The works, which involve six dancers, two actors, four singers, and an orchestra, are directed by Helios Collective’s Artistic Director Ella Marchment and conducted by Leo Geyer. The cast includes tenors Leonel Pinheiro and Daniel Joy, and the dancers Matt Petty and Michael Walters. The instrumental ensemble will be on-stage for the performances, making them very much part of the action and for Renard this is a great advantage for audience members as Stravinsky used a cimbalom as the continuo instrument in the work. This is a large hammered dulcimer, a Hungarian folk-instrument, best known for its use in Kodaly's Hary Janos and for its occasional inclusion in Rosalinde's act two aria (when she is a 'Hungarian' countess) in Strauss's Die Fledermaus.

See the Bloomsbury Theatre website for further details.