Royals to tour U.S.A.

LONDON--American audiences will be the first to see Royal Ballet's new production of Sleeping Beauty. The ballet, considered the British company's "signature tune," will have its premiere, with Darcey Bussell and Zoltan Solymosi dancing the leads, at Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on April 6. During its subsequent American tour, the company will also visit cities in Florida, Texas, and California [see Performance Calendar for details]. RB will return to America for a two-week season, July 6-19, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

"This is a fitting tribute to our friends in America," reports Anthony Dowell, artistic director. "Beauty played an important part on our first visit in 1949. We [also] will be taking a varied repertoire to show the company's versatility."

All the works shown on the tour will be by British choreographers: past masters Sir Frederick Ashton and Sir Kenneth MacMillan, and today's prolific young creator, David Bintley. While Ashton's Dream and Month in the Country, and MacMillan's Mayerling have been seen by American audiences before, the other two ballets included will be new to them. Judas Tree, MacMillan's last work for RB, offers a disturbing picture of life and death in London's Docklands. In complete contrast, Bintley's Tombeaux is a poetic reverie set to William Walton's Variations on a Theme of Hindemith, with designs by Jasper Conran [see Reviews, July 1993, page 67]. Washington audiences will have the added delight of seeing Ashton's enchanting Tales of Beatrix Potter, in which beloved furry-tailed creatures cavort and amuse, while their portrayers pant and sweat under heavy masks and costumes.

Dowell himself will be responsible for the new staging of Beauty, which will have designs by the noted theater and opera designer Maria Bjornson, perhaps best known for her work in Phantom of the Opera. "I'm excited about working with Maria," Dowell says. "I feel that Beauty has lost some of its magic over the years and we hope to put it back in this production." There will be no surprises in the staging but, in a desire to use the male dancers more, Dowell requested and received permission from Lady MacMillan to revive her late husband's version of the Garland Dance from his 1967 production.

The new production originally was scheduled to have its premiere in London before Christmas 1993, but financial constraints prevented this. Dowell reports, however, that RB is "very much in business, with increased audiences." According to the company, RB ended its last fiscal year with a surplus of about $400,000, which has helped to reduce its deficit to about $4.2 million.

With the proposed plans for the refurbishment of the Royal Opera House now proceeding, Jeremy Isaacs, general director of the opera house, hopes to see Royal Ballet entirely based there by 1995, with five new rehearsal studios and a company expanded to ninety-five dancers.

The touring company will be led by artists well known to American audiences: Jose Manuel Carreno (now recuperating from an injury), Stuart Cassidy, Fiona Chadwick, Lesley Collier, Jonathan Cope, Viviana Durante, Sylvie Guillem, Irek Mukhamedov, and others. There is also new talent in the wings: Adam Cooper, Benazir Hussein, Gillian Revie, Muriel Valtat, and Sarah Wildor, all of whom have proven themselves in London this past season.