McGregor Triple Bill

Triple Bill of ballets choreographed by Wayne McGregor:

1. Chroma. Music by Joby Talbot and Jack White III, arranged by Talbot and orchestrated by Christopher Austin. Stars Federico Bonelli, Ricardo Cervera, Mara Galeazzi, Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae, Laura Morera, Ludovic Ondiviela, Tamara Rojo, Eric Underwood, Jonathan Watkins, and Edward Watson. Daniel Capps conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House (Peter Schulmeister Associate Concert Master). Sets by John Pawson; costumes by Moritz Junge; lighting by Lucy Carter.

2. Infra. Music by Max Richter. Stars Leanne Benjamin, Ricardo Cervera, Yuhui Choe, Lauren Cuthbertson, Mara Galeazzi, Melissa Hamilton, Ryoichi Hirano, Paul Kay, Marianela Nuñez, Eric Underwood, Jonathan Watkins, and Edward Watson. Music played by Max Richter Quintet with violins Lousia Fuller, Natalia Bonner, viola Nick Barr, and cellos Helen Rathbone and Chris Worsey. Solo piano by Robert Clark. Sets by Julian Opie; costumes by Moritz Junge; lighting by Lucy Carter; sound design by Chris Ekers.

3. Limen. Music Notes on Light by Kaija Saariaho. Stars Leanne Benjamin, Yuhui Choe, Tristan Dyer, Mara Galeazzi, Melissa Hamilton, Paul Kay, Sarah Lamb, Brian Maloney, Steven McRae, Marianela Nuñez, Ludovic Ondiviela, Leticia Stock, Akane Takada, Eric Underwood, and Edward Watson. Barry Wordsworth conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House (Concert Master Peter Manning). Solo cello by Anssi Karttunen. Sets and video designs by Tatsuo Miyajima; costumes by Moritz Junge; lighting by Lucy Carter.

Chroma and Limen directed for TV by Margaret Williams; Infra directed for TV by Jonathan Haswell. Released 2011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+

The two best ballet companies in the world are the Paris Opera Ballet and the Royal Ballet (alphabetical order). In both houses, many stars for romantic and classical productions also are doing cutting-edge modern ballet. The three works featured here from the Royal Balet are 99% abstract with 1% of philosophy---something that often puts me to sleep. But here McGregor has carefully picked 3 very different and intensely interesting modern music compositions. His dance vocabulary is consistently engaging and awesomely beautiful; and, as he says in a bonus, he doesn't repeat himself. I've watched this 7 times recently, and I wish I could make time to see it again right now! So I'm giving this the "A+" grade, which means I think everybody should have it. If you happen to hate modern music and dance, I still think you should try this one---it might just win you over.

Please help us by writing a comments that we can place here as mini-reviews of each of the three pieces presented in this title. We are sure there's a lot that can be said about each of them.