I recently had the pleasure to write a blog post for the Royal Opera House about the MacMillan Insight Evening which took place on 11 March – composer Brian Elias, répétiteurs Irek Mukhamedov and Julie Lincoln, Mara Galeazzi, Thiago Soares & others were all there to discuss and demonstrate The Judas Tree and Elite Syncopations, both part of The Royal Ballet’s latest triple bill, and a fascinating evening it turned out to be…

The 80th anniversary of Kenneth MacMillan’s birth has been an opportunity to re-discover the breadth of his creativity and the Insight Evening for The Royal Ballet’s upcoming MacMillan triple bill followed in this path last week. The event brought together artists who got to know Kenneth MacMillan intimately, from composer Brian Elias to former Royal Ballet dancers Irek Mukhamedov and Julie Lincoln, and all spoke with singular warmth of different facets of the British choreographer best known for his Romeo and Juliet or Manon. The one-act ballets introduced that evening demonstrated the scope of his inspiration, from The Judas Tree, an extreme tale of betrayal and guilt, to Elite Syncopations, a light-hearted romp to ragtime tunes – what emerged in the end was a unique vision of a choreographer fascinated with human nature and its contradictions, who pushed the boundaries of ballet far beyond expectations.

The evening started with a discussion around the music for The Judas Tree, commissioned in 1992 from Brian Elias. Barry Wordsworth, The Royal Ballet’s Music Director, led the conversation, explaining that he and Elias attended the Royal College of Music around the same time. The Judas Tree was the composer’s first ballet score, brought about by Deborah MacMillan, Kenneth’s wife, who arranged the collaboration after going to one of Elias’s concerts. MacMillan was actually very nervous about commissioning music, the audience learnt, as it used to be impossible to have a clear idea of what a score would sound like until the last rehearsals – and it became clear over the course of the evening that MacMillan knew what he wanted and kept close control over his creations. (…)

» Read the full post on the Royal Opera House’s blog