The ballet “Rhapsody” to the music of Rachmaninoff at the Royal Opera House

Three of Ashton’s most celebrated and expertly choreographed pieces set to music by Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff and Auber.

This mixed programme opens with the buoyant Les Rendezvous, a fizzing succession of dances following a group of friends who meet in a park. The Dream, Ashton’s witty and tender reimagining of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream, follows set to Felix Mendelssohn’s gossamer light music. The one-act ballet follows two pairs of mortal lovers, their fates at the hands of Oberon and Titania, the King and Queen of Fairies. Ashton’s lyrical masterpiece, Rhapsody, concludes the programme, its explosive jumps and fleet footwork a bravura match for Sergei Rachmaninoff’s virtuosic Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Rhapsody was created in 1980 and is one of Frederick Ashton’s final works. The ballet is set to Sergey Rachmaninoff’s well-known Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which moves from stormy passages to calmer interludes.

It was created on acclaimed Russian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, who requested the Ashton commission and whose personality is at the heart of the work. The male Principal role is characterized by exceptionally fluent leaps, turns and lightness of movement. It is twinned with the strength and grace of the ballerina, a role created on the pure, fleet-footed style of former Royal Ballet Principal Lesley Collier.

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