The best dance, opera and classical music to book in London in 2022, from Raymonda to the Handmaid’s Tale
With new ballets choreographed by Tamara Rojo and Christopher Wheeldon, a brand new opera adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, long-awaited premieres of ‘lost’ works and music created under unimaginable conditions in labour camps, 2022 looks to be a thrilling year in opera, dance and classical music. Here are our top picks.
LSO/Rattle
A typically alluring programme under Simon Rattle includes the delayed world premiere of the complete Exiles: Remembrances for Voices and Orchestra by one of Britain’s leading composers, Julian Anderson, alongside music by Mahler and his neglected but talented friend Hans Rott (a movement from his fascinatingly Mahlerian symphony), Webern and Dvorák (his Seventh Symphony, a favourite of Rattle’s). Anderson’s work, though inspired by artists imperilled by Nazism, takes on an extra resonance at a time when much of the population, creators among them, have felt themselves to be in a kind of exile.
Barbican, January 9
Voices Unwrapped
Some of the most innovative programming on the British music scene has been going on at Kings Place over the last few years in its “Unwrapped” series. The 14th iteration, “Voices Unwrapped”, celebrates a nation finding its voice again with a smorgasbord stretching from Renaissance polyphony, through jazz, close harmony and folksong to cutting-edge electronics and performance poetry. The launch weekend features the ever-popular baritone Roderick Williams in an installation by Sound Voice, the stunning VOCES8 ensemble and the Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis with her band Allt.
Kings Place, January 13-15
Raymonda
A brand-new production of a ballet rarely seen in its entirety in the UK from the English National Ballet. Tamara Rojo reimagines the 19th-century three-act tutu classic, transposing the action from the time of the Crusades to the battlefields of the Crimean War, where a love triangle plays out between the Florence Nightingale-esque nurse Raymonda, soldier John, and Abdur, a leader of the Ottoman army. Although Rojo – one of the great dancers of her generation – won’t appear in the production, it marks her debut in directing and choreographing. A must for classical ballet lovers.
London Coliseum, January 18-23
Total Immersion: Music for the End of Time
The latest in the BBC’s Total Immersion series features music from the ghettos and camps of Nazi-occupied Europe. Music written by Hans Krása, Pavel Haas and Viktor Ullmann in the Theresienstadt camp is performed by the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Orchestra in the afternoon, while the evening concert presents Ullmann’s devastatingly satirical opera The Emperor of Atlantis, in which Death goes on strike, thus thwarting the emperor’s plans to maintain his power through endless war. Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, also written in a labour camp, closes the day, finally attaining paradise in its serene final violin solo.
Barbican, January 23
Theodora
Handel’s late masterpiece Theodora, which unfolds a tale of true love set against a backdrop of religious persecution, contains some of his most heart-rending music. Katie Mitchell’s new production for Covent Garden (for which theatre it was written, though it’s strictly a dramatic oratorio) promises to revisit the work from a twin perspective of modern feminism and contemporary religious terrorism. With the superstars Joyce DiDonato and Jakub Józef OrliÅski among the cast, and Julia Bullock in the title role, this is one not be missed.
Royal Opera House, January 31
Mark Bruce Company: Phantoms
A welcome return to the stage for this innovative little company, headed by one of the country’s most interesting dance-theatre creators and staged in London’s prettiest venue. Among the works on offer are Phantoms, a new piece created by the team behind the troupe’s popular productions of Dracula and Macbeth, which boasts ‘a carousel of dream-like characters in a beautifully savage world falling into chaos’ (so, right on brand for Bruce then). Completing the bill is Green Apples, a commanding duet choreographed to music by The White Stripes, and Folk Tales, a five-strong romp created on Martin Simpson’s (you’ve guessed it) folk songs.
Wilton’s Music Hall, February 24 to March 5
Riot Ensemble: This Lunar Beauty
Riot Ensemble, under its Artistic Director, Aaron Holloway-Nahum, has created a niche for itself with meticulously prepared performances of contemporary music that truly stretch the boundaries. Anna Clyne’s This Lunar Beauty, which gives its name to the programme, is described as a melodic “creation upon a sound space”. A “lost” piece by Rufus Isabel Elliot, Tillage without violence, is given its long-delayed world premiere. The evening also includes two works by longer-established contemporary composers: a meditation on a Bach chorale by Sofia Gubaidulina and A L’ile de Gorée for chamber ensemble with solo harpsichord by Xenakis.
Kings Place, March 16
Elaine Mitchener
Elaine Mitchener can loosely be described as an experimental vocalist and movement artist, but essentially she’s uncategorisable. Gasps, stutters, yelps are all part of an astonishing oral palette deployed to express the plight of the oppressed and enslaved. In celebration of International Women’s Day, she presents WOMENS WORK, the title taken from the pioneering Fluxus magazine of the 1970s. The programme features contemporary works by women and female-identifying composers.
Wigmore Hall, March 8
Dance Reflections, Van Cleef & Arpels Festival
A thrilling fortnight of dance, showcasing leading contemporary choreographers, staged in venues scattered around the capital, and supported by the jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels, which has boasted links to the ballet world for nearly a century. (Balanchine’s Jewels, one of the great 20th century ballets, was inspired by the company’s glittering window displays on New York’s Fifth Avenue.) Among the highlights are Lucinda Chance’s seminal Dance (9-10, Sadler’s Wells), Trisha Brown’s Set And Reset, performed by Rambert (12-14, Tate Modern) and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s influential Fase (16-17, Royal Opera House).
Various venues, March 9-23
Ballet Black
This eight-strong troupe may have been formed by Cassa Pancho back in 2001 to give much-needed opportunities to black and Asian ballet dancers, but along the way it’s also garnered a reputation for attracting up-and-coming choreographers and for its bold, creative programming. This latest double bill is a case in point, with acclaimed South African choreographer Gregory Maqoma creating a new piece for the full company, with an original score by Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante, co-artistic director of esteemed hip-hop outfit Boy Blue, alongside a work directed and choreographed by Pancho, which celebrates Ballet Black’s 20-year history – and looks ahead to its future.
Barbican, March 24-27
Arditti Quartet
The cutting-edge offer from Purcell Sessions, initiated recently at the South Bank Centre, continues with more pioneering programmes showcasing emerging multidisciplinary artists, electronic producers, an “ethereal-pop” artist, projects involving speech transcription software, immersive staging and much more. In this context, the Arditti Quartet, for half a century pushing the boundaries of contemporary music, look almost passé, but their April concert featuring UK premieres of works by Betsy Jolas, Tansy Davies and Christian Mason, should be worth catching.
Purcell Room, South Bank Centre, April 2
The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel about a contemporary society governed by a merciless fundamentalist theocracy that reduces women to the role of mute sexual functionaries (handmaids) gripped the nation in its TV adaptation. The Danish composer Poul Ruders’ visceral opera, written long before Elisabeth Moss wrung our withers with her long-suffering Offred, returns to the ENO in a new production by Annilese Miskimmon (her first since taking over as artistic director) and conducted by Joana Carneiro. The cast includes Kate Lindsey as Offred, with Susan Bickley as her mother, Emma Bell as Aunt Lydia, and Harewood Artist John Findon as Luke.
English National Opera, Coliseum, April 4
Easter Festival - Tenebrae & Christian Forshaw
A new dawn breaks over St Martin-in-the-Fields at Trafalgar Square in the new year as James Gibbs’ jewel of a church becomes a cultural hub hosting performances by high-profile artists and ensembles such as John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, Ex Cathedra, The Gesualdo Six, I Fagiolini, Tallis Scholars, BBC Singers, Chineke! Voices and the ENO Chorus. For this Easter concert, entitled Drop, Slow Tears: A Meditation for Choir and Sax, Tenebrae present sacred music from Hildegard of Bingen to Tallis and Gibbons, with reflective saxophone improvisation by Christian Forshaw.
St Martin-in-the-Fields, April 9
Like Water For Chocolate
He’s already taken on problem Shakespeare (The Winter’s Tale), a modern classic (Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland) and a fanciful fairytale (Cinderella) – but Christopher Wheeldon’s latest three-act ballet for the Royal Ballet could be his most ambitious project yet. Co-commissioned with American Ballet Theatre, it’s based on the magical realist novel by Laura Esquivel, which weaves together a passionate love story with – here comes the challenge – a lot of Mexican cooking. The production will be led by the conductor Alondra de la Parra, with a newly commissioned score by long-term Wheeldon collaborator Joby Talbot, and danced by a cast including Royal Ballet stars Francesca Hayward, Marcelino Sambé and Lauren Cuthbertson.
Royal Opera House, June 2-17
The Car Man
Matthew Bourne’s company New Adventures’ multi-award-winning The Car Man is reimagined to fit the Albert Hall’s cavernous auditorium as part of its 150th anniversary celebrations. Based on Bizet’s opera Carmen, with a dash of neo-noir thriller The Postman Always Rings Twice thrown in for good measure, it’s a tale of love, lust and revenge set in a greasy garage-diner in 1960s small-town America. As well as new designs by Olivier and Tony award-winner Lez Brotherston, the show will also see Bourne’s choreography – as inventive and fresh as when the show was first staged 20 years ago – tackled by an expanded company of 65 dancers.
Royal Albert Hall, June 9-19
