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Cleopatra

This new production from Northern Ballet is choreographed by Artistic Director David Nixon OBE to a newly composed score by celebrated composer Claude-Michel Schönberg, best known across the world for Les Misérables and Miss Saigon amongst many others. Cleopatra explores the life of arguably the most powerful woman in the world at the time and her passionate love affairs with Marc Antony and Julius Caesar. Read more …

Claude-Michel Schönberg says: “From the moment David Nixon suggested the ballet of Cleopatra, it took me five years to find an elusive spark of inspiration. I had to understand how sensuous the way of life was in Egypt, the opposite to the culture of Rome. I realised that the chaos of being in love with such a woman as Cleopatra put the Roman Emperor and his Empire in danger. That’s what the score is trying to reflect without falling into clichés associated with that era. The relationship between Rome and Egypt is another aspect of the Yin and the Yang: the perfect incompatibility responsible for the drama of destinies.”

An enduring icon of the ancient world and the ultimate modern woman, Cleopatra’s legend has captivated generations. A universal style and beauty icon, Cleopatra is still inspiring artists, designers and stylists today. Although not widely known as a ballet, Cleopatra gained mass popular appeal through the 1963 Hollywood film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Nixon explains: “I have been fascinated by the story of Cleopatra for a long time. I think it’s the name, it’s just so iconic. It has echoed through the centuries, and it has echoed more and more; it doesn’t lose its resonance. Two-thousand years later she is as popular as she ever was, in fact more so. I think the legend and the mystery of the woman grows rather than lessens.

There is little factual information about her yet she managed to hold in her grasp two of the most powerful men in history. She was in some ways beautiful and unbelievably sensual for the almost barbaric Romans but she was also a woman, mother and above all a queen.”


The critical consensus

It should be noted – especially by those who take an absurdly snooty view of story ballets – that the audience gave this welcome new work a rapturous standing ovation.

***(*)(*)Laura Thompson, The Telegraph, 28/02/2011

Claude-Michel Schonberg’s score is disappointing, however, and often plays too much against the action...but it is Leebolt’s performance [as Cleopatra] that keeps the attention.

Neil Norman, The Stage, 28/02/2011

There's too much bland parading around, getting through the plot without making these characters distinctive.

**(*)(*)(*)Zoe Anderson, The Independent, 04/03/2011

This new Cleopatra has all the hallmarks of a crowd-pleaser – spectacular with flourishes that Cecil B de Mille would approve of, but with an emotional core and tragic humanity that Shakespeare would applaud.

****(*)Mary Brennan, The Herald, 14/03/2011

Both Nixon and Schönberg have been criticised for being "populist" theatre makers. But if that means soliciting the kind of applause seen at the Festival Theatre last week, and creating such vibrant, entertaining and captivating work, then long may they continue.

*****Kelly Apter, The Scotsman, 15/03/2011

Every company has a mis-step now and again and this was Northern Ballet‘s.

**(*)(*)(*)Neil, TV Bomb, 11/03/2011


Features about Cleopatra

Theatre preview: Cleopatra

Kelly Apter, The Scotsman, 05/03/2011

Northern Ballet production of Cleopatra tours UK

Kelly Apter, The List, 04/03/2011

Where and when?

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh from Thursday March 10, 2011, until Saturday March 12, 2011. More info: http://www.edtheatres.com/festival

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