Kiri Te Kanawa , Placido Domingo , Sylvie Guillem and Irek
Mukhamedov are among the stars from the worlds of opera and ballet featured in this centenary tribute to
Tchaikovsky, coming live from the Royal Opera House in London in the presence of HRH the Prince of Wales.
Highlights of this "winter gala" include Domingo conducting the 1812 Overture, and singing the Lensky aria from Eugene Onegin , andKiriTe Kanawa performing
Rachmaninov's Vocalise and the Czardas fromJohann
Strauss's Fledermaus.
There is also a feast of ballet, includingexcerpts from the Nutcracker (Leanne Benjamin and Tetsuya Kumakawa ) and Sleeping Beauty (Lesley Collier and Mukhamedov), the Balanchine pas de deux (Darcey Bussell and Zoltan Solymosi ) and the pas de deux from
Anastasia (VivianaDuranteand Bruce Sansom ). Guillem dances La Luna , choreographed for her by Bejart to music by Bach.
Also appearingare
Anna Tomowa-Sintow , Tito Beltran , Paata Burchuladze ,
Dmitri Hvorostovsky , Sergei Leiferkus. The conductors are
Edward Downes , Barry Wordsworth ,
Stephen Barlow and the Kirov's Valery Gergiev ; the evening is introduced by James Naughtie.
In the interval, there's a visit to the Birmingham Royal Ballet, resident in the city since 1990. Director Brian Large
Producer Peter Maniura