Tag: Playlist

1 Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns

The first opera I was commissioned to choreograph was for the Bregenz Festival in 1987. The Bacchanale is located in the third act of the opera and depicts the celebration of the victory of the Philistines over the Hebrews. It’s an ecstatic dance, energetic and furious, dedicated to Bacchus, the god of wine, and was an incredible introduction to opera. Over many years, I have collaborated with opera singers and dancers but nothing has touched the visceral experience I encountered with this piece.

2 Let X = X by Laurie Anderson

In 1982, a free disc of this track was released in a magazine my dad brought home. It was a completely new sound to me, played repeatedly, and, although I hadn’t attempted to choreograph before, I knew I wanted to make a dance like this – whatever that meant! Looking back it was a mixture of the language, deadpan humour and minimalist music that inspired me. Laurie Anderson is still a great inspiration.

3 I’ll Be Your Mirror by The Velvet Underground & Nico

On the day Andy Warhol died, I was at a gig of Nico’s in Brixton. Nico didn’t speak throughout the entire performance, then before the final song she simply said, ‘This is for Andy.’ She sang I’ll Be Your Mirror – the beauty of Lou Reed’s lyrics and their complexity shone through.

4 Les Noces by Igor Stravinsky

Bronislava Nijinska’s choreography for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1923 is a perfect work. Everything works in beautiful simplicity: form, music and design. I did eventually choreograph Les Noces for Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic with a cast of over 100 dancers aged between eight and 80-years-old. It was a great honour to work with this score but nothing can touch its original staging. 

5 Heroes by David Bowie

My favourite Bowie track. An anthem of hope and, even if something comes to an end, it doesn’t make it any less. We played this at my mother’s funeral.

1 Piano concerto no 2 (first movement) by Sergei Rachmaninov

When I was about 10 years old I spent my birthday money on a Philips LP of favourite piano concertos: single movements from about six or seven famous concertos by Chopin, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. At that time I was not aware of any of Rachmaninov’s music and I will never forget the spine-tingling impact of hearing the crescendo of these opening chords leading into the huge sweep of the orchestra. I couldn’t believe that such music could exist, and still remember my amazement at that first moment every time I hear this work. The beginning of a life-long love of this composer’s work.

2 The Man That Got Away by Judy Garland

In the 1970s I designed several ballets for the great choreographer Jochen Ulrich who founded the company Tanzforum at Cologne Opera House. Finally I was doing what I had always wanted: design for dance. There was very little money and certainly no budget for travel from the UK. I built all the models in Jochen’s study: long days alone in a grand art nouveau flat in Cologne, with access to a huge collection of LPs. The big discovery was the double album of Judy Garland’s 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall. Apart from The Wizard of Oz, I didn’t know much about Judy and am sure that I almost ruined the discs by repeatedly playing them – even now I can’t imagine most of these songs sung by anyone else. This is my absolute favourite.

3 Journey through the snow from The Nutcracker by Pyotr IlyichTchaikovsky

This four-minute piece links the end of the battle between the rats and soldiers to the snowflakes finale to act 1. The battle plays out in firelight under the branches of an oversized Christmas tree and as this music begins Clara and the prince are left alone. The setting for snowflakes slowly descends and cross flies with the tree: by the last arpeggio the stage has transformed from darkness to thousands of snow-covered branches. Without fail it always makes me cry.

I designed The Nutcracker for Sir Peter Wright and Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1990. An early work and a monumental project containing some of the most terrifying open set changes I have ever attempted. Perhaps it is the memory of the huge feeling of relief that we have nearly reached the interval without any major catastrophe – but in the end it is simply the most beautiful piece of music.

4 Storm from Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten

The storm is the most memorable and spine tingling of the four Sea Interludes. In 1994 I designed Peter Grimes for La Monnaie in Brussels, directed by Willy Dekker and conducted by Antonio Pappano. It was a huge experience in every way and the set, though visually simple, was technically ridiculously complicated: lots of hydraulics, raked floors and moving walls. The four–minute storm interlude is also the biggest set change of the night. The front curtain is down, loud music drowning out backstage noise, and I remember being on tenterhooks, watching the red light on the conductor’s desk and waiting for it to turn green seconds before the last note and revealing the tavern scene.

5 The final duet from Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák

Rusalka has always been one of my favourite operas: it was wonderful to be offered the chance to design it for Lyric Opera Chicago. All the supernatural darkness of the forest with its water and wood nymphs, goblins and witches and then the terrible world of man as seen through Rusalka’s eyes. Rusalka is famous for the song to the moon but is packed with beautiful music, leading to the heart-rending and touching final moments. In Rusalka’s final duet with the prince, with her last kiss he dies in her arms and she walks into the night condemned to roam the earth as a phantom – a tiny white figure walking into the night sky.

1 Allegro con Brio from Beethoven’s Symphony No 7

Conducting always demands for you to give yourself entirely, but whenever I conduct – or even just listen to – Beethoven 7 I am always overcome by the inexorable energy and incredible vibrant freshness in this music. It makes every fibre in my body want to dance, and I challenge anyone not to feel the same way when they hear it! No wonder Wagner called this symphony ‘the apotheosis of dance.’

2 The ending of Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet

2022 was my year of Romeo: MacMillan’s at the Royal Ballet, Cranko’s in Australia, and a stunning production by Veronica Paeper in South Africa. I managed to persuade Laura to marry me in Cape Town, and the Australian Ballet to employ me during the Cranko, so Romeo will always have a special place in my heart. I must have done the piece nearly 40 times in that year, and every time we got to the ending it would turn me into an emotional wreck. Isn’t it just the saddest C major in the history of music? Listen in particular to the last few bars, and to how the harmony resolves. Now listen to Bernstein’s West Side Story: there wouldn’t be one without the other!

3 Erbarme dich from JS Bach’s Matthäus-Passion

It seems a cliché to say that music and dance have always gone together, but for Bach I think music is always danced, often to surprisingly emotive effect. This is why his music, together with so many of the Baroque masters, holds such appeal for choreographers. The St Matthew Passion is one of my desert island pieces. It is a masterpiece of drama and I wish somebody would make a full length ballet of it. I love how melody and the harmony of this aria grabs at your heart, but the dance within it means that there is something visceral about one’s response.

4 The Ice Hotel by Stacey Kent

As a conductor, an amateur pilot, and also growing up with families scattered all around the world, I have been very fortunate to have travelled a lot. Honestly, it never gets any less exciting. I love all of Stacey Kent’s songs, and especially her collaboration with Kazuo Ishiguro. Ice Hotel is one of the songs they penned together, and it will always ignite my wanderlust, taking me at the drop of the first piano notes to far-flung places around the globe.

5 A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, arr Callum Au and sung by Michael Bublé

I love jazz standards, and I love Bublé (though I think he should be banned at Christmas). Growing up in the UK as an immigrant from Hong Kong, London has always held this sense of romance for me and this song preserves and enhances it for my hopelessly romantic self. This particular version was arranged and orchestrated by my dear friend Callum Au, who is one of the most talented people I know. As a composer and arranger he works with some of the best in the world, but I keep thinking how he would write a really fine ballet one day…

1 Pietermaritzburg by Felix Laband

This reminds me of Pietermaritzburg, one of those amazing places in South Africa. It is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

2 Neli Walking by Paul Hanmer

Paul Hanmer is a South African composer that I’ve been listening to since I was quite young and Neli Walking is from his album Trains To Taung.

3 Looking Back by Bob Holroyd

Looking Back is something we use to beef up our Tswana dance moves.

4 Loch Raven by Animal Collective

I really love Animal Collective, they’re an American experimental pop band.

5 Drumming by Steve Reich

This is number one at the moment. Epic singer and epic song.