ROYAL BALLET: THE DREAM/SYMPHONIC VARIATIONS/MARGUERITE...

This exciting release presents three contrasting ballets by The Royal Ballet's Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton: The Dream (1964) is an enchanting adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream to music by Mendelssohn. Symphonic Variations (1946) is an early Ashton masterpiece, and a breathtaking, abstract work on the beauty of pure movement. Marguerite and Armand (1963), here danced by former Royal Ballet Principal Zenaida Yanowsky and Guest Artist Roberto Bolle, is a tragic love story of great lyric beauty. The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House is conducted by Emmanuel Plasson. Each of these performances received stellar reviews. First-rate dancing in an Ashton triple bill that offers comedy, serenity and demi-monde ardour. In one of her final performances as principal, Zenaida Yanowsky gives a tremendously intense and intelligent performance as the tragic courtesan (The Stage) A passionate tribute to an all-time genius The Royal Ballet is bringing this season - and it's 70th-birthday celebrations - to a close with a perfectly chosen trio of works by it's founder choreographer Frederick Ashton (1904-1988), works that remind us just how brightly and variously his genius blazed. (The Daily Telegraph)