The Royal Ballet: three new dance streams

Whatever Covid-19 does, we will still be able to enjoy stunning ballet – and for free. The Royal Ballet has announced it will stream three major works from its repertoire to end 2021 and start 2022 in the best possible way. All can be accessed here.

Apart from Giselle, which was available until Saturday 1 January 2022, and The Dante Project, available until Wednesday 19 January 2022, The Royal Ballet will stream three works.

The Sleeping Beauty – available for 30 days from Friday 31 December at 2pm


Marianela Nuñez and artists of The Royal Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty. Photo: © ROH Johan Persson 2011
The Royal Ballet's signature work, The Sleeping Beauty, marked the 1946 post-war reopening of the Royal Opera House and brought the British public an unforgettable performance from Margot Fonteyn in the title role of Princess Aurora. Restaged 60 years later by the then Royal Ballet director Monica Mason and Christopher Newton, it is a sumptuous production, with rich sets and costumes and an irresistible collection of dances for both soloists and ensemble. All this and Tchaikovsky's gorgeous score, too.

A great spectacle for the whole family, this production stars the incomparable Royal Ballet principals Marianela Nuñez (pictured top) as Aurora and Vadim Muntagirov as Prince Florimund.

The Winter's Tale – available for 30 days from Friday 28 January at 6pm


Lauren Cuthbertson as Hermione in The Royal Ballet's The Winter's Tale. Photo: © ROH, Johan Persson 2014
Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon's masterful adaptation of Shakespeare's eponymous tale of love, pathological jealousy and forgiveness was deemed by many The Royal Ballet's first classic of the 21st century.

This production boasts the original cast, including the now retired Edward Watson as King Leontes, in a blood-chilling performance as a man tormented by unjustified but all-consuming jealousy; Lauren Cuthbertson at her best as Leontes's wronged wife Hermione, Sarah Lamb as their daughter Perdita and Steven McRae as her lover Florizel. Watch out, too, for a performance of stunning power and delicacy from now retired Zenaida Yanowsky as Hermione's lady-in-waiting, Paulina.

Joby Talbot's especially commissioned score and Bob Crowley eye-filling designs make this a great spectacle.

Marguerite and Armand – available for 30 days from Friday 4 February at 6pm


Zenaida Yanowksy and Federico Bonelli in Marguerite and Armand. Photo: © ROH, Tristram Kenton 2013
Sir Frederick Ashton distilled Alexandre Dumas's La Dame aux Camélias in this intense work for Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev; and for many years nobody else was allowed to dance it. Slowly, though, the Royal Ballet gave other famous partnerships the opportunity to bring to life this most intense of love affairs, and principal Zenaida Yanowsky chose Marguerite and Armand for her farewell to The Royal Ballet in 2017.

In this production Yanowsky's Armand is the Italian superstar Roberto Bollé. Theirs is a wonderful partnership, driven by Franz Liszt's eloquent music – we defy any viewers not to shed a tear at the work's heart-breaking finale…