All the world’s a stage

Jo Kerrigan rounds up some of the major theatrical events across the globe this year

THIS year is going to be a year of unparalleled opportunities for theatregoing across the globe, so get your calendar and start planning.

Opera or ballet, tragedy or comedy, thriller or rib-tickler, the choice is yours, as long as your passport is up-to-date. Here are just a few of the major events, to whet your appetite.

VIENNA

There is really only one way to start off the year, and that’s by attending a performance of Die Fledermaus at the Vienna Opera House. It’s in repertoire there throughout the month of January. Flying there with Aer Lingus is no problem, but remember you’ll need to check in at least one portmanteau for your evening clothes. What better way to get into 2012 than by drifting up that grand staircase in your most glamorous outfit, to enjoy the frolics of Falke, Rosalinda, Eisenstein, Count Orlofsky, and the surprise special guests at the grand ball?

Tickets from €237 to €154, book on http://viennaoperatickets.com

ST PETERSBURG

The 8th Festival Maslenitsa or Shrovetide in St Petersburg runs from February 20-26, with a range of operas and ballets based on Russian fairytales at the Mariinsky Theatre, plus masterpieces of Russian symphony music and vocal programmes at the Concert Hall. Russia’s most ancient and beloved pagan festival was celebrated on a grand scale throughout pre-Revolutionary St Petersburg, with public festivities in the streets, dances and masked balls in palaces, and major productions in theatres. Everyone made pancakes, ate and drank lavishly, threw snowballs, set off fireworks, and celebrated the expectation of spring.

Now the festival has been revived, including a series of charity concerts open to all, in the best spirit of the original event. Cast caution to the winds and hail the passing of winter in the true Russian style.

http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/playbill/festivale/fest_2011_2012/maslenitsa_229/

LONDON

A treat for both the young and the young-at heart in London’s Covent Garden this March is the Royal Ballet’s production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The first revival of Christopher Wheeldon’s full-length work, it is famed for its hugely enjoyable combination of story, inventiveness and sheer theatrical verve. Incidentally, the inventive and colourful designs for the ballet are by Irishman Bob Crowley. And you will simply love the tap-dancing Mad Hatter. A brilliantly imagined show with something for everyone.

Runs March 17 to April 16. Matinees and evening performances. Booking opens February 7, www.roh.org.uk

NEW YORK

Is New York on your itinerary? The Met will present three complete cycles of the new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen by Wagner during April and May. The cycles will be the 108th, 109th and 110th presented at the Met since the first cycle in the Western Hemisphere premiered at the house in 1889. James Levine will conduct all three, as he has the last 21 complete cycles at the Met. Stellar casting, including Bryn Terfel as Wotan/The Wanderer. Cycle 1 opens April 7 with Das Rheingold; Cycle 2 on April 26, and Cycle 3, May 5. The best orchestra seats at $360 are already sold out for most performances, as are most of the family circle seats with partial view, at $25, but you might be able to get a rear grand tier at $132 if you can be flexible about dates.

http://metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/index.aspx

If sitting through hours of Wagner isn’t so much your passion, then how about drama, danger, mystery, murder — and music? The musical version of Daphne du Maurier’s classic thriller, Rebecca, opens at the Broadhurst Theatre on April 22 (previews from March 27). Book and lyrics by Michael Kunze, music by Sylvester Levay, it’s directed by Michael Blakemore and stars Sierra Boggess as the un-named heroine, Tam Matu as Maxim de Winter, and Karen Mason as the threatening Mrs Danvers. I can’t imagine how this well-loved tale will accommodate itself to the musical stage. Will Mrs Danvers sing? Will there be choruses? I’ll just have to go see it to find out.

www.broadhursttheater.net.

A major free event in New York in the autumn. New York City Opera and the Public Theater will present operas based on Shakespeare plays at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The full programme hasn’t been released yet, but Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis says: “Free Shakespeare in the Park is one of our great civic traditions, and to combine Shakespeare, with opera, outdoors, in the centre of the greatest city in the world, for free, will make a beautiful sound.” Just think of those autumnal tints on the trees of Central Park as you wander towards the Delacorte to hear wonderful arias.

http://www.centralpark.com/guide/attractions/delacorte-theatre.html

SHAKESPEARE

The World Shakespeare Festival opens on April 23, the anniversary of the playwright’s birth, providing a range of exciting productions across Britain for devotees of the Bard. Baghdad’s Iraqi Theatre Company will be creating a version of Romeo and Juliet for a new generation, for example, infused with Iraq’s rich traditions of poetry, music and ritual as well as its experience of violence and revenge. In Arabic with English surtitles, it will run at the Swan Theatre, Stratford on Avon, April 26 — May 5, 2012.

More info on www.rsc.org.uk

BIRMINGHAM

Forests sounds like a fascinating piece of theatre. With a cast of English and Catalan actors, it’s an original Dante-esque journey through life, paradise, hell, truth and lies, inspired by Shakespeare’s references to forests throughout his work, where it is seen variously as a place for the getaway, a punishment or sentence, and, sometimes, a place for shelter and redemption. Performed in Catalan and English with surtitles, it will run at Birmingham Old Rep from August 31 to September 15.

More information on all the events at: www.worldshakespearefestival.org.uk.

SYDNEY

Thinking of visiting Australia? You can catch Les Liaisons Dangereuses in Sydney, April 5 to June 9, courtesy of the Sydney Theatre Company. Hugo Weaving and Pamela Rabe star in this tale of revenge, seduction and humiliation, acid-washed by director Sam Strong for the Wharf 1 Theatre.

Incidentally, Griffin Theatre in New South Wales will be presenting our own Enda Walsh’s The New Electric Ballroom from March 7 to 31. Griffin specialises in promoting the best of new Australian writing, so it’s quite something to have them choose Walsh’s play of romance on Ireland’s west coast.

www.griffintheatre.com.au

VENICE

Now here is something for lovers to experience. Nowhere is more romantic than Venice, and in November, La Fenice, that city’s legendary 18th century opera house, is staging Tristan und Isolde, the iconic tale of young love cruelly separated. See Tristan und Isolde on Nov 18, 23, 25, 28 with a loved one. Maria Callas sang Isolde here.

Now you can see those unforgettable moments of pain and parting together, and then wander off into the Venetian night hand in hand. Perfect. Tickets from €190 to €90.

www.teatrolafenice.it.

OLYMPICS

Wondering what effect the Olympics will have on London’s traditionally busy theatrical summer season? You’re not the only one.

“There’s a lot of discussion and disagreement about what is going to happen,” says Stephen Waley-Cohen, theatre-owner and producer of the West End’s longest-runner The Mousetrap.

“Personally, I think that the two-and-a-half weeks of the Olympics will see pretty poor attendances in theatres because people will be focused on sport. I hope I’m going to be proved wrong.

“As far as The Mousetrap is concerned, though, we’ll be doing eight shows a week,” Waley-Cohen confirmed.