Daphnis and Chloé

Repertoire

Performers

Edward Gardner conductor
BBC Singers
Circa

The sumptuous beauty of Daphnis et Chloé’s music, its bold rhythmic variety and stunning orchestration inspired Stravinsky to rightly declare it as ‘one of the most beautiful products of all French music’.

Yet Ravel’s orchestral masterpiece is a ballet that resists staging, rarely being performed as a ballet. Enter Circa’s powerful acrobatics and aerials.

The collaboration between orchestra and gravity-defying circus teases out a world as intriguing, sensual and strange as the music itself with dramatic group acrobatics, intimate duos and aerial solos. Prepare to be transported by the sumptuous movement of the acrobats, gesturing at longing and our capacity for wonder and providing a physical analogue to the rich beauty of Ravel’s score.

Performed after the main ballet, La Valse is the opposite of Daphnis et Chloé – it is the carousel of Western culture centrifuging out of control; like World War I, it shatters the idyll of romanticism. Its energy transfers with abandon and fury to the bodies of Circa’s acrobats.

Circa is one of the world’s leading performance companies. They continue to push the boundaries of the art form, blurring the lines between movement, dance, theatre and circus. Circa acknowledges the assistance of the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

Please note start times and that there will be no interval.

Wed 23 Apr 2025, 6.30pm

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Wed 23 Apr 2025, 8.30pm

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London, Royal Festival Hall

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Part of

Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra delivered an interpretation of superlative resonance and clarity

The Arts Desk

Featuring

Edward Gardner, conductor

Circa

Watch more

Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra delivered an interpretation of superlative resonance and clarity

The Arts Desk

Edward Gardner, conductor

Circa

Edward Gardner on Ravel La Waltz

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