Winners of the 2013 Olivier Awards announced
April 28, 2013
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time scoops 7 awards at this year’s Olivier Awards.
Luke Treadaway wins Best Actor
At a glamorous event at the Royal Opera House in London, the Society of London Theatre’s annual Olivier Awards were held this evening, Sunday 28 April 2013, hosted by Sheridan Smith and Hugh Bonneville.
The show of the night was undoubtedly the National Theatre’s production of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, which is now playing at the Apollo Theatre in London. The show, based on Mark Haddon’s acclaimed novel, won 7 awards including best new play, best director for Marianne Elliot, best actor for Luke Treadaway and best supporting actress for Nicola Walker. The show equaled that of last year’s big winner, Matilda the Musical.
The leading musicals of the night were Chichester Festival Theatre’s Sweeney Todd and Top Hat at the Aldwych Theatre, which both won 3 awards. Sweeney Todd won best musical revival, best actor in a musical for Michael Ball and best actress in a musical for Imelda Staunton, and Top Hat scooped best new musical, best theatre choreographer for Bill Deamer and best costume design for Jon Morrell.
Helen Mirren wins Best Actress for The Audience
Helen Mirren won a best actress award for her role as The Queen in Peter Morgan’s play The Audience at the Gielgud Theatre, alongside her co-star Richard McCabe, who won best supporting actor.
Billy Elliot The Musical won the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award, voted for by members of the theatregoing public. Other awards included Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre to the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court for its Season of New Writing, Best Revival for A Long Day’s Journey Into Night at the Apollo Theatre, Best Entertainment and Family for Goodnight Mr Tom at the Phoenix Theatre and Leigh Zimmerman won Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical for her role in A Chorus Line at the London Palladium.
Playwright Michael Frayn and dancer and choreographer Gillian Lynne were presented with Special Awards at the event. Roger Allam gave Michael Frayn his award, and David Suchet and Michael Crawford presented Gillian Lynne with her Special Award.
Olivier hosts Hugh Bonneville and Sheridan Smith
Live musical performers included Matthew Morrison, Idina Menzel, Michael Ball, Tim Minchin, Sheridan Smith and Petula Clark, with the casts of Cabaret, A Chorus Line, The Bodyguard and Top Hat included in the night.
LINKS
View all winners of the Olivier Awards 2013
View a clip of Billy Elliot The Musical – live from the Olivier Awards
Backstage | Olivier Awards 2013
April 28, 2013
Backstage at the Royal Opera House in London, for this year’s Olivier Awards 2013.
Red Carpet Arrivals | Olivier Awards 2013
April 28, 2013
The Red Carpet arrivals at the Royal Opera House in London, for this year’s Olivier Awards 2013.
Royal Opera House Box Office – What’s On
February 6, 2013
What’s playing and coming up at Royal Opera House.
The Olivier Awards 2013 with MasterCard to be broadcast by ITV and BBC Radio 2 on Sunday 28 April 2013
January 29, 2013
• The Olivier Awards 2013 with MasterCard to be broadcast by ITV and BBC Radio 2
• Awards will be co-hosted by Sheridan Smith, with a voiceover from Julia McKenzie
• Public voting now open for the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award
• Free live event for the public returns to the Covent Garden piazza
• Nominations to be broadcast live on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday 26 March
ITV will be the official television broadcast partner for the 37th Olivier Awards with MasterCard, the UK’s highest stage honours, which take place on Sunday 28 April 2013 at the prestigious Royal Opera House.
The agreed broadcast package includes an Olivier Awards ceremony highlights programme broadcast on the night, shortly after the ceremony ends. Exact broadcast time will be confirmed nearer the date. Executive Producer for the Society of London Theatre will be Julian Bird, and Lee Connolly and Fiona Clark for ITV Studios.
As the official Olivier Awards radio partner, BBC Radio 2 will be broadcasting live radio coverage of the ceremony as in previous years. The programme, to be presented by Ken Bruce, will be broadcast from 6pm.
The Olivier Awards are delighted to announce the first details of the line-up for the ceremony, with news that one of the hosts will be double Olivier Award winner, Sheridan Smith (winner in 2011 and 2012). Julia McKenzie, another double Olivier Award winner, will provide this year’s Awards voiceover.
Further details of the Olivier Awards ceremony will be announced nearer the date but will include performances from some of the nominated musicals, tributes to this year’s Special Award winners and some very special guests. 2013 sees the return of the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award for the Most Popular Show, the only Olivier Award decided entirely by members of the public. Voting was launched on the Elaine Paige on Sunday programme on 27 January and will close on Monday 18 March. Visit www.olivierawards.com to place your vote.
Theatre-loving members of the public are invited to gather in the Covent Garden piazza for a free Olivier Awards celebration, where there will be a relay of the awards ceremony show on big screens as well as live performances on the Radio 2 stage from top West End shows, celebrity hosts, special guests, red carpet fashion tips and much more.
On Tuesday 26 March, for the first time, BBC Radio 2 will broadcast the 2013 Olivier Award nominations live at 11.30am from a theatre industry reception at the Mayfair Theatre at London’s Mayfair Hotel. The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Matilda The Musical, winner of a record seven Olivier Awards in 2012, will perform at the nominations event.
Amphitheatre tickets to The Olivier Awards 2013 with MasterCard are on sale at www.pricelesslondon.co.uk (as of 9am, Tuesday 29 January).
To keep up with the latest Olivier Awards news and engage with the Awards online visit Facebook.com/olivierawards, Twitter and Instagram @OlivierAwards #oliviers.
Journalists and bloggers will be able to share any press photos and video media via the Oliviers live-streaming Wall by tagging content with #oliviers via Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or Tumblr. The Wall launches via the Oliviers website and Facebook on 11 February: www.olivierawards.com/thewall
Release issued by: Society of London Theatre Press Office:
LINKS
Olivier Awards 2013 – microsite
New Opera At The Royal Opera House from 2013 to 2020
January 10, 2013
The Royal Opera’s artistic directors, Antonio Pappano, Music Director, and Kasper Holten, Director of Opera, today outlined their artistic plans for new operas to be presented at the Royal Opera House from 2013 to 2020. More than 15 new operas will be presented, both on the main stage and in the Linbury Studio Theatre. Four composers will also be given an unprecedented challenge to work on an epic operatic event for 2020.
Pappano and Holten talked of The Royal Opera’s plans to extend the established tradition of commissioning British composers, and also include work by leading international artists such as Luca Francesconi, Kaija Saariaho, Georg Friedrich Haas and Unsuk Chin. The aim is to continue relationships with a number of the companies who have already worked at the Royal Opera House, as well as to introduce a whole new roster of national and international co-commissions and collaborations.
More projects will be added to the plans over the next few years, especially for the Linbury Studio Theatre from 2015.
Kasper Holten commented ‘New work is not and should not be at the periphery of our programme, but right at the core of what and who we are. And this is something we do, not because we must, but because it is something that we are passionate about. We hope that opera audiences will share our curiosity and come with us with open minds along this journey. There is not and should not be a guarantee of success for every single piece, only for innovation and risk-taking. But we can guarantee that we will put all the forces of The Royal Opera behind them all, whatever the scale, and whether the new work is aimed at adults or young people. To have a smaller theatre inside a major opera house is a rarity, and the combination of the Linbury Studio Theatre and our large stage gives us a unique platform for developing new work, which will only be strengthened through national and international partnerships.’
Antonio Pappano added: ‘Our efforts are being focused on working with the composers who really excite us, both for the Linbury Studio Theatre and for the main stage. We have worked hard to find the composers we feel have a real flair and passion for opera, and we are very excited about being able to roll out our vision for new work on all scales.’
2012/13
Alongside the current revival of Harrison Birtwistle’s The Minotaur and the highly anticipated UK premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, which The Royal Opera has co-commissioned for the main stage, The Royal Opera will produce the UK stage premiere of Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest in a production directed by Ramin Gray. Tim Murray conducts the Britten Sinfonia and the cast which includes Ida Falk Winland, Stephanie Marshall, Hilary Summers, Paul Curievici, Benedict Nelson, Simon Wilding and Alan Ewing, who reprises his role as Lady Bracknell from the concert performances at the Barbican last year. The production will be staged in the Linbury Studio Theatre.
2013/14
There will be a number of new productions created specially for the Linbury Studio Theatre in the 2013/14 Season.
Acclaimed Australian composer Ben Frost adapts Iain Banks’s cult novel The Wasp Factory in a production that he himself directs. This opera has been commissioned by Bregenz Festival’s Art of our Times programme, and is a co-production with the Royal Opera House, Hebbel-am-Ufer, Berlin, Holland Festival and Cork Midsummer Festival.
For Christmas 2013, Julian Philips is composing a new opera for family audiences to a libretto by Edward Kemp, which will be directed by Natalie Abrahami, with designs by Tom Scutt.
We are working with the British electronic pioneer, composer and sound artist Matthew Herbert to make a new piece in 2014 inspired by the Faust story. Running alongside The Royal Opera’s revival of Gounod’s Faust, Matthew’s production integrates cutting-edge technology into the fabric of the musical score.
Composer Luke Bedford and Scottish playwright David Harrower will create a companion piece taking a very different route through the Faust legend. Both works are for the Linbury Studio Theatre.
The Royal Opera will present the first UK performances of renowned Italian composer Luca Francesconi’s Quartett, based on the play by Heiner Müller, which is itself inspired by characters from Les Liaisons dangereuses. Quartett had its world premiere at La Scala, Milan, in 2010 and will be shown in a new version in London by The Royal Opera. The Royal Opera’s new production is co-produced with London Sinfonietta and Opéra de Rouen, and directed by John Fulljames.
During the 2013/14 Season The Royal Opera will launch an annual collaboration with Aldeburgh Music and Opera North to commission first operas from composers who have a flair for operatic creativity that, with careful nurturing, could develop into the composition of major operatic works. The project is supported by Arts Council England as part of a wider programme of work, led by Aldeburgh Music, to celebrate the legacy of Benjamin Britten. In the first year of the project, we will commission two operas that will be produced in Aldeburgh, Leeds and the Linbury Studio Theatre in March 2014. Further commissions will follow in 2015 and 2016.
2014/15
The Royal Opera’s 2014/15 Season will open with a revival of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nicole in the main auditorium, followed by a new opera in the Linbury Studio Theatre by Philip Glass, based on Kafka’s The Trial, co-commissioned with Music Theatre Wales and Houston Grand Opera.
A new chamber opera by German/Danish composer Søren Nils Eichberg, working with librettist Hannah Dübgen, is commissioned for 2015 in the Linbury Studio Theatre. The opera is a taut thriller, which asks us to question what we can really trust – which emotions are real and which are virtual.
2015 – 2020
A new opera for children by Mark-Anthony Turnage, to be directed by Katie Mitchell, is scheduled for December 2015, also in the Linbury Studio Theatre.
The new operas already planned for this period include an adaptation of Max Frisch’s play Count Oederland by Judith Weir, working with librettist Ben Power. This is a collaboration with Scottish Opera and Oper Frankfurt, scheduled for performance in the Linbury Studio Theatre. More new work in the Linbury Studio Theatre during this period is being developed and will be added to our plans and announced later.
For the main stage there is a commission from German composer Georg Friedrich Haas, based on Jon Fosse’s novel Morgon og Kveld (Morning and Evening) with libretto by the author. The Royal Opera will be collaborating with Deutsche Oper Berlin on this piece, which will open in London in November 2015 and in Berlin in April 2016.
Thomas Adès’s next large-scale opera, based on Buñuel’s film The Exterminating Angel, is a commission from The Royal Opera and a number of international partners including the Salzburg Festival. The librettist is Tom Cairns, who also directs. The Exterminating Angel will be performed at the Royal Opera House in spring 2017.
Another important main stage commission is currently being negotiated for late spring 2018.
There will be a new main stage opera from Unsuk Chin, who adapts Alice Through the Looking Glass with librettist David Henry Hwang for 2018/19. This follows the extraordinary success of Unsuk’s first opera Alice in Wonderland, which has now been produced around the world.
2020
For the year 2020 The Royal Opera has challenged four leading composers from different countries in Europe to each create a large-scale new opera for 2020. The vision is for four distinct operas, each one in part inspired by the composer’s response to a set of questions developed in collaboration with the philosopher Slavoj Žižek: ‘What preoccupies us today? How can we today stage ourselves? What are the collective myths of our present and future?’
Each composer will work independently of the other teams but in collaboration with The Royal Opera’s artistic leadership.
The four composers invited at this stage are Kaija Saariaho (Finland), Mark-Anthony Turnage (UK), Luca Francesconi (Italy) and Jörg Widmann (Germany).
All four commissions will have their premieres on the main stage during 2020.
New Relationships
From 2013, The Royal Opera is developing some new relationships to enable an increased engagement with emerging composers and librettists.
The Royal Opera will work with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in offering a range of training opportunities for emerging opera-makers including composers, writers and directors. This new relationship will begin with a conference about libretto writing to take place at the Guildhall School in April 2013. Subject to validation, the conference will mark the launch of a new Masters Programme in Opera Making in association with the Royal Opera House and a new doctoral studentship in opera composition, the culmination of which will be a new opera for performance in 2016.
Also in 2013 we will be working with Sound and Music for the first time to deliver a seminar day on Saturday 16 March enabling emerging composers to think about writing for opera.
Opera development
The Royal Opera will continue to make a significant investment in artists and ideas as we develop works towards production. There will be an ongoing programme of opera development, including workshops and readings, some visible for the public, others not, depending on the needs for each project. Projects currently being developed include some of the commissions mentioned above, and work by Chris Mayo, Sasha Siem and Soumik Datta, as well as by digital artists Kleis&Rønsholdt and Tal Rosner.
The Royal Opera House has invited composers David Bruce and Elspeth Brooke to be composers in residence during the 2012/13 Season, with a view to the future development of participatory work and/or opera for young people.
Partnerships with UK opera companies
We are keen to work with as many partners as possible on new work, enabling it to be seen by as wide an audience as possible across the UK.
As well as collaborating in the future with all the large-scale regional companies, The Royal Opera will continue to play a significant role in working with mid-scale touring companies. Plans are in place for Music Theatre Wales to bring their TMA award-winning production of Mark- Anthony Turnage’s Greek and Salvatore Sciarrino’s Luci mie traditrici to the Royal Opera House in autumn 2013 and to return with the Philip Glass co-commission described above. The Opera Group will bring HK Gruber’s Gloria: A Pigtale to the Royal Opera House in 2014. Further projects in collaboration with other UK companies will be added for later seasons.
Press release issued by: Royal Opera House
LINKS
Book Royal Opera and Royal Ballet tickets
Matilda The Musical scoops 7 Olivier Awards
April 15, 2012
Matilda The Musical dominated the 2012 Olivier Awards this evening at the Royal Opera House, winning seven awards.
The 2012 Olivier Awards were presented at the Royal Opera House today in a star-studded ceremony organised by The Society of London Theatre.
Matilda creators Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin
The awards were dominated by the RSC’s production of Matilda The Musical which scooped seven awards including Best New Musical, Best Director for Matthew Warchus, Best Actress in a Musical for the four young Matilda leads, Sophia Kiely, Kerry Ingram, Cleo Demetriou and Eleanor Worthington Cox, and Best Actor in a Musical for Bertie Carvel. The show also won Best Sound Design for Simon Baker, Best Theatre Choreography for Peter Darling and Best Set Design for Rob Howell. Based on Roald Dahl’s best-selling children’s book and written by Dennis Kelly with music and lyrics by comedian Tim Minchin, the show continues to play to packed audiences at the Cambridge Theatre in London.
Other big winners tonight included the Donmar’s production of Anna Christie which scooped Best Revival for Rob Ashford’s production and Best Actress for Ruth Wilson.
Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller were jointly awarded the prize for Best Actor for their alternating roles in Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein at the National theatre, plus Bruno Poet won Best Lighting Design for the show. The National Theatre also took home Best New Play for Collaborators by John Hodge, although missed out on any awards for its blockbuster comedy One Man, Two Guvnors now playing on Broadway and at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
The Open Air Theatre’s production of Crazy For You won both Best Musical Revival and Best Costume Design for Peter McKintosh. Other musical nods included the Radio Two Audience Award which went to Les Miserables and Nigel Harman winning Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical for Shrek The Musical at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
Sheridan Smith, who won Best Actress in a Musical last year for her role in Legally Blonde, kept the momentum by taking home a Best Performance in a Supporting Role award for her role in Trevor Nunn’s Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre went to the Theatre Royal Stratford East in association with the Barbican and Traverse Theatre for Roadkill.
Tim Rice was honoured with a Special Award
In dance, the Outstanding Achievement in Dance went to Edward Watson for his acclaimed performance in The Metamorphosis at the Royal Opera House, and the Royal Opera House’s Dame Monica Mason was presented with a Special Award by Zoe Wanamaker for her extraordinary contribution to British dance. The Best New Dance Production went to DESH by Akram Khan Company at Sadler’s Wells.
In the Opera categories, English National Opera triumphed by winning both awards: Best New Opera Production for Castor And Pollux and the Outstanding Achievement in Opera award for the breadth and diversity of its artistic programme.
Best Entertainment and Family show was won by Derren Brown for Svengali, taking home his second Entertainment Olivier Award.
The evening ended with a Special Award tribute to lyricist Sir Tim Rice, with Siobhan McCarthy and Maria Friedman singing I know Him So Well from Chess, Elaine Paige performing Don’t Cry For Me Argentina from Evita and the cast of The Lion Ling.
Hosted for a second year by Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, who are currently starring in Sweeney Todd at the Adelphi Theatre, the awards celebrate the best of London’s West End Theatre.
LINKS
See the full list of Olivier Awards 2012 winners here
WATCH the Olivier Awards on BBC iPlayer
Photos: Olivier Awards 2012 – Red Carpet Arrivals
April 15, 2012
This year’s Olivier Awards are being held at the Royal Opera House in London. The highlight of London’s theatrical calendar, here we take a look in pitcures as the night unfolds.
THE RED CARPET ARRIVALS
This year’s Olivier Awards, run by the Society of London Theatre, took place at the Royal Opera House on 15 April 2012. Red Carpet Arrivals.
Olivier Awards to be held at Royal Opera House
July 21, 2011
The Society of London Theatre has announced that the ceremony for next year’s Olivier Awards will be hosted by the Royal Opera House.
The 36th annual awards, which are sponsored by MasterCard, will be held on Sunday 15 April 2012 at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, the first time that the venue has been used for the awards.
In 2012 the awards will run slightly later in the year, with nominations announced on Thursday 15 March 2012.
This year’s awards took place at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
LINKS
This year’s Olivier Awards winners
The Royal Opera Presents Werther
April 21, 2011
French film director Benoît Jaquot’s stylish production of Werther returns to the Covent Garden stage for the first time since its opening in 2004. The title role of Werther, the epitome of the despairing Romantic poet, is sung by star tenor Rolando Villazón.
Based on Goethe’s novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, written in 1774, Massenet’s opera is intense in its portrayal of unrequited love and dashed hopes. The opera is atmospheric and poignant, with a host of glorious melodies.
Werther, a young poet, has fallen in love with Charlotte. However, she is betrothed to another. As Werther’s enduring love consumes him, his despair that Charlotte can never be his leads to tragedy.
The role of the ill-fated Werther is sung by Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón. French mezzo-soprano Sophie Koch sings the role of Charlotte, with Norwegian baritone Audun Iversen making his Royal Opera debut in the role of her fiancé Albert. Former Jette Parker Young Artist, Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura makes her role debut as Charlotte’s younger sister Sophie.
Antonio Pappano, Music Director of The Royal Opera, conducts all performances.
Werther by Jules Massenet. 5, 11, 14, 17 May at 7.30pm & 21 May at 7pm / 8 May at 3pm
Release issued by: Royal Opera House
LINKS
Book tickets to Royal Opera productions
