Birmingham Royal Ballet's Coppélia returns to Hippodrome

The ballet, featuring music by Leo Delibes and choreography from Marius Petipa, Enrico Cecchetti and Peter Wright, was created in 1995 and will feature from Tuesday until June 17.

The story focuses on eccentric toymaker Dr Coppélius, who leaves his greatest creation, the doll Coppélia, on his workshop balcony she’s soon causing quite a stir in the village.

Lovers Franz and Swanilda both want to find out what is going on; but things are even stranger than they seem. With a wild mix of abracadabra, comic chaos is unleashed as Dr Coppélius tries to bring Coppélia to life and Swanilda tries to stop him.

The ballet is a timeless classic from a golden age. Its tuneful, romantic music, stands alongside such classics as Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty as one of the great works of the 19th century.

The show regularly tours the UK and when it hits the road it takes six articulated lorry trailers to deliver the set to new venues.

Extraordinary logistics mean there is one scenery truck, one flooring truck, three lighting trucks and one costume truck.

The show requires 3.5 km of cabling and 30,000 watts of light. There are 31 rails of costumes and eight baskets of shoes – the shoe department pack eight to 10 pairs of new pointe shoes for each female dancer.

There are also 78 wigs packed into flight cases, 250 hair rollers, 1,000 hair pins, 174 complete costumes and two washing machines and dryers.

The show also requires 25 Birmingham Royal Ballet core technical staff, 20 venue staff, 64 Sinfonia musicians and 41 dancers.

Meanwhile, Birmingham Royal Ballet is looking ahead to the end of the year with major plans for the festive season.

For the first time ever, Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal Albert Hall will present The Nutcracker this Christmas, using state-of-the-art technology to conjure a vivid and magical winter wonderland.

This new version of the universally-acclaimed, quintessential Christmas ballet, suitable for all the family, will grace the world’s most famous stage for seven performances from December 28 to 31, 2017.

The innovative production premieres at the Royal Albert Hall complete with a magical transformation scene, 75kg of artificial snow and ground-breaking new projections.

Lucy Noble, artistic director at the Royal Albert Hall, says: “We’re so excited to announce this unique festive treat for 2017: the world’s favourite Christmas ballet, specially adapted for the world’s most famous stage.

“There’s no place like the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate Christmas, and being able to welcome such a respected, well-loved and innovative production as part of our celebrations is a real thrill.”

This exceptionally Christmassy production of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s The Nutcracker, with its classic story, glorious dancing and ravishing Tchaikovsky score played by a full symphony orchestra, is set to be an exciting addition to London’s festive celebrations.

Featuring choreography by Sir Peter Wright, Vincent Redmon and Lev Ivanov (choreographer of the original 1892 production), The Nutcracker follows young Clara as she is swept away into a fantasy adventure through an enchanting winter wonderland of dancing snowflakes to the magical Kingdom of the Sweets.

David Bintley, artistic director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, says: “Our wonderful Nutcracker has been an essential part of Christmas in Birmingham for over 25 years, and I am so proud to be part of the team producing a brand new version of our classic production for London audiences. There is nowhere more Christmassy than the Royal Albert Hall, and no other production that so fizzes with festive energy.”

The Royal Albert Hall’s specially-adapted version will blend the best of the old and the new, using innovative projections to bring to life the entrancing, wintry world of The Nutcracker.

Andy Richardson