The National Ballet has announced a season that includes two world premieres, two Noorth American premieres and two Canadian premieres.  It makes me wonder whether this isn’t part of why ballet isn’t suffering the same long term audience decline as opera.  Worth thinking about.

Anyway the first of the world firsts is a new piece based on Flaubert’s Emma Bovary with a score by Peter Salem and choreography by Emma Pickett.  The other is   The other is a yet to be announced short work by choreographer William Yong.

North American premieres are Don Quixote choreographed by Carlos Acosta and Emma Portner’s islands.  There’s plenty of more classical fare too including Cranko’s Onegin, a Balanchine triptych and, of course, The Nutcracker.  There’s also a welcome return for Jody Talbot and Christopher Wheeldon’s fun version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The full announcement with dates and so on is here.

Tafelmusik have also unveiled their 2023/24 offerings beginning with an all Beethoven programme.  It’s the Fourth and Fifth symphonies and, of course, it’s on period instruments.  Bruno Weil conducts and it’s at Koerner Hall.  Beethoven on period instruments, especially at Koerner, is something everybody should hear at least once.  I came out of Tafelmusik’s Ninth a few years ago in a state of shock.

There’s plenty of baroque rep of course plus some Haydn.  There’s lots of Handel including, of course, Messiah with a counter-tenor singing the alto part and the return of the Sing Along performance.  There’s also an all Handel vocal concert at Koerner featuring soprano Amanda Forsythe, and tenor Thomas Hobbs as well as the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir.

Full details of the season are here.