Dates

5 - 22 April 2025

Location

Dutch National Opera & Ballet, Main Stage

Running time

2:00, incl. 1 interval

Tickets

NA

Lady Macbeth
Photo: Hugo Thomassen

Delving into the mind of one of Shakespeare’s most fascinating creations

The American theatre and film choreographer, Helen Pickett, is renowned as ‘one of the few prominent women in contemporary ballet’. For her Dutch debut, she collaborates with director James Bonas and composer Peter Salem to delve into the mind of the ruthless Lady Macbeth.

Delving into the mind of one of Shakespeare’s most fascinating creations

In this new, full-length production, Pickett and Bonas reveal the unseen, hidden scenes from Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Macbeth, seen through the eyes of Lady Macbeth, one of the most captivating ‘creations’ of the sixteenth-century playwright. As a spectator, we feel her fears and desires, her unbridled lust for power, the pinnacle of this power and, in the end, her descent into deep despair.

Power and decline

In her very personal, powerful dance idiom, Pickett creates a fascinating world, in which she and Bonas zoom in on themes like control, power, love, reality and illusion, and the disintegration of someone’s mind when that world collapses. As in previous productions, they are working with the composer Peter Salem, who previously proved himself a fantastic storyteller with Dutch National Ballet, in his music for Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Frida.

Unique talent 

Pickett danced with William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt for eleven years and performed for five years with the Wooster Group in New York, before becoming a high-profile choreographer. Her recent successes include Emma Bovary (based on Gustave Flaubert’s classic Madame Bovary), Camino Real (based on Tennessee Williams’ play) and The Crucible, inspired by the play in which Arthur Miller uses a seventeenth-century witch hunt as a metaphor for the American witch-hunt on the communists in the 1950’s. Ted Brandsen remarks, “This production, for Scottish Ballet, really grabbed me by the throat. The ability to translate such a ‘linguistic’ piece into such an impressive and energetic dance production shows unique talent.”

Credits

New ballet drama

Dutch National Opera & Ballet advises a minimum age of 15 for this performance.

Choreography, co-direction and treatment  Helen Pickett
Direction and treatment  James Bonas
Music  Peter Salem
Set and costume design  Luis F. Carvalho 
Lighting design  Bonnie Beecher
Video design  Anouar Brissel
Assistant to the choreographer  Sarah Hillmer
Staged combat  Youval Kuipers
Ballet masters  Guillaume Graffin, Sandrine Leroy, Larisa Lezhnina, Judy Maelor Thomas, Jozef Varga

Musical accompaniment  Dutch Ballet Orchestra conducted by Koen Kessels

PLEASE NOTE: this performance contains references to suicide. Are you having suicidal thoughts or are you worried about someone else? You can get anonymous support via the chat at www.113.nl or by calling 0800-0113.

Please also be aware that a strobe lighting effect will be used at the end of the first act.

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Online programme

In addition to the printed programme book, we also provide online programme information for this performance. The online programme offers a behind-the-scenes look with detailed stories, articles, and interviews with the creators and cast.

Soloist cast

Follow the link below to find the soloist cast for Lady Macbeth. Please note that casting is subject to change right up to the performance.

Helen Pickett and James Bonas

The story behind the story

Helen Pickett and James Bonas on Lady Macbeth.

in the media

Reviews

Olga Smirnova performs the role on the opening night with astonishing brilliance – confident, technically effortless, and with beautifully measured expression.

7 April

In the new, theatrically powerful production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth by Dutch National Ballet, it is not Macbeth but his wife who takes center stage.

7 April

The brand-new production by Dutch National Ballet plays out like a film with a fantastic soundtrack.

6 April
Koen Kessels afterwards The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (2024) | Photo: Altin Kaftira

Responding to each dancer

Interview with Koen Kessels, musical director and principal conductor

Dutch Ballet Orchestra

Dutch Ballet Orchestra

Dutch Ballet Orchestra is the leading orchestra for dance in the Netherlands. In every performance, the orchestra searches for inspiring synergy between music and dance, in order to give the audience a magical experience. From classical ballet to modern masterpieces, and from music education to talent development, Dutch Ballet Orchestra inspires the movement in dance..

Dutch Ballet Orchestra

From 1 August 2024, the Flemish conductor Koen Kessels (1961) is the new music director of Dutch National Ballet, and artistic director and principal conductor of Dutch Ballet Orchestra. He took over the baton from Matthew Rowe, who has fulfilled this special dual position since 2013 and who will be returning as principal guest conductor.

Since its inception in 1965, the orchestra has been the proud musical partner of Dutch National Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater. One important mission of Dutch Ballet Orchestra is investing in the youngest generation of dancers and musicians.

In 2023, for instance, the orchestra issued an open call for young composers, in collaboration with Dutch National Ballet, resulting in a new work that was presented in the Junior Company’s touring programme, Ten. The orchestra has also been working for some years already with the Dutch National Ballet Academy. For example, the orchestra members provide the music for the end-of-year performances Dancers of Tomorrow.

Dutch Ballet Orchestra has also collaborated regularly on innovative – and award-winning – family and school productions. Creatures, in partnership with ISH Dance Collective, won the international Young Audiences Music Award and the production Hansel and Gretel, received various Musical Awards. Last season, this tradition was continued in the production Beauty and the Beast. 

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Lecture | Choreographing literature

 In two public lectures in English, dance and performance scholar Gabriele Klein will once again place the themes of performances of Dutch National Ballet in the context of current dance and socio-political debates. The lecture related to Lady Macbeth explores the historical entanglement between dance and literature.

Podcast - Lady Macbeth

Kostuumschetsen
Costume sketches Lady Macbeth

Bring Lady Macbeth to life!

Creating such a grand, full-length ballet is a unique but costly process. Will you help us bring Lady Macbeth to life? Contribute and make your own experience unforgettable when you’re in the audience later, admiring that one costume or prop to which you personally contributed.

Production partner