89. Opera and dance take on Peaky Blinders, Football and It’s a Wonderful Life With Annilese Miskimmon, Helen Shute and Steven Knight

Break Out Culture With Ed Vaizey by Country and Town House

This week we’re talking about the exciting opera and dance coming up in time for Christmas. Annilese Miskimmon, Artistic Director at ENO (English National Opera), tells us about re-imagining Frank Capra’s enduring and much-loved 1946 Christmas movie ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ as an opera, which opens on 25th November at the Coliseum. Adapted by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, George Bailey, the down-on-his-luck banker so memorably played by James Stewart in the film, is played by Frederick Ballentine but Clarence the Guardian Angel now becomes Clara, played by soprano Danielle de Niese. Other than the gender swap, the opera is otherwise remarkably faithful to the beloved film and is certain to be a festive treat.

In the world of dance, Rambert is already wowing audiences with its adaptation of Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby, which opened at the Birmingham Hippodrome and is now on tour and in London at Troubador Wembley Park till 6th November. We’re thrilled to be talking to the creator, writer and Executive Producer of Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight, alongside Helen Shute of Rambert. We find out that Steven’s always loved ballet and so it was a natural progression to ask him to adapt his multi-award-winning series into a dance theatre show.

Tune in to hear how the opera and dance worlds are bursting with innovation and new ideas, including the first-ever football opera Gods of the Game at the Theatre in the Woods at Grange Park Opera, complete with a chorus made up entirely of footy fans who’ve been trained to sing.