Big screen ballet for London

A full-length ballet at the Royal Opera House is for the first time to be relayed to a huge screen in the Covent Garden piazza - and fittingly, perhaps, it will be outgoing director Sir Anthony Dowell's last production for the Royal Ballet, Swan Lake.

Next Monday evening, allcomers will be able to watch Sir Anthony's production of Tchaikovsky's musical tour de force in the open air. Although the Royal Opera has been beaming live performances to the piazza since 1987, only now has new technology and a larger screen made it possible to do the same with ballet.

Sir Anthony, 58, said: "I caught myself yesterday during a gap in rehearsals and I was thinking, 'all of this part of my life is going to change'. I am full of mixed emotions.

"My predecessor Norman Morris wrote me a good luck letter when I started which said, 'Anthony, I won't miss the nerves but I will miss the people.' Well I won't miss the huge pressure and all the responsibility, but I will really miss the people."

Sir Anthony has been the Royal Ballet's director since 1986, and before then enjoyed a sparkling 25-year career as a dancer. His tenure was a tough one, in which he had to cope with the Royal Ballet's eviction from the Opera House and very dark financial days. Now, though, the Royal Ballet is flourishing. "We all went through the mill," he said. "But I am very proud the company came back into the house in great shape, and stood by me."

Sir Anthony's final Swan Lake has its first night this evening and marks the beginning of a two-week Royal Ballet run at the Opera House which will also include Coppelia and a mixed programme.

Next Monday's screening, said Sir Anthony, "will be extraordinarily interesting. It is such a famous work and the music is so familiar it will be fascinating to see how it works."

He has yet to decide on his next move once the curtain finally falls on his directorship. Once his successor, Ross Stretton, takes up the reins next month, hinted Sir Anthony, he might make the occasional return. "I secretly feel I'm not going to disappear completely from the scene - I couldn't. I feel the people here have been my family, my life."

Swan Lake on the big screen
Monday, July 30, 7.30pm
Covent Garden Piazza