[charisma]

Wuthering Heights
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same...
Catherine Earnshaw

NORTHERN BALLET THEATRE'S (NBTs) Autumn/Winter Halifax National Tour 2002, commences with the World Premiere of Wuthering Heights - a creative collaboration between composer Claude- Michel Schonberg and NBT Artistic Director David Nixon, inspired by Emily Bronte's remarkable novel of 1847. The production opens on Saturday 21 - Saturday 28 September at the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford; only a few minutes from the wild Yorkshire moors and the Bronte family home in Haworth, where Emily penned one of the world's greatest love stories.

Claude-Michel SchOnberg, known throughout the musical-theatre world for his West End hits Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Marlin GuelTe made contact with David Nixon within weeks of his arrival at NBT in August 2001. Following a productive meeting of minds, which left David -in no doubt that a ballet based on Emily Bronte's passionate love story, would be a perfect vehicle for Northern Ballet Theatre. he set about planning his first complete new work for NBT.

The ballet focuses on the powerful bond that grows between Catherine Earnshaw and the foundling Heathcliff; their lives inexorably linked for eternity in a darkly haunting tale, as bleak and beautiful as the moors themselves.


Heathcliff "Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my cannot live without my soul"


Designer Ali Allen, who created her first ballet designs for NBT's Madame Butterfly, captures the windswept majesty of Yorkshire's moorland; a perfect contrast for David Nixon's striking costume designs of the period. Lighting designer David Grill completes the creative team. cleveny conveying a landscape fashioned by the relentless forces of nature

Principal artists, Charlotte Talbot and Jonathan Ollivier, will create the legendary roles of Cathy and Heathcliff - appearing in the World Premiere Their previous partnerships include Blanche (88 most eloquent performance- Sunday Times) and Stanley (-magnificently danced" The Stage), in NBT's A Streetcar Named Desire. NBT dancers Nicola Cross and Daniel de Andrade and guest dancers, Anna Reznik and Alexi Kremnev - former1y of Cincinnati Ballet, will also dance the roles*,

Wutherlng Heights will be appearing this season at Bradford, Nottingham, Sheffield, Norwich and Canterbury with more dates planned for 2003.