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Friday, November 21, 2008, 11:00
The creation of artistic director Mark Baldwin is set to an uplifting new score by composer Howard Goodall, best known for creating the theme tunes to Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley.
Sumptuous set and costumes are designed by Michael Howells, creator of catwalk shows for the likes of John Galliano and Dior, with striking headdresses from iconic fashion milliner Stephen Jones.
The piece was commissioned to mark the 20th anniversary of the London Musici, with a choral part which is sung by a local choir at each venue.
In Plymouth, the voices of the Plymouth Philharmonic Choir will be heard, accompanying a stunning repertoire which involving all 21 dancers in the company.
"In Plymouth I think 120 singers have applied to come and sing it. It is a celebration of their talent as well," says Mark.
It is a requiem in its broadest sense, not just the celebration of the life of one person who has died, but an exploration of many things once cherished which have passed.
The ambitious piece was very much a collaborative effort between designer, composer and choreographer.
"We met up to decide what death meant to us and remembrance," says Michael. "It was a real gestation period and there were certain themes which we wanted to represent.
"It sort of unfolds as you go through it. It isn't a straight requiem thing because there is a whole section on the death of the rainforests.
"There is also a theme of people with near-death experiences travelling towards the light. It is quite a complicated thing to achieve."
Michael, whose work includes an imaginative tableau for the Cornish stately home Port Eliot, watched the way the dancers moved to ensure his costumes would work.
Lightness is important for dancers; Michael used a very light fabric for two elaborate ballgowns worn by the dancers in one piece.
"We made them in very, very light parachute silk so they do move beautifully when the girls run," he says.
Mark's choreography is "full of leaps", so Michael designed costumes with this in mind.
In Flanders Fields, a dance which represents remembrance of war, the dancers wear bell bottoms made from fluid silk jersey which fan out when they leap in the air.
The bottoms of the trousers are tie-dyed red in one movement and green in another, representing the carnage of war turning to the green of peace. The sleeves are also cut so to create a triangular shape as the dancers sweep their arms through the air.
"That is the beauty of dance," says Michael. "They move in such a beautiful way you can really use that."
Each piece has a different feel; in one "a fast aggressive piece", Revelations from the Bible is sung in Latin while angels come down to Earth "and start destroying things".
In a more reflective piece, a woman wearing an extravagant tiara designed by Stephen Jones recalls her lost loves.
"I think that is the brilliant thing about Rambert," says Michael. "Sometimes you come here and you don't know what you are going to get, and there is always something that blows you away."
The programme is completed with two other pieces; Infinity, which explores the dramatic and often brutal passage towards life's inevitable end, and the Carnival of the Animals, set to Saint-Saëns' beautiful and melodic music of the same name.
Eternal Light is performed at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth from Wednesday to Saturday, November 26-29. Box office: visit www.theatreroyal.com or telephone 01752 267222
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