During 2018/19, the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden will exclusively present ten thrilling performances of world-class opera and ballet to cinemas across Australia. This forms part of the Royal Opera House’s celebrations of ten years of cinema broadcasting in 2018 and of selling more than one million cinema tickets worldwide during the 2017/18 Season.

The 2018/19 programme opens with Kenneth MacMillan’s dark and dangerous ballet MAYERLING . Based on true events in the life of Austria’s Crown Prince Rudolf (danced by Australia’s Steven McRae), the ballet tells the story of a politically volatile empire, and an illicit love affair between Rudolf and the young Baroness Mary Vetsera (Sarah Lamb) which ends in tragedy.

MAYERLING is a classic of the Royal Ballet repertory, with its emotional depth, haunting imagery, and one of the
most demanding roles ever created for a male dancer. Kenneth MacMillan choreographed a complex work around the psychologically tormented heir to the Habsburg Empire, Crown Prince Rudolf.

From the ballet’s start, the glamour of the Austro-Hungarian court is contrasted with undercurrents of sexual and political intrigue that drive the story to its violent climax in a double suicide. The large
cast allows for impressive ensembles in addition to the ballet’s many solos of distinctive character and pas de deux of disturbing eroticism.

This ballet, bursting with intensity, madness and passion,
proves that sometimes the truth is more scandalous than fiction.

MAYERLING from Royal Opera House screens in Australian Cinemas  11 and 14 November.