Manchester's £64m Lowry Opens with Nureyev
Date: 26 April 2000
One of the North West's biggest ever arts projects is officially launched this weekend. The Lowry, a futuristic-looking entertainment venue set on Salford Quays at the heart of Manchester's waterways, was funded by £64 million from the National Lottery.
The Lowry's interior covers an area the size of five and a half football pitches and includes two new theatre spaces, contemporary art exhibitions, shops, restaurants and bars. It will mainly act as a receiving house for visiting and touring productions and exhibits. It's first season features 60 new shows, ranging from theatre to dance, music, opera, comedy, tribute bands and children's shows.
Opening on Friday, 28 April, The Lowry will kick off its inaugural season with a week-long festival. The centrepiece of the festival is a site-specific theatre production called To You, a 'cocktail of music, dance, theatre and fire' which celebrates the building's construction. The programme of events also includes a water pageant, open house, family welcome day and a production of Moby Dick aboard a touring theatre ship, anchored next to the building.
Beyond the opening weekend, the big attraction will be the British premiere of Paris Opera Ballet's La Bayadere, created by Nureyev in his final production for the Paris Opera Ballet, which premiered on 8 October 1992. Paris Opera Ballet has not performed in the UK for 15 years and is doing so now exclusively at the Lowry. As a young man, the legendary Nureyev first danced La Bayadere with the Kirov Ballet, and this production is a faithful recreation of that performance, a tale of jealousy, murder and love set in exotic India. La Bayadere runs for five performances only from 4 to 7 May.
Over the rest of the season, drama highlights include Simon Callow in The Mystery of Charles Dickens, Prunella Scales in The Cherry Orchard, Clive Wood and Siobhan Redmond in Les Liaisons Dangereuses and, from the West End, Frantic Assembly's Sell Out and the National Theatre's The Oresteia.
Other dance highlights include the multi award-winning dance-theatre company Adventures in Motion Pictures' new show The Car Man prior to its West End debut, Michael Clark's Current/SEE and, at Christmas, Birmingham Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker.
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