Ballet Black’s Cira Robinson, singer-songwriter Tom Odell, opera star Sir Bryn Terfel and Spice Girl Melanie C will perform in spaces around the Royal Albert Hall as part of the free online Global Stages festival later this month.
Captured by director Raja Virdi and marking the occasion of venues reopening, the film moves seamlessly from the roof of the venue to the basements, with other performances throughout the building including new pop acts Maisie Peters, Holly Humberstone, and Baby Queen, as well as spoken word and poetry by Sophia Thakur, Henry Stone and Samuel West.
This streamed event is a collaboration with four other major venues around the world – Sydney Opera House, Cadillac Shanghai Concert Hall, Royal Theatre Carré in Amsterdam, and the LA Phil – which will also broadcast exclusive performances.
Lucy Noble, Artistic Director at the Royal Albert Hall, said: “We’re delighted to join with these other iconic venues for this unique project, which marks the reopening of venues and gives audiences a glimpse of some of the little-seen spaces in our famous building. We’re particularly thrilled with the project’s line-up, which will reflect the diversity and eclecticism of the Hall’s programme, taking in classical, rock, pop, poetry, dance, and folk music.”
The Hall’s set will open with award-winning London poet Sophia Thakur performing an original poem on the Hall’s roof, followed by Ballet Black’s Cira Robinson dancing to ‘The Swan’ from Saint-Saëns’ ‘Carnival of the Animals’ in the Hall’s gallery, before folk-pop singer-songwriter Maisie Peters performs new song ‘Helicopter’ in the Hall’s main stairwell – from her upcoming soundtrack for Apple TV+ series Trying.
Welsh opera star Sir Bryn Terfel and harpist Hannah Stone will then share a Welsh folk piece, ‘Ar Hyd Y Nos’ (All Through the Night, before singer-songwriter Tom Odell performs two-time platinum 2012 hit ‘Another Love’ in the empty auditorium.
Then going underground, the film finds Melanie C performing an acoustic rendition of the Spice Girls hit ‘Too Much’, the opening track of 1997 film Spice World – the climax of which was shot at the Royal Albert Hall. BBC Sound of 2021 shortlist pop-rock artist Holly Humberstone then performs in the Hall’s unseen sub-stage area, before South-African born indie pop newcomer sings her hit ‘Dover Beach’ in the Hall’s Loading Bay.
The film closes with another spoken word piece, by Henry Stone – young British poet and member of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s 2020 Black History Month Next Gen Trailblazers.
The event will build on the success of the Hall’s Royal Albert Home programme, a series of 70 free streamed events broadcast during the venue’s closure in 2020. The concerts from the likes of Richard Thompson, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Alfie Boe, Sinead Harnett, Lucy Dacus, Kaiser Chiefs and Rufus Wainwright have been streamed more than 1.5 million times.
The stream is free to view, but after a year of closure, with over £50m in losses and £20m in debt, the Hall is asking viewers who watch this stream to donate to the Hall to help its recovery.
The Royal Albert Hall’s Global Stages set will be broadcast on YouTube at 7:00pm on Friday 21 May and can also be viewed via the Hall’s website here: www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2021/global-stages-royal-albert-hall/
GLOBAL STAGES FESTIVAL LINE UP AND SCHEDULE
21 MAY
• 19:00 CEST | 18:00 BST – Royal Theatre Carré, Amsterdam
Featuring Jett Rebel, Igone de Jong, SevDaliza, Michelle David & The True Tones
• 19:00 BST – Royal Albert Hall, London
Featuring Melanie C, Tom Odell, Ballet Black & Maisie Peters
22 MAY
• 19:00 AEST | 10:00 BST – Sydney Opera House
• 19:00 CST | 12:00 BST – Cadillac Shanghai Concert Hall
Mobius: A Concert of Diversified Fusion
• 19:00 PDT | 03:00 23 May BST – LA Phil
Featuring Kamasi Washington
