A Christmas Carol (2023)
(Ballet based on the novella by Charles Dickens)

The World Premiere of this new ballet A Christmas Carol with choreography by David Bintley and music by Sally Beamish opens on 1 December 2023 with a run of 17 performances. This full length story ballet, based on the Charles Dicken’s story is the second score Sally has created with David Bintley following The Tempest in 2016 for Birmingham Royal Ballet. Sally has described how bells, street music and dances from the various Christmas parties in the story have given her a rich starting point for the score, not forgetting the darker themes for which she has employed strange harmonics and ghostly percussion techniques to create other-worldly effects in the orchestra.

Commissioned by Finnish National Ballet

It’s the morning of Christmas Eve and Londoners are making preparations for the festive season. The miserly, cold-hearted Ebenezer Scrooge, however, doesn’t like the jolly bustling around him, and nor does he like Christmas. He shoos away the carol singers, and he refuses to join his nephew Fred’s family for Christmas. Scrooge’s ill treated clerk Bob Cratchit looks forward to celebrating Christmas.

 The ghost of Scrooge’s deceased partner, the equally miserly Jacob Marley, wants to warn him about his terrible fate – he must carry around heavy shackles for eternity. That night Scrooge gets to meet three ghosts.

 The Ghost of Christmas past takes Scrooge to his childhood, where the little boy dreams of literary heroes but must bend to the demands of his strict headmaster. The young Scrooge and Marley are appointed as trainees in Fezziwig’s shop and at the Christmas party Scrooge proposes to his first love, Belle. The men are successful in their career and take over the shop, but Belle notices Scrooge cares more for money than for love and leaves him.

 The Ghost of Christmas Present leads Scrooge to see Christmas at the Cratchit household. Their little boy, Tiny Tim, is seriously ill, and Scrooge asks if Tim will live. Fred is enjoying a family Christmas full of happiness, and Scrooge is reminded of what might have been. In a darker part of London Scrooge sees two orphans, named as ‘Want’ and ‘Ignorance’.

 The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows how thieves ransack Scrooge’s home. The Cratchit family gathers around Tiny Tim’s small coffin to grieve for their lost son. At the cemetery Scrooge is also made to visit his own grave.

 As Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning, he realises that it’s not too late to join in the celebrations. The repentant Scrooge vows to amend his ways and to keep Christmas in his heart all year long.