Stage
Dance
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This exuberant adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic story was Joby’s first collaboration with Christopher Wheeldon on a full-length narrative ballet, the original score for which was the first of its kind commissioned by The Royal Ballet for 20 years. It has since entered the repertory of ballet companies worldwide.
Commissioners:
The Royal Ballet, premiere 28 February 2011
The National Ballet of Canada, premiere 4 June 2011
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A collaboration with Medhi Walerski for Nederlands Dans Theater, this visceral 30-minute work was commissioned as part of the 100th anniversary celebrations for Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.
Commissioner:
Nederlands Dans Theater, premiere 4 October 2012
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Joby’s first collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor, this 25-minute piece centres on the dramatic and expressive capabilities of the human body. The score was assembled from original pieces written during Joby’s 2004 residency with Classic FM, along with his arrangements of songs by The White Stripes for the album Aluminium.
Commissioner:
The Royal Ballet, premiere 17 November 2006
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Joby’s first collaboration with Christopher Wheeldon repurposed a score commissioned for the British Film Institute’s re-release of Yevgeny Bauer’s 1916 silent film The Dying Swan. The original score was written for piano, violin and cello, while the version adapted for Fool’s Paradise is arranged for piano and string orchestra.
Commissioner:
Morphoses, premiere 27 September 2007, Sadler’s Wells Theatre
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This 45-minute ballet by Wayne McGregor was inspired by Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species and his collection held at the Natural History Museum in London. Joby created a score for choir, string quartet and solo violin which was then recorded, remixed and electronically treated by composer and producer Deru.
Commissioner: Paris Opera Ballet, premiere 26 October 2007
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An adaptation of Laura Esquivel’s hugely popular eponymous work of magical realism, for which Joby created a score that echoes the novel and its author’s Mexican culture. This was Joby’s third collaboration on a full-length narrative ballet for The Royal Ballet, this time in conjunction with American Ballet Theatre.
Commissioners:
The Royal Ballet, premiere 2 June 2022
American Ballet Theatre, premiere 29 March 2023
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Joby’s fourth collaboration with Christopher Wheeldon on a full-length narrative ballet relates the story of Oscar Wilde’s ascent to fame and cataclysmic fall from grace.
Commissioners: The Australian Ballet, premiere 13 September 2024
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Joby and Christopher Wheeldon’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s play and their second full-length narrative collaboration. For this score Joby combined lush orchestral writing with groupings of traditional instruments from all over the world to create the mythical soundworld of Bohemia.
Commissioners:
The Royal Ballet, premiere 11 April 2014
The National Ballet of Canada, premiere 14 November 2015
Opera
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Joby’s second collaboration with Gene Scheer for The Dallas Opera, based on the extraordinary memoir of French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby that chronicled the aftermath of a massive stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome. The libretto weave together the parallel narratives of Bauby’s experience and the imprisonment and escape of the protagonist Dantès in Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo, of which Bauby had been planning an adaptation.
Commissioner:
The Dallas Opera, premiere 3 November 2023
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Joby’s first collaboration with librettist Gene Scheer for The Dallas Opera, Everest is a one-act opera following the fates of several climbers caught up in the 1996 Everest disaster in which unexpected bad weather stranded and ultimately killed numerous mountaineers.
Commissioner:
The Dallas Opera, premiere 30 January 2015