London’s Southbank Centre is hosting the premiere edition of Multitudes, described as “an electrifying new arts festival powered by orchestral music”. It seeks to bring together art forms and audiences in new and unexpected combinations.
Introducing this performance, Southbank’s Artistic Director Mark Ball described the new festival as “an audacious and bold experiment”. The line-up includes dance, performance art, physical theatre and film, all powered by orchestral music.
The opening event was two sold-out performances of Daphnis et Chloé. Maurice Ravel’s mystical and magical ballet music – played with glowing colours by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) and BBC Singers – was paired with the amazing physical feats of the Australian acrobatic troupe Circa.
Each of the elements here was superb. The LPO was simply stunning, filling the Royal Festival Hall with Ravel’s sweeping score. The huge orchestra, with well over 100 players on stage, was exuberant under principal conductor Edward Gardner and concert leader Alice Ivy-Pemberton. And the BBC Singers, celebrating their centenary season this year, added a beautifully ethereal touch. One of Ravel’s shorter works, La Valse (The Waltz) filled out the program, bringing the music to a swirling climax.
A narrow raised platform at the front of the stage was the seemingly precarious playground for the Circa acrobats. Clad in lacy black leotards, the 11 performers were astonishingly good. The intricate choreography of the floor work, the complex entwining of bodies and the gravity-defying (and potentially injury-inducing) aerial work were just excellent. The strength and balance in the human pyramid routines were incredibly impressive and would give any old-school circus lover a thrill.
Individually, each of the elements here was absolutely worthy of five stars. The Orchestra was magnificent, giving full voice to one of the greatest works in the French classical canon. The staging worked well, with great lighting and good use of haze to make the spotlights really pop, even if the acrobats seemed constrained by their small performance space. They really are breathtakingly good at what they do – and, yes, there was a collective gasp at quite a few of their more daring feats. Based in Brisbane, Circa is one of the world’s leading companies, having toured to some 45 countries and performed for over two million people.
But put all of this together and it just doesn’t really work – the effect is unfortunately less than the sum of its parts. With Circa front of stage, it was impossible to concentrate on the music, which lost its power and deep emotionality and was reduced to a movie music soundtrack. And trying to focus on the orchestra inevitably meant missing some of the delights and intricacy of the acrobatics.
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This may have seemed like a marriage made in heaven, but in reality it was just a overpowering musical mélange with too much going on to fully appreciate the music or the physical theatre.
Daphnis and Chloé
Royal Festival Hall
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Edward Gardner
Circa
Director and Stage/Lighting Designer: Yaron Lifschitz
Costume Designer: Libby McDonnell
BBC Singers
Chorus Master: Stephen Higgins
Daphnis and Chloé was performed for two performances only at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, 23 April 2025.
