‘Akhnaten’ And Mark Wigglesworth Win Opera Prizes At Olivier Awards

Phelim McDermott’s English National Opera production – starring a naked nude Anthony Roth Costanzo – of the Philip Glass opera about the iconoclastic pharaoh won for best new opera production, while conductor Mark Wigglesworth – who stormed away from the ENO’s music directorship in March of last year to protest funding cuts – was honored for outstanding achievement in opera for his conducting of Don Giovanni and Lulu at the company.

Crystal Pite, Matthew Bourne, English National Ballet Take Olivier Awards For Dance

“Crystal Pite and actor/playwright Jonathon Young won Best New Dance Production for Betroffenheit, their harrowing exploration of loss and grief [at Sadler’s Wells]. … Tamara Rojo has made some gutsy choices since becoming artistic director in 2012, and ENB’s Best Achievement in Dance Olivier ‘for expanding the variety of their repertoire with Giselle and She Said at Sadler’s Wells’ is just one more spot of validation. … Not only did he garner the Best Theatre Choreographer award for his production of The Red Shoes, Bourne also got to accept the award for Best Entertainment and Family, again for The Red Shoes.”