Ballets are typically performed to the enchanting and distinctive melodies of classical music, not the emphatic beats and supersonic volume of heavy metal. But it’s the music of heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath that scores Birmingham Royal Ballet’s new show, Black Sabbath – The Ballet, which is currently showing at the Theatre Royal Plymouth before moving to London’s Sadler’s Wells.
Ballet, and the classical music that usually accompanies it, symbolises elegance and sophistication – the epitome of high culture. Heavy metal music is often regarded as the exact opposite, and its fans have been treated in a similar fashion: viewed as unsophisticated.
