LOS ANGELES – Sir Paul McCartney was joined by a host of stars for the premiere of his ballet 'Ocean's Kingdom' last night.
The former Beatles star was accompanied by his fiancee Nancy Shevell for the performance at the New York City Ballet Fall Gala at the David Koch Theatre at the Lincoln Center and numerous A-listers including Sarah Jessica Parker, Liv Tyler, Naomi Watts and Angelica Houston.
Paul's fashion designer daughter Stella McCartney was also in attendance to see her father's first-ever ballet score and the first piece of orchestral music he has created for dance.
Stella, 39, created the costumes for the show and previously admitted it was an incredible experience to work with her 69-year-old dad.
She said: "On one side, I am a daughter working with her father, which is an incredibly remarkable experience in life no matter who your father is. It's also quite an emotional thing. On another side, I know and understand I am working with Paul McCartney."
Paul created 'Ocean's Kingdom' with NYCB's Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins and they decided to work together after meeting at the School of American Ballet's Winter Gala in 2010.
Peter said: "Like the rest of my generation, I grew up being a huge fan of The Beatles so I was thrilled to meet him. After I got to know him a bit, and knowing of his great love of composing classical music, I asked if he might be interested in doing something for New York City Ballet, and I am ecstatic that he has agreed to write a score for us."
Paul - who has released five classical albums, with the most recent being 2006's 'Ecce Cor Meum' - found writing the ballet an exciting musical challenge because of the differing emotions he had to convey.
He said: "I am always interested in new directions that I haven't worked in before. So I became very excited about the idea. What was interesting was writing music that meant something expressively rather than just writing a song. Trying to write something that expressed an emotion - so you have fear, love, anger, sadness to play with and I found that exciting and challenging."
Following the premiere the NYCB will give additional performances of the ballet during the 2011/2012 season.
The 'Ocean's Kingdom' orchestral score is released on October 3 2011 on CD, vinyl and digital download and is conducted by John Wilson, and produced by John Fraser, with the score performed by The London Classical Orchestra.
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