The music by Joby Talbot is the first full-length score (1 hour 40 minutes) for the Royal Ballet in 20 years.
[5] By 2012, Wheeldon had changed the structure of the ballet so that it consisted of three acts instead of the original two and had inserted an additional pas de deux for Alice and the Knave.
[11] Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is scored for the following orchestra:[12] Woodwinds: Piccolo I and II, flute I, II and III, oboe I and II, oboe d'amore, cor anglais, clarinet I in B♭, II in B♭ and III in B♭, clarinet in E♭, bass clarinet in B♭, bassoon I and II, contrabassoon Brass: 4 French horns in F, ram's horn, piccolo trumpet in B♭, 3 trumpets in B♭, 2 tenors, bass trombone, tuba Percussion: timpani, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, crotales, glockenspiel, keyed glockenspiel, handbells, tubular bells, church bell in G, 3 tam-tams, bass drum, cymbal and pedal bass drum set, side drum with snare drums, kick drum, 2 tom toms, rototom, “Trash”: pots, pans etc, triangle, zill, 2 China cymbals, sizzle cymbal, clashed cymbals, 3 suspended cymbals, hi-hat, bell tree, mark tree, jingle bells, cowbell, clapper, 2 tambourines, string drum, wind machine, thunder sheet, ratchet, football rattle, castanets, claves, 2 woodblocks, 3 temple blocks, frog guiro, shaker, dumbek, riq 2 Harps Piano, celesta 4 female singers Strings: first violins, second violins, violas, cellos and double basses.
She is very upset to see her friend Jack, the gardener's boy, dismissed by her mother on a false charge of stealing a jam tart.
The White Rabbit then leads her further into Wonderland, where she is given a piece of paper inviting a Duchess to attend the Queen of Hearts' croquet party.
Alice carries the invitation into a cottage, where she finds the Duchess nursing a baby while a cook makes sausages.
The duchess is delighted at the invitation, while the cook is resentful, and the atmosphere becomes violent apart from an interval when a mysterious Cheshire Cat appears.
Alice wants to go with him but the White Rabbit and Knave agree that it is too dangerous for her to be in the presence of the bad-tempered Queen and blindfold her to stop her.
The King insists that the Knave is heard in his own defence, but this produces little effect and so Alice intervenes, and together they win over everyone but the Queen, who seizes an axe to carry out the execution herself.
Joby Talbot's exuberant score was credited with providing sophisticated, danceable music with vividly descriptive melodies.
[16][17] Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Sarah Crompton commented: "Wheeldon’s Alice will undoubtedly be hugely popular; it’s colourful, enjoyable fun.
But it needed a little more dance and a little less action to take its place alongside those English story ballets the choreographer himself so admires.".
[18] The 2011 production and 2017 Royal Ballet revival are filmed and released on DVD, both starred Lauren Cuthbertson as the title role.