At the Ballet

Author(s): W. H. Haddon Squire

Source: Tempo, No. 3 (Mar., 1947), pp. 20-23
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/943230
Accessed: 08-08-2017 01:59 UTC

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20

At the Ballet
by W. H. Haddon Squire
DISTANCE in time or space, it has been said, gilds formulas and styles; we
turn to what is far away and ask for inspiration. By the light reflected from the past
the artist endeavours to forge something new in harmony with his own period. Thus
the great styles, always new and original, have in them at the same time something
which we recognize as a common element. Style is not only the man himself but
also his period. Style, therefore, is not merely an opinion but a fact.

One weakness of the Covent Garden production of Purcell's masque The Fairy
Queen is that it falls between two styles, between the I7th and 20oth centuries. The
virtues of Constant Lambert's arrangement are largely negative. Surely our ' Orpheus
Britannicus ' might have been garmented in less sober and uniform orchestral colours.
And why this over-smooth, ironed-out harmonic texture ? There are few indications
of the aesthetic understanding, born of admiration, shown for example by some of our
younger composers. As one of the most talented of them has pointed out, Purcell's
work must be " re-thought in order to evolve textures and figurations to express its
mood, remembering all the time the effect of those instruments for which it was con-
ceived." The original instrumental conception seems to have vanished in its translation
into the terms of a modern orchestra.

" Painting and Carpentry, are the soule of Masque " said the sarcastic Ben Jonson,
speaking of course from the point of view of a poet ; and as in ballet, music, for the
average spectator of masque was merely a side-dish in a feast for the eye. It can scarcely
be said that Michael Ayrton's decor " aspires towards the condition of music." His
far-too-representational and matter-of-fact fairyland leaves little or nothing to the
imagination. One simply could not conceive this too-substantial pageant fading and
leaving " not a rack behind."

In retrospect the most vivid memories of Frederick Ashton's choreography are

the ingenious Echo Dance in the Wood, the Masque of Night, and the charming dance
of the Spirits of the Air.

As a whole the production lacks unity and style. One was left with the impression
that the masque had been designed and rehearsed in isolated sections, regardless of
the whole. All the materials of a work of art are there ; nothing but the art is missing.
Aesthetically, in fact, the Fairy Queen is asked to live without style in a pre-fab. Fairy-
land.

There have been signs recently of a return to balletic simplicity, as indeed becomes
a period of austerity. Massine's 'concert group' of eight dancing against plain
draperies in the U.S.A., Frederick Ashton's Symphonic Variations, and more recently,
Bailemos: 'a new all-dancing ballet " by Celia Franca, are reactions against the literary
and dramatic ballet, a return to the genre of Les Sylphides and the neo-classic Les Biches.
As was only too obvious in The Fairy Queen the introduction of the literary element is
apt to create a confusion of tongues or mediums. This is less likely to happen when
the literary and dramatic material is allegory and symbolic-the language of imagery
and form. There is a verse in the Koran which runs: " Lo ! Allah disdaineth not to
coin the similitude even of a gnat."

When the Sadler's Wells Opera-Ballet announced Andrie Howard's new ballet
Mardi Gras, with music by Leonard Salzedo and scenario, costumes and decor by

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The GERTLER STRING QUARTET of Brussels, recently in London for public and
broadcast concerts of modern music. Left to right :-Andr6 Gertler, Fridiric Ghigo (violins),
Marcel Lotion ('cello), Jean-Pierre Muller (viola). (Concert Reviews, page 19.)

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(Edward Man

A scene from MARDI GRAS, the new

Ballet. Scenario, costumes and scenery
Music by Leonard SalZedo

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(Edward Mandinian)

From BAILEMOS, a new production by the Sadler's Wells Opera-B

Celia Franca. Music by Massenet. Scenery and costumes by Ho

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From the Covent Garden revival of Purcell's THE FAIRY QUEEN. Left to
right :-Margaret Rawlings (Titania), Richard Ellis (Hymen), Robert Helpmann (Oberon).

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 AT THE BALLET 23

Hugh Stevenson, it was descri

and The Trial guessed at once
repeat the brief summary given
her way to the cathedral squa
strange events which reflect th

The macabre flavour which pe

taste, especially that which lik
The allegory may also puzzle
possibilities to choreographer
the imagination of the spectato
work of art.

Andrde Howard's choreography is scarcely virile enough for such a subject but
she has a subtle lyrical sense and is quick to catch an atmosphere. One obvious
weakness of Mardi Gras is the lack of contrast and variety in the ensembles. The
' young girl' who, as both character and spectator, sees mirrored in the action of the
ballet the pattern of her own life, was beautifully danced by Anne Heaton (herself
only just sixteen), a dancer with the true classical feeling.

The performance as a whole was unequal but the youthful exuberance of the
Sadler's Wells Opera-Ballet covers, if it does not hide, a multitude of immaturities-
including that of the open mouth !

Hugh Stevenson's decor and costumes are excellent and a word of praise must
be given to lighting which, for once in a way, does not give the impression of having
been left entirely to the personal preferences of those who manipulate the limes and
the switch-board.

Mardi-Gras has the great advantage of an original score. Leonard Salzedo is a

young English composer who possesses two qualities essential for ballet music--a
lively sense of rhythm and a feeling for orchestral colour. He has learned a valuable
lesson from the Ballet Negres and makes effective use of the repeated, insistent rhythmical
figure. The lyrical section for the Three Dancers in Blue is a particularly attractive
piece of writing. Salzedo uses a contemporary idiom and it is easy to detect his
admirations, but these are a credit rather than a demerit. There is a musical as well
as a physical process of digestion. The most original of composers have only absorbed
and transformed that which they have first taken in because they liked it. A virtue
of Salzedo's score is that it is genuine theatre music. Concert hall music in the theatre
is apt to be as pale as a dancer without make-up.

Applause is no test of discrimination and it is to be hoped that Celia Franca did

not take too seriously the rapturous reception given by a first-night audience to her
new ballet, Bailemos. The collective heart of a Sadler's Wells audience is generally
more active than its collective head-an observation confirmed by Ninette de Valois
herself.

Bailemos is really a series of divertissements inspired by the ballet music from

Massenet's Le Cid. The scenery and costumes are by Honor Frost, whose use of
colour is offset by the weakness and bleakness of her abstract forms. Bailemos means
in Spanish 'Let us dance' and the programme provided yet another triumph for the
obvious by assuring us that " the dancing is no more intended to be in the authentic
Spanish style than is Massenet's music "-poulet a l'Espagnole, in fact, innocent of
pimento.

But Celia Franca has talent and the aesthetic aim of Bailemos is in the right direction.
The art of the choreographer, like all the arts, is based on significant form and its
relations. The dance should be a visible music. In its purest condition there is no
subject-matter distinct from the language of form in all its infinite variety and wealth.

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