Rhapsody

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Alina Cojocaru and Steven McRae
© ROH/ Tristram Kenton

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Nymphs and Shepherds (1928)


Abbreviations:
M Music by
S Scenery by
C Costumes by
D Danced by
FP First performance
NP New production
R Reproduced by
ST Staging (indicates that the ballet was produced in substantially its original form)



M Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (from Les Petits riens)

D Passepied: Pearl Argyle, William Chappell
Entrée de Cupidon: Andrée Howard, Harold Turner
Gavotte joyeuse: Pearl Argyle, Andrée Howard, Harold Turner
Courante: Pearl Argyle, Andrée Howard, Harold Turner, William Chappell
FP Ballet-Divertissement by Pupils of Marie Rambert, Arts Theatre Club, London, 9 March 1928 (repeated the following day at a reception in her studio in Ladbroke Road)

(I have been unable to discover whether the first Suite de danses from Les Petits riens and Nymphs and Shepherds had any choreography in common. According to Lionel Bradley's Sixteen Years of Ballet Rambert, 'The complete ballet was performed, privately, in practice costume'--presumably in Rambert's studio--in June 1928. He identifies Nymphs and Shepherds as 'excerpts' from this. I have not found any account of the June 1928 performance from which it would be possible to deduce what the 'complete ballet' consisted of and how, if at all, it differed from the versions listed here)

NP Four Dances from 'Les Petits riens' were included in the programme at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, on 25 February 1930, and these would seem to have been drawn from both previous versions, as follows:
Entrée de Cupidon: D Pearl Argyle, William Chappell
Gavotte sentimentale: D Marie Rambert, Frederick Ashton
L'Indifférent: D Frederick Ashton
(Gavotte sentimentale survived into early performances at the Ballet Club)