| In 1949, the Sadler’s Wells Ballet spent its first season in New York and, while in the US with the company, Ashton was invited to choreograph a work for New York City Ballet. He selected Illuminations – Britten’s song-cycle on poems by Arthur Rimbaud – as the score for the new ballet, having become enthralled by the poet’s life and work during the war. The resulting ‘dramatic ballet in one act’ is replete with symbolic gesture, portraying the poet’s turbulent life and imagination through a series of vivid, often surreal dance vignettes. |
MUSIC
Benjamin Britten (Les Illuminations, opus 18)
Poems by Arthur Rimbaud (from Les Illuminations, 1871-1872)
SCENERY & COSTUMES
Cecil Beaton
DANCERS
I Fanfare: Nicholas Magallanes
II Dreamtown: Barbara Bocher, Arlouine Case, Dorothy Dushock, Jillana, Barbara Milberg, Francesca Mosarra, Pat McBride, Margaret Walker, Tomi Wortham, Robert Barnett, Brooks Jackson, Shaun O’Brien, Roy Tobias
III Phrase: Nicholas Magallanes
IV Antiquity: Sacred Love: Tanaquil LeClercq; Profane Love: Melissa Hayden
V Royalty: ensemble
VI Anarchy: Tanaquil LeClercq, Dick Beard, Audrey Allen, Doris Breckenridge, Ninette d’Amboise, Peggy Karlson, Robert Barnett, Walter Georgov, Karel Shook
VII Being Beauteous: Tanaquil LeClercq, Dick Beard, Arthur Bell, Jacques d’Amboise, Roy Tobias
VIII Sideshow: ensembe
IX Farewell: ensemble
FIRST PERFORMANCE
New York City Ballet, City Center Theater, New York NY, 2 March 1950
New Stagings / Productions
Jeffrey Ballet, 1980
STAGING
Jeffrey Ballet
REPRODUCED BY
John Taras
DANCERS
The Poet: Gregory Huffman
The Dandy: Glenn Dufford
Sacred Love: Patricia Miller; Profane Love: Beatriz Rodriguez
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Auditorium Theatre, Chicago IL, 13 May 1980
Royal Ballet, 1981
NEW PRODUCTION
Royal Ballet
REPRODUCED BY
Frederick Ashton and John Taras
DANCERS
The Poet: Ashley Page
The Dandy: Graham Fletcher
Sacred Love: Jennifer Penney; Profane Love: Genesia Rosato
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Royal Opera House, London, 3 December 1981
Copyright © 2004 by David Vaughan
This listing is part of a chronology that was originally published in Vaughan’s Frederick Ashton and His Ballets (Alfred E Knopf 1976; 2nd ed., London: Dance Books, 1999) and includes new productions added since then, and up until 2007