| Having been persuaded to return to London from Paris by Marie Rambert, Ashton agreed to choreograph for her husband Ashley Dukes’ rescheduled stage adaptation of Lion Feughtwanger’s novel Jew Süss. The new ballet, which wasn’t named (but was later revived with the title Mars and Venus), was performed in Scene Three of the play, on a stage within a stage, and took place in episodes devised by Rambert: the toilet of Venus, the entrance of Mars, and his disarming and seduction by Venus. The play’s programme has the credit ‘Ballet by Marie Rambert’. |
The Ballet of Mars and Venus by Marie Rambert
INCIDENTAL MUSIC
Incidental music arranged by Constant Lambert
Scenery: Aubrey Hammond
Costumes: Herbert Norris
Players: Matheson Lang, Peggy Ashcroft, Veronica Turleigh, Felix Aylmer, A Bromley Davenport, and others
MUSIC
Domenico Scarlatti, orchestrated by Constant Lambert (Sonatas)
SCENERY
Aubrey Hammond
COSTUMES
Herbert Norris
DANCERS
Venus: Pearl Argyle; Her Nymphs: Andrée Howard, Anna Brunton; Mars: Harold Turner
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Opera House, Blackpool, 29 July 1929
Duke of York’s Theatre, London, 19 September 1929
New Stagings / Productions
Ballet Club, London, 1931
NEW PRODUCTION
Marie Rambert Dancers; revised version under the title ‘Mars and Venus’
FIRST PERFORMANCE
FP Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 25 February 1930
Ballet Club, London, 20 April 1931
Camargo Society, 1931
STAGING
Camargo Society; the same revised version but with music orchestrated ‘for full l8th-century orchestra’ by Constant Lambert
DANCERS
As above, Nymphs listed as “Attendants”
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Cambridge Theatre, London, 26 April 1931
Copyright © 2004 by David Vaughan. ‘Work note’ © Frederick Ashton Foundation.
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