Guthrie, K. (2015). Awakening 'Sleeping Beauty': The Creation of National Ballet in Britain. Music and Letters, 96(3), 418-448. https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/gcv067 Peer reviewed version Link to published version (if available): 10.1093/ml/gcv067 Link to publication record in Explore Bristol Research PDF-document This is the author accepted manuscript (AAM). The final published version (version of record) is available online via Oxford University Press at https://academic.oup.com/ml/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/ml/gcv067. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher. University of Bristol - Explore Bristol Research General rights This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/red/research-policy/pure/user-guides/ebr-terms/ Manuscripts submitted to Music & Letters Awakening The Sleeping Beauty: The Creation of National Ballet in Britain ForJournal: ReviewMusic & Letters Only Manuscript ID: ML-2014-089.R1 Manuscript Type: Article Keywords: Britain, Twentieth century, Music, Ballet, Middlebrow https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ml Page 1 of 40 Manuscripts submitted to Music & Letters 1 2 Awakening The Sleeping Beauty : The Creation of National Ballet in 3 4 5 Britain 6 7 8 9 10 11 For the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden 1946 began with a flurry of activity, as the Sadler’s Wells 12 13 Ballet Company hastily put together a new production of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty .1 Its 14 15 premiere would mark the building’s postwar re-opening, as well as the troupe’s inaugural performance 16 17 as its resident ballet company. This prestigious event was supported by a huge – £10,000 – grant from 18 For Review Only 19 20 the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA), with which new costumes and sets 21 2 22 were commissioned from eminent stage designer Oliver Messel. If the significance of the occasion 23 24 contributed to the industrious atmosphere, recent events had created more work than was usual even 25 26 for a new production. For the past six years, the Opera House, on lease to Mecca Cafés, had ‘done its 27 28 bit’ for the war effort as a dance hall: arias had been replaced by the dulcet strains of Glenn Miller, 29 30 divas by soldiers dancing away the horrors of war. Restoring its former glory was no small undertaking. 31 32 33 The dance floor and two bandstands had to be removed, the red silk chairs brought out of storage and 34 35 the building repainted. At the same time, postwar shortages made it hard to source the materials 36 37 required for Messel’s extravagant new designs. The set had to be created from camouflage paint, while 38 39 costumes and lampshades were cobbled together from the staff’s clothing coupons. Pressed for time 40 41 and unfamiliar with the large venue, ballet company and orchestra rehearsed simultaneously in the main 42 43 auditorium, surrounded by seamstresses and set constructors. The shortage of male dancers also meant 44 45 46 that the company’s principal male ballerina, Robert Helpmann, had to dance two roles, Carabosse and 47 48 Prince Florimund. For the guardians of elite culture, the Opera House’s wartime conscription as a 49 50 51 1 The Sadler’s Wells Ballet was originally known as the Vic-Wells Ballet (1931-1939) and later as the Royal Ballet (1956 52 53 onwards). There was also a Sadler’s Wells Opera Company, similarly named after the Sadler’s Wells Theatre in Islington, 54 55 London. Here, ‘Sadler’s Wells’ refers to the ballet company, unless otherwise indicated. 56 57 2 In 1945-1946, CEMA allocated £25,000 to Covent Garden, which suggests how generous the budget for Sleeping Beauty 58 was. Paul Kildea, Selling Britten: Music and the Market Place (Oxford, 2002), 119. 59 60 https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ml Manuscripts submitted to Music & Letters Page 2 of 40 1 2 dance hall had been nothing short of tragic; so when the building finally re-opened on 20 February 3 4 1946 in ‘its rightful role’, they were quick to proclaim a triumph. 3 5 6 The idea of performing Sleeping Beauty had come from John Maynard Keynes – the celebrated 7 8 economist and onetime chairman of CEMA and the Covent Garden Committee. 4 The ballet held a 9 10 personal significance for Keynes, not least because the Ballets Russes’s 1921 production had provided a 11 12 5 13 ‘gilded backdrop to the first weeks of [his] love affair’ with Lydia Lopokova, whom he later married. 14 15 By all accounts, Sadler’s Wells founder Ninette de Valois eagerly supported his proposition, claiming 16 17 that she had been ‘haunted’ by the ballet’s ‘beauty’ since childhood .6 In the event, it seemed that a more 18 For Review Only 19 topical ballet could not have been chosen. The Opera House’s transformation appeared magical: having 20 21 survived ‘the grimmest sequel of nights that it had known’, the building could finally ‘awaken […] from 22 23 7 Sleeping Beauty 24 its long sleep’. The Sadler’s Wells’ circumstances made the choice of all the more 25 26 appropriate. The move to Covent Garden signified the company’s coming of age and consolidated 27 8 28 Margot Fonteyn’s place at its head. In the words of de Valois, it could ‘awaken at last, in a sumptuous 29 30 court: fitting reward for years of regal patience in adversity’. 9 As luck would have it, the company’s final 31 32 33 3 ‘Swing to Ballet’, News Review (28 February 1946), Royal Opera House Archive, Sadler’s Wells Ballet Cuttings 1942 – 34 35 1946, ROH/RBB/4/5 (henceforth ROH/RBB/4/5). 36 37 4 Webster, ‘Lord Keynes’, Covent Garden Books , vol.1: Ballet, 1946-1947 (Norwich, 1948), 10 & 63. 38 39 5 What is more, Keynes reportedly subsidised a 1931 production of Aurora’s Wedding , staged by members of the Ballet 40 Rambert and the Vic-Wells: Judith Chazin-Bennahum, The Ballets of Antony Tudor: Studies in Psyche and Satire (Oxford, 41 42 1994), 26; Judith Mackrell, Bloomsbury Ballerina: Lydia Lopokova, Imperial Dancer and Mrs John Maynard Keynes (London: 43 44 Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2008), 395. 45 46 6 Ninette de Valois, Come Dance With Me: A Memoir 1898-1956 (London, 1957), 167. 47 48 7 Elizabeth Frank, Margot Fonteyn (London, 1958), 66. 49 8 Margot Fonteyn danced the lead role in alternation with Pamela May, Beryl Grey and Moira Shearer. Cyril W. 50 51 Beaumont, The Sleeping Beauty as Presented by the Sadler’s Wells Ballet (London, 1946), provides a detailed account of this 52 53 event, including photographs. A full cast list can be seen at ‘The Sleeping Beauty (1946)’, Royal Opera House Collections 54 55 Online . Available at <http://www.rohcollections.org.uk/production.aspx?production=798&row=1> [accessed 6 56 57 August 2013]. 58 9 De Valois, Come Dance , 167. 59 60 https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ml Page 3 of 40 Manuscripts submitted to Music & Letters 1 2 pre-war performance had been Aurora’s Wedding , an excerpt from the third act of Sleeping Beauty , which 3 4 made the parallel even stronger. 10 The audience, only too ready to be relieved of postwar austerity, 5 6 dressed up for the occasion. 11 Indeed, for Britain’s moneyed elite, the opulence on stage and in the 7 8 auditorium assuaged a widespread fear that ‘all the grace and elegant things from the old world had 9 10 passed permanently away’: as Keynes explained, ‘it caused an extraordinary feeling of uplift when it was 11 12 12 13 suddenly appreciated that perhaps they had not entirely vanished’. Even the ‘strong scent of mothballs’ 14 13 15 would not mar this prestigious event. 16 17 If this was a landmark in both the Opera House’s and the Sadler’s Wells’ history, it was also 18 For Review Only 19 recognised as a turning point for British art. 14 From the outset, plans to re-open the building as a high 20 21 art venue were bound up in the period’s broad concern with the pursuit of a national culture. Not only 22 23 24 did the initiative have financial support from government-funded CEMA, but the management had 25 26 made explicit their desire to establish Covent Garden as a ‘permanent home for British opera and 27 15 28 ballet’. On the opening night, the nationalist atmosphere was reinforced by the presence of the royal 29 30 family and singing of the national anthem. 16 This agenda was more radical than it might sound. For one 31 32 thing, prior to this, CEMA’s principal focus had been on facilitating amateur music making, drama and 33 34 35 10 Ibid . See also Alexander Bland, The Royal Ballet: The First 50 Years (London, 1981), 53, 56. 36 37 11 The London Evening News reported that ‘nearly everyone was in full evening dress’. Stephen Williams, ‘The Garden 38 39 Blooms Again’, Evening News , ROH/RBB/4/5; see also ‘Dinner at 11’, Evening Standard , ROH/RBB/4/5. 40 12 Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Britain, 1937-1946 (London, 2000), 463. David Cannadine has 41 42 explored the decline of the British aristocracy during the twentieth century: The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy 43 44 (New Haven and London, 1990), especially 606-36. 45 46 13 Frank, Fonteyn , 65.