Les Masques, ou Changement de dames is a short ballet of 1933 choreographed by Frederick Ashton to music by Francis Poulenc. [1] Ashton's biographer describes it as a miniature masterpiece, an inspired fusion of scenery, steps and music. [2]
Ballet is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary based on French terminology. It has been globally influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres and cultures. Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures and as a result, the art has evolved in a number of distinct ways. See glossary of ballet.
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue.
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include mélodies, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-known are the piano suite Trois mouvements perpétuels (1919), the ballet Les biches (1923), the Concert champêtre (1928) for harpsichord and orchestra, the Organ Concerto (1938), the opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1957), and the Gloria (1959) for soprano, choir and orchestra.
The ballet reflected the social and sexual manners of Ashston's world, and the limited size of the Mercury Theatre obliged Ashton to understate the dancers' gestures and moves. A Personage is seen at a masked ball with his lady friend. They meet another couple, and they turn out to be his wife and her lover. After some changing of partners, at the end the wife and husband are a pair while the lover and mistress are also united.
The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman. The company produced theatrical presentations, radio programs and motion pictures. The Mercury also released promptbooks and phonographic recordings of four Shakespeare works for use in schools.
The black and white costumes (made by Matilda Etches) and scenery (evoking an Arts Club Ball) were by Sophie Fedorovitch, who worked with Ashton on many other ballets during his career, and became, in his words, "not only my dearest friend but my greatest artistic collaborator and adviser". [3] Marie Rambert recalled going to an ironmongers in Shepherd's Bush to buy corrugated iron for the columns in the set; the full cost of the production was £60. [4]
Muriel Matilda Etches (1898–1974) was a British fashion designer and couturier, and a film and theatre costume designer.
Sophie Fedorovitch was a Russian-born theatrical designer who worked with ballet choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton from his first choreographed ballet in 1926 until her accidental death in 1953.
Dame Marie Rambert, Mrs Dukes DBE was a Polish-born dancer and pedagogue who exerted great influence on British ballet, both as a dancer and teacher.
The original cast at the Ballet Club on the 5 March 1933 consisted of Frederick Ashton as A Personage, Alicia Markova as His Lady Friend, Pearl Argyle as His Wife, Walter Gore as Her Lover, Elisabeth Schooling and Betty Cuff as Two Young Girls and Anna Brunton, Elisabeth Ruxton and Tamara Svetlova as Three Ladies with Fans. [1] At the premiere the music was played by Helen Gaskell, Cecil James and Charles Lynch. [4]
Dame Alicia Markova DBE was a British ballerina and a choreographer, director and teacher of classical ballet. Most noted for her career with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and touring internationally, she was widely considered to be one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of the twentieth century. She was the first British dancer to become the principal dancer of a ballet company and, with Dame Margot Fonteyn, is one of only two English dancers to be recognised as a prima ballerina assoluta. Markova was a founder dancer of the Rambert Dance Company, The Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, and was co-founder and director of the English National Ballet.
Pearl Argyle was a South African ballet dancer and actress. Remembered today primarily for her extraordinary beauty, she appeared in leading roles with English ballet companies in the 1930s and later performed in stage musicals and in films.
Walter Gore was a British ballet dancer, company director and choreographer.
Poulenc's Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano was composed in Cannes in 1926, dedicated to Manuel de Falla, and premiered in Paris on 2 May that year. The three movements are marked Presto, Andante and Rondo. When he saw the work, Poulenc was enchanted and in thanks gave Rambert an inscribed copy of his Soirées de Nazelles . [4] After the production left the repertory the choreography was lost and Ashton declined requests to revive the work. [2]
The Trio pour hautbois, basson et piano, FP 43, by Francis Poulenc is a piece of chamber music, composed in 1926.
Cannes is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The city is known for its association with the rich and famous, its luxury hotels and restaurants, and for several conferences. On 3 November 2011 it also played host to the G20 organisation of industrialised nations.
Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish composer. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century. His image appeared on Spain's 1970 100-pesetas banknote.
David Vaughan comments that Ashton had wanted Poulenc to compose the score for his first ballet, A Tragedy of Fashion , and seven years on "was fully in command of the resources that could enable him to realise such a work" - witty, sophisticated and of its time. [1] Later projects to collaborate between Ashton and Poulenc did not come to fruition. [2]
A Tragedy of Fashion, or the Scarlet Scissors is a ballet which was first choreographed and performed on 15 June 1926 by Frederick Ashton, who starred with Marie Rambert. The BBC described this debut as "a pivotal moment in the history of ballet," as it launched the careers of both Ashton and Ballet Rambert. The music was by Eugene Goossens, arranged by Ernest Irving.
