''Requiem'' is a one-act ballet created by
Kenneth MacMillan
Sir Kenneth MacMillan (11 December 192929 October 1992) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer who was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977, and its principal choreographer from 1977 until his death. Ea ...
in 1976 for the
Stuttgart Ballet
Stuttgart Ballet is a leading German ballet company. Dating back to 1609, then the court ballet of the dukes of Württemberg, the modern company was founded by John Cranko and is known for full-length narrative ballets. The company received the L ...
. The music is
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers ...
's
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...
(1890). The designer was
Yolanda Sonnabend, who had first collaborated with him on 1963's ''Symphony''.
In MacMillan's words, "This danced Requiem is dedicated to the memory of my friend and colleague
John Cranko
John Cyril Cranko (15 August 1927 – 26 June 1973) was a South African ballet dancer and choreographer with the Royal Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet.
Life and career
Early life
Cranko was born in Rustenburg in the former province of Tran ...
, Director of the Stuttgart Ballet 1961–1973." The first performance was given at Stuttgart on 28 November 1976. MacMillan recreated the piece for the
Royal Ballet
The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...
, London, at the
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...
,
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
on 3 March 1983.
MacMillan's decision to set a ballet to Fauré's Requiem met with opposition from the board of the Royal Ballet. Catholic members of the board felt that sacred music should not be used for ballet. MacMillan wrote to the
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
to seek his opinion. Although the response was favourable to MacMillan the board remained unpersuaded. MacMillan then contacted the artistic director of the
Stuttgart Ballet
Stuttgart Ballet is a leading German ballet company. Dating back to 1609, then the court ballet of the dukes of Württemberg, the modern company was founded by John Cranko and is known for full-length narrative ballets. The company received the L ...
who had previously expressed an interest in commissioning a ballet from him. They reacted with enthusiasm.
The piece was a portrait of the ballet company coming to terms with the death of Cranko, their much-loved artistic director.
Many of the choreographic images in ''Requiem'' were based on drawings and paintings by
William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
, including illustrations for
Dante's
Dante's is a nightclub and live music venue in Portland, Oregon. The venue, located along West Burnside Street and owned by Frank Faillace, hosts a variety of acts ranging from burlesque to rock music.
Dante's is housed in an unreinforced masonr ...
''
Inferno
Inferno may refer to:
* Hell, an afterlife place of suffering
* Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire
Film
* ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film
* Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker
* Inferno (1973 fi ...
'',
Milton's ''
Paradise Lost
''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...
'' and the Old Testament
Book of Job
The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars ar ...
.
[ The ballet begins with a group of mourners entering to the accompaniment of the Introitus. A central figure is raised aloft like an offering. She then dances two ]pas de deux
In ballet, a pas de deux (French language, French, literally "step of two") is a dance duet in which two dancers, typically a male and a female, perform ballet steps together. The pas de deux is characteristic of classical ballet and can be fo ...
with different men during the Offertorium and the Sanctus, returning to comfort a young woman during the Agnus Dei. In the final section, In Paradisum, the women appear from the wings before all the dancers leave the stage bathed in light and with their backs to the audience.[
The ballet was met with acclaim by audiences and critics. Stuttgart Ballet had exclusive rights to perform the ballet for six years, after which it entered the repertory of the Royal Ballet in 1983.][
]
Original cast
Württembergische Staatstheater, Stuttgart, 28 November 1976:
* Marcia Haydée
Marcia Haydée Salaverry Pereira da Silva (born 18 April 1937) is a Brazilian ballet dancer, choreographer and ballet director. She was prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet under John Cranko and succeeded him as the company's director, serv ...
* Birgit Keil
Birgit Keil (born 22 September 1944) is a German ballet dancer. She was prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet and was internationally known as ''The German Ballerina'', She has been teaching at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst ...
* Richard Cragun
* Egon Madsen
Egon Madsen (born 24 August 1942) is a Danish ballet dancer, teacher, ballet master and company director. In 1961, he joined the Stuttgart Ballet, where John Cranko had become the director. Madsen was hired as a soloist but was soon promoted to p ...
* Reid Anderson
Reid Anderson (born 15 October 1970) is a bassist and composer from Minnesota. He is a member of The Bad Plus with drummer Dave King, saxophonist Chris Speed, and guitarist Ben Monder. The original lineup of The Bad Plus first played together i ...
Reception
Reviewing the Stuttgart premiere for ''The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'', John Percival rated the piece as MacMillan's best ballet to date, and criticised the Royal Ballet for failing to secure the piece for itself. When the work was staged at Covent Garden in 1983 Percival again praised it, though he was less convinced by the company's dancing, much of which he found too reserved. In ''The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'', Jann Parry
Jann Parry is a British ballet critic and writer. She was ballet critic of ''The Observer'' from 1983 to 2004. Her biography, ''Different Drummer: a Life of Kenneth MacMillan
Sir Kenneth MacMillan (11 December 192929 October 1992) was a ...
wrote of, "A beautiful ballet, reminding us that MacMillan can use a ''corps de ballet'' as a community rather than a crowd of extras." In ''Dance Now'' in 2002 the former Royal Ballet dancer Bruce Sansom, who had appeared in three roles in the work over the years, wrote that the merging of human voices, orchestral playing, and dance was a powerful combination, and that MacMillan "draws them seamlessly together offering equal fulfillment for viewer and performer".[Sansom, Bruce. "The MacMillan Hit List: A Choreographer Celebrated", ''Dance Now'', Autumn 2002, p. 18]
Notes
{{reflist
Ballets by Kenneth MacMillan
1976 ballet premieres
Ballets designed by Yolanda Sonnabend