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Tiresias (ballet)
''Tiresias'' is a ballet in a prelude and three acts choreographed by Frederick Ashton to an original score by Constant Lambert. With scenery and costumes designed by the composer's wife Isabel Lambert, it was first presented by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London, on 9 July 1951.Alexander Bland, ''The Royal Ballet: The First Fifty Years''. London: Threshold Books, 1981, p286. Background The idea of a ballet on the subject of the Greek seer who changes sex was first considered by Lambert in the 1930s. Lambert started composing the score in Paris, but due to the distractions of other work he had to enlist assistance for the orchestration from younger colleagues, such as Robert Irving, Humphrey Searle, Gordon Jacob, Alan Rawsthorne and Elisabeth Lutyens.Motion, Andrew. ''The Lamberts: George, Constant & Kit'', Chatto & Windus, London, 1986, p250-251. One of three ballets commissioned for the Festival of Britain, Lambert's score is roughly contemporary wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Ashton
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton (17 September 190418 August 1988) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue. Determined to be a dancer despite the opposition of his conventional middle-class family, Ashton was accepted as a pupil by Léonide Massine and then by Marie Rambert. In 1926 Rambert encouraged him to try his hand at choreography, and though he continued to dance professionally, with success, it was as a choreographer that he became famous. Ashton was chief choreographer to Ninette de Valois, from 1935 until his retirement in 1963, in the company known successively as the Vic-Wells Ballet, the Sadler's Wells Ballet and the The Royal Ballet, Royal Ballet. He succeeded de Valois as director of the company, serving until his own retirement in 1970. Ashton is widely credited with the creation of a specifically English genre of ballet. Among his best-known works are ''Façade (ballet), Fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Buckle
(Christopher) Richard Sandford Buckle CBE (6 August 1916 – 12 October 2001), was a lifelong English devotee of ballet, and a well-known ballet critic. He founded the magazine ''Ballet'' in 1939. Early life Buckle was the only son of Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Galbraith Buckle, DSO, MC, of the Northamptonshire Regiment, and his wife Rose, daughter of Francis Marmaduke Henry Sandford (descended from the Dukes of Portland and Barons Brooke) and his wife Constance Georgina (née Craven), great-granddaughter of the soldier William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven and maternal granddaughter of the naval commander and politician Charles Philip Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke. They lived at the Old Cottage, Warcop, Cumberland. The Buckle family consisted of minor gentry descended from Sir Cuthbert Buckle, Lord Mayor of London in 1593–1594. Buckle's uncle (married to his father's sister) was the clergyman Eric Graham. His father was killed in 1918 – Buckle was raised (and doted u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyperion Records
Hyperion Records is a British classical music record label. It was independent until February 2023, when it was acquired by the Universal Music Group. Under Universal, Hyperion is one of the three main classical record labels, alongside Decca and Deutsche Grammophon. History Hyperion is a British classical label established in 1980, showcasing recordings of music of all genres from the 12th century to the 21st. The company is eponymous with Hyperion, one of the Titans of Greek mythology. George Edward Perry (known as "Ted") founded the company. Early LP releases include rarely recorded 20th-century British music by composers such as Robin Milford, Alan Bush and Michael Berkeley. The venture's success was sealed with a critically acclaimed and popular disc of music by Hildegard of Bingen, '' A Feather on the Breath of God'' (1985), directed by the medievalist Christopher Page and his group Gothic Voices. After the death on 9 February 2003 of Hyperion Records founder Ted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Lloyd-Jones (conductor)
David Matthias Lloyd-Jones (19 November 1934 – 8 June 2022) was a British conductor who specialised in British and Russian music. In 1978 he was a co-founder of Opera North, conducting 50 productions during the 12 years he was there, and was also an editor and translator, especially of Russian operas. Early career and Sadlers Wells Lloyd-Jones was born in London, the son of Sir Harry Vincent Lloyd-Jones and wife Margaret Alwena Mathias. Before World War II, his family was evacuated and moved to West Wales to live on a farm. There he had no contact with classical music until the age of nine, when he studied Mozart in school. On his 10th birthday, his father took him to his first orchestral concert, at the Royal Albert Hall, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He quickly developed a love of British music, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, and also of Russian music. He later attended Magdalen College, Oxford where in 1958 he gained a degree in German and Russian. A contempo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Northern Philharmonia
The Orchestra of Opera North (or English Northern Philharmonia as recording name) is the orchestra that plays for the Opera North. It was founded as the English Northern Philharmonia, and changed its name during the period when Steven Sloane was Opera North's Music Director. Since the Royal Scottish National Orchestra ceased to play for Scottish Opera, the OON is the only orchestra in Britain which performs throughout the year in concert halls as well as opera houses. The orchestra made a number of recordings for Naxos Records Naxos comprises numerous companies, divisions, imprints, and labels specializing in classical music but also audiobooks and other genres. The premier label is Naxos Records, which focuses on classical music. Naxos Musical Group encompasses about ... under former Opera North Music Directors Paul Daniel and David Lloyd-Jones. ReferencesOrchestra page on the Opera North site [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Wordsworth
Barry Wordsworth (born 20 February 1948) is a British conductor. Biography Wordsworth was appointed assistant conductor to the touring orchestra of The Royal Ballet in 1972. In 1973, he became principal conductor of the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, and held the same title after the company moved to Birmingham to become the Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB). He served as music director of the Royal Ballet from 1990 to 1995, and again from 2006 to 2015. He returned to BRB as its music director from 2005 to 2008. Wordsworth is currently principal guest conductor of The Royal Ballet. From 1989 to 2006, he was principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, becoming conductor laureate in 2006. From 1989 to 2015, Wordsworth was music director and the Principal Conductor of the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra. In March 2007 at Brighton, Wordsworth caused controversy when he refused to conduct Andrew Gant's new composition ''A British Symphony'' the day of its scheduled premiere. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra. The BBC Concert Orchestra is the BBC's most populist ensemble, playing a mixture of classical music, light music and popular numbers. Its primary role is to produce music for radio broadcast, and it is the resident orchestra of the world's longest-running live music programme, '' Friday Night Is Music Night'' on BBC Radio 3. History The parent ensemble of the orchestra was the BBC Theatre Orchestra, which was formed in 1931 and based in Bedford. The orchestra also did opera work and was occasionally billed as the BBC Opera Orchestra. Stanford Robinson was the principal conductor from 1931 until 1946, but others included Walter Goehr, Spike Hughes, Harold Lowe, Mark Lubbock and Lionel Salter. In August 1949, the ensem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lewis Foreman
Lewis Foreman (born 1941) is a musicologist and author of books, articles, programme notes and CD sleeve notes on classical music, specialising in British music. He has been particularly associated with the Dutton Epoch and Lyrita record labels and with the British Music Society. His biography of Arnold Bax, now (2024) in its third edition, was first published in 1983. He writes obituaries of composers and music record executives for ''The Independent''. He is also a contributor to ''Grove Music Online''. Foreman qualified as a librarian in 1964, and after a period developing the music library holdings at Ealing Central Library he became a government librarian – head of bibliographic services with HMSO – until 1982. He continued as a civil servant, including time at the Department of Trade and Industry, until 1997, when he retired to devote his energies to musical activities full time. In 2005 he completed a PhD at Cardiff University with the musicologist John Tyrrell. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Shaw (dancer)
Brian Shaw (28 June 1928 – 2 April 1992) was a British ballet dancer and teacher. As a leading dancer with the Royal Ballet during the 1950s and 1960s, he was widely regarded as "one of the finest classical male dancers of his generation". Early life and training Brian Earnshaw was born in Huddersfield, England, a large market town in West Yorkshire, halfway between Leeds and Manchester. Having begun his dance studies in his home town, he moved to London as a teenager and continued his training at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School. In the summer of 1943, in the midst of World War II, Londoners were "keeping calm and carrying on," as they were advised to do by the British Ministry of Information. In July, the Production Club of the Royal Academy of Dancing arranged a matinee performance of Sadler's Wells students in ''Suite of Dances'', set by resident choreographer Andrée Howard to Handel's jauntily life-affirming ''Water Music''. Among the talented students dancing that aftern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pauline Clayden
Pauline Clayden (born 12 October 1922) is a British retired ballerina. Clayden was born in Greenwich, London on 12 October 1922. She studied at the Cone School of Dancing. Peggy van Praagh, who had spotted her among the Cone students, had recommended her to Antony Tudor's London Ballet. Tudor selected her rather than some of the Cone teachers' own favourites. He cast her in a dance for four women in the Covent Garden ''Aida'' - the only time she worked with him, as he departed for the United States soon after. She moved on to the Ballet Rambert and, finally, as a soloist with Sadler's Wells Ballet from 1942 to 1956. Clayden married Major H. J. Gamble in 1948. She created roles in Ninette de Valois' ''Promenade'', Robert Helpmann's ''Miracle in the Gorbals'', Frederick Ashton's ''Tiresias'' and ''Cinderella'', John Cranko's ''Bonne-Bouche'' and Andrée Howard's ''Veneziana''. She also danced many of the roles originally created for Margot Fonteyn, already established although only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Dale (dancer)
Margaret Dale (30 December 1922 – 28 January 2010) was a British dancer who later became a producer and Director of Dance for BBC television. Early life and career She was born as Margaret Elisabeth Bolam in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to John Howden Bolam and wife Gladys Margaret (Downs). She attended Dame Allan's School at Newcastle-on-Tyne and learned dancing from age 5. Between the 1940s and 1950s, she showed a flair for comedy, and sparkling technique when the company toured Europe and North America after World War II ended. She danced lead and soloist roles. One of Dale's greatest achievements came when she filmed Ashton's two-act ballet ''La Fille Mal Gardée'', with its original cast for television, uncut, shortly after it had triumphed in both New York City and Russia in 1960. Her black and white film documents the work's first cast and the choreographic details that were changed in subsequent performances. Dale's original cast television productions include Ashton's ''The D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Field (dancer)
John Field (22 October 1921 in Doncaster – 3 August 1991 in Esher) was an English ballet dancer, choreographer, director and teacher. He was a renowned member of the Vic-Wells Ballet and Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet and was also artistic director of the La Scala Theatre Ballet. Biography Born John Greenfield in Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1921, Field began training in dance with Edna Slocombe and Shelagh Elliott-Clarke in Liverpool. He made his stage debut with the Liverpool Ballet Club in 1938, before moving to London, where he trained at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School under Ninette de Valois. He joined the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1939 and danced with the company for two years before leaving to serve in the Royal Air Force during World War II. On returning to the company, he was promoted to the rank of Principal Dancer, partnering many of the leading British ballerinas of the 20th century, including Dame Beryl Grey, Dame Margot Fonteyn and Svetlana Berio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
