Hello everyone.
I'm starting this topic in relation to Frederick Ashton, whose work I love. I'm British and over here you'd be very hard pressed to know that Ashton is unequivocally one of the few choreographic geniuses of the 20th century given the way his work is represented or rather underrepresented by the Royal the company he defined and led to greatness.
As Alexandra has rightly said in an email to me, the problem is that Ashton is hard to qualify and quantify, the majority of his work being one acters, pieces d'occasions, and linked to a definite style and school of ballet that takes time and effort to restage and get the nuances of. Reading the postings on the NYCB board on balletalert, I see however, that this is a criticism of the Balanchine canon too, that the spirit of the modern Balanchine rep has lost the flavour and nuance of the originals.
The other problem with Ashton is the lack of bankable 3 Act ballets he created, also three acters linked to Fonteyn who is irrreplacable.
The other problem is that, here in the UK especially because of funding and financial necessity the Royal presents a constant turnaround of the bankable Macmillan three acters (which I must admit I loathe and the classics, which I love when presented with integrity and wit.)
Balanchine insisted that the three act ballet was out of step with the modern world, as did Kirstein, as indeed did Ashton, who refused after Ondine, to make any more. Balanchine of course recognised the financial gains of the three act story ballet and created several, but it is his Jewels, which for me is a modern masterpiece, being as it is a brilliant evocation and reinvention of the classic ballet forms for the new world.
The other problem I have with three act ballets is that of the story. Is the story actually one worth telling?
For that matter if it weren't for Macmillan's R&J, Manon and Cranko's Onegin there would be no modern ie post 60's three act story ballets in the reps of companies the world over performed on a regular basis.
How do you feel about the three act ballet? And by that I mean those apart from the classical canon.