Performance Database

Alternative title: Mars and Venus
Choreographer: Frederick Ashton
Composer: Domenico Scarlatti
Music arranger: Constant Lambert
Costume designer: Herbert Norris
World premiere: 29 Jul 1929, Pupils of Madame Marie Rambert, Opera House Blackpool
Work note: In Ashley Duke's play 'Jew Süss', the ballet was performed in Scene 3 (The Ballroom in Süss's House in Stuttgart) on a little stage as entertainment for the characters in the play. In the play's programmes, the ballet is not given a title and the company of dancers is not named. The Marie Rambert Dancers first performed a revised version of this work under the title 'The Ballet of Mars and Venus' on 25 February 1930 at the Lyric, Hammersmith, London. It was later performed with the title 'Mars and Venus'.
Production note: The play's programme has the credit 'Ballet by Marie Rambert', and according to author David Vaughan, she devised the story and chose the music.
Revival credits: 1930 revival: Costume designer: William Chappell
Music title: Sonatas
Music details: Live music: chamber orchestra or solo piano
Source: Programmes and reference file in the Rambert Archive; Vaughan, D. 'Frederick Ashton and His Ballets' (Alfred A. Knopf, 1977)
Archive catalogue: WORK/0022