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

Performances

Date ↿⇂ Programme ↿⇂ Venue ↿↾
24 Nov 1930
Evening 		The Ballet of Mars and Venus Opera House, Manchester
10 Oct 1931
Evening 		Les Sylphides | Songs (The Moussorgsky Vocal Quartet) | Le Rugby | Dances from ''The Three Cornered Hat'' | Capriol Suite | La Péri | Chinese Magician | Songs (The Moussorgsky Vocal Quartet) | Mars and Venus | Russian Boyard Dance | American Sailor | Mannequin | Peasants' Frolic New Theatre, London
27 Nov 1932
Evening 		''Valse'' from Les Sylphides | ''Fée Dragée'' from Aurora's Wedding | The Shepherd's Wooing (from 'The Gods go a-begging') | ''Pas de Deux'' from Mr Roll's Military Quadrilles | ''Desperate Blues''* | A Florentine Picture | Le Spectre de la Rose | ''Russian Peasant' Mercury Theatre, London
20 Mar 1932
Evening 		Aurora's Wedding | Lysistrata or The Strike of Wives* | Mars and Venus | Façade Mercury Theatre, London
20 Apr 1931
Evening 		Les Sylphides | Le Cricket | Adagio from Lac des Cygnes | L'Après-midi d'un faune* | Gavotte Sentimentale | The Circus Girl* | Scherzo* | La Belle Ecuyère* | Mazurka des Hussars | Mars and Venus Mercury Theatre, London
15 Jun 1931
Evening 		Les Sylphides | Mars and Venus | Waterloo and the Crimea* | L'Après-midi d'un faune | Gavotte Sentimentale | Russian Pedlar | La Belle Ecuyère | Variation from ''Swan Lake'' | Circus Dance | Mannequin | Farrucca | Mademoiselle Maupin | Mazurka Finale Lyric Hammersmith, London
25 Feb 1930
Matinee 		Leda and the Swan* | Entrée de Cupidon | Gavotte Joyeuse | Gavotte Sentimentale | L'Indifferent | Flight of Swans | Russian Peasant | Mannequin | The Ballet of Mars and Venus | Capriol Suite* | Our Lady's Juggler* Lyric Hammersmith, London
12 Aug 1929
Evening 		The Ballet of Mars and Venus King's Theatre, Edinburgh
15 Sep 1930
Evening 		The Ballet of Mars and Venus Gaumont Theatre, Southampton
19 Sep 1929
Evening 		The Ballet of Mars and Venus* Duke of York's Theatre, London