Performance database

Choreographer: Jack Carter
Composer: Guiseppe Verdi
Music arranger: Leonard Salzedo
Set designer: Norman McDowell
Costume designer: Norman McDowell
Rambert premiere: 20 May 1954, Ballet Rambert, Oxford Playhouse
World premiere: 14 Mar 1954, Ballet Workshop, Mercury Theatre, London, United Kingdom
Work note: An extravaganza in 7 scenes. The work was taken into Ballet Rambert's repertoire 'by arrangement with Ballet Workshop'. The first performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, on 17 June 1954 was billed as '1st public performance', but the Rambert Archive has a programme and newspaper review for the Oxford Playhouse performance on 20 May 1954, which is believed to be the date of the Ballet Rambert premiere.
Production note: In the programme, Norman McDowell is credited as 'decor and costumes'.
Scene/role note: The seven scenes: Scene 1, Lola in India; Scene 2, Lola in Scotland; Scene 3, Lola Prepares for Paris; Scene 4, Lola in Paris; Scene 5, Lola at Vine Street Police Station; Scene 6, Lola at Court; Scene 7, Lola in the Golden West
Music details: Live music: instrumentation is unknown (newspaper reviews mention piano and trumpet)
Music note: The score used selections from Verdi's operas.
Source: Programme and reference file in the Rambert Archive
Archive catalogue: WORK/0159

Performances

Date Programme Venue
20 May 1954
Evening 		Swan Lake Act II | Simple Symphony | The Life and Death of Lola Montez (1816-1861)* | Peter and the Wolf (A Fable without a Moral) Oxford Playhouse
30 Jun 1955
Evening 		The Lilac Garden | Pas de Déesses* | Variations on a Theme | The Life and Death of Lola Montez (1818-1861) Sadler's Wells Theatre, London