1989 – Premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s The Prince of Pagodas by The Royal Ballet

2The Prince of the Pagodas was originally choreographed by John Cranko for The Royal Ballet in 1957 and was hailed at the time as the first full-length British ballet. Performed at the Royal Opera House, with music by Benjamin Britten and sets and costumes by John Piper and Desmond Heeley, it should have gone well. However, the score was very long and, years after Britten’s death, cuts to the music were not permitted by the composer’s estate. This posed inevitable problems, especially as Cranko’s fairy story treatment was not weighty enough for the music.

In 1989 Kenneth MacMillan took up the challenge. The writer Colin Thubron re-wrote the scenario and MacMillan went on to choreograph a much under appreciated and brilliant modern vision of a woman’s struggle to survive. Metaphor and myth combine in vivid and surreal settings. The sets and costumes were designed by Nicholas Georgiadis. The ballet was first performed by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House on 7 December, 1989.

It is a blockbuster of a piece in MacMillan’s inimitable and much missed style. The Prince of the Pagodas deserves re-staging with a sensitive ear and eye, especially as the four original protagonists, Darcey Bussell, as the Princess Rose, Fiona Chadwick, as the Princess Épine, Jonathan Cope, as the Salamander Prince, and Anthony Dowell, as the King, are still here to oversee success.