Façade (ballet)
| Façade | |
|---|---|
| Choreographer | Frederick Ashton |
| Music | William Walton |
| Based on | Façade, an Entertainment |
| Premiere | 26 April 1931 Cambridge Theatre, London |
| Design | John Armstrong |
Façade is a ballet by Frederick Ashton, to the music of William Walton; it is a balletic interpretation of items from Façade – an Entertainment (1923) by Walton and Edith Sitwell. The ballet was first given by the Camargo Society at the Cambridge Theatre, on 26 April 1931. It has been regularly revived and restaged all over the world.
In 1923 Façade – an Entertainment was first given in public. It consisted of poems by Edith Sitwell recited by the author over music composed for the purpose by William Walton, performed by an ensemble of six players. The work was regarded as avant-garde and caused some controversy. In 1926 Walton arranged a suite of five of the numbers, omitting the spoken verses and expanding the orchestration. In 1929 the choreographer Günter Hess created a Façade ballet for the German Chamber Dance Theatre, using Walton's orchestral suite; Sitwell declined to allow her words to be used. Hess visited London in 1930 and is believed to have exchanged ideas with Ashton.
Ashton's ballet was premiered by the Camargo Society, established the previous year to foster the work of British dancers and choreographers. The work was set to the five items of Walton's suite, and orchestrations of two other numbers from the original entertainment, which are thought to have been made for the purpose by Constant Lambert, who conducted the premiere.
Façade is a one-act ballet of seven to ten divertissements, described by the ballet critic Debra Crane as "choreographic satires on popular dance forms and their dancers". There is no plot. The numbers as danced in the original production are:
Ashton revised the ballet over the years. "Country Dance" was added in 1935; "Noche espagnola" and "Foxtrot" in 1940.
The Times commented that the piece admirably translated the spirit of the original poems, but warned, "If the Ballet is going to laugh at itself so freely, it must take care in future that we do not laugh at it in the wrong place." The paper did not consider Façade the highlight of the quintuple bill in which it appeared: that honour went to "Mme Karsavina's Valse Fantasie with music by Glinka".The Manchester Guardian also rated Karsavina's dance as the best thing in the evening, but praised the wit of Ashton's ballet, and singled out Lopokova for the subtlety of her comic performance.
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