Ondine (Ashton)

Ondine
Sarah Wildor in a poster for the 2000 staging of Ondine by The Royal Ballet
Choreographer	Sir Frederick Ashton
Music	Hans Werner Henze
Based on	Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's novella Undine
Premiere	27 October 1958 Royal Opera House, London
Original ballet company	The Royal Ballet
Characters	Ondine (Undine) Palemon Tirrenio, Lord of the   Mediterranean Sea Berta (Beatrice) Hermit
Setting	Mediterranean
Created for	Dame Margot Fonteyn
Genre	Neoclassical ballet
Type	Classical ballet

Ondine is a ballet in three acts created by the choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton and composer Hans Werner Henze. Ashton originally produced Ondine for the Royal Ballet in 1958, with Henze commissioned to produce the original score, published as Undine, which has since been restaged by other choreographers. The ballet was adapted from a novella called Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué and it tells the tale of a water nymph who is the object of desire of a young prince named Palemon. The première of the ballet took place at the Royal Opera House, London, on 27 October 1958, with the composer as guest conductor. The first major revival of this Ashton/Henze production took place in 1988.

The three-act ballet of Ondine was commissioned and produced for The Royal Ballet in 1958 by the choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton. The resulting ballet was a collaboration between Ashton and the German composer Hans Werner Henze, who was commissioned to write the score. It is the only full length ballet that Ashton choreographed to original music, and the score is regarded as a rarity by musicians, as it is a "20th century full-length ballet score that has the depth of a masterwork".

The ballet was originally intended as a vehicle for The Royal Ballet's then Prima Ballerina, Margot Fonteyn and the title role of Ondine was choreographed specially for her and led one critic to describe the ballet as 'a concerto for Fonteyn'. From its première in 1958 until the work was removed from the repertoire in 1966, nearly every performance of Ondine saw Fonteyn cast in the lead role, with the only occasional exceptions seeing Nadia Nerina and Svetlana Beriosova dancing the role. Maria Almeida became the first ballerina to dance the role of Ondine in a revival, with Anthony Dowell dancing the role of Palemon. Staged in 1988, the revival was a success and the ballet has been regularly performed ever since.

Ashton initially approached Sir William Walton to compose the score for Ondine. They had worked together before, on a ballet called The Quest for the Sadler's Wells company in 1943, and agreed to collaborate again for the 1955–56 season; they decided on Macbeth as their subject. Fonteyn, however, was firmly opposed to playing Lady Macbeth, and was not enthused by Ashton's next suggestion, Miranda in a ballet of The Tempest. By the time Ashton had lighted on Ondine as an alternative, Walton was immersed in work on a concerto. He suggested that his friend Henze be approached. Accordingly, the music was commissioned from Henze, who titled the score Undine.