Research Catalog

Interview with Frederick Ashton

Title: Interview with Frederick Ashton, 1973.
Author: Ashton, Frederick, 1904-1988
Publication: 1973

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Status	Vol/Date	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 10	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-517 disc 10	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 9	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-517 disc 9	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 8	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-517 disc 8	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 7	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-517 disc 7	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 6	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-517 disc 6	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 5	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-517 disc 5	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 4	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-517 disc 4	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 3	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-517 disc 3	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 2	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-517 disc 2	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	disc 1	Audio	Use in library	*MGZTL 4-517 disc 1	Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance

Details

Additional Authors

Vaughan, David, 1924-

Found In

Interviews on Frederick Ashton: Interview with Frederick Ashton, no. 1-10

Description

10 sound discs (approximately five hours and 18 minutes): digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

Disc 1, July 3, 1973 (approximately 31 minutes). Frederick Ashton speaks with David Vaughan about his early career as a choreographer and dancer, beginning with his ballet A tragedy of fashion [; or Scarlet scissors] including Marie Rambert's role in its creation; other early works and collaborations with Marie Rambert including dances for [Henry Purcell's] The fairy queen and Nymphs and shepherds; his debut performance, on Brighton pier and other early performances; anecdotes about dancing in opera ballets, including in Tannhäuser; studying with [Leonide] Massine; his late start as a dancer [ends abruptly].
Disc 2, July 3, 1973 (approximately 30 minutes). Frederick Ashton continues to speak with David Vaughan about his early career beginning with his collaboration with Marie Rambert on the ballet Leda; working with [Bronislava] Nijinska; an anecdote about seeing Anna Pavlova rehearsing Giselle; studying with Nijinska; his very minor roles; Choura [Alexandra Danilova]; Ida Rubinstein, including as a dancer; her flamboyant personality; an anecdote about one of her admirers; the performer Barbette [ends abruptly].
Disc 3, August 9, 1973 (approximately 30 minutes). [Begins abruptly.] Frederick Ashton speaks with David Vaughan about his career beginning with his ballet Harlequin in the street including the first and second, longer version; his ballet Les patineurs; his ballet A wedding bouquet including Gertrude [Stein's] comments on it; his ballet Horoscope including Constant [Lambert's] role in its creation; his ballet Judgment of Paris, including his having wanted to create it for Pearl [Argyle]; his ballet Cupid and Psyche including its lack of success with the public and the critics [ends abruptly].
Disc 4, August 9, 1973 (approximately 35 minutes). Frederick Ashton continues to speak with David Vaughan about his ballet Cupid and Psyche in particular the reasons he thinks it was not a success; The devil's holiday, which he created for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, including an anecdote about Henri Matisse's comments on his choreography; his work Dante sonata; his work The wise virgins including its inspiration in Baroque religious painting; his work The wanderer; his ballet The quest, including the adverse circumstances of its creation; his ballet Symphonic variations including its incorporation of his interest in mysticism [ends abruptly].
Disc 5, August 9, 1973 (approximately 28 minutes). Frederick Ashton speaks with David Vaughan about his choreography for Four saints in three acts beginning with his impressions of Florine Stettheimer; working with dancers who were not classically trained; the influence of his childhood experience with religious ritual, in Peru; his return to Ballet Rambert in England; his work Mephisto valse; the film Escape me never, in which Margot Fonteyn appeared under the name Maria Fontes; an anecdote about the actress Elisabeth Bergner; other works including Valentine's eve and dances for the show The flying trapeze [ends abruptly].
Disc 6, August 9, 1973 (approximately 35 minutes). Frederick Ashton continues to speak with David Vaughan about his choreography beginning with his dances for the show Round about Regent Street including the dance The moth and the flame, which featured Jeanne Devereaux; working with George Black; Ashton's ballet Le baiser de la fée, created for the Vic-Wells Ballet; his dances for the revue Follow the sun, produced by Charles B. Cochran; very briefly, Ashton's work Siesta; his work Apparitions including the costumes and set; his ballet Nocturne including Edwin Sackville-West's role in its creation; Ashton's preference to begin and end his ballets in the same way; his dances for the revue Home and beauty [ends abruptly].
Disc 7, August 10, 1973 (approximately 34 minutes). Frederick Ashton continues to speak with David Vaughan about his choreography including his work Valses nobles et sentimentales; his work for operas including [Jules Massenet's] Manon and [Benjamin Britten's] Albert Herring; his ballet Scènes de ballet including its use of geometric figures, the music, and fact that this ballet is one of his favorite works; his ballet Don Juan; his ballet Cinderella including whether this work should have a concluding pas de deux; briefly, Margot Fonteyn and Moira Shearer; his ballet La rêve de Léonor; his ballet Illuminations including his fascination with [Arthur] Rimbaud; John Martin's insightful review; the significance of the role for the African-American dancer, Arthur Bell, in Illuminations; his work Daphnis [and Chloe]; [ends abruptly].
Disc 8, August 10, 1973 (approximately 31 minutes). Frederick Ashton continues to speak with David Vaughan about his ballet Daphnis and Chloe including the set and costumes, the music, and the theme of love [gap]; his choreography for the [1951] film The Tales of Hoffmann; his ballet Tiresias including Constant [Lambert's] role in its creation and the effect on Lambert of its poor critical reception; his choreography [after Lev Ivanov] for the ballet Casse noisette, in a version created for the Sadler Well's second company [Sadler Well's Theatre Ballet]; his dances for Moira Shearer in the [1953] film The story of three loves; his ballet Picnic at Tintagel including the story's sources; his ballet Vision of Marguerite; his ballet Sylvia [ends abruptly].
Disc 9, August 10, 1973 (approximately 28 minutes). Frederick Ashton continues to speak with David Vaughan about his choreography beginning with his ballet about Madame Butterfly [Entry of Madame Butterfly]; his ballet Romeo and Juliet, created for the Danish Royal Ballet; his revised version of his ballet La Péri including the restrictions on the choreography imposed by the composer's (Paul Dukas) publishers; [gap]; very briefly, his ballet A birthday offering; reason he never did [a full-length version of] Raymonda; more on A birthday offering including the absence of lifts in the pas de deux; the ballet La valse including [Bronislava] Nijinska's version; Ashton's later version, created for La Scala Ballet including Poulenc's praise of the work; his ballet Ondine including his commissioning of the music [ends abruptly].
Disc 10, August 10, 1973 (approximately 36 minutes). Frederick Ashton continues to speak with David Vaughan about his ballet Ondine (very briefly); his ballet Scène d'amour; very briefly, his ballet La fille mal gardée; his ballet Two pigeons [Deux pigeons]; briefly, Poème tragique, the solo he created for Rudolf Nureyev at Margot Fonteyn's request; very briefly, his ballet Persephone; his ballet Marguerite and Armand, in particular his source materials and the criticism that the work was a vehicle [for Fonteyn and Nureyev?]; his ballet The dream; his ballet Monotones [Monotones nos. 1 and 2]; briefly, his ballet Sinfonietta; briefly, his ballet Jazz calendar; his ballet Enigma [variations] including how Julia Trevelyan Oman came to be involved with the production and an anecdote about Elgar's daughter; briefly, his ballet Lament of the waves including the reason for his choice of dancers [Marilyn Trounson and Carl Myers?]; his ballet [The creatures of ]Prometheus [ends abruptly].

Donor/Sponsor

Gift of David Vaughan

Subject

Note

Title supplied by cataloger.
Sound quality ranges from fair (discs 1 and 2) to good (discs 3-10). There are extraneous noises including "tape hiss" and a slight distortion in the recording as well as occasional short gaps. However, the speakers' voices are almost always easily intelligible.
Interview with Frederick Ashton conducted by David Vaughan on July 3 and August 9 and 10, 1973, in Eye (Suffolk, England) as part of a series of interviews used as research for his book Frederick Ashton and his ballets, published by Knopf, 1977. On disc 2, immediately after Ashton speaks about Choura [Alexandra Danilova], an unidentified male voice can be heard requesting Ashton to speak about rehearsing with Rubinstein.

Funding (note)

The conservation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.

Contents

Former summary: Cassette 1-3. Frederick Ashton recorded July 3, Aug. 9 and 10, 1973 (5 hrs.) - Cassette 4. Derek Jarmon recorded Aug. 1973 (40 min.) - Cassette 5, side 1. Alicia Markova recorded Sept. 6, 1973 (53 min.) - Cassette 5, side 2. William Chappell recorded Sept. 12, 1973 (48 min.) - Cassette 6, side 1. Peggy Van Praagh recorded Sept. 20, 1973 (31 min.); John Lanchbery recorded Oct. 9, 1973 (15 min.) - Cassette 6, side 2. Margot Fonteyn recorded Dec. 8, 1973 (39 min.).

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-517 no. 1-10

OCLC

79783176

Author

Ashton, Frederick, 1904-1988, interviewee.

Title

Interview with Frederick Ashton, 1973.

Production

1973

Type of Content

spoken word

Type of Medium

audio

Type of Carrier

audio disc

Event

Recorded by David Vaughan 1973, July 3 and August 9 and 10 Eye (Suffolk, England)

Funding

The conservation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.

Original Version

Original format: three sound cassettes (approximately five hours and 18 minutes); 1 7/8 ips. originally recorded in 1973, July 3 and August 9 and 10; transferred to wav file and compact disc formats in 2013.

Local Note

Former classmark: *MGZTC 3-517

Added Author

Vaughan, David, 1924- interviewer.

Vaughan, David, donor

Found In:

Interviews on Frederick Ashton: Interview with Frederick Ashton, no. 1-10

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-517 no. 1-10

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