The Prince of the Pagodas
Encyclopedia
The Prince of the Pagodas is a ballet created for The Royal Ballet in 1957, by choreographer John Cranko
, with music commissioned from Benjamin Britten
. The ballet was later revived in a new production by Kenneth MacMillan
in 1989, achieving widespread acclaim for Darcey Bussell
's premiere in a principal role. The world premiere of Cranko's original production took place on January 1, 1957, at the Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
, London
, with MacMillan's production premiering at the same venue on December 7, 1989. A recording of the music was produced with Britten conducting the orchestra of the Royal Opera House.
and has some parallels to the Shakespeare
play King Lear
. In The Prince of the Pagodas, an Emperor must decide which of his two daughters should inherit the throne, and he chooses the evil older sister Belle Epine over the young and beautiful Belle Rose. Belle Rose is taken by magical flying frogs to Pagoda Land, and meets the Prince of Pagoda Land disguised as the Salamander. Belle Rose and the Prince return to the land of her
father and confront her evil sister, in the end driving her away .
tuning on Western instruments. Britten was first exposed to gamelan music by Canadian composer Colin McPhee
, who had lived in Bali
from 1931-38 . Britten utilized a “pseudo-gamelan” sound in several of his works, including Paul
Bunyan
and Peter Grimes
, after meeting McPhee. Britten also performed works of other
composers which included references to gamelan music, such as Francis Poulenc
’s Concerto for two pianos, which Britten performed with Poulenc in 1945 and again in 1955, after he had agreed to write a ballet with Cranko .
However, perhaps the most influential experience in gamelan music for Britten was a two-week vacation he took in Bali in 1956. He performed a thorough study of gamelan music while he was there and immediately began incorporating Balinese musical ideas into The Prince of the Pagodas. For example, in the Prelude of the ballet, the Salamander Prince theme is played by several instruments in a layered texture, where the instruments are playing in different keys and start the theme at slightly different times in a technique called polyphonic stratification, which is typical of Balinese gamelan music .
Another way in which Britten achieves a gamelan sound is through his instrumentation. He calls for a variety of percussion instruments in the score, including gong
, cymbals, bells
, xylophone
, and vibraphone
, and uses these Western percussion instruments in different ways to produce a gamelan sound. For instance, Britten combines the sounds of an orchestral gong and a double bass
to represent the Balinese colotomic gong .
The pentatonic scale
, a signature of Oriental music in general, makes frequent appearances in the ballet as well, especially in trumpet fanfares which occur throughout the piece . The interval of the major second appears throughout Britten’s gamelan passages, which is normally considered dissonant in Western music but arises from the alternate scales and tunings of gamelan style music .
Britten uses the gamelan sound in his music to symbolize the magical pagodas of Pagoda Land, where the main character, the princess Belle Rose, is taken after a confrontation with her father, the emperor, and her evil sister, Belle Epine. When Belle Rose enters Pagoda Land, she is greeted with gamelan music. Similarly, when the Salamander enters the scene, he is portrayed alongside softer gamelan music to produce a mystical air. The Salamander is revealed to be the human Prince of Pagodaland, and when he changes to a human form, the gamelan music is replaced with more traditional Western orchestral music .
This production was dedicated to Imogen Holst
and Ninette de Valois
This production was dedicated to dedicated to Margot Fonteyn
John Cranko
John Cyril Cranko was a choreographer with the Sadler's Wells Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet....
, with music commissioned from Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
. The ballet was later revived in a new production by Kenneth MacMillan
Kenneth MacMillan
Sir Kenneth MacMillan was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977.-Early years:...
in 1989, achieving widespread acclaim for Darcey Bussell
Darcey Bussell
Darcey Andrea Bussell CBE is a retired English ballerina. Trained at the Arts Educational School and the Royal Ballet School, she was later employed by the Royal Ballet, where she was promoted to the rank of Principal Dancer and would become recognised as one of the greatest English ballerinas of...
's premiere in a principal role. The world premiere of Cranko's original production took place on January 1, 1957, at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, with MacMillan's production premiering at the same venue on December 7, 1989. A recording of the music was produced with Britten conducting the orchestra of the Royal Opera House.
Plot synopsis
The plot of The Prince of the Pagodas was written by John CrankoJohn Cranko
John Cyril Cranko was a choreographer with the Sadler's Wells Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet....
and has some parallels to the Shakespeare
play King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
. In The Prince of the Pagodas, an Emperor must decide which of his two daughters should inherit the throne, and he chooses the evil older sister Belle Epine over the young and beautiful Belle Rose. Belle Rose is taken by magical flying frogs to Pagoda Land, and meets the Prince of Pagoda Land disguised as the Salamander. Belle Rose and the Prince return to the land of her
father and confront her evil sister, in the end driving her away .
Influence of Balinese gamelan on the music
Britten incorporated many elements of Balinese gamelan music into the score of The Prince of the Pagodas, including simulating the seven-tone pelogPelog
Pelog is one of the two essential scales of gamelan music native to Bali and Java, in Indonesia. The other scale commonly used is called slendro. Pelog has seven notes, but many gamelan ensembles only have keys for five of the pitches...
tuning on Western instruments. Britten was first exposed to gamelan music by Canadian composer Colin McPhee
Colin McPhee
Colin McPhee was a Canadian composer and musicologist. He is primarily known for being the first Western composer to make an ethnomusicological study of Bali, and for the quality of that work...
, who had lived in Bali
Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
from 1931-38 . Britten utilized a “pseudo-gamelan” sound in several of his works, including Paul
Bunyan
Paul Bunyan (operetta)
Paul Bunyan is an operetta in two acts and a prologue composed by Benjamin Britten to a libretto by W. H. Auden. It premiered at Columbia University on May 5, 1941 to largely negative reviews, and Britten revised it in 1976...
and Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough...
, after meeting McPhee. Britten also performed works of other
composers which included references to gamelan music, such as Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
’s Concerto for two pianos, which Britten performed with Poulenc in 1945 and again in 1955, after he had agreed to write a ballet with Cranko .
However, perhaps the most influential experience in gamelan music for Britten was a two-week vacation he took in Bali in 1956. He performed a thorough study of gamelan music while he was there and immediately began incorporating Balinese musical ideas into The Prince of the Pagodas. For example, in the Prelude of the ballet, the Salamander Prince theme is played by several instruments in a layered texture, where the instruments are playing in different keys and start the theme at slightly different times in a technique called polyphonic stratification, which is typical of Balinese gamelan music .
Another way in which Britten achieves a gamelan sound is through his instrumentation. He calls for a variety of percussion instruments in the score, including gong
Gong
A gong is an East and South East Asian musical percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet....
, cymbals, bells
Bell (instrument)
A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...
, xylophone
Xylophone
The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
, and vibraphone
Vibraphone
The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
, and uses these Western percussion instruments in different ways to produce a gamelan sound. For instance, Britten combines the sounds of an orchestral gong and a double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
to represent the Balinese colotomic gong .
The pentatonic scale
Pentatonic scale
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave in contrast to a heptatonic scale such as the major scale and minor scale...
, a signature of Oriental music in general, makes frequent appearances in the ballet as well, especially in trumpet fanfares which occur throughout the piece . The interval of the major second appears throughout Britten’s gamelan passages, which is normally considered dissonant in Western music but arises from the alternate scales and tunings of gamelan style music .
Britten uses the gamelan sound in his music to symbolize the magical pagodas of Pagoda Land, where the main character, the princess Belle Rose, is taken after a confrontation with her father, the emperor, and her evil sister, Belle Epine. When Belle Rose enters Pagoda Land, she is greeted with gamelan music. Similarly, when the Salamander enters the scene, he is portrayed alongside softer gamelan music to produce a mystical air. The Salamander is revealed to be the human Prince of Pagodaland, and when he changes to a human form, the gamelan music is replaced with more traditional Western orchestral music .
Cranko
- Production premiere: 1 January 1957
- Choreographer: John CrankoJohn CrankoJohn Cyril Cranko was a choreographer with the Sadler's Wells Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet....
- Composer: Benjamin BrittenBenjamin BrittenEdward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
- Set designer: John PiperJohn Piper (artist)John Egerton Christmas Piper, CH was a 20th-century English painter and printmaker. For much of his life he lived at Fawley Bottom in Buckinghamshire, near Henley-on-Thames.-Life:...
- Costume designer: Desmond Heeley
- Lighting designer: William Bundy
This production was dedicated to Imogen Holst
Imogen Holst
Imogen Clare Holst, CBE was a British composer and conductor, and sole child of composer Gustav Holst.Imogen Holst was brought up in west London and educated at St Paul's Girls' School, where her father was director of music...
and Ninette de Valois
Ninette de Valois
Dame Ninette de Valois, OM, CH, DBE, FRAD, FISTD was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer and director of classical ballet...
Macmillan
- Production premiere: 7 December 1989
- Choreographer: Kenneth MacMillanKenneth MacMillanSir Kenneth MacMillan was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977.-Early years:...
- Composer: Benjamin BrittenBenjamin BrittenEdward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
- Scenario: Colin ThubronColin ThubronColin Gerald Dryden Thubron, CBE is a British travel writer and novelist.In 2008, The Times ranked him 45th on their list of the 50 greatest postwar British writers. He is a contributor to The New York Review of Books, The Times, The Times Literary Supplement and The New York Times. His books...
- Set designer: Nicholas GeorgiadisNicholas GeorgiadisNicholas Georgiadis CBE was a painter, stage and costume designer, renowned for his work in ballet, particularly in collaboration with Kenneth MacMillan.- Early life :...
- Costume designer: Nicholas GeorgiadisNicholas GeorgiadisNicholas Georgiadis CBE was a painter, stage and costume designer, renowned for his work in ballet, particularly in collaboration with Kenneth MacMillan.- Early life :...
- Lighting designer: John B Read
This production was dedicated to dedicated to Margot Fonteyn
Margot Fonteyn
Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE , was an English ballerina of the 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time...