Ballet

The Prince of the Pagodas

The Prince of the Pagodas is a ballet to music by Benjamin Britten, first performed in 1956. The Prince of the Pagodas is a ballet created for The Royal Ballet by choreographer John Cranko with music commissioned…

The Prince of the Pagodas
Image: Szalay Zoltán · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Choreography
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Music
Benjamin Britten
Premiere
1956
First performed at
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About the work

The Prince of the Pagodas is a ballet created for The Royal Ballet by choreographer John Cranko with music commissioned from Benjamin Britten. Its premiere took place on 1 January 1957 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, conducted by Britten.

In February 1957 a recording of a slightly cut version of the score was made by Decca with Britten conducting the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

The ballet was revived at the same venue on 7 December 1989 in a new production by Kenneth MacMillan, achieving acclaim for Darcey Bussell's work in a principal role. Another production, set in Japan, was created by David Bintley for the National Ballet of Japan and premiered by that company on 30 October 2011; this was adopted by Birmingham Royal Ballet and danced in 2014 at The Lowry, Salford, Greater Manchester.

From the Wikipedia article “The Prince of the Pagodas”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

More ballets by the composer

All ballets by Benjamin Britten (5) →

Credits from Wikidata (Q2094873), CC0.