Mayerling (ballet)

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Mayerling
Choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan
Date of premiere 1978
Place of premiere London
Original ballet company Royal Ballet
Setting Austria
Genre Neoclassical ballet
Type classical ballet
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Mayerling is a ballet created in 1978 by Kenneth MacMillan for the Royal Ballet, London.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria is forced into a marriage of state with Princess Stéphanie of Belgium; Countess Marie Larisch von Moennich, the mistress of whom he is tiring, introduces him to the very young — but hardly inexperienced — Baroness Mary Vetsera who becomes his next mistress; they conclude a suicide pact. The Emperor, Franz Joseph, has a mistress, Katherina Schratt, whom the Empress Elisabeth officially acknowledges, giving her the post of "reader" — and giving a portrait of Schratt to the Emperor as an anniversary present; only his mother, the Archduchess Sophie objects. The Empress, known as "Sisi" since childhood (or "Sissi" as it is Anglicised), has a lover, the British Colonel "Bay" Middleton; only her son, Prince Rudolf, objects. Rudolf in turn has a former mistress, Larisch; a new mistress, Vetsera; and a "regular" mistress, that is to say, a commoner, Mitzi Caspar, variously described as an actress and as a high class prostitute; to all of whom the Emperor objects. Mitzi is a police informer and conducting an affair at the same time with the chief of police. Which leaves Bratfisch, Rudolf's loyal private cab driver and a popular entertainer -- apparently at a "notorious tavern". The ballet is framed with scenes of the Baroness Vetsera's uncles bearing her corpse to her final resting place, Heiligenkreuz Abbey.

[edit] New York City premiere, the Royal Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, April 1983

  • Sandra Conley Empress Elisabeth
  • Wayne Eagling Crown Prince Rudolf

[edit] Revivals

[edit] Royal Ballet, April 2007

[edit] Saturday, April 7, open rehearsal

  • Tamara Rojo Baroness Mary Vetsera
  • Martin Harvey Crown Prince Rudolf

[edit] Monday, April 9, matinee

[edit] Monday, April 9, evening

  • Leanne Benjamin Baroness Mary Vetsera
  • Mara Galeazzi Countess Marie Larisch
  • Gemma Bond Princess Stéphanie
  • Cindy Jourdain Empress Elisabeth
  • Laura Morera Mitzi Caspar
  • Carlos Acosta Crown Prince Rudolf
  • Steven McRae Bratfisch

[edit] Tuesday, April 10, evening

* substitute for Alexandra Ansanelli

[edit] Trivia

MacMillan died of a heart attack October 29, 1992, backstage at Covent Garden at a revival of Mayerling (the Birmingham Royal Ballet was dancing his Romeo and Juliet in Birmingham.)

[edit] Notes


[edit] External links

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