The Taming of the Shrew (ballet)

The Taming of the Shrew is a full-length ballet by John Cranko, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name. It was premiered by the Stuttgart Ballet in March 1969, and was the last of Cranko's three full-length works for the company.

In 1969, John Percival, critic for The Times wrote, "I have been trying to think when – or whether – I ever laughed so much at a ballet as I did at John Cranko's The Taming of the Shrew … Perhaps the subject sounds an unlikely one for dancing, but to think so is to leave out of account Cranko's absolute genius for comic invention."^[1]

In the original production Marcia Haydée and Richard Cragun were the protagonists, Kate and Petruchio. The music was arranged by Kurt-Heinz Stolze from keyboard works by Domenico Scarlatti.^[1]

The work has been taken up by ballet companies abroad, including the Royal Ballet, which first gave it at the Royal Opera House in February 1977.^[2]

Notes and references

Notes

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1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Percival, John. "Wildly funny ballet on 'The Shrew'", The Times, 7 May 1969, p. 13
2. ↑ "The Taming of the Shrew", Royal Opera House Performance Database, retrieved 24 March 2015