The Calendar

Ballet in London in the 19th and early 20th centuries was necessarily centred around the London Season. Lasting from mid-May to mid-August, the London Season (rendered more simply as “The Season”) was the period of time in which the upper classes (the nobility and gentry) left their country seats and took up residence in London, ostensibly for the Parliamentary season but in reality to see and be seen. As such, the season included several notable events, Royal Ascot perhaps being the most well-known of these events.

The opera and theatre formed an important part of the social calendar, though in many cases it functioned more as a place to see and be seen than a venue where the onstage art was to be given utmost attention. Covent Garden (or more officially “The Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden”) and Her (later His) Majesty’s Theatre were considered prestigious venues, and following the efforts of William Thompson both theatres presented ballets by the end of the 19th century.

Narrative ballet (the ballets of two or more acts that aimed to present an extended narrative) tended to peak around the Season, for the practical reason that the opera also peaked around the Season and the audience for both performances would broadly be the same.

The ballet season (usually lasting around 12 weeks) began in early June, a little after the start of the London Season. As opera began to be presented in greater frequency, Thompson and later Richard Hague would present one new multi-act ballet per season (two from 1882 and three from 1906), preceded by an opera or an extract of an opera, as previously discussed. Due to the technical and dramatic demands on the lead rôles, especially the première danseuse, performances tended to be less frequent (usually once a week on average) spread across the season. 

Performances started to tail off through mid-August, and the ballet season generally reached its end at the end of the month. From early September was considered “off time,” as the supernumeraries that were engaged for the season were usually let go at the end of August. The troupe would transition from multi-act ballets to one-act diversions, and foreign dancers would often return to the continent to visit friends and family. Other dancers, usually the premières and premiers and sujets, would accept invitations to dance elsewhere, be that at other theatres in London, the United Kingdom or on the continent. 

The “off time” generally lasted until late November, as with December came pantomime season. Though Drury Lane was known for its lavish and spectacular annual Christmas pantomime, Covent Garden did occasionally stage pantomimes, though they did not do as well as those at Drury Lane. Thompson did not much care for pantomimes; several of the dancers in the troupe did, and the likes of Marta Draeger, Sarah Nicholson and Jane Wheaton among others appeared in pantomimes. 

If the pantomime was successful, it could run through to February or even through to March. Those that did not partake in pantomimes would travel, rest, accept engagements elsewhere or stay on at Covent Garden for the off-season, in accordance with the freedoms that their contract dictated. By the spring, usually around March or April, the absent members of the troupe would return to Covent Garden to rehearse for the new season. The length of the rehearsal period varied according to wether Thompson or Hague were creating a new ballet or reviving a well-known one, wether new costumes needed to be made or old ones needed to be refurbished, wether new sets or properties needed to be constructed etc. Two (or three) main ballets would be selected for the season, alongside one to three one-act diversions, chosen from works already in the repertory, works from other theatres or new creations approved by management. This was due to the aim of variety, as Thompson and Mapleson believed that the audience would quickly grow bored if some degree of novelty was not achieved. Rehearsals would proceed until the beginning of the Season in June, when the troupe would transition to its performance season.  

Conventions Relating to Ballet and Opera

Even in the 1840s under Jules Perrot and Cesare Pugni, Her Majesty’s Theatre, like most theatres of the time, only staged ballets, even narrative ones, as diversions following operas. This practice originated in Paris, where, even as ballets grew to the standard of three acts, ballets continued to be presented after opera (or an extract of an opera) well into the 20th century.

Thus, when it came time for James Henry Mapleson (manager of Her Majesty’s Theatre) to engage William Thompson to return ballet to Her Majesty’s, the Parisian convention was preserved, with the 1877 revival of Ondine being preceded by a performance of Bellini’s Norma. This convention was retained up until 1914, when all ballets, however long, were preceded by an opera (if the ballet and/or opera was shorter) or an extract from an opera (if the ballet and/or opera was longer).

Thematic associations between the opera and ballet were not usually very much considered, as the two were treated by critics and managers alike as separate spheres. This naturally did not apply when the ballet was during the opera (e.g. the Walpurgisnacht Ballet in Gounod’s Faust or the Ballet des Nonnes Damnées in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable) as the ballet music was supplied by the opera’s composer and usually (if tangentially) related to the action of the opera.

Diversions

Although narrative ballet, due to its audience, tended to correspond with the London Season, ballet was not absent from the stage for the period between September and May.

In the Parisian tradition of ballet being presented as a diversion after opera, Thompson revived several one act ballets to function as post-opera diversions, able to be easily programmed to lengthen an evening. These diversions were shorter in length (usually not longer than forty minutes) and were usually lighter in character. It is worth acknowledging that the period terminology for such works is inconsistent, as they are alternately referred to as a Divertissement, a Ballet-divertissement, a Ballet comique, a One-act Ballet or simply as a Ballet. For ease of differentiation, we have chosen to refer to them as Diversions, to differentiate from the French term Divertissement, which we have used to refer to suites of dances within a larger ballet of more than one act.

These diversions were given more frequently, and were also given throughout the year, including the periods outside the formal ballet season. They remained in the repertory much longer than narrative ballets, often remaining in the repertory for several years. As such they were constructed to be rather flexible: corps de ballet numbers could be expanded or contracted based on availability of dancers, pas and variations could be substituted and the rôles of the première danseuse and premier danseur could be rotated. Thompson used the diversions to highlight or test certain sujets, featuring them in lead rôles to discern whether a promotion to première danseuse or premier danseur was warranted. 

List of Diversions 

Below is a list of Diversions staged by Thompson’s troupe at Her Majesty’s and later at Covent Garden and their dates in the repertory:

The Vivandiere (Cesare Pugni, 1844)

• 1877-1886
• 1890-1897
• 1901-1914

Diavolina (Cesare Pugni, 1863)

• 1877-1882
• 1889-1892
• 1899-1902

The Enchanted Island (Arthur Sullivan, 1864)

• 1896-1904
• 1912-1914

The Harvest Festival (John Plummer, 1876)

• 1887-1888
• 1895

The Amphitrite (François Bardet, 1887)

• 1887-1893
• 1905-1909

The Two Peasant Girls (John Latham, 1905)

• 1905-1907
• 1912-1914