Tiresias (ballet)

The idea of a ballet on the subject of the Greek seer who changes sex was first considered by Lambert in the 1930s. Lambert started composing the score in Paris, but due to the distractions of other work he had to enlist assistance for the orchestration from younger colleagues, such as Robert Irving, Humphrey Searle, Gordon Jacob, Alan Rawsthorne and Elisabeth Lutyens.^[2]

One of three ballets commissioned for the Festival of Britain, Lambert's score is roughly contemporary with French composer Francis Poulenc's short comic opera Les mamelles de Tirésias first performed at the Opéra-Comique in 1947, on a similar sex-change theme, based on Guillaume Apollinaire's surrealist text of 1917.^[3]

The premiere was conducted by the composer and given in the presence of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.^[2] The critical reception was generally negative, and the composer instructed solicitors to challenge the hostile review by Richard Buckle, which cast aspersions on the entire artistic leadership of the Royal Ballet company.^[4] Lambert died six weeks after its premiere.^[5]

There were 12 London performances in 1951, then ten the following year, seven in 1953, three in 1954 and two in the next season.^[1] The work was performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1951, in Paris (September 1954) as part of an exchange agreement with Opera de Paris,^[6] and in New York in September 1955. The New York Times review, headlined "Superb 'Tiresias'", was stronger than any of the UK reviews.^[7]

Alan Rawsthorne's orchestral Improvisations on a Theme of Constant Lambert (1960) uses the opening fanfare from Tiresias as its theme.^[8]

• Tiresias (male) – Michael Somes
• Tiresias (female) – Margot Fonteyn
• Her lover – John Field
• Neophyte – Margaret Dale
• Snakes – Pauline Clayden, Brian Shaw^[1]
• Zeus - Alfred Rodriguez