Summertide

Sir Peter Wright

Premiered October 12, 1976, by The Ballets Russes

The Sarasota Ballet Performing Sir Peter Wright’s Summertide | Photo by Frank Atura

Summertide

Sir Peter Wright’s Summertide is an abstract expression of Mendelssohn’s glorious music from the awakening of a new day, through the languid beauty of an afternoon in the sun, to the exhilaration of a summer’s night.

“Prior to the ballet’s November 2015 American Company Premiere, we had been talking to Sir Peter for quite some time about reviving his ballet Summertide, which he had choreographed in the late seventies for The Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet. We all had thought that there was neither notation nor film of the ballet and, therefore, it would be very difficult to revive. However, Doug Nicholson from the Birmingham Royal Ballet, knowing of our desire to recreate Summertide, researched the archives and, to our delight, he found a film and a partial notation of the ballet. So it was with great joy and honor that Sir Peter allowed Iain and me to bring this wonderful ballet to Sarasota.

“I remember the middle movement being a very beautiful adagio which he created on David Ashmole, me, Nicholas Millington, and Derek Purnell. Working with Sir Peter was always an inspiring experience and I have very fond memories of working with him on his Giselle, both when he staged it for us in The Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and also when he staged his production for Frankfurt Ballet. Similarly, I remember it was a very special time working with Sir Peter on Summertide, which was set to Mendelssohn’s mesmerizing Piano Concerto No 2. I was very excited to work with him on the ballet’s revival, and today so excited for our dancers to have the distinction to work with such a brilliant man.”

“How thrilling it will be to see this lost ballet come back to life once more this Season.” – Margaret Barbieri, Assistant Director of The Sarasota Ballet

Creative Team

Choreographer | Sir Peter Wright

Sir Peter Wright made his debut as a professional dancer with the Ballets Jooss during World War II, and in the 1950s worked with several dance companies, including the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, for which he created his first ballet, A Blue Rose, in 1957. In 1959 he was appointed Ballet Master to the Sadler’s Wells Opera and teacher at The Royal Ballet School.

In 1961 he went to Stuttgart as teacher and Ballet Master to the company being formed by John Cranko. There he choreographed several ballets, including The Mirror Walkers, Namouna, Designs for Dancers and Quintet, and mounted his first production of Giselle, which he subsequently produced for The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and many other international companies. His interpretations of the classics include The Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker and these productions are now featured regularly in opera houses throughout the world. During the 1960s he also established himself as a successful director of television ballets and choreographed various West End musicals and revues.

In 1969 he returned to The Royal Ballet as Associate to the Directors and then became Associate Director. In 1977 he was appointed Director of Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, taking the Company to Birmingham in 1990, when it became Birmingham Royal Ballet. On his retirement in July 1995 he was made Director Laureate of Birmingham Royal Ballet. He received the Evening Standard Award for Ballet in 1981, and in 1985 was made a CBE. In 1990 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from London University, the University of Birmingham conferred on him the title of Special Professor Performance Studies, and he was presented with the Elizabeth II Coronation Award from the Royal Academy of Dance. In 1991 he was made a Fellow of the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music. He also won the 1991 Digital Premier Award, which he used to commission a new ballet for the Company. He was awarded a knighthood in the 1993 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, in 1994 an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Birmingham and the Critics’ Circle Award 1995 for Distinguished Services to the Arts. He is president of the Benesh Institute (Dance Notation) and the Friends of Sadler’s Wells Theatre, and a vice president of The Royal Academy of Dance and the Myasthenia Gravis Association. He is a governor of The Royal Ballet School.

Composer | Felix Mendelssohn

Born in 1809 in Hamburg, Mendelssohn was the son of a wealthy, intellectual Jewish banker who renounced Judaism and brought his children up without religion, fleeing to Berlin in 1811 to escape Napoleon. Recognized as musical prodigies, Felix and his sister Fanny studied music from an early age, and by 17, Felix had performed publicly, published work, composed six string chamber works, his first symphony, and his Midsummer Night’s Dream concert overture. The elderly poet Goethe compared Mendelssohn’s genius favorably with that of the young Mozart, whom he had also known.

Disappointed of a post in Berlin, despite a performance of St Matthew’s Passion, which pioneered the revived appreciation of J S Bach’s work, and following the failure of his first opera in 1827, Mendelssohn divided his time between Düsseldorf and Britain, where his genius was recognized. He also traveled widely to Vienna, Florence, Milan, Rome, and Naples; during these years, he composed his popular Italian and Scottish symphonies and Hebrides Overture. Appointed in 1833 as Director of Music to the City of Düsseldorf, a festival performance of Israel In Egypt revived interest in Handel’s music.

In 1835, as Director of Music in Leipzig, he founded its Conservatoire, which became the heart of his essentially conservative musical tastes, setting him apart from more radical contemporaries such as Liszt, Berlioz, and Wagner, the latter attacking Mendelssohn as a degenerate, Jewish mediocrity in German music, a criticism finding ultimate expression in the banning of his work by the Nazis.

In Britain, Mendelssohn was rapturously acclaimed as the favorite composer of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. His statue was set up in the Crystal Palace, and many of his works premiered, including the oratorio Elijah commissioned by the Birmingham Festival of 1846. After a series of strokes, aged only 38, Mendelssohn died in November 1847 and was buried in Leipzig.

Baptized a Christian at the age of 27, 1837, Mendelssohn married the daughter of a French Protestant clergyman and had five children. He also enjoyed a close relationship with the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind. His musical reputation has steadily risen since the 1960s.

Designer | Dick Bird