Constant Lambert

Notes1Richard Shead, Constant Lambert (London: Simon Publications, 1973); and Andrew Motion, The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit (London: Chatto & Windus, 1986).The concept of living, rather than existing, comes from “The Soul of Man under Socialism” (1890), by Oscar Wilde, whom Lambert resembled in some ways. According to composer Denis ApIvor, Lambert was “probably the best conversationalist since Oscar Wilde” (p. 317). The actual quote from Wilde is, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” See http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/slman10h.htm (accessed June 15, 2014).The Old Vic was a theater run by Lilian Baylis (1874–1937). She first engaged Ninette de Valois as ballet mistress for her productions of Shakespeare's plays. Baylis also bought and refurbished the Sadler's Wells Theatre, which opened in 1931 and became the home of the Vic-Wells Ballet.A performance of The Sleeping Beauty is available on DVD (Showcase Productions/Producers’ Showcase, telecast of December 12, 1955).At its 1931 premiere it was titled A Day in a Southern Port. The ballet was taken into the Vic-Wells repertory in 1935 with the title changed to The Rio Grande.2Meredith Daneman, Margot Fonteyn: A Life (London: Viking Press, 2004).3Constant Lambert, Music Ho!: A Study of Music in Decline (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934).On this subject, see Karen Eliot, “Starved for Beauty: British Ballet and Public Morale during the Second World War,” Dance Chronicle: Studies in Dance and the Related Arts, vol. 31, no. 2 (2008): 175–210

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Ballet · Beauty · Dance · Genius · George (robot) · Literature · Musical · Poetry · Soul · Theology · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy · Theater, Performance, and Music History