Cranko’s Ballet, Card Game is a ballet in ‘three deals.’ It was choreographed by John Cranko and he addapted the Libretto from the original synopsis by Igor Stravinsky and M Malaieff. The music was done by Stravinsky.
Dorothea Zippel did the scenery and costumes and Card Game was first performed by Wurttemberg State Ballet in Stuttgart on the 22 of January 1965.
The original cast were William Dollar, Annabelle Lyon, Leda Anchutina, Ariel Lang (Helen Leitch), and Hortense Kahrklin
Card Game
Synopsis
First Deal:
The main character is the deceitful Joker who fancies himself unbeatable owing to his ability to transform into any card.
The pack of cards is shuffled, dancers passing across the stage behind huge cards. The first hand is revealed as two tens, two sevens and poses disconsolately.
The Joker appears from beneath the huge hand which features on the backdrop. He is anarchy itself and he dismisses the Queen, turning the hand into a full house.
Second Deal:
A straight flush of hearts, from two to six take to the stage. Each dances a variation, and the Joker is unable to infiltrate their secure formations. They drive him away, strong in their unity.
Third Deal:
The Ace, King, Jack and Ten of Spades are aghast to find that their fifth member is a miserable two of diamonds (a row for a female dancer) who is ruining their chance of winning.
The joker appears, crowned and wearing a tutu, as the necessary Queen. He leads the Royal Flush across the stage, and joins in the final melee before the pack is shuffled and he awaits the next deal.
Stravinsky produced the score to Card Game in 1935, in response to a commission from George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein who were planning a Stravinsky Festival for their American Ballet Company.
Stravinsky was then living in Paris and was given complete freedom as to the theme. It was staged by the American Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 1937.
Cranko simplified the original libretto when he mounted the ballet in Stuttgart and produced what is, in essence, a comic ballet exploring the idea of a winning hand at poker.
In the central movement, the straight flush in hearts is given to five ale dancers, each having a demanding variation. The outer movements are rather more frenetic.
Guiding the mayhem is the Joker, a role whose comic possibilities have been notably revealed by Niels Kehlet with the Royal Danish Ballet, Egon Madsen for the Stuttgart Ballet and Stephen Jeffreies for the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet.
Here is a copy of Stravinsky’s music from the ballet.
It is unfortunate that I cannot find a video recording of the ballet, as I would love to see it.
