Mark Morris Dance Group
L'Allegro at 20
Here are facts (some fun, others random) on the creation of the piece and a glimpse into the history of Mark Morris' seminal masterwork.
THE CREATIVE TIMELINE
1631 - John Milton publishes "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso", paired poems which depict opposing but complementary states of mind – L’Allegro is the active or cheerful mind, Il Penseroso is the melancholic or contemplative mind.
1740 - George Frideric Handel and his librettist Charles Jennens adapt these poems to create a dialogue between them and add a third part, "Il Moderato," representing the voice of moderation and reason.
1816 - William Blake creates 12 watercolors to illustrate Milton's poems. Each design is accompanied by a separate inscribed sheet on which Blake wrote, in his own hand, a brief title and quotations of the lines illustrated, to which Blake added his own comments on the motifs pictured.
1988 - Mark Morris, inspired by and drawing upon each of his predecessors, created L’Allegro for 24 dancers, orchestra, chorus and vocal soloists – the most ambitious piece he had yet made.
World Premiere Program Cover
In the spring of 1988, Mark Morris accepted the position of Director of Dance for the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, succeeding Maurice Béjart who had held the post for nearly 30 years. Morris decided to present as his first work at Belgium's national opera house a dance set to Handel's oratorio, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato. He had originally planned to create a work to this music in a combined effort with Boston Ballet and his Mark Morris Dance Group, but that production had recently fallen through. Instead, following three months of creation time, Morris premiered L'Allegro on his own 24-member Monnaie Dance Group Mark Morris on November 23, 1988. The work is considered to be one of the greatest dance achievements of the 20th century.