La Fin du jour

La Fin du jour is a one-act ballet made by Kenneth MacMillan in 1979 for the Royal Ballet, set to Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. It belongs to the small group of MacMillan's plotless or atmosphere-driven works built directly onto a concert score rather than a narrative libretto, in the vein of his other concerto ballets of the period.

What is danced

The article does not describe the choreography itself — no step vocabulary, holds, or set pieces are named. What it does give is the ballet's governing idea in MacMillan's own words: the piece is built around the visual and social manners of the 1930s, drawing its designs and choreography from period fashion plates, for a leading quartet (two principal couples) danced to the three movements of Ravel's concerto with solo piano and orchestra. Anyone approaching this work for staging or reconstruction should treat the movement material as an open question the article leaves unanswered, and look to archival film, Royal Ballet répétiteurs, or MacMillan scholarship rather than this source for actual step content.

Context

By 1979 MacMillan was an established Royal Ballet choreographer whose output included both large narrative ballets and shorter, more abstract or atmosphere pieces built on existing concert music. La Fin du jour sits in the latter mode: rather than adapting a story, it stages a mood and a vanished social world — the article's own framing is that the choreography and Ian Spurling's designs recreate 'an era and a way of life shattered forever by the Second World War,' making the ballet as much a period portrait as a dance work in the usual narrative sense.

Staging history

The article records only the creation and premiere: Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 15 March 1979, with Merle Park, Jennifer Penney, Julian Hosking and Wayne Eagling in the leading roles, Philip Gammon as solo pianist, Ashley Lawrence conducting, and designs by Ian Spurling. It gives no information on later revivals, companies, or casts beyond this original production.

How to watch it

Watch for the interplay of two principal couples against Ravel's three-movement concerto, since the piece is structured by the music's own shifts in tempo and mood rather than by a scene-by-scene story. The interest, per MacMillan's own description, is in period manner and design as much as in step invention — attend to how the choreography and Spurling's costuming evoke 1930s elegance, and to the tonal shift the piece is meant to carry toward the war that ended that world.

Credits

composer: Maurice Ravel

Related works

Other staged works in the register connected to this one by author or lineage.

Questions

Is La Fin du jour a story ballet?

No. The article gives no synopsis or plot; MacMillan describes it as drawing on the style and fashion plates of the 1930s rather than telling a story, built directly onto Ravel's Piano Concerto in G.

Who danced the premiere?

Merle Park, Jennifer Penney, Julian Hosking and Wayne Eagling danced the leading roles at the first performance on 15 March 1979 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

What music is used?

Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G (1931), performed live with a solo pianist — Philip Gammon at the premiere — and orchestra under Ashley Lawrence.

Who designed the production?

Ian Spurling designed the sets and costumes, evoking 1930s fashion-plate style to match MacMillan's choreographic concept.

This entry was written from “La Fin du jour (ballet)” on English Wikipedia (revision 1271645494), used under CC BY-SA 4.0. The link points at the exact revision this text was written from, so it shows the words we actually used rather than whatever the article says today. Credits and premiere data come from Wikidata (CC0), cited per field.

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