Mayerling (1978)

What is danced

The article gives a full scene-by-scene synopsis rather than a technical description of steps, so specific vocabulary cannot be quoted directly from it. What the synopsis does establish is the ballet's structure of alternating public and private scenes: formal court occasions (the wedding ball, the Emperor's birthday celebrations with a firework display and a performance by Schratt and pianist Alfred Grünfeld) versus a series of intimate encounters between Rudolf and the women in his life — Stephanie, Countess Larisch, Mitzi Kaspar and finally Mary Vetsera — culminating in the murder-suicide at the hunting lodge. This alternation is the ballet's dramatic engine, and each private scene is built around a duet: the wedding-night confrontation with Stephanie ('Rudolf enters and threatens Stephanie with a revolver before taking her forcibly'), the tavern scene with Mitzi Kaspar, and the final descent with Mary at Mayerling ('In a mounting frenzy Rudolf has sex with Mary... He shoots her... he shoots himself').

Context

The ballet was made in 1978 for the Royal Ballet and dedicated to the company's founder choreographer, Frederick Ashton — a dedication the article records directly, signalling continuity between Ashton's era and MacMillan's own full-length narrative ballets for the same house. It sits within MacMillan's run of large-scale dramatic story ballets built on historical or literary source material, following the pattern established by earlier full-evening works for the company.

Staging history

The Royal Ballet has revived Mayerling repeatedly since 1978; the article notes the Royal Opera House holds archive information from twelve performances including the premiere, and that MacMillan himself died of a heart attack backstage at Covent Garden during a 1992 revival of the work. The ballet later travelled beyond the Royal Ballet: Stanislavsky Ballet gave it in 2013 with Sergei Polunin, Houston Ballet became the first North American company to stage it in 2017, and Stuttgart Ballet mounted an entirely new production with sets and costumes by Jürgen Rose in 2019 — the first time the ballet had been given in different designs. Paris Opera Ballet's planned 2020 premiere was postponed to 2022 by the pandemic, Polish National Ballet gave the Polish premiere in 2021, and in 2022 Scottish Ballet presented a shortened adaptation, The Scandal at Mayerling, cutting the Emperor's birthday scene and the royal shoot.

How to watch it

Watch how the choreography differentiates Rudolf's partners — wife, former mistress, courtesan, and finally Mary Vetsera — through distinct qualities of partnering, since the article's synopsis is structured almost entirely around these paired encounters rather than ensemble set pieces. Note also the contrast MacMillan draws between the formal court scenes (the wedding ball, the Emperor's birthday) and the private scenes that follow them, which the synopsis frames as the ballet's real subject.

Structure

1. Act Prologue
   The cemetery at Heiligenkreuz before dawn, framing the story before it unfolds.
2. Act I · Scene 1
   A ball at the Hofburg celebrating Rudolf's marriage to Stephanie; Rudolf flirts with Stephanie's sister, meets Mary Vetsera, and is confronted by his father.
3. Act I · Scene 2
   In the Empress's apartments, Rudolf seeks maternal affection from Empress Elisabeth and is coldly rebuffed.
4. Act I · Scene 3
   In Rudolf's apartments, he threatens Stephanie with a revolver on their wedding night before taking her forcibly.
5. Act II · Scene 1
   In a tavern, Rudolf and Stephanie mix with prostitutes and Hungarian officers; Rudolf proposes a suicide pact to his mistress Mitzi Kaspar.
6. Act II · Scene 2
   Outside the tavern, Countess Larisch presents Mary Vetsera to Rudolf.
7. Act II · Scene 3
   At the Vetsera house, Countess Larisch reads Mary's fortune with cards and takes a letter from Mary for Rudolf.
8. Act II · Scene 4
   At the Hofburg during the Emperor's birthday, political tensions surface and Rudolf sees his mother's affair with 'Bay' Middleton.
9. Act II · Scene 5
   Mary and Rudolf meet in secret for the first time in his apartments.
10. Act III · Scene 1
    During a royal shoot, Rudolf fires wildly and kills a courtier, narrowly missing the Emperor.
11. Act III · Scene 2
    Rudolf and Mary are discovered together by the Empress; Rudolf asks Mary to commit suicide with him.
12. Act III · Scene 3
    At the Mayerling hunting lodge, Rudolf and Mary's final encounter ends in Rudolf shooting Mary and then himself.
13. Act Epilogue
    The cemetery at Heiligenkreuz before dawn, closing the frame.

Structure read from an encyclopaedia article, not from a libretto or score we hold. Confirm against a programme before treating the numbering as authoritative.

Credits

• composer: Franz Liszt

Questions