Homage to the queens. (News).

The British royal family's attitude to the arts has not always been either particularly enlightened or impassioned. While European monarchies were sowing the seeds of national theaters, ballet and opera companies, and orchestras, the British royals seemed largely interested in painting and architecture.

This lackluster interest seemed evident scanning the list of events planned for the celebration in June 2002 of Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee, marking the fiftieth anniversary of her accession to the throne in 1952. Of the two planned public concerts for the queen, one was full of pop megastars (Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Cliff Richard, et al) and one classical (cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, operatic soprano Kiri Te Kanawa, and others). The latter event included the Swan Lake pas de deux, staged by Sir Anthony Dowell and danced by Zenaida Yanowsky and guest artist Roberto Bolle.

Later, on July 23, The Royal Ballet was to give a special performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in the presence of the Queen and Prince Philip, consisting of bits and pieces from the repertoire and Christopher Wheeldon's new Tryst, which premiered in May and was dedicated to Her Majesty.

Unquestionably, the House of Windsor has shown more interest in the arts than any of its predecessors. The late and much-loved Queen Mother, the widow of Queen Elizabeth's father, George VI, seems have started this trend. She was an enormous ballet fan, and Sir Frederick Ashton was a close friend.

One of the great signs of Britain's reawakening after World War II was the reopening of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, by the then Sadler's Wells Ballet with its new Oliver Messel-designed production of The Sleeping Beauty on February 20, 1946. I well remember my view, from the topmost peanut gallery, of King George VI, the Queen Mother, the future Queen Elizabeth II, and her sister, Princess Margaret, all craning their necks to see from Covent Garden's inhospitably placed Royal Box.

Later the royal family frequently used the ballet to entertain foreign dignitaries. The lesson was not lost on the young Elizabeth and Margaret, who became strong advocates of the arts. Princess Margaret was the principal patron of The Royal Ballet, which acquired its royal status in 1956, until her death. The late Princess Diana was the patron of the English National Ballet until her death, a position now filled by the Duke of Gloucester, the younger brother of the opera-loving Prince Charles. Queen Elizabeth is the current patron of The Royal Ballet and of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society.

Ballet has returned this royal interest in many ways--most interestingly on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth's coronation on June 2, 1953, the year after her accession to the throne. The Sadler's Wells Ballet produced Ashton's lovely and now sadly lost divertissement, Homage to the Queen (led by Margot Fonteyn, Nadia Nerina, Violetta Elvin, and Beryl Grey), while New York City Ballet produced its own coronation tribute, Jerome Robbins's Fanfare, to Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. So what will New York City Ballet do for the Queen's Golden Jubilee? Perhaps it ought to import Tryst by Wheeldon, Royal Ballet-trained and City Ballet's resident choreographer.

--Clive Barnes, C.B.E.