Australia Dancing - Turquoisette, or A Study in Blue (1893

Turquoisette, or A Study in Blue (1893 - )

Phillips, Lovell: Turquoisette: marzurka, 1890s

Turquoisette, or A Study in Blue was the first performance of a classical ballet conceived and produced in Australia. Choreographed by Rosalie Phillipini, as a plotless grand divertissement in one act, the work was accompanied by music arranged and partly composed by Leon Caron, house conductor for Williamson and Musgrove. Turquoisette was presented in support of three operas Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and L'amico Fritz, in the 1893 Williamson and Musgrove Italian Grand Opera.

Turquoisette premiered at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, on 9 September 1893. The performance was lauded in the press, with an a critic in the Australasian commenting on the opening night:

'The ballet "Turquoisette, or a Study in Blue" which succeeds the opera, is perhaps the most brilliant spectacle of its kind that has ever been seen on the Australian stage. Of costumes, groupings, and graceful attitudes there seems to be an endless variety, and the dancing of Mdlle. Catherine Bartho and Signorina Enrichetta D'Argo found plentiful admirers.'

Of the two leading dancers, Catherine Bartho and Enrichetta D'Argo, the Australasian also noted:

'They are of attractive appearance, and in point of grace, deftness, and skill no exponents of their art who have yet visited Australia can be said to approach them. Their steps fall with the softness of snow-flakes on a swan's back. Their execution of the most difficult poses and pirouettes is accomplished with an ease which is only attained by the most finished dancers.'

The performance was accompanied by both orchestra and voice. The rhythmic cadence of the music, which is for the most part of a plaintive melodiousness, governs all the evolutions, which have a soft flowing sequence.'

Turquoisette and each of the operas continued to play to capacity houses in Melbourne until 19 October, when the entire company journeyed by train to Adelaide, where they opened at the Theatre Royal on 21 October for a short season of twelve performances, before travelling to Sydney.

Bibliography:

'The Theatres &c.', The Australasian, September 16, 1893; Queen Bee, 'Italian Opera', The Australasian, September 16, 1893; 'The Theatres &c.', The Australasian, 23 December, 1893; Edward Pask, Enter the Colonies Dancing, pp. 86-87; Cargher, John, Opera and Ballet in Australia (Stanmore, NSW: Cassell Australia), p. 207; and Edward H. Pask, 'Ballet', Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia (Sydney: Currency House in association with Currency Press, 2003), p. 71-72.

See also: Bartho, Catherine ; J. C. Williamson Ltd.

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