Excellent News...

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF
MONICA MASON AS DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL BALLET

Sir Colin Southgate, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Royal Opera House, announced today the appointment of Monica Mason as the Director of The Royal Ballet with immediate effect. Since the departure of Ross Stretton, in September 2002, she has been Acting Director for the Company.

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Monica Mason came to England at the age of 14, training at the Nesta Brooking School of Ballet and the Royal Ballet School. She joined The Royal Ballet in 1958 when she was only 16, the youngest member of the Company at that time. After a brief period in the corps de ballet, she was selected by Kenneth MacMillan to create the demanding role of the Chosen Maiden in The Rite of Spring, which was premiered in 1962. One year later she was appointed Soloist. She became a Principal in 1968.

Her repertory included purely classical roles including Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, the title role in Giselle, the Prelude and Mazurka in Les Sylphides and the leading role in Raymonda Act III as well as dramatic parts such as the Hostess in Les Biches and the Black Queen in Checkmate. In 1974 and 1975 Kenneth MacMillan created four roles for her: Lescaut's Mistress in Manon, Calliope Rag in Elite Syncopations, Summer in The Four Seasons and the Midwife in Rituals.

A highly praised interpreter of the leading roles in MacMillan's Song of the Earth, Nijinska's Les Noces and Nureyev's `Kingdom of the Shades scene from La Bayadère, she was in the first performances by The Royal Ballet of Hans van Manen's Adagio Hammerklavier, Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering and In the Night, Balanchine's Liebeslieder Walzer and Tudor's Dark Elegies. Other major roles have included the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, Empress Elisabeth and Mitzi Caspar in MacMillan's Mayerling; the title role in The Firebird; Variation I in Frederick Ashton's Birthday Offering, the Fairy Godmother and Winter Fairy in Cinderella and Lady Elgar in Enigma Variations; and the Queen of Denmark in Helpmann's Hamlet. In 1980 she created a leading role in David Bintley's Adieu, and, in 1981, Nursey in Kenneth MacMillan's Isadora. After she stopped dancing ballerina roles, she continued to appear regularly in mime roles such as Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty and Lady Capulet in MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet and she recently created the role of Mrs Grose in William Tuckett’s The Turn of the Screw.

In 1980 Monica Mason was appointed Répétiteur to Kenneth MacMillan followed in 1984 by her appointment as Principal Répétiteur to The Royal Ballet. In January 1991, after a four year period of assisting Anthony Dowell, she became Assistant Director.

In July 1996, under the auspices of Roehampton Institute London, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Surrey. She was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year Honours List.

Commenting on the appointment, Sir Colin Southgate said, “The Board is delighted that
Monica Mason has agreed to take up the reins as Director of The Royal Ballet. She has already impressed us with the swiftness with which she restored calm to the Company and the changes that she has introduced to the repertory this season. I personally look forward to her exciting plans for the future.”

Tony Hall, Executive Director of the Royal Opera House, added, “I am delighted with Monica Mason’s appointment as Director of The Royal Ballet. She has made an enormous contribution to the Company as a dancer, a coach and in particular through her work as custodian of the Kenneth MacMillan repertory. With such extensive knowledge and experience of the Company, she is perfectly placed to take The Royal Ballet through the next period of its history until the summer of 2007. I am thrilled to be working with Monica”

Monica Mason said, “I am deeply honoured to be appointed Director of this great Company. Over the last three months I have been overwhelmed by the support given to me by everybody at the Royal Opera House and the dance community at large. I am very excited at the prospect of leading the Company over the next four and a half years, during which we will celebrate the Company’s 75th Birthday.”

ROH Press Release

Excellent news. She deserves our enthusiastic best wishes. Recently she came front of curtain at the Royal Opera House to announce a major cast change. She began "I am Monica Mason and I am the acting director of the Royal Ballet." The audience burst into loud applause. It echoed the dancers' applause on the day they were told that she would be their acting director.

At the recent MacMillan conference, Deborah, the choreographer's widow referred to her as "St Monica". Canonisation, though well merited, may be a little premature, and we would like to keep her a while. Dame Monica sounds good though.

>At the recent MacMillan conference, Deborah,
>the choreographer's widow referred to
>her as "St Monica". Canonisation,
>though well merited, may be
>a little premature, and we
>would like to keep her
>a while. Dame Monica sounds
>good though.

Probably too late for the New Year's honours unless it was already on the cards, but I think lobbying will take place.

A Director who really knows the company and it's heritage inside out.

It should also be pointed out that (Dame) Monica Mason attends perfomances on an amazingly regular basis, such is her commitment to all aspects of the staging -nearly knocked her over hastily coming down the stairs last month! (Never saw the previous director at performances at all during his appointment...)

Congratulations to her, immensely reassuring for those of us who care about the RB!!

And without wishing to detract from this great news - there was no other candidate!

Perhaps there was no need!

My husband and I (oh dear!) were visiting a friend at the stage door of an ENB performance at the Coliseum at the beginning of this year, and hubby recognized Monica and said to her 'my wife has you on video as Queen of the Wilis with Nureyev and Seymour and the Bavarian State Ballet' and she just giggled and said what a long time ago that was! I was there when she came on stage the other week at Mayerling and had to announce the cast change...as Brendan said, we all applauded her loud and strong...I think it was pretty clear that we wanted the word 'acting' taken out of her job title, so well done, and good luck Monica!

At today's first performance of Nutcracker she again came out to explain cast changes (Cope injured, Bussell in bed with flu, Yanowsky -who was down to dance the Rose Fairy - had woken up this morning with an eye infection, and was being replaced by Nuñez). As she introduced herself as "Director" of the Royal Ballet it was heart warming to hear her being greeted with loud cheers as well as applause!

"They" should have asked "us" (Ballet.co.posters) in the first place. We - the true experts! - would have sorted out their problems for them.

......an enigmatic ending to Judith Mackrell's comments quoted in the interview with Monica Mason!

As one of those with fine memories of watching Monica Mason on stage at the ROH during the 60's, I'm looking forward to seeing how the company develops under its new leadership. There have been times in the past when the RB has had a raw deal at the ROH, and I'm sure that those involved in machinations at a high level will find Monica Mason a feisty lady to deal with when she needs to fight her corner on behalf of the RB - and all power to her elbow!

An 'adventurous traditionalist' may well be just what the situation demands, aware of the company's identity but outward looking at the same time. The mention of Ninette de Valois is also apposite: we tend now to focus only upon the revered memory of an old lady with a certain aura, but read accounts of the RB's founder in her younger days and discover just how adventurous she was.

The appointment of Monica Mason's assistant is an important one for the ROH management. There is the chance of providing the RB with the services of someone who can complement the new Director, probably with experience of another company, but equally aware of the RB's identity and dedicated to building on its traditions.

Let's hope the ROH management can get it right this time. With Monica Mason on hand, the management were handed the appointment of a new Artistic Director on a plate. The appointment of her Assistant will be a harder task; let's hope that past mistakes have been taken on board.

Meanwhile, here's to 2003 (and beyond), with a far brighter outlook for the RB in prospect than seemed remotely possible a year ago.