'LA COMMEDIA UMANA'
SIR,—I have just read your ballet critic's article ('Inhuman Comedy') on Massine's La Commedia Umana, given at the Edinburgh Festival in Septem- ber—an article which seems to me sterile and
ill-
mannered in effect, presumptuously false in content.
Mr. Barnes assumes (a) that the ballet in question was regarded by myself and the Festival Society as 'the Festival's major contribution to the art of ballet,' (b) that no one 'suggested a different reper- tory to Massine' and (c) therefore that all concerned were wholly contented with the choice and per- formance.
Had Mr. Barnes cared to ask me I could have told him (a) that the ballet was selected in January (when the. Festival programme is printed) before it was even in rehearsal, (b) that I spent some time in Nervi discussing with Massinc the possibilities of replacing it, (c) that we eventually agreed to retain it—partly because Massine wished to see it given in Edinburgh, partly because tickets had already been sold for the four performances—and (Th that Massine, if I may speak for him, was well aware of its deficiencies.
I would guess Mr. Barnes to be a fraction more than half of M. Massine's age. He has not, so far as I know, any professional experience as a dancer, choreographer or administrator. He is entitled to his opinions; but he has no right either to bad manners or to suppositions unsupported by readily accessible fact.--Yours faithfully,
ROBERT PONSONBY Ex-Artistic Director, Edinburgh Festival Apartment 6g, 60 Sutton Place South,
New York 22, NY
[Clive Barnes writes: 'If La Commedia Umana was not "the Festival's major contribution to the art of ballet" what, may I ask, was? The other dance attractions were the Royal' Ballet in their standard repertory, together with a small Indian troupe and a couple of Spanish dancers, all appearing in Edin- burgh immediately before coming on to London. The only new ballet produced by Massine at Edin- • burgh was the fur-length La Commedia Untana. The , fact that apparently neither Mr. Ponsonby nor, if Mr. Ponsonby can speak for him, Mr. Massinc seems to have thought much of it is irrelevant. 'I did not say no one suggested a different repertory to Massinc." On the contrary, I wrote: "I personally find it difficult to believe that had someone in the Festival Administration actually seen this immensely expensive plaything before ordering it, he would not have suggested a different repertory to Massine." Although Mr. Ponsonby omits to tell us whether or not he did see the ballet in perfor- mance before Edinburgh, I am interested to hear that he nevertheless wanted to replace it.
'Mr. Ponsonby has pot, so far as I know, any professional experience as a critic. If he had. I think he would better appreciate the difference betucen a critic and a public relations man. The critic repre-
sents the audience. It is not his business to run after managements asking them for their excuses, or to listen to tales of woe about their printing difficulties. and then to write telling the world that "this work is anyone's fault except the management's." Editor, Spectator.]
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