Charles Mackerras authority on Mozart's operas and those of Sir Arthur Sullivan. His ballet with John Cranko, "Pineapple Poll", is an arrangement of Sullivan music with a story based on one of W. S. Gilbert's "Bab Ballads". The piece premiered in 1951, soon after the expiration of copyright on Sullivan's music, and continues to be a popular light music favourite in English speaking countries. Mackerras later arranged music by Giuseppe Verdi for the ballet "The Lady and the Fool". He also arranged a suite from John Ireland's score for the 1946 film "The Overlanders", after Ireland's death in 1962. He became principal
Ballet (music) piece to be created by a symphonic composer. Following the initiative of Tchaikovsky, ballet composers were no longer writing simple, easily danceable pieces. The focus of a ballet was no longer solely the dance; the compositions behind the dances began to take an equal prevalence. In the late 19th century, Marius Petipa, French ballet choreographer and dancer, worked with composers such as Cesare Pugni to create ballet masterpieces that boasted both complex dance and complex music. Petipa worked with Tchaikovsky as well, whether through collaboration with Tchaikovsky on his work "The Sleeping Beauty" and "The Nutcracker", or indirectly through revision