John Cranko resident choreographer for Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet's 1950–51 season. For the company's Festival of Britain season in 1951 Cranko choreographed the comic ballet "Pineapple Poll", to the music of Arthur Sullivan (newly out of copyright) arranged by the conductor Charles Mackerras. Another collaboration with Mackerras followed in 1954 with "The Lady and the Fool", to music by Verdi. In January 1954 Sadler's Wells Ballet announced that Cranko was collaborating with Benjamin Britten to create a ballet. Cranko devised a draft scenario for a work he originally called "The Green Serpent", fusing elements drawn from "King Lear", "Beauty and the Beast"
Carmen Suite (ballet) Khachaturian, the composer of the ballets "Gayane" and "Spartacus", but "things never went beyond talking." Shchedrin added that Khachaturian told Plisetskaya, "Why you need me? You have a composer at home, ask him!" It was then, he said, that she asked him to write the music. In late 1966, the Ballet Nacional de Cuba stopped in Moscow during its Soviet tour. Plisetskaya's mother attended its performances and encouraged her to go. Eventually, Plisetskaya approached the company's choreographer, Alberto Alonso and told him of her desire for a Carmen ballet. Alonso developed the libretto and worked with Ballet Nacional dancers on