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"
La Perle (ballet) La Perle (ballet) La Perle (en. "The Pearl") (ru. «Жемчужина» or «Прелестная жемчужина»; "Zhemchuzhina" or "Prelestnaya Zhemchuzhina") (en. "Pearl" or "Pretty Pearl") is a "ballet-divertissement" in one act, with libretto and choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Riccardo Drigo. "La Perle" was created by Marius Petipa—the renowned "Premier maître de ballet" of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres—and the composer Riccardo Drigo—principal conductor of ballet and Italian opera performances for the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres and director of music to the Imperial Ballet—as a lavish piece d'occasion for the gala given at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in celebration