Checkmate / The Rake's Progress (Sadler's Wells) (DVD)

Two masterpieces of twentieth-century British ballet danced by the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet. Created for the Vic-Wells Ballet in the 1930s by founder-choreographer Ninette de Valois, Checkmate and The Rake's Progress remain cornerstones of the British ballet repertoire. The scores, by Sir Arthur Bliss and Gavin Gordon, respectively, are here performed by the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet Orchestra under the direction of Barry Wordsworth. Filmed in 1982 at Sadler's Wells Theater, London.
Color, 87 minutes, 4:3, All regions

CHECKMATE
A Ballet in One Act with Prologue
Music: Sir Arthur Bliss
Choreography: Dame Ninette de Valois

Cast
The Black Queen: Margaret Barbieri
The Red Knight: David Ashmole
The Red King: David Bintley
The Red Queen: Sherilyn Kennedy
Second Red Knight: Michael Corder
First Black Knight: Roland Price
Second Black Knight: Nicholas Millington

THE RAKE’S PROGRESS
A Ballet in Six Scenes
Music and Scenario: Gavin Gordon
Choreography: Dame Ninette de Valois

Cast
The Rake: David Morse
The Betrayed Girl: Nicola Katrak
The Dancing Master: Kim Reeder
Man with a Rope: David Bintley
The Rake’s Friend/A Card Player: Michael Corder
Betrayed Girl’s Mother: Susan Crow
The Dancer: Chenca Williams
The Ballad Singer: Siobhan Stanley
Music & Scenario by Gavin Gordon

Dancers of the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet
Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet Orchestra
Barry Wordsworth, conductor