It has been more than four decades since Kenneth MacMillan choreographed Mayerling, one of his most enduring ballets, but his wife Deborah still has vivid memories of the creation. “Total neurosis on the part of Kenneth,” she recalls. “He was always in a state when he was making something.”
Mayerling (1978) is a seamy beast of a ballet centred on Crown Prince Rudolf, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, who died with his teenaged lover in 1889. MacMillan steeped himself in the history and Liszt’s music, but built the choreography in rehearsal. “The only preparation he ever did at home was listening to the scores,” Deborah says. “Over and over and over – he knew the music inside out. I never saw him make diagrams or notes.” Did he test steps at home? “God no, he was sitting watching television. He never got up and did anything.”
