A pivotal event in Britten's life was his mid-Fifties round-the-world trip, which included a stop on the island of Bali and a viewing of a classical Japanese noh drama. The Balinese experience seems to have borne almost immediate fruit in the composer's next large-scale project, a three-act ballet, "The Prince of the Pagodas." British commentators seemed unaware until recently that Britten had had previous exposure to Balinese music, at least second-hand. When Britten was resident in the United States, he associated with Canadian-born composer Colin McPhee; one of Britten's first recordings was at one of the piano parts in a two-piano work by McPhee based on Balinese music. (McPhee had lived on that island for several years and wrote several pieces in imitation of Balinese music, most notably a colorful orchestral concerto called "Tabuh-Tabuhan)

In "The Prince of the Pagodas, " the Balinese music effects - fast circular flute patterns, high piano, and bell figurations over more stately ostinatos imitating the deeper tuned gongs of the Balinese gamelan orchestra - represent the remote and enchanted land of Pagodas and its inhabitants.

The story is an unlikely combination of elements: the heroine, Princess Belle Rose, resembles Cinderella in that she is humiliated by her older sister and disfavored by her father, the King. The King himself repeats the mistake of King Lear and confers the power of his kingdom on his unworthy daughter, the mean older sister. The nicer princess is rescued and wafted away to the enchanted Pagoda land by a salamander who seems inspired by the the male half of "Beauty and the Beast; " when Belle Rose shows affection for him despite his outwardly grotesque appearance. This transforms him into a handsome prince, and restores some magical abilities, which he uses to sweep the bad guys away. Like the Nutcracker, the ballet ends with an extended series of character dances and a pas de deux of the Prince and Princess.

This, at any rate, is the scenario to which Britten composed his score. In the 1980s another great British choreographer, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, produced a ballet to a somewhat altered scenario (which called for a little bit of re-positioning of the various numbers in Britten's score. This version considerably strengthens it as a dramatic conception, providing some "back-story" in that Belle Rose is now shown to have already met and fallen in love with the Prince who is transformed into the Salamander. MacMillan particularly strengthens Act 3 by managing to integrate some of the character dances into the drama and delaying the resolution of the dramatic conflict until much later in the evening. (His version is available on video tape and laser disc.)

The music is Britten's most magical, most glittering score. Even though the characters themselves are rather stock figures from the realms of balletic characterization, Britten never fails to find the harmonic or instrumental equivalent of the mot just to delineate their natures, or to sketch the fantastical background of the magical voyage of Belle Rose.

Two or three concert arrangements have been made by others of music from the score. In any version, it richly deserves the same international reputation as the great ballets of Tchaikovsky or Prokofiev.



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