From Wikipedia:
“Les Deux Pigeons is a ballet originally choreographed in two acts by Louis Mérante to music by André Messager. The libretto by Mérante and Henri de Régnier is based on the fable The Two Pigeons by Jean de La Fontaine. The work was first performed at the Paris Opéra on 18 October 1886. The premiere cast included Rosita Mauri as Gourouli and Marie Sanlaville as Pépio.
Frederick Ashton later created a new ballet to Messager’s music under the title The Two Pigeons.
Two live pigeons are used to represent the lovers; they have a theme of their own in the music. Seen together during the first act, while the artist and his lover dance together, the young man’s dissatisfaction and temporary desertion of the girl are represented by one pigeon flying alone off stage before the interval. The painter’s return in the next act is prompted by a pigeon coming to land on his shoulder. When the lovers are reunited both pigeons perch above them on the chair.”
Clive Barnes wrote in The New York Times of June 30, 1974:
“The Two Pigeons” is among Sir Frederick’s major works, although its superificial prettiness may, particularly at first acquaintance, disguise its real beauty. It is a choreographic love poem of the most delicate sort—it was surely no accident that it was first given on St. Valentine’s day 13 years ago — and its charms are most beguiling.
The ballet has been out of the repertory for nearly four years. So its revival this month, immediately on the company’s return from the United States, aroused wide interest. The production’s first performance, when the lovers were danced by Doreen Wells and David Wall (see below), was notably well received…”
Julia Upton 