Margot Fonteyn and me
It was only this evening that I got around to watching a recording of the BBC 4 drama-documentary on the life of British ballerina Margot Fonteyn that was broadcast on Monday. It starred Anne-Marie Duff as Fonteyn.
I always remember that I once saw Fonteyn perform but I couldn’t recall the details so I looked them up in my diary. It was 27 October 1967 when I went to the Opera House in Manchester to see Fonteyn – then 48 but at the height of her fame – dance Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake”. I still remember the intake of breath from the audience when she first appeared on the stage and, in my diary, I wrote: “I loved very second of it and the whole performance was indescribably wonderful”.
It was the first time that I had been to a ballet – but I’ve been many times since.