Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew has inspired a string of stage and film adaptations. The most important ballet adaptations include Maurice Béjart’s 1954 choreography set to the music of Scarlatti, the Czech Vera Untermüllerov.’s 1961 work based on the melodies of a Czech composer, and John Cranko’s 1961 version, likewise based on the music of Scarlatti.
This series continued in 1994 with László Seregi, who choose the music of Karl Goldmark for his choreography, making the composer (a little under 80 years after his death and with the help of some judicious editing on the part of Frigyes Hidas), a co- creator with Shakespeare. The revised ballet music has the effect of a unified work, as if the long-deceased composer had written it specifically for this choreography.
The Taming of the Shrew is part of László Seregi’s Shakespeare cycle, following the highly successful Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the series. László Seregi was a key figure in the history of the Hungarian National Ballet, one who felt completely at home in the worldview of the Renaissance. This was palpable in these works, but his most important ability as a choreographer was most evident in the outstanding dramaturgical sense with which he was able to convert dramatic works to the language of dance in a manner that was both entertaining and accessible to a wide audience.
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