(3) Prokofiev's music is often acerbic and sour. Do you think that Ashton captures this in his choreography and staging?

"acerbic and sour"---

Certainly not in "Romeo and Juliet" or "Gala Performance" (the Classical Symphony). Where, then?

I would describe the music more as "lush, yet minimal and angular"--somewhat contradictory.

It has a peculiarly contradictory, somewhat "masked" quality in the 1st act, and I find Ashton's solutions for the stepsisters and Cinderalla quite interesting. I'm not entirely sure it's entirely successful by itself, but Ashton's, Helpmann's and Sibley's restraint and decisions about when and where (and where not) to place accents helps achieve an interesting balance between the choreography and the music. It's a fine line they straddle though...

(I love Prokofiev and other 20th C. Russian composers, and am inclined to be forgiving when choreographers have clearly chosen to avoid the obvious choices in favor of more risk-laden decisions.)

I do think the inclusion of the seasons is a bit off-the-wall, and some choreography is more successful than others, but perhaps this could be addressed w/different staging??

(I apologize for any inanities...I'm not particularly well-informed about ballet, but want to learn.)

I don't know if I would call the Prokofiev Cinderella acerbic and sour, but sophisticated, certainly.

Occasionally, I find that he runs into the tendency to re-use his old "motor" theory of composition where one number in the score runs seamlessly into another, and this gets in the way of the structure of a neo-Imperial ballet, which is what I think he was shooting for.

May be it is acerbic and sour in another compositions, but Cinderella is, yes, very sophisticated, with a lot of sense of humour and very descriptive, very visual.