fall in love with her and bribes one of them to make Pépio's life miserable. A storm breaks and the gypsies disappear with Pépio's money. He returns home chastened and asks forgiveness. The ballet was later introduced to London in 1906 with choreography by François Ambroisiny and a shortened score by Messager himself. He used this shortened version when the piece was revived at the Paris Opéra in 1912, and it was published as a final version. A one-act version was choreographed by Albert Aveline at the Opera in 1919 and it was not until 1942 that the role of Pépio was finally danced by a man. The discovery of the shortened score used at Covent Garden prompted Frederick Ashton to make his own one-hour version of the ballet, set in Paris at the time of the music's composition. At the start a French painter is revealed trying to paint his lover, who is sitting on an ornate cast-iron chair. The session is interrupted by the entry of the model's friends and his responsiveness to other female company underlines his restless spirit. A troupe of gypsies that he sees through the garret window, misunderstanding a gesture of his, now crowd in and a quarrel develops over possession of the chair between the model and a hot-blooded Carmen with whom the painter is flirting. Perceiving that they are not really welcome, the gypsy leader leaves the studio and the painter dashes off to join them. However, his intrusion into their social order is resented and he is thrown out of the encampment. Returning to the lover he has left behind, they are reconciled and sit together on the ornate chair that has dominated the room. The ballet's title is further underlined by Ashton's use of two live pigeons to represent the lovers. 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 underlined by one pigeon flying alone across the stage before the interval. The painter's return in the next act is prompted by a pigeon coming to land on his shoulder; once harmony is restored, both pigeons perch above the lovers on the chair. The ballet was premiered on St. Valentine's Day in February 1961 and has since been performed regularly by the Royal Ballet touring company, as well as staged by several other dance