Suzanne Farrell wrote:
“I was cast as one of four tall fairies in Titania's retinue; Diana Adams was Titania. One day while we were rehearsing in the big, drab sixth-floor studio at City Center, Diana came up to me and said, "Mr. B wants you to watch Titania." I swallowed calmly and nodded. This was so monumental a suggestion that I didn't dare even to fantasize how wonderful it would be actually to dance the Queen of the Fairies. Diana didn't have an understudy. When Balanchine cast a favored ballerina in a role, he saw only her doing those steps and refused to have other girls behind her also learning the part.
"Diana was indeed indisposed with a pregnancy (later she miscarried), and Melissa Hayden danced her role. Meanwhile, I did precisely as I was told. I had been told to "watch," not to "learn," and so I watched ...and watched... and watched, and so I did learn. But I think I learned it differently than if I had been told to learn it. Instead of learning only the steps, I learned the ballet, its whole conjured world; there is a difference, and I have never forgotten that.
“Three days later I performed Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream for the first time. Balanchine always put considerable emphasis on having a tall Queen of the Fairies alongside a shorter Oberon, who was danced by Edward Villella. I had never worked with Eddie before, but our tempestuous onstage scenes when fighting over the little page, as well as our final reconciliation, went smoothly enough. Titania's real dancing, however, is not performed with Oberon but with two other partners.”
--Holding on to the Air by Suzanne Farrell
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