[4][5] Du Pré was regarded as one of the best cellists of all time, but her career was cut short due to multiple sclerosis (MS), and she died at age 42.
[5] Marston also read books about du Pré and took cello classes "to get a sense of the instrument," but believed that she would not continue after the ballet was complete.
[4] She had no intention of exploring du Pré's private life,[5] and wanted to focus on the "love and loss" between her with her cello,[1] therefore the ballet is deliberately titled The Cellist.
"[4] The corps de ballet is used as "A Chorus of Narrators" and appears as the orchestra, the audience,[9] friends,[10] and MS symptoms which Marston said was "from an experiential rather than a scientific point of view," especially the "long period of anxiety" du Pré had before her diagnosis.
"[5] Other dancers who had performed at the premiere included Royal Ballet School student Emma Lucano as the young cellist,[14] Thomas Whitehead as her father,[12] Kristen McNally as her mother,[15] Anna Rose O'Sullivan as her sister,[16] and Gary Avis as a teacher.
"[12] Lyndsey Winship of The Guardian gave it four stars, and commented, "The Cellist is most effective as a portrait of a woman’s deep love affair with music.
[18] The Times's Debra Craine gave it three stars and was more critical: "too long and sags in the middle,"[19] while the Evening Standard's Emma Byrne commented that the corps de ballet was "cluttered, distracting – and unnecessarily busy.
[18] In June that year, in response to the impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on the performing arts, the Royal Opera House released the footage of the full ballet online.