Featuring Lynn Seymour as The Girl and Desmond Doyle as The Husband, seduction and rape are at the heart of this piece which generated controversy at the time; particularly the scene of the rape.
"If the Invitation is MacMillan's ballet, it is also Miss Seymour's" was written in The Times.
[1] The first performance was on 10 November 1960 by the Royal Ballet Touring Company at the New Theatre Oxford.
[2] Composer Mátyás Seiber was killed in a car crash in September 1960 during a lecture tour of South Africa.
An orchestral suite lasting 23 minutes was extracted from the score, and has been recorded.