Les Sylphides
Les Sylphides (or Chopiniana ) is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc . The original choreography comes from the Russian-American choreographer Michel Fokine (1880–1942), who selected piano pieces by Frédéric Chopin as music. These were orchestrated by the Russian composer Alexander Glasunow (1865-1936). The first version of the ballet, which uses four pieces by Chopin by Alexander Glasunow, was called Chopiniana, Opus 46, which was first performed in 1893 under the musical direction of the Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908). The pieces were polonaise, nocturne, mazurka and tarantella. Fokine, the choreographer, persuaded Glazunov to add an extra waltz because he wanted to create at least one dance on toes and in the long skirts of the Taglioni period. She was first performed as Chopiniana at a charity gala in the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg in December 1906 . An orchestral suite by Glazunow with the name Chopiniana, Op. 46 , which was performed for the first time in 1893 under the musical direction of Rimsky-Korsakow .
construction
Les Sylphides has no libretto, it is made up of various group and solo dances of the white-clad sylphids and a dancer known as a poet or young man .
As Fokine's work was edited several times and he had previously choreographed ballets to Chopin's music, it is difficult to say when the work known today as Les Sylphides premiered. Usually June 2, 1909 is given, the date of the world premiere at the Théâtre du Châtelet , Paris by Djagilev's Ballets Russes with Tamara Karsavina , Anna Pawlowa , Alexandra Baldina and Vaslav Nijinsky as soloists.
The version of the ballet most shown today consists of the following pieces:
- Polonaise in A major op.40 no.1
- Nocturne in A flat major, Op. 32 No. 2
- Valse in G flat major op.70 No. 1
- Mazurka in D major op.33 No. 2
- Mazurka in C major op.67 No. 3
- Prelude in A major op.28 no.7
- Valse in C sharp minor, Op. 64 No. 2
- Grande Valse in E flat major op.18
Les Sylphides is often confused with La Sylphide , both of which are ballets that deal with the mythical sylphids . Otherwise, however, the works have very little in common.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alexander Schouvaloff, Wadsworth Atheneum: The Art of Ballets Russes: The Serge Lifar Collection of Theater Designs, Costumes, and Paintings at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut . Yale University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-300-07484-0 , p. 153.