Les Sylphides

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Les Sylphides is often confused with La Sylphide, another ballet of similar name, also involving the mythical sylph, or forest sprite. In every other respect however, the two ballets are unrelated.

Les Sylphides is a short, non-narrative ballet. Its original choreography was by Mikhail Fokine, with music by Frédéric Chopin orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. He had orchestrated the music in 1892 as a purely orchestral suite, under the title Chopiniana, Op. 46. In that form it was introduced to the public in December 1893, when it was conducted by Rimsky-Korsakov.

The ballet premiered in 1907 at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg as Rêverie Romantique: Ballet sur la musique de Chopin. It formed the basis of a later ballet Chopiniana. As Les Sylphides, the ballet was first shown on June 2, 1909 at Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris(4), where La Sylphide had just been shown(4).

Another popular orchestration was made by Roy Douglas in 1936(5).

Les Sylphides was originally performed by the Ballets Russes, with principal dancers Tamara Karsavina, Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, and Alexandra Baldina. In 1940, American Ballet Theatre took up the production, and opened it January 11 of that year at the Center Theatre in Rockefeller Center.

The ballet, often described as a "romantic reverie"(2,3), was indeed the first ballet ever to be simply that(2). Les Sylphides has no plot, but instead consists of many sylphs dancing in the moonlight with the poet or young man.

1 Original title and Performances
2 Final Version
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Original title and Performances

Under the title Chopiniana, staged by Fokine, the ballet had a slightly different musical composition. The original version (Glazunov) included only four Chopin pieces:

Polonaise in A major, Op. 40, no. 1,
Nocturne in F major, Op. 15, no. 1,
Mazurka in C sharp minor, Op. 50, no. 3,
Tarantella in A flat major, Op. 43.

[edit] Final Version

The final version of this ballet, performed under the name Les Sylphides included several more pieces.

Polonaise in A major (some companies substitute Prelude in A Major instead)
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, no. 1)

Many different people have orchestrated the Chopin pieces for major ballet companies including Roy Douglas. Most orchestrations are similar in their approach.