Les Sylphides

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For August Bournonville's ballet, see La Sylphide.

Les Sylphides is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc. Its original choreography was by Mikhail Fokine, with music by Frédéric Chopin orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. Glazunov had already set some of 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, conducted by Rimsky-Korsakov.

The ballet, often described as a "romantic reverie",[1][2] was indeed the first ballet ever to be simply that.[1] Les Sylphides has no plot, but instead consists of many white-clad sylphs dancing in the moonlight with the poet or young man dressed in white tights and a black top.

Locating the 'premier' of the fuller ballet also poses a challenge. One might say that it premiered in 1907 at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg as Rêverie Romantique: Ballet sur la musique de Chopin. However, this also formed the basis of a ballet, Chopiniana, which took different forms, even in Fokine's hands.[3] As Les Sylphides, what we consider the work was premiered by the Diaghilev Ballets Russes on 2 June 1909 at Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, where, further to complicate history, La Sylphide had just been shown. The Diaghilev premier is the most famous, as its soloists were Tamara Karsavina, Vaslav Nijinsky (as the poet, dreamer, or young man), Anna Pavlova, and Alexandra Baldina. The London premiere, in the first season of the Diaghilev Ballets Russes, was at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. With more sylph-like elusiveness, the North American premiere might be dated by an unauthorized version in the Winter Garden, New York, on 14 June 1911 (featuring Baldina alone from the Diaghelev cast). However, its authorized premiere on that continent, by Diaghilev Ballets Russes, was at the Century Theater, New York City, 20 January 1916, with Lopokova (who also featured in the unauthorized production five years earlier). Nijinsky danced it with that company at the Metropolitan Opera, 14 April 1916, where it was paired with a similar slight work to piano suite (by Robert Schumann), Papillons, also choreographed by Fokine. Fokine set the ballet also for several other companies, and he and his wife, Vera Fokina, danced its leading roles themselves for some years. In 1940, American Ballet Theatre[1] took up the production, and opened it January 11 of that year at the Center Theatre in Rockefeller Center.[2]

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

Contents

[edit] Original title and performances

Chopiniana, staged by Fokine, had a different musical composition. Its original version included only four Chopin pieces orchestrated by Glazunov:

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

[edit] Final version

The canonic version of the ballet Les Sylphides included several more pieces:

  1. Polonaise in A major (some companies substitute Prelude in A Major instead)
  2. Nocturne in A flat major (Op. 32, no. 2),
  3. Valse in G Flat major (Op. 70, no. 1),
  4. Mazurka in D major (Op. 33, no. 2),
  5. Mazurka in C major (Op. 67, no. 3),
  6. Prelude in A major (Op. 28, no. 7),
  7. Valse in C sharp minor (Op. 64, no. 2),
  8. Grande Valse in E flat major (Op. 18, no. 1)

[edit] New York City Ballet

See also: List of New York City Ballet repertory

City Ballet dances the final version, omitting the Polonaise in A major (and leaving the Prelude in A major in its original position) under the original title, Chopiniana. The NYCB premiere was staged by Alexandra Danilova and took place January 20, 1972, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.

[edit] Original cast

[edit] NYCB

[edit] Other orchestrations

A number of musicians have orchestrated the Chopin pieces for major ballet companies. However, most orchestrations are similar in their approach.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Ballet Theater", until 1955. A compact disk of ABT's production, with Mikhail Baryshnikov as the dreamer, is available from Kultor, entitled, "American Ballet Theatre at the Met - Mixed Bill (1985)".
  2. ^ a b See Olga Maynard's definitive account, based on information from Fokine's son Vitale Fokine: "Les Sylphides", Dance Magazine Portfolio: December 1971, advertised separately by some online booksellers.
  3. ^ George Balanchine, and Francis Mason, Balanchine's Complete Stories of the Great Ballets (rev. & enlarged edn, Doubleday, 1977), pp. 653-8.

[edit] External links