Symphony in C (ballet)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also: New York City Ballet repertory, NYCB 2008 Winter Repertory, and NYCB 2008 Spring Repertory

Symphony in C, originally titled Le Palais de Cristal, is a ballet made by New York City Ballet's founder and ballet master, George Balanchine, to Bizet's Symphony No. 1 in C major (1855), which he wrote at the age of 17 while studying with Charles Gounod at the Paris Conservatory. The score was lost and only rediscovered and published in 1933; Stravinsky alerted Balanchine to the existence of the symphony.

The premiere was July 28, 1947, in the Théâtre National de L'Opéra with the Paris Opéra Ballet where Balanchine was guest ballet master. According to City Ballet docents^[1] the four movements were originally associated with and designed using the colors four gemstones, three of which Balanchine subsequently retain for the three movements of his 1967 ballet Jewels: Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds. Even before the ballet was renamed Symphony in C he had eliminated the color scheme and changed to the white costumes still used.

The NYCB premiere took place as the first piece on first performance, October 11, 1948, of the newly renamed City Ballet at the City Center of Music and Drama with costumes by Karinska and lighting by Mark Stanley. Jerome Robbins was in the audience at that performance and is quoted as saying that he immediately wrote to Balanchine asking to be hired in any capacity.^[2] Suzanne Farrell says that Symphony in C is the first ballet she ever saw and determined at once to become a ballerina and join City Ballet; which both did. When she was in rehearsal learning her rôle from Balanchine, he asked her whether she could touch her knee with her nose en penchée, which she could, and this addition to the choreographry remains to this very day.^[3]