One act ballets
Music: Frederic Chopin, Carl Maria von Weber, Camille Saint-Saens, Robert Schumann
Choreography: Michel Fokine
"Chopiniana"
Choreographic composition in one act
Music: Frederic Chopin (suite of piano pieces orchestrated: Alexander Glazunov and Maurice Keller)
Choreography: Michel Fokine (1908)
Scenario: Michel Fokine
Revised version: Agrippina Vaganova (1931)
Set design based on original sketches: Orest Allegri
World premiere: 8 March 1908, Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg
Running time: 35 minutes
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
“In 1906, when rehearsing the production of the first version of Chopiniana performed to Glazunov’s orchestration of Chopin’s music, I created for Pavlova and Obukhov – my friend from the ballet school – a waltz in C Sharp Minor, which was specially orchestrated by Glazunov at our request as an addition to the suite.
The sylph – winged hope – flies into a romantic garden lit by the moon. She is followed by a young man. It was dancing in the style of Taglioni, in the style of that long-forgotten time when ballet was governed by poetry, when a dancer rose en pointe not to demonstrate the steel-like arch of her foot but in order to create the impression of lightness, barely touching the ground, something ethereal and fantastical. In this dance there is not one pirouette, not a single trick. But how poetic, how beautiful and how engaging was this duet in the air! The audience was enchanted, as was I. Pavlova made such a powerful impression on me that I wondered about staging an entire ballet in this style. And by the time her next gala performance came round I had created the ballet Les Sylphides. If, back then, she had not danced Chopin’s waltz so brilliantly, so enchantingly, I would never have created this ballet.”
Michel Fokine. Hightlights from the article Memoirs of a Ballet-Master
"Le Spectre de la rose"
CREDITS
Music by Carl Maria von Weber
Choreography by Michel Fokine (1911)
Concept by Jean-Louis Vaudoyer after the poem by Théophile Gautier
Scenario by Michel Fokine
Reconstruction by Isabelle Fokine
Costumes after sketches by Léon Bakst
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
In it (Le Spectre de la rose) there was no dancing to display technique... The dancing is expressive throughout. <...> Her eyes closed, the Girl seeks out her Spectre, summoning him. In none of the movements does the Spectre resemble a typical dancer performing his variations for the pleasure of the audience. He is a spirit. He is a dream. He is the scent of a rose, the caress of its delicate petals and much more besides, for which it is impossible to find the right words, he is no ‘cavalier’ in any sense of the word, he is not the ‘partner of the ballerina’. The technique of the arms in this ballet is totally different to the strong and correct arms in old ballets. Here the arms are alive, speaking, singing, and not performing ‘positions’.
Michel Fokine. Extracts from the book Against the Current
World premiere: 19 April 1911, Les Ballets Russes de Serge de Diaghilev, Théâtre de Monte Carlo
In the repertoire of the Mariinsky Theatre since 1997
Running time: 10 minutes
"The Swan"
Music by Camille Saint-Saëns
Choreography by Michel Fokine (1907)
... Our joint work (with Anna Pavlova) was The Dying Swan. <...> It took just a few minutes to create the ballet. It was amost an improvisation. I danced in front of her, she was there, just behind me. (... ) Before that production I had been accused of being involved in ‘barefoot’ dancing and was generally opposed to dancing en pointe. The Dying Swan was my response to this criticism. This dance became a symbol of new Russian ballet. It was a serious work of perfect technique and expression. It was like a kind of proof that dance can and should not just please the eyes but also get into the soul.
Michel Fokine. Highlights from Memoirs of a Ballet-Master
World premiere: 22 December 1907, Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg
Running time: 4 minutes
"Scheherazade"
CREDITS
Music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Scenario by Léon Bakst and Michel Fokine after Arabian Nights fairytales
Choreography by Michel Fokine (1910)
Reconstruction by Isabelle Fokine, Andris Liepa
Set and costume design by Anna Nezhnaya, Anatoly Nezhny after original sketches: Léon Bakst
SYNOPSIS
Shahryar is angry because his brother Shakhezman has suggested that his wives are unfaithful to him. To test the harem Shahryar goes off on a hunting expedition.
Almost as soon as the court has departed the wives adorn themselves in jewels and bribe the Chief Eunuch to open the three doors which lead to the quarters where the male slaves live. Two doors are opened and the Chief Eunuch is about to leave when Zobeide, Shahryar’s favourite wife, demands that the third door also be opened. The Eunuch warns her against this, but with further bribes and pleas she insists. The door is opened and the Golden Slave leaps through it to Zobeide’s side. They fall entwined upon the divan.
Food is brought in to musical accompaniment. Dancing begins, led by the Golden Slave, and Zobeide joins it. But Shahryar has returned unannounced and bursts in upon the orgy. Slaughter follows and the revellers are indiscriminately cut down. Shahryar kills Zobeide’s lover with his own hands. Only Zobeide remains. Preferring death to dishonour she faces the Shah and then, with a dagger she grabs from him, she takes her own life.
World premiere: 4 June 1910, Les Ballets Russes de Serge de Diaghilev, Théâtre de l´Opéra, Paris
Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: 26 May 1994
Running time: 45 minutes
Casts & Credits
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