Apollo Music by Igor Stravinsky
Choreography by George Balanchine
(1928) Libretto by Igor Stravinsky
Staging by
Francia Russell Original lighting design by
Ronald Bates Lighting: Vladimir Lukasevich
World premiere: 12 June 1928, Les Ballets Russes de Serge de
Diaghilev, Thйвtre Sarah Bernhart, Paris Premiere of last revived
version at the Mariinsky Theatre: 30 April 1998
Running time 33 minutes
Apollo, the son of Zeus
and Leto, achieves stunning levels of brilliance in dance and
citherplaying. He is followed in his sequence of dance by his
ever-present companions the three muses – Calliope (the muse
of epic poetry), Polyhymnia (the muse of sacred hymns) and
Terpsichore (the muse of dance). When Apollo, accompanied by his
muses, appears on Mount Olympus everything around him falls silent
in adoration of his divine art.
“I regard
Apollo as a turning point in my life. In terms
of discipline, restraint, the perpetual unison of sound and mood
this score was a revelation for me. It seemed to be telling me that I
didn’t have to use it all, that I could leave something out.
In Apollo and all of the composer’s subsequent music it
is impossible to imagine any one given extract to be an extract from
another score. Each of them is unique, nothing can be replaced. I examined
my own work in the light of that lesson. It was when studying
Apollo that I first understood that the gestures, like tones
in music and shades in painting, find certain ‘native ties’ between
themselves. Like any group they are subject to their own special laws. And
the more solid the artist the more clearly he will understand and
consider these laws. Starting with Apollo I developed my choreography
along these lines, dictated by these mutual ties. “Apollo has
sometimes been criticised for its ‘lack of theatricality.’ It may be true
that there is no vividly expressed story there (although there is
a plotline that runs throughout). But its technique is that
of classical ballet which in every sense is theatrical, and it is here
that we see the start of the literal transformation of sound
into visual movement.”
George Balanchine. The Dance Element in Stravinsky’s
Music
Divertissement Scenes and pas de deux from ballets and choreographic
compositions
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