Classical Ballet One-act ballets: Le Sacre du printemps. Prodigal Son. The Firebird World famous Mariinsky Ballet and Opera - established 1783
Schedule for One-act ballets: Le Sacre du printemps. Prodigal Son. The Firebird 2022
Composer: Sergei Prokofiev Composer: Igor Stravinsky Costume Designer: Tatiana Noginova Lighting Designer: Vladimir Lukasevich Choreography: Michel Fokine Choreography: George Balanchine Choreography: Vaslav Nijinsky
Orchestra: Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra
Le Sacre du printemps
Musiс by
Igor Stravinsky (1913) Choreography by
Millicent Hodson (1987) inspired by
Vaslav Nijinsky (1913)
Décor and costumes after
Nicholas Roerich (1913) Scene plan: Igor Stravinsky
and Nicholas Roerich Revival of the sets and
costumes and supervision – Kenneth Archer (Revived sets and costumes © 1987 Kenneth Archer) Set Revival
Designer – Boris Kaminsky Costume Revival
Technologist – Tatiana Noginova Lighting
Designer – Sergei Lukin
World premiere: 29 May 1913, Ballets Russes de Diaghilev, Théâtre des
Champs-Elysées, Paris Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: 9 June 2003
Running time 40 minutes
”I came up with the idea for Le Sacre du
printemps while I was still composing The Firebird. I pictured a scene of some
pagan rite in which a girl who was to be the sacrifice dances herself to death.
But this vision came with no specific musical idea at all <…>. I told
Diaghilev of Le Sacre du printemps even before he came to see me in Lausanne in
late 1910 <…>. In July 1911, after the premiere of Pétrouchka, I travelled
to the estate of Princess Tenisheva near Smolensk in order to meet Nicholas
Roerich there and compile a stage plan for Le Sacre du printemps. I began to
work with Roerich and in a few days’ time the plan of the action onstage and the
names of the dances had been worked out. Roerich also made sketches of his
famous backdrops, Polovtsian in spirit, as well as sketches for the costumes
based on actual examples in the collection of Princess Tenisheva. Apropos, our
ballet was called Sacred Spring in Russian. Le Sacre du printemps which Bakst
came up with is only suitable for French. In English, the title The Coronation
of Spring was closer to my original idea than The Rite of Spring.
<…> I made haste to complete Le Sacre as I wanted Diaghilev to
stage it in the 1912 season. <…> The fact that the premiere of Le Sacre du
printemps was surrounded by scandal is a fact probably known by everyone now.
Although, however strange it may seem, I myself was totally unprepared for such
an explosion of passions. The reaction of the musicians to orchestral rehearsals
had not foretold this, while the plot unfolding on the stage didn’t really seem
to justify causing such a riot. The ballet dancers had rehearsed for months and
knew what they were doing, although what they were doing often had nothing in
common with the music. “I will count to forty; in the meantime you can play,”
Nijinsky said to me, “and we’ll see where we become separated.” He couldn’t
understand that if, indeed, we became separated in one particular instance it
didn’t mean that the rest of the time we had been together. The dancers chose to
follow the counts that Nijinsky beat out rather than the musical tempo.
Nijinsky, of course, counted in Russian, and in as much as in Russian numbers
after ten are made up of numerous syllables – vosemnadtsat (eighteen), for
example – at a fast tempo neither he nor the dancers could follow the
music.
After 1913 I saw only one stage production of Le Sacre du printemps –
that was Diaghilev’s revival in 1920. Then the accord between the music and the
dance was better than in 1913, but Massine’s choreography was too gymnastic and
in the style of Dalcroze for meto like it. It was then that I understood that
I preferred Le Sacre du printemps to be performed in concert. Twice I reworked a
few sections from Le Sacre du printemps – in 1921 for Diaghilev’s production and
then in 1943 (only The Great Sacrificial Dance) for a performance (which never
took place) by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. <…> But I could rework my
own music endlessly <…>. When composing Le Sacre du printemps I was led by
no specific system. <…> It was only my sense of sound that helped me. I
heard and wrote down only what I heard. I was the vessel through which Le Sacre
du printemps passed.”
Igor Stravinsky. Dialogues
Prodigal Son
Music by
Sergei Prokofiev (1929) Choreography by George
Balanchine (1929) Libretto by Boris Kochno (after
the biblical parable)
Scenery and costumes: Georges
Rouault (1929) Scenery executed by
Prince A. Schervashidze Costumes executed by
Vera Soudeikina Staging: Karin von
Aroldingen and Paul Boos Lighting: Vladimir
Lukasevich
Premiere: May 21, 1929, Les Ballets Russes de Serge
de Diaghilev, Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt, Paris Premiere in the Mariinsky
Theatre: December 14, 2001
Running time 40 minutes
The Ballet of George
Balanchine Prodigal Son is presented by arrangement with The George Balanchine
Trust and has been produced in accordance with the Balanchine Style® and
Balanchine Technique® service standards established and provided by the
Trust
The Mariinsky Theatre would like to
express its gratitude to Mrs Bettina von Siemens for her support in bringing the
"Ballets of George Balanchine" project to life The
Firebird
Music by Igor Stravinsky Choreography by
Michel Fokine (1910) Libretto by Michel Fokine
Reconstruction: Isabelle
Fokine, Andris Liepa Set and costume design: Anna
and Anatoly Nezhny after original sketches:
Alexander Golovin, Léon Bakst and Michel
Fokine Lighting Designer: Vladimir
Lukasevich World premiere: 25 June 1910, Les Ballets
Russes de Serge de Diaghilev, Théâtre de l´Opéra, Paris In the
repertoire of the Mariinsky Theatre since 1994
Running time
44 minutes
© Photo by www.belcanto.ru
Schedule for One-act ballets: Le Sacre du printemps. Prodigal Son. The Firebird 2022
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