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
Le Spectre de la Rose
choreographic tableau
Music: Carl Maria von Weber (Invitation to the Dance orchestrated: Hector Berlioz)
Choreography: Michel Fokine (1911)
Concept: Jean-Louis Vaudoyer based on the poem: Theophile Gautier
Scenario: Michel Fokine
Reconstruction: Isabelle Fokine
Set design: Viacheslav Okunev
Costume design after original designs: Leon Bakst
World premiere: 19 April 1911, Les Ballets Russes de Serge de Diaghilev, Theatre de Monte Carlo
In the repertoire of the Mariinsky Theatre since 1997
Running time: 11 minutes
The Swan
choreographic composition
Music: Camille Saint-Saens (from the Carnaval des animaux suite)
Choreography: Michel Fokine (1907)
World premiere: 22 December 1907, Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg
Running time: 4 minutes
Schhrazade
Music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Scenario by Leon 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: Leon Bakst
The harem of Shah Shahryar.
Shahryar, King of India and China, 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 a Negro 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 in. But Shahryar has returned unannounced and bursts in upon the orgy. Slaughter follows and the revellers are indiscriminately cut down. The Chief Eunuch is strangled. 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.
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