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The Quest

Ballet · 1943

The Quest is a ballet score by William Walton, written for a ballet of the same title, now lost, choreographed by Frederick Ashton in 1943. Two versions of the score exist: one for the small orchestra for which Walton wrote (because of wartime constraints), and a posthumously constructed version rescored for an orchestra of the larger size usually favoured by the composer. The ballet, with a scenario by Doris Langley Moore, was based on The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser. It was first given by the Sadler's Wells Ballet company.

The Red Poppy

Ballet · 1927

The ballet takes place at a seaport in 1920s-era Republican China. Ships carrying sailors from many lands, including the Soviet Union, are docked in a Chinese seaport. The Captain of the Soviet Ship notices a group of half-starved, overworked coolies being brutally driven to work even harder by their cruel harbormaster. One night while dancing for the sailors aboard the ship, the beautiful Taï-Choa (Pinyin: Taohua) notices the Soviet Captain trying to rescue the poor Coolies from the Harbormaster. Impressed by the captain's act of kindness she gives him a red poppy as a symbol of her love. When Taï-Choa's fiancé, the adventurer Li-Chan-Fou learns of this, he is jealous and orders her to kill the captain. She refuses and is later killed when a riot breaks out on the dock — thus sacrificing her life for the captain. As she dies, she gives another red poppy flower to a young Chinese girl as a sign of love and freedom.

The Red Shoes

Ballet · 2016

The ballet is set in London, Monte Carlo and Villefranche-sur-Mer in the period of the late 1940s to early 1950s. The ballerina Victoria Page is talent-spotted by the ballet impresario Boris Lermontov, who is based in Monte Carlo. He commissions the composer Julian Craster to compose a ballet based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale, The Red Shoes. Victoria takes the lead in the ballet, and she and Craster fall in love. Victoria has to choose between her love and her career. Having returned to London to be with Craster, she ekes out a career dancing in a music hall. The chance of dancing for Lermontov again lures her to return to his ballet company to dance once more in The Red Shoes. Craster pursues her to persuade her to return to him. In her confusion and indecision, fleeing from Lermontov she falls beneath an oncoming train and is killed.

The Rite of Spring

Ballet · 1913

The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky with stage designs and costumes by Nicholas Roerich. When first performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 29 May 1913, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a sensation. Many have called the first-night reaction a "riot" or "near-riot", though this wording did not come about until reviews of later performances in 1924, over a decade later. Although designed as a work for the stage, with specific passages accompanying characters and action, the music achieved equal if not greater recognition as a concert piece and is widely considered to be one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century. Stravinsky was a young, virtually unknown composer when Diaghilev recruited him to create works for the Ballets Russes. Le Sacre du printemps was the third such major project, after the acclaimed Firebird (1910) and Petrushka (1911). The concept behind The Rite of Spring, developed by Roerich from Stravinsky's outline idea, is suggested by its subtitle, "Pictures of Pagan Russia in Two Parts"; the scenario depicts various primitive rituals celebrating the advent of spring, after which a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and dances herself to death. After a mixed critical reception for its original run and a short London tour, the ballet was not performed again until the 1920s, when a version choreographed by Léonide Massine replaced Nijinsky's original, which saw only eight performances. Massine's was the forerunner of many innovative productions directed by the world's leading choreographers, gaining the work worldwide acceptance. In the 1980s, Nijinsky's original choreography, long believed lost, was reconstructed by the Joffrey Ballet in Los Angeles. Stravinsky's score contains many novel features for its time, including experiments in tonality, metre, rhythm, stress and dissonance. Analysts have noted in the score a significant grounding in Russian folk music, a relationship Stravinsky tended to deny. Regarded as among the first modernist works, the music influenced many of the 20th century's leading composers and is one of the most recorded works in the classical repertoire.

The Sacrifices to Cupid

Ballet · 1886

The Sacrifices to Cupid (AKA L'Offrande à l'Amour or The Offerings to Cupid; ru: "Жертвы Амуру, или Радости любви") is a "grand ballet" in 1 Act/1 scene with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Ludwig Minkus. The ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on July 22/August 3, 1886, in honour of Empress Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark), at Petergof by the Imperial Ballet, and on November 25/December 7 (Julian/Gregorian calendar dates), 1886 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. Principal Dancers: Eugeniia Sokolova (as Chloë)

The Seagull

Ballet · 1980

The Seagull is a ballet in two acts by Rodion Shchedrin based on the 1896 play The Seagull of Anton Chekhov. The authors of the libretto: Rodion Shchedrin and Valery Levental. It was composed in 1980 and premiered on 27 May 1980 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, choreographed by Maya Plisetskaya. With her experience with the ballet Anna Karenina, Plisetskaya created the choreography and performed the title role. After the premiere, ballet critic Natalia Krymova wrote: "Maya Plisetskaya's role in this performance is fully consistent with the spirit of the play and expresses the diversity of emotions so important to the author. Plisetskaya as a choreographer clearly professes what Treplev says: "new forms are needed." Thus, she breaks the traditional canons of ballet, replacing them with pantomime. Personifying Nina Zarechnaya, she dances only what "flows freely from the soul." Plisetskaya's dance in "The Seagull" can rightly be attributed to these words: "the life of the human spirit." A curious event occurs at the Bolshoi premiere. A woman fell asleep in the audience at the orchestra. She dreams that a gas cylinder explodes in her country house and she screams throughout the hall. Hundreds of spectators stared at her, hanging on their boxes. Everyone on stage froze, but the orchestra continued to play. And she screamed when the sound engineer very resolutely imitated a shot at a seagull.

The Taming of the Shrew

Ballet · 1969

The setting is Padua, a city in northern Italy, not far from Venice. Three suitors — Hortensio, Lucentio, and Gremio — come to Baptista's house to serenade Bianca, his younger daughter. Baptista declares that Bianca shall not marry until her older sister, Katherina, is wed. An ensuing rumpus is dispelled when Katherina angrily sends everyone packing. In a tavern, a tipsy Petruchio is robbed of his money. Hortensio, Lucentio, and Gremio offer to introduce him to an heiress. He accepts and determines to "wive it wealthily in Padua." At Baptista's house, Petruchio asks for Katherina's hand. After a stormy courtship, she agrees. Bianca's three suitors press their case. Bianca favors Lucentio. The first act culminates at Katherina and Petruchio's wedding, where he arrives late and behaves outrageously. He carries off his bride without waiting for the festivities to begin. At Petruchio's house, the newly wedded couple are at supper, but he does not allow her to eat, protesting that the food is not good enough. She refuses to consummate the marriage and spends the night on the kitchen floor. Then, at a carnival, Lucentio tricks Hortensio and Gremio into marrying two ladies of the street, thus clearing his way to woo Bianca on his own. Petruchio's mockery and trickery continue to provoke Katherina. Eventually she surrenders, and they admit that they love each other. On the way to Bianca's wedding, Petruchio indulges in some whims, but Katherina has learned to humor him. At the wedding, Bianca treats her husband scornfully, but Katherina shows her how a wife is expected to behave. Left alone, she and Petruchio revel in their new-found love.

The Three-Cornered Hat

Ballet · 1919

After a short fanfare, the curtain rises revealing a mill in Andalusia. The miller is trying to teach a pet blackbird to tell the time. He tells the bird to chirp twice, but instead it chirps three times. Annoyed, the miller scolds the bird and tells it to try again. The bird now chirps four times. The miller gets angry at the bird again and his wife offers it a grape. The bird takes the grape and chirps twice. The miller and his wife laugh over this and continue their work. Soon the magistrate, his wife, and their bodyguard pass by, taking their daily walk. The procession goes by and the couple returns to their work. The dandified, but lecherous, magistrate is heard coming back. The miller tells his wife that he will hide and that they will play a trick on the magistrate. The miller hides and the magistrate sees the miller's wife dancing. After her dance, she offers him some grapes. When the magistrate gets the grapes, the miller's wife runs away with the magistrate following her. Finally, he catches her, and the miller jumps out of a bush with a stick. The miller chases the magistrate away and the miller and his wife continue working. That night, guests are at the miller's house. The miller dances to entertain them. His dance is interrupted by the magistrate's bodyguard, who has come to arrest him on trumped-up charges. After the miller is taken away, the guests leave one-by-one. The miller's wife goes to sleep and soon the magistrate comes to the mill. On his way to the door, the magistrate trips and falls in the river. The miller's wife wakes up and runs away. The magistrate undresses, hangs his clothes on a tree, and goes to sleep in the miller's bed. The miller has escaped from prison and sees the magistrate in his bed. The miller thinks that the magistrate is sleeping with his wife and plans to switch clothes with the magistrate and avenge himself by seducing the magistrate's wife. The miller leaves, dressed as the magistrate, and the magistrate soon wakes up. He goes outside and sees that his clothes are gone, so he dresses in the miller's clothes. The bodyguard comes and sees the magistrate dressed as the miller and goes to arrest him. The miller's wife sees the bodyguard fighting with what looks like her husband and joins in the fight. The miller comes back and sees his wife in the fight and joins it to protect her. The magistrate explains the entire story and the ballet ends with the miller's guests tossing the magistrate up and down in a blanket.

The Two Stars

Ballet · 1871

The Two Stars or The Stars or The Two Little Stars (aka Les Deux étoiles) is an Anacreontic ballet in 1 act, with choreography by Marius Petipa, and music by Cesare Pugni. Libretto by Marius Petipa, based on an ancient Greek myth. First presented by the Imperial Ballet on January 31/February 6 (Julian/Gregorian calendar dates), 1871 at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia. Principal Dancers- Ekaterina Vazem (as the First Star), Alexandra Virginia (as The Second Star), and Pavel Gerdt (as Apollo)

The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude

Ballet · 1996

The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude is a ballet choreographed by William Forsythe to the finale of Schubert's Symphony No. 9. The ballet was choreographed for 's programme Six Counter Points, and was presented as a ballet "in the Manner of the late 20th Century." Danced by a cast of five, the ballet features classical and technically demanding choreography. It premiered on 20 January 1996, at Frankfurt. It had since been performed by many other ballet companies.

The Wayward Daughter

Ballet · 1789

Lise and Colas are in love and want to marry. However, the Widow Simone wants Lise to marry the dimwitted, but extremely rich, Alain, and has arranged (with Alain's father Thomas) for a marriage contract between Lise and Alain. The Widow Simone does her best to keep Lise and Colas apart, but is unsuccessful in her attempts to do so. At harvest time the Widow Simone and Lise are taken to the field for a picnic lunch by Thomas and Alain. The farm workers join in a ribbon dance around a maypole, and the girls also join in a clog dance with the Widow Simone. There is a thunderstorm and everyone rushes for shelter. Alain is carried away on the wind by his open umbrella. The Widow Simone and Lise return to their home. The widow wants Lise to sit down at the spinning wheel and spin, but Lise spins while she is up dancing, nearly strangling the widow. After a while, the widow wants Lise to dance, and Lise shows signs of unhappiness, but obliges. The widow takes a tambourine to play in time with Lise's dancing. When the widow is asleep, Lise tries to steal the key from the widow's pocket, to prevent the widow from locking her in, but is unsuccessful. The crops are brought in by the farm workers, and the widow then leaves the house (after locking the door behind her to prevent Lise from leaving the house). Lise thinks about Colas and mimes being the mother of a large number of children. To her embarrassment, Colas suddenly rises from the stacked crops. At the sound of the Widow Simone's returning to the house, Lise and Colas look around desperately for a place where he can hide. Not finding anywhere suitable in the living room, Lise takes Colas to her room, and she returns to the living room just before Widow Simone enters the house. The Widow Simone orders Lise to go to her room and put on her wedding dress for her forthcoming marriage to Alain. The horrified Lise tries to remain where she is, but the Widow Simone pushes Lise into her room and locks the door. Thomas arrives with his son Alain (who is still clutching his umbrella). They are accompanied by a notary who is to act as witness to the marriage. The farm workers (friends of both Lise and Colas) also arrive. The Widow Simone gives Alain the key to Lise's room. When Alain unlocks the door to Lise's room, Lise appears in her wedding dress, accompanied by Colas. Thomas and Alain take offence, and the enraged Thomas tears up the marriage contract. Thomas, Alain and the notary leave the house in dudgeon. Lise and Colas then beg the Widow Simone to look favourably upon their suit. Love conquers all and the widow relents. Joyfully celebrating the happy outcome for Lise and Colas, everyone leaves, and the house is left quiet and empty, until Alain returns for his umbrella which he had accidentally left behind. So Alain is also happy with the love of his life – his umbrella.

The Whims of the Butterfly

Ballet · 1889

The Whims of the Butterfly (also known as The Caprices of a Butterfly, or Les Caprices du Papillon) is a ballet in 1 act, with choreography by Marius Petipa, and music by Nikolai Krotkov. Libretto by Marius Petipa, based on the poem The Grasshopper Musician by Yakov Polonsky. First presented by the Imperial Ballet on June 5/17 (Julian/Gregorian calendar dates), 1889 for the Imperial court at the theatre of Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. The ballet was given a second premiere for the general public at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre on October 25/November 6, 1889 with the same cast. Principal Dancers - Varvara Nikitina (as the Butterfly), Pavel Gerdt (as the Phoenix Moth), Sergei Litavki (as the Grasshopper), Maria Anderson (as the Fly), Alexander Shiraev (as the Spider), and Sergei Legat (as the Nightingale).

The Winter's Tale

Ballet · 2014

The Winter's Tale is a ballet in three acts choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon to a commissioned score by Joby Talbot. The ballet is based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare. With scenery and costumes designed by Bob Crowley, lighting designed by Natasha Katz, and special stage effects designed by Daniel Brodie and Basil Twist, it was a co-production of the Royal Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada. It was first presented at the Royal Opera House, London, on 10 April 2014. The North American premiere occurred the following year.

The Wooden Prince

Ballet · 1917

A prince falls in love with a princess, but is stopped from reaching her by a fairy who makes a forest and a stream rise against him. To attract the princess' attention, the prince hangs his cloak on a staff and fixes a crown and locks of his hair to it. The princess catches sight of this "wooden prince" and comes to dance with it. The fairy brings the wooden prince to life and the princess goes away with that instead of the real prince, who falls into despair. The fairy takes pity on him as he sleeps, dresses him in finery and reduces the wooden prince to lifelessness again. The princess returns and is finally united with the human prince.

Theme and Variations

Ballet · 1947

Theme and Variations is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to the final movement of Tchaikovsky's Orchestral Suite No. 3. The ballet was created for Ballet Theatre (now American Ballet Theatre), and first performed in 1947. The ballet was greeted as a masterpiece at its premiere, has been staged since then by ballet companies around the world, and has remained a favorite of both critics and audiences. In 1970, Balanchine incorporated Theme and Variations into Suite No. 3 (now titled Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3), performed by the New York City Ballet, though Theme and Variations continues to be performed on its own as well.

Tiresias

Ballet · 1951

Tiresias enters on a scene of young girls engaged in vaulting over the horn of bull. After a solo and a dance for Tiresias and male corps de ballet, priestesses and a young virgin come on the scene. The Neophyte gives him a wand and departs. Tiresias spots two snakes copulating and in a rage he strikes the female snake with his staff and is thus changed into a woman. Following a pastoral interlude, shepherds and shepherdesses enter and dance with Tiresias. Her lover appears, and they dance a climactic pas de deux. Then there is a bacchanale celebrating their happiness, at the end of which two snakes enters, engaged as before. Tiresias strikes the male snake with her staff, and is restored to his original self. Another interlude transforms the scene to a palace courtyard where Zeus and Hera are arguing whether men or women get most pleasure in sex. Called to be judge Tiresias declares that women do, and Hera angrily blinds him, but Zeus bestows the gift of prophecy on Tiresias and he departs.

Tom Sawyer: A Ballet in Three Acts

Ballet · 2011

Tom Sawyer: A Ballet in Three Acts premiered on October 14, 2011 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri. The score is by composer Maury Yeston, with choreography by William Whitener, artistic director of the Kansas City Ballet. The ballet is based on Mark Twain's 1876 novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. A review by Alastair Macaulay in The New York Times observed: "It’s quite likely that this is the first all-new, entirely American three-act ballet. It is based on an American literary classic, has an original score by an American composer and was given its premiere by an American choreographer and company... both the score and the choreography are energetic, robust, warm, deliberately naïve (both ornery and innocent), in ways right for Twain. Paul Horsely in Dance Magazine writes “Tom Sawyer is an inventive amalgam of ballet, folk dance, pantomime, comedy, games, and narrative. It’s also injected with the youthful playfulness that has been Whitener’s signature in works like Gingham Shift, the piece that brought Whitener to Yeston’s attention. 'We’re focusing on a boy’s passage from childhood to his teenage years,' Whitener says, 'and taking responsibility when he and Becky are trapped in the cave—having to grow up quickly.' The ballet is also about “the power of the Mississippi and the grandeur of the great outdoors—and the charm and vitality of youth.” The design team were all Americans as well, consisting of Holly Hynes, (Costumes), Walt Spangler (Set) and Kirk Bookman (Lighting). A two-disc 90-minute premiere recording of the complete score was recorded at Skywalker Sound with Martin West conducting the seventy-piece San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and released on the PS Classics label on August 27, 2013. The first act musically depicts the sunny days of Tom in school, his infatuation with Becky Thatcher, and rafting on the river with Huck Finn. The second reveals the boys' witnessing a murder and a frame up at midnight in the cemetery, and the third dramatizes Tom's exonerating testimony at the trial of Muff Potter, and his subsequent discovery of gold in a cave, leading to an ultimate town celebration along the Mississippi. Yeston has subsequently created a 21-minute long Tom Sawyer Suite as a Pops Orchestra offering. Upon hearing the score William Whitener, Artistic Director of Kansas City Ballet, agreed to choreograph and mount the production, saying "When I first heard Maury Yeston's score for Tom Sawyer, I realized that we had a grand opportunity to bring this classic story to life as a dance-drama. The wit and beauty within Mr. Yeston's music, and the charm and playfulness of Mark Twain's novel make an ideal match for a ballet".

Triadisches Ballett

Ballet · 1922

Inspired in part by Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and his observations and experiences during the First World War, Oskar Schlemmer began to conceive of the human body as a new artistic medium. He saw ballet and pantomime as free from the historical baggage of theatre and opera and thus able to present his ideas of choreographed geometry, man as dancer, transformed by costume, moving in space. The idea of the ballet was based on the principle of the trinity. It has 3 acts, 3 participants (2 male, 1 female), 12 dances and 18 costumes. Each act had a different colour and mood. The first three scenes, against a lemon yellow background to affect a cheerful, burlesque mood; the two middle scenes, on a pink stage, festive and solemn and the final three scenes, on black, were intended to be mystical and fantastic. He saw the movement of puppets and marionettes as aesthetically superior to that of humans, as it emphasised that the medium of every art is artificial. This artifice could be expressed through stylised movements and the abstraction of the human body. His consideration of the human form (the abstract geometry of the body e.g. a cylinder for the neck, a circle for head and eyes) led to the all-important costume design, to create what he called his ‘figurine'. The music followed and finally the dance movements were decided. Schlemmer saw the modern world driven by two main currents, the mechanised (man as machine and the body as a mechanism) and the primordial impulses (the depths of creative urges). He claimed that the choreographed geometry of dance offered a synthesis, the Dionysian and emotional origins of dance, becomes strict and Apollonian in its final form.

Trilby

Ballet · 1870

Trilby is a ballet in 2 acts and 3 scenes. It was the final ballet that Marius Petipa choreographed and staged for the Imperial Bolshoi Ballet during the two years he was commissioned to create new works for the Moscow stage. And the music was by Yuli Gerber. Libretto by Marius Petipa, based on the 1822 novella Trilby, ou Le Lutin d'Argail by Charles Nodier. The ballet was first presented by the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre on January 25/February 6 (Julian/Gregorian calendar dates), 1870, in Moscow with Polina Karpakova as Trilby and Ludiia Geiten as Miranda. It was later restaged by Petipa for the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre on January 17–29, 1871 in St. Petersburg with Adèle Grantzow as Trilby and Lev Ivanov as Count Leopold. Petipa made a more direct adaptation of Nodier’s novella. The famous variation for the male dancer in the Le Corsaire pas de deux is from Gerber's score for Trilby; a painting of dancers from the ballet in costume (as fledglings emerging from the shell) by Viktor Hartmann was one of the paintings which inspired Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky.

Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux

Ballet · 1960

Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to a composition by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky originally intended for act 3 of Swan Lake (Op. 20, 1875–76). With costumes by Barbara Karinska and lighting by Jack Owen Brown, it was first presented by New York City Ballet at the City Center of Music and Drama, New York, on 29 March 1960. Robert Irving conducted the New York City Ballet Orchestra. The dancers were Violette Verdy and Conrad Ludlow.

Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2

Ballet · 1941

Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, also titled Ballet Imperial, is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 2. Ballet Imperial was choreographed for American Ballet Caravan's 1941 South American tour, and was aimed at showing that the Americans were capable of the classical ballet traditions. The ballet pays tribute to Tchaikovsky, the classical ballet choreographer Marius Petipa, and Imperial Saint Petersburg, where Balanchine received his ballet training. The ballet featured academic steps and alludes to Imperial Russia through the costumes and scenery. Ballet Imperial premiered on June 25, 1941, at Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro. In 1973, Balanchine, believing the audience no longer needed elaborate costumes and scenery to understand a ballet, removed all allusions to Imperial Russia and renamed it Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, with the ballet now standing in relation to the music alone. The ballet has been performed by several ballet companies, including Balanchine's New York City Ballet, though some troupes still perform the ballet as Ballet Imperial, including American Ballet Theatre.

Télémaque dans l'île de Calypso

Ballet · 1790

Translated to English as Telemachus on the Island of Calypso, the French ballet is based on the story from Greek mythology where Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, visits the island of Calypso. Act I opens on Calypso's island, where a storm subsides. Mentor and Telemachus, survivors of a shipwreck, arrive on the shore, mourning their lost companions. Mentor warns of the island’s dangers, but Calypso and her nymphs greet them warmly. Calypso, recognizing Telemachus as Odysseus's son, takes a special interest in him. She organizes games, where nymph Eucharis wins multiple contests and captures Telemachus’s attention. Despite Mentor’s warnings, Telemachus is drawn to her. Calypso confesses her love and offers him immortality. The act ends with festivities fading into the night. The second act begins with Telemachus sleeping in a garden, and Calypso, in love, has nymphs prepare a garland for him. He meets Eucharis and, though charmed, remains cautious. Meanwhile, Venus grants Calypso Cupid’s power, causing romantic confusion among the nymphs. Telemachus and Eucharis's attraction deepens, leading to a passionate exchange. Mentor manipulates Calypso's jealousy to help Telemachus escape. Reluctantly, Calypso allows his departure, and preparations for a ship are made. The act ends with Calypso’s anguish and ominous threats to Eucharis. In act III, Eucharis prepares for a hunt in her grotto, with help from Venus, Love, and the Graces. Calypso, disguised as Diana, confronts her out of jealousy, but Telemachus steps in to protect her. Calypso hesitates to act. Mentor, disguised as Minerva, completes a ship to take Telemachus away. Love and the nymphs seduce Telemachus back into Eucharis's arms, causing him to change his mind. Calypso, pretending to repent, manipulates them into hiding Eucharis on the ship. The ship is set ablaze by Bacchantes, but Love rescues Eucharis. As the ship burns, Telemachus and Mentor jump into the sea, and the curtain falls on the chaos.

Vision of the Apocalypse

Ballet · 1929

Subtitled Theme and Variations, the ballet was danced in nine sections: Vision, Toil, Famine, Blasphemy, Ruthlessness, Pestilence, Mourning, Prayer and Death. Graham did not appear in the dance, which was performed by Kitty Reese and company members. Each episode was intended to reflect the emotional experiences of "a young monk contemplating the sorrows of the world." Elevated on a platform above stage level, Reese portrayed the monk, reacting to the dancers below by means of pantomime. The chorus was costumed in black and gray, which combined with the "wooden impersonality and drive" of its movements, created a sinister mood.

West Side Story Suite

Ballet · 1995

West Side Story Suite is a ballet suite choreographed by Jerome Robbins. Robbins conceived, directed and choreographed the 1957 musical West Side Story, then co-directed its 1961 film adaptation, before including parts of the choreography in the anthology Jerome Robbins' Broadway. Robbins developed the latter to the ballet West Side Story Suite for the New York City Ballet, which premiered on May 18, 1995, at the New York State Theater.

Western Symphony

Ballet · 1954

Western Symphony is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to American folk tunes arranged by Hershy Kay. It premiered on September 7, 1954 at the City Center of Music and Drama in New York. The ballet was originally presented in practice clothes without scenery. Scenery by John Boyt and costumes by Karinska were added in 1955. Lighting was originally by Jean Rosenthal and subsequently Mark Stanley. Set in the Western United States, the ballet features cowboys and dance hall girls (or saloon girls).

Winter Dreams

Ballet · 1991

Olga, the eldest of the three sisters, is the matriarchal figure of the Prozorov family, though she is still a young woman. She has given up hope of marriage and has dedicated herself to the exhausting life of a high-school teacher. Masha, the middle sister, finds herself trapped in an unbearable marriage to a boring schoolmaster. She falls passionately in love, for the first time, with the idealistic Colonel Vershinin, the commander of the local army garrison. They begin a clandestine affair. When he is transferred away, she is crushed but returns to life with her forgiving husband. Irina, the youngest sister, has a romantic view of life. While longing for the excitement of Moscow, she works in a dreary job with the local town council. Just as she is about to escape to a marriage of convenience with Baron Tusenbach, he is killed in a duel with a rival suitor. The sisters' brother, Andrey, is married to Natasha, a social climber who has ambitions of taking over the family home. Observing the passions and disappointments of them all are Doctor Chebutykin, a family friend, and Anfisa, the sisters' former nanny.

Études

Ballet · 1948

Études is a one-act ballet choreographed by Danish dancer and choreographer Harald Lander to piano studies by Carl Czerny arranged for orchestra by Knudåge Riisager. It is considered Lander's most famous choreographic work and brought him international fame. The work premiered on 15 January 1948 at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen with the Royal Danish Ballet, with scenery and costumes by Rolf Gerard and lighting by Nananne Porcher. Études is considered an homage to classical ballet training. It begins with traditional ballet exercises at the barre and ends with spectacular bravura displays. The original cast included: Margot Lander, Hans Brenaa, Svend Erik Jensen, Inge Sand and Inge Goth. Its ABT premiere at the 54th Street Theatre in New York took place on 5 October 1961 and featured dancers Toni Lander, Royes Fernandez, Bruce Marks, Eleanor D'Antuono and Elisabeth Carroll.

Špalíček

Ballet · 1933

In the prologue a chorus of children play four song and dance games where the fairy tale action is danced while singers narrate the stories. which include the chicken and a hen; the former chokes on a large grain of corn and needs to swallow it with water. The hen tries the spring, dress-maker and tailor, but heaven sends the water to save the chicken's life. Then comes Puss in Boots, again with much dance, but no chorus. Three children's games follow: the maidens, the water-sprite, and the wolf. Act II depicts the story of the Cobbler and Death: an old shoemaker falls out with his neighbours and leaves his home. A butterfly leads him to a black tower in which a princess is held prisoner by a giant. Between them the butterfly and cobbler free the princess and he wins a sack inside of which is death; as long as he wanders abroad with death no one dies, but, exhausted he arrives at heaven and the sack is opened. This tale is mostly danced. Act III opens with the legend of Dorothea of Caesarea where the girl is killed by a crowd, but the mood changes for Cinderella set in a Czech village, finishing with waltzes to be danced at her wedding.

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