What is the story of the ballet Les Sylphides?
What is the story of the ballet Les Sylphides?
Synopsis. The story of La Sylphide concerns a young Scotsman, James, who is about to be married to Effie. The morning of the wedding day, James is dozing in a chair by the fire when a Sylphide appears beside him and wakens him with an airy kiss. She dances for him before she vanishes up the chimney.
Who created Les Sylphides?
Michael Fokine
Les Sylphides, not to be confused with La Sylphide (a Romantic two-act ballet choreographed by August Bournonville in 1836) is considered the first plotless, or abstract, ballet. It was choreographed by Michael Fokine and premiered in 1909 in Paris with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.
What is Michel Fokine known for?
Fokine staged more than eighty ballets in Europe and the United States. His best-known works were Chopiniana, Le Carnaval (1910), and Le Pavillon d’Armide (1907). His pieces are still performed internationally. The Mariinsky Ballet performed a retrospective of Fokine’s work at London’s Covent Garden in July 2011.
Who choreographed La Sylphide?
My passion for La Sylphide, a ballet choreographed by Filippo Taglioni in 1832 to music by Schneitzhoeffer, goes back to my childhood. At the age of 10, I entered the Paris Opera Ballet School, which in those days was located at the Palais Garnier.
What does Sylphide mean in English?
A young sylph
sylphide (plural sylphides) A young sylph.
What is the historical significance of La Sylphide?
His version of the ballet, first performed in Copenhagen in 1836, became the cornerstone of the Romantic ballet tradition. It set an important precedent in the world of ballet.
When was Les Sylphides created?
2 June 1909
| Les Sylphides | |
|---|---|
| Premiere | (as Chopiniana): 1907, Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg, Russia (as Les Sylphides): 2 June 1909, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris |
| Original ballet company | Ballets Russes |
| Characters | the poet, sylphs |
| Design | Alexandre Benois (set) Léon Bakst (costumes) |
What did Fokine do for ballet?
Fokine’s influence on modern ballet has been profound. He was a choreographer of enormous impact, composing 68 original works.
Who was the Russian ballerina famous for her dying swan?
Anna Pavlova
Four Minutes a Dying Swan: Anna Pavlova and Becoming the Symbol of the New Russian Ballet.
Who was the best dancer in 17th century palace Versailles?
Jean-Baptiste Lully. Perhaps one of the most influential men on ballet during the seventeenth century was Jean Baptiste Lully. Lully was born in Italy, but moved to France where he quickly became a favorite of Louis XIV and performed alongside the king in many ballets until the king’s retirement from dance in 1670.
What Undine means?
Definition of undine : an elemental being in the theory of Paracelsus inhabiting water : water nymph.
Who is Madge in La Sylphide?
In the end, Bournonville mounted his own production of La Sylphide based on the original libretto, with music by Herman Severin Løvenskiold….Bournonville version.
| La Sylphide | |
|---|---|
| Characters | James Ruben The Sylph Gurn Effie Old Madge Effie’s mother |
| Setting | Scotland |
| Created for | Lucile Grahn and August Bournonville |
Who first performed La Sylphide?
Marie Taglioni
It was first performed by Marie Taglioni as La Sylphide and Mazilier as James, the 2 main characters.
How does the story of Giselle end?
In disbelief Giselle breaks the two apart and declares her love for Albrecht. Bathilde announces that she is betrothed to Albrecht. Giselle falls into a state of despair. Her emotional condition descends until a fit of madness causes her weak heart to stop beating and she dies.
What is a Wili in Giselle?
The “Wilis” in Giselle are ghostly spirits of dead girls jilted on their wedding day. They force men to dance to their deaths – a real “case of the wilis!” Some have traced “Wili” to a Slavic witch-spirit associated with water; the name is a cognate of the Scandinavian “Valkyrie” of Opera fame.
Who danced the Dying Swan?
ballerina Anna Pavlova
The Dying Swan (originally The Swan) is a solo dance choreographed by Mikhail Fokine to Camille Saint-Saëns’s Le Cygne from Le Carnaval des animaux as a pièce d’occasion for the ballerina Anna Pavlova, who performed it about 4,000 times.
Which French king made ballet extremely popular during his reign?
The official terminology and vocabulary of ballet was gradually codified in French over the next 100 years, and during the reign of Louis XIV, the king himself performed many of the popular dances of the time.
Who is Mikhail Mikhailovitch Fokine?
The choreographer, dancer, teacher and reformer of ballet, Mikhail Mikhailovitch Fokine, was born in St. Petersburg on April 26, 1880, the son of an affluent businessman. He was enrolled in the Imperial School of Ballet at the age of nine and first studied with Platon Karsavin, the father of the ballerina, Tamara Karsavina.
What was Fokine’s relationship with the Diaghilev Ballet?
Fokine’s relationship with the Diaghilev ballet deteriorated when Diaghilev launched Nijinsky as choreographer; but he remained with the company until 1914, when he returned to Russia.
What is Michel Fokine famous for?
Michel Fokine. Michael Fokine (French transliteration Michel Fokine; English transliteration Mikhail Fokin; Russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Фо́кин, Mikhaíl Mikháylovich Fokín) (23 April [O.S. 11 April] 1880 – 22 August 1942) was a groundbreaking Russian choreographer and dancer.
What is the plot of Les Sylphides?
Les Sylphides has no plot but instead consists of several white-clad sylphs dancing in the moonlight with the “poet” or “young man” dressed in white tights and a black tunic. Its original choreography was by Michel Fokine, with Chopin’s music orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jWDSJit0iY
