APPROXIMATE SONATA | BALLET IMPERIAL | LA BAYADERE | CHOPINIANA | DIANA AND ACTEON | DON QUIXOTE | ETUDES | JEWELS | IN THE MIDDLE, SOMEWHAT ELEVATED | LE SPECTRE DE LA ROSE | PAQUITA | PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 | RAYMONDA | SCHEHEREZADE | SERENADE | STEPTEXT | LE CORSAIRE-LE JARDIN ANIMEE
THE DYING SWAN | THE VERTIGINOUS THRILL OF EXACTITUDE

PIANO CONCERTO No. 2 (BALLET IMPERIAL)

Music by PYOTR TCHAIKOVSKY (Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Major)
 Choreography by GEORGE BALANCHINE
Staging by COLLEEN NEARY
Costumes after KARINSKA, realized by TATIANA NOGINOVA Lighting by MARK STANLEY, realized by VLADIMIR LUKASHEVICH

World premiere:  Under the title of “Ballet Imperial” June 25, 1941, American Ballet Caravan, Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro
New Production under the title “Piano Concerto No. 2: January 12, 1973,
 New York City Ballet, New York State Theatre, New York
Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: April 13, 2004, St. Petersburg

The Ballet of George Balanchine Apollo 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 Trust

The Mariinsky Theatre would like to express its gratitude to Mrs. Bettina von Siemens for her support in bringing the “Ballet of George Balanchine” project to life

At the premiere, the ballerina’s gold-brocaded corsage was decorated with a blue ribbon and diamond-studded pins, the imperial Russian eagle hung from the flies, the black drop was decorated with a fantastic Piranesi-style panorama (a Rostral Column, the Neva, the Peter and Pual Fortness, the heavy drapes of an imperial cloak – production was designed by Petersburg artist Mstislav Dobuzhinsky), Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky resounded from orchestra pit and all this together was named Ballet Imperial, in sense “the- Russia-the-had-lost”. We can say that over the years Balanchine became more severe and less sentimental. We can say that over the years Balanchine became more refined, seeing for himself that Petersburg, with its guardsmen and ladies-in-waiting, shown through music by Tchaikovsky with eagles boot was somewhat akin to the “Egyptian” Luxor hotel in Las Vegas. So now this ballet carries an honest name, the name of the music, and the dance4s are dressed in what could almost be called working uniforms.

 

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