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KIROV BALLET & ORCHESTRA NEW YORK CITY CENTER SEASON
(Apr 1-Apr 20, 2008)
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
SCHEHEREZADE Choreographic drama in one act Music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Symphony suite Scheherazade) World premiere: 4 June 1910, Les Ballet Russes
de Serge de Diaghilev, Theatre de l’Opera, Paris
Michael Fokine staged Scheherazade in 1910, though to his great annoyance it was referred to as “Bakst’s ballet”. The combination of greens, blues and oranges was considered the height of bad taste. But Bakst had chosen these colours deliberately, using each in their pure intensity. Paris fashion was immediately gripped by fervour - tailors suddenly started making oriental Arabian pants, and jewelers had orders for turban ornaments a la Nijinsky, who had performed the role of the Golden Slave. The European cinema industry, still in its infancy, launched a series of sultry eastern tales. The public adored it all: Nijinsky’s animalistic grace, Ida Rubinstein’s biblical beauty as the unfaithful Sultana, the sexual convulsions, boldly rhythmical with the death convulsions in the finale when the wrathful Shah and his retinue slay the faithless harem…The old tried and tested formula of “love equals blood”. But no-one thought it banal. In explaining the secret, Fokine, either jokingly or in all seriousness, said that he lifted techniques from the French wrestling he loved so much and placed them into a new ballet. As far as observing the traditions of good taste is concerned Bakst’s green, blue and orange stage curtains were no different. It was too unexpected for the public not to adore it immediately, with a passion, and for all time.
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