339. Valses et Variations (Raymonda Variations) 1961

Alexander Glazounov (from Raymonda, Op. 57, produced 1898)

George Balanchine

Scenery by Horace Armistead (from Lilac Garden [Tudor], 1951). Costumes by Karinska. Lighting by David Hays

December 7, 1961, New York City Ballet, City Center of Music and Drama, New York. Conductor: Robert Irving

VALSE: Patricia Wilde, 12 women;
PAS DE DEUX: Wilde, Jacques d’Amboise;
VARIATION I: Victoria Simon;
VARIATION II: Suki Schorer;
VARIATION III: d’Amboise;
VARIATION IV: Wilde;
VARIATION V: Gloria Govrin;
VARIATION VI: Carol Sumner;
VARIATION VII: Patricia Neary;
VARIATION VIII: d’Amboise;
VARIATION IX: Wilde;
CODA AND FINALE: Wilde, d’Amboise, ensemble

Performance Type

Ballet

See Also

Video Archives Recording

George Balanchine Foundation Interpreters Archive (PAS DE DEUX; VARIATIONS IV, IX), 1996; George Balanchine Foundation Archive of Lost Choreography (VARIATIONS II, III), 2000

Note

To selections from the score of Raymonda, Balanchine developed in his twentieth-century terms the heritage of the three-act Petipa original of 1898. Unlike Pas de Dix [309] and Cortège Hongrois [384], also set to various excerpts from Raymonda, the choreography is completely new; there are no Petipa quotations.

Stagings

1958   Eglevsky Ballet Company
1966   Eglevsky Ballet Company
1967   Atlanta Ballet
1968   Geneva Ballet (Grand Theatre de Geneve [Ballet])
1971   Houston Ballet (titled Waltz and Variations)
1973   Los Angeles Ballet
1975   Pennsylvania Ballet
1976   Chicago Lyric Opera Ballet (in 1980 separated from Chicago Lyric Opera to form Chicago City Ballet [closed])
1977   Pennsylvania Ballet
1981   Alabama Ballet/Ballet South
1982   Dance Theatre of Harlem
1982   Richmond Ballet, The State Ballet of Virginia
1983   Alabama Ballet/Ballet South
1983   Cincinnati Ballet
1983   Louisville Ballet
1983   Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
1984   Atlanta Ballet
1985   Milwaukee Ballet
1986   Louisville Ballet
1986   Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
1987   Texas Ballet (formerly Fort Worth Dallas Ballet)
1988   Cincinnati Ballet
1988   Pennsylvania Ballet
1989   Kansas City Ballet
1990   Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
1990   Texas Ballet (formerly Fort Worth Dallas Ballet)
1991   Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo
1992   Pennsylvania Ballet
1993   Miami City Ballet
1993   Texas Ballet (formerly Fort Worth Dallas Ballet)
1995   Pennsylvania Ballet
1996   Carolina Ballet Theatre
1996   Miami City Ballet
1997   Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse
1997   Texas Ballet (formerly Fort Worth Dallas Ballet)
1998   Miami City Ballet
2000   Chautauqua Institution (New York)
2000   Kalamazoo Ballet Company
2001   Pennsylvania Ballet
2003   Pacific Arts Dance Center
2005   Pennsylvania Ballet
2007   Miami City Ballet
2007   North Carolina Dance Theatre
2008   Carolina Ballet
2008   The Portland Ballet
2011   Ballet du Capitole of Toulouse
2011   Los Angeles Ballet
2011   Pennsylvania Ballet
2013   Carolina Ballet
2015   Miami City Ballet
2019   Nevada Ballet Theatre
2020   Avant Chamber Ballet

Source Notes

Doug Fullington (Petipa quotations)