53. Barabau 1925
Ballet Chorus
- Music
Vittorio Rieti (expanded to an orchestral score with chorus from an existing a cappella cantata, Barabau, on commission from Serge Diaghilev, 1925)
- Choreography
George Balanchine
- Production
Scenery and costumes by Maurice Utrillo. Scenery executed by Prince A. Schervashidze; costumes executed by Alias and Morris Angel
- Premiere
December 11, 1925, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Coliseum, London. Conductor: Roger Desormière
- Cast
Barabau, Léon Woizikowsky; Sergeant, Serge Lifar; Servants of Barabau, Alice Nikitina, Alexandra Danilova, Tamara Geva; Peasants, 3 men, 3 women; 6 Soldiers. Chorus on stage
Performance Type
Ballet
Note
Balanchine’s first original ballet for Diaghilev. Rieti based the plot on an Italian nursery rhyme: When a village party in Barabau’s garden is disrupted by soldiers, Barabau feigns death; the villagers carry him mournfully to church, but as soon as the soldiers depart he revives, and they return him to his home in triumph.
Additional Productions
Revisions
1931 Royal Danish Ballet
Revisions information in Hilary Ostlere, ‘Rieti and Balanchine’, Ballet Review 10:1 (Spring 1982), p. 8.
