George Balanchine Foundation Interpreters Archive (male solo), forthcoming
Note
Included in the Stravinsky Festival. Unlike Balanchine’s earlier staging of Le Baiser de la Fée as a narrative ballet, the Divertimento tells no story, although certain sections suggest quest and foreboding. Despite the ballet’s title, it appears that Stravinsky’s Divertimento concert suite of 1934 did not figure in Balanchine’s musical selections, which he drew (and edited extensively) from the full ballet score of 1928. (Some but not all of the same musical material occurs in the Divertimento.) (See FESTIVALS DIRECTED BY BALANCHINE.)
Additional Productions
Revisions
1974, New York City Ballet: New pas de deux (with ensemble) added; two principal dancers bid farewell in elegiac conclusion to music from the score of Le Baiser de la Fée that incorporates Tchaikovsky’s ‘None But the Lonely Heart’; some years later the ending of the male solo was modified to include deeper knee bends.
Additional music information provided by Gordon Boelzner, Stephanie Jordan; additional revisions information provided by Nancy Goldner, Patricia McBride, Helgi Tomasson
271. The Fairy's Kiss (Le Baiser de la Fée) 1950
Ballet-Allegory in Four Scenes
Music
Igor Stravinsky (1928, commissioned by Ida Rubinstein, dedicated to Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky). Based on a tale by Hans Christian Andersen (The Ice Maiden)
Choreography
George Balanchine
Production
Scenery and costumes by Alice Halicka (from the 1937 production). Lighting by Jean Rosenthal
Premiere
November 28, 1950, New York City Ballet, City Center of Music and Drama, New York. Conductor: Leon Barzin
Cast
The Fairy, Maria Tallchief; The Bride, Tanaquil Le Clercq; Her Friend, Patricia Wilde; The Bridegroom, Nicholas Magallanes; His Mother, Beatrice Tompkins; Shadow, Helen Kramer; Winds, Snowflakes, Mountaineers, Bridesmaids, Peasants
Performance Type
Ballet
See Also
133.7. La Prédiction, *178. Le Baiser de la Fée, 376. Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée'
Originally presented by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Paris, 1928. Performed with the new works The Card Party and Le Baiser de la Fée as a Stravinsky Festival (April 27 and 28, 1937) by the American Ballet while in residence at the Metropolitan Opera House as the American Ballet Ensemble.
133.7. La Prédiction 1932
Music
Igor Stravinsky (from Le Baiser de la Fée, 1928)
Choreography
George Balanchine
Production
Costume by Christian Bérard
Premiere
June 29, 1932, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris. Conductor: Roger Désormière. (Earlier in the summer performed in Brussels, for which no program has been found.)
Cast
Alice Nikitina, Anatole Vilzak
Performance Type
Concert Works
See Also
133.1. Caprice, 133.1a. [Dances for Josephine Baker], *178. Le Baiser de la Fée, 271. The Fairy's Kiss (Le Baiser de la Fée), 376. Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée'
A young man meets a fairy disguised as a fortune teller. She predicts a sad future. He tries to flee, but suddenly appearing as her true self, the fairy seduces the young man, who dies from her kiss.
