Balanchine Catalogue Archive
Search by title, year, composer, cast or production details.
376. Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée' 1972
- Music
Igor Stravinsky (excerpts from the full-length ballet, Le Baiser de la Fée, 1928)
- Choreography
George Balanchine
- Production
Costumes by Eugene Berman (from Roma [306]). Lighting by Ronald Bates
- Premiere
June 21, 1972, New York City Ballet, New York State Theater. Conductor: Robert Irving
- Cast
Patricia McBride, Helgi Tomasson; Bettijane Sills, Carol Sumner, 10 women
Performance Type
Ballet
See Also
-
133.7. La Prédiction,
*178. Le Baiser de la Fée,
271. The Fairy's Kiss (Le Baiser de la Fée)
Video Archives Recording
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.
Stagings
2001 Chautauqua Institution (New York)
2022 City Ballet of San Diego
Recorded Performances
Videos/DVD
2002, George Balanchine Foundation, Music Dances: Balanchine Choreographs Stravinsky (male solo)
Film
1973, RM Productions
Television
1973 (RM Productions)
Source Notes
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'
Note
Originally presented by the American Ballet (Stravinsky Festival), New York, 1937.
176. Apollon Musagète 1937
- Music
Igor Stravinsky (Apollo Musagetes, 1927-28, commissioned by Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge)
- Choreography
George Balanchine
- Production
Scenery and costumes by Stewart Chaney. Scenery executed by Studio Alliance; costumes executed by Helene Pons Studio. Wigs executed by Barris
- Premiere
April 27, 1937, American Ballet, Metropolitan Opera, New York. Conductor: Igor Stravinsky
- Cast
Apollo, Leader of the Muses, Lew Christensen; Terpsichore, Elise Reiman; Calliope, Daphne Vane; Polyhymnia, Holly Howard; 2 Nymphs; Leto, Mother of Apollo, Jane Burkhalter
Performance Type
Ballet
See Also
-
*84. Apollon Musagète,
198. Apolo Musageta (Apollon Musagète),
284. Apollo, Leader of the Muses
Note
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'
Note
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.
Source Notes
This and other numbers in the same concert (133.1-133.9) are described in Nikitina: By Herself, pp. 113-15. Concert program located by Barbara Newman.
