| Les Sylphides | |
|---|---|
 Anna Pavlova in Les Sylphides, 1909 | |
| Choreographer | Mikhail Fokine |
| Music | Frédéric Chopin, Alexander Glazunov |
| Based on | Chopiniana |
| Premiere | (as Chopiniana): 1907, Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg, Russia (as Les Sylphides): 2 June 1909, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris |
| Original ballet company | Ballets Russes |
| Characters | the poet, sylphs |
| Design | Alexandre Benois (set) Léon Bakst (costumes) |
| Created for | Tamara Karsavina, Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, and Alexandra Baldina |
| Genre | Ballet blanc |
| Type | Romantic reverie |
Les Sylphides (French: [le silfid]) is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc to piano music by Frédéric Chopin, selected and orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov.
The ballet, described as a "romantic reverie",[1][2] is frequently cited as the first ballet to be simply about mood and dance.[1] Les Sylphides has no plot but instead consists of several white-clad sylphs dancing in the moonlight with the "poet" or "young man" dressed in white tights and a black tunic.
Its original choreography was by Michel Fokine, with Chopin's music orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. Glazunov had already set some of the music in 1892 as a purely orchestral suite, under the title Chopiniana, Op. 46.[3] In that form, it was introduced to the public in December 1893, conducted by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
- ^ a b "Ballet Theater", until 1955. A compact disk of ABT's production, with Mikhail Baryshnikov as the dreamer, is available from Kultor, entitled "American Ballet Theatre at the Met – Mixed Bill (1985)". [relevant?]
- ^ See Olga Maynard's definitive account, based on information from Fokine's son Vitale Fokine: "Les Sylphides", Dance Magazine Portfolio: December 1971, advertised separately by some online booksellers.
- ^ For a list of other works in which a composer paid tribute to another composer by using their name in conjunction with the suffix -ana, see -ana.