Premiere: 21 May 1929,Les Ballets Russes de Serge de Diaghilev, Thйвtre Sarah-Bernhardt, Paris Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: 14 December 2001
Running time 40 minutes
The Ballet of George BalanchineProdigal Sonis presented by arrangement withThe George Balanchine Trustand has been produced in accordance with theBalanchine Style®andBalanchine Technique®service standards established and provided by the Trust The Mariinsky Theatre would like to express its gratitude to Mrs Bettina von Siemensfor her support in bringing the "Ballets of George Balanchine"project to life
TheProdigal Sonwas the last work Balanchine made for Diaghilev’sBallets russesin 1929 with Serge Lifar in the role of the Prodigal Son; it was revived in 1950 by the New York City Ballet with Jerome Robbins in the title role. Its music, by Prokofiev, was written for the ballet, and its costumes and decor were created by Rouault, making it a perfect example of the collaborative efforts among artists that produced some of the best works of the Diaghilev era. New for a Diaghilev ballet was the Biblical theme and the religious spirit. In seeking eternal themes and turning to past artistic devices, western artists were trying to avoid the complete itellectual and artistic degeneration towards which their rootless experimentation was leading.Prodigal Sonanticipated the trend toward religion of the 1930s and 40s. It was Diaghilev’s fate that he would always be ahead of fashion, even when he believed he had turned his back on vogue. The return of Prodigal Sonto St Petersburg is of great significance. For the first time, a ballet of the most radical, late period of Diaghilev’sLes Saisons russeshas returned to the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. That period of Russian and world ballet has been come home, which until recently was under artistic (avant-garde aesthetics of the late Diaghilev era) and ideological (use of religious motifs) censorship. With the return of Prodigal Son, the Mariinsky Theatre and its generation of young dancers have begun to restore an objective picture of the development of ballet in the 20thcentury.
Le Jeune Homme et la Mort
Running time 16 minutes
Le Jeune Homme et la Mortis one of the earliest and most famous works by Roland Petit. The ballet was staged in post-war Paris in 1946 for the recently established company Les Ballets des Champs-Йlysйes. The ballet by Roland Petit which we know today is considered based on mime drama by Jean Cocteau. In actual fact, both the theme of relationships between an artist and death and the very image of a girl as death and lovers as death were key themes for Cocteau; he had his own accounts to settle with women and he himself was an artist.
A studio. The artist is unable to relax as he waits in torment. A woman appears: mysterious, sharp and heartless – the typical crafty Parisian woman – and during her brief visit she prompts the Youth to commit suicide. Moreover, she is, in fact, Death itself, its unique and original personification.