SIGNATURES PIECES
IN THE NIGHT
by Jerome Robbins
A travelling companion of George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins is a leading figure in American neoclassicism. He considered the Paris Opera Ballet his second family after the New York City Ballet. Set to the lyrical backdrop of Chopin’s Nocturnes, In the Night uses classical technique to tell a moving story. Three couples embody three moments in the life of love: discovery, fulfilment and turmoil, against the backdrop of a starry night.
GRAND PAS CLASSIQUE
by Victor Gsovsky
Victor Gsovsky wanted to offer the ballerina Étoile Yvette Chauviré, then his student, a jewel of pure classicism. Created in 1949, Grand Pas classique displays virtuoso and majestic technique to an excerpt from the opera Le Dieu et La Bayadère by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber. When the Opera dancers perform Grand Pas classique, they always pay tribute to the woman who embodied the French school at its best.
LE JEUNE HOMME ET LA MORT
by Roland Petit
Trained at the Opéra Ballet School, Roland Petit soon left the company to pursue his own career as a choreographer and performer. Created in 1946, Le jeune homme et la mort is a disturbing duet based on a libretto by Jean Cocteau and music by Johann Sebastian Bach. In Le jeune homme et la mort, destiny takes the form of a woman in a yellow dress and black gloves who toys with her lover until he commits suicide.
LE PARC
by Angelin Preljocaj
In this piece conceived for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1994, Angelin Preljocaj manages to create a subtle balance between the classical spirit of Mozart’s music and the modernity of choreographic language. The sets evoke the elegance and delicacy of French gardens, and the costumes are inspired by those of the Age of Enlightenment. The dancers awaken to love, from their first encounter to games of seduction, from shyness to attraction, from resistance to the sweetness of abandonment in the flight of a sublime pas de deux.
RAYMONDA
by Rudolf Nureyev
Raymonda, created in 1898 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg to the sparkling score by Aleksandr Glazunov, was Marius Petipa’s last great narrative ballet. A true medieval fantasy, considered an encyclopaedia of classical ballet forms, this work tells the love story of the young Raymonda and the knight Jean de Brienne, who must face the lust of the Saracen leader Abderam. Long unknown outside Russia, the ballet was restaged several times by Rudolf Nureyev after his move to the West. The choreographer put the finishing touches to it in 1983, when he took up the post of director of dance at the Paris Opera.
BALLET DE L’OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS
The Opéra National de Paris ballet is the cradle of classical dance. The principles and codes of choreographic technique, imported from Italy by Queen Catherine de Medici in the 16th century, were patiently shaped and perfected in court ballets, then under the reign of Louis XIV. The Sun King founded the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661, the first French institution responsible for establishing the rules of dance and its teaching. In 1669, he inaugurated the Académie Royale de Musique (the original name of the Paris Opera), which included the first professional ballet company in Europe. Finally, when he established a dance school in 1713, initially intended for the company’s artists, the conditions necessary for the continuity of a high-quality company were met.
Since then, the Opéra National de Paris Ballet has continued to evolve. Starting in the 18th century, French dancers and choreographers spread their art throughout Europe. Jean-Georges Noverre (in Germany, London and Vienna), August Bournonville (in Denmark), Charles-Louis Didelot, Jules Perrot, Arthur Saint-Léon and Marius Petipa (in Russia), as well as the Viganò and Taglioni families (in Italy) were the illustrious figures behind these exchanges. This research effort culminated in the 19th century with the creation of La Sylphide by Philippe Taglioni (1832), the first ballet in “white tutu”, and Giselle by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot (1841), which marked the height of the Romantic period. Today, the Ballet, under the direction of José Martinez since 2022, remains a centre of living art, alternating revivals and new creations and programming the greatest choreographers: George Balanchine, Serge Lifar, Kenneth MacMillan, Roland Petit, Jerome Robbins, John Neumeier, John Cranko, Pina Bausch, Maurice Béjart, Carolyn Carlson, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, Hofesh Shechter, Crystal Pite… In 2024, the Junior Ballet was created with the aim of diversifying the profiles of dancers, promoting their professional integration, strengthening openness to the public through tours and outreach activities, while perpetuating the three-century-old know-how of the Paris Opera.
SPONSOR
CHANEL: Grand Mécène de l’Opéra National de Paris
ROLEX: Montre de l’Opéra National de Paris
CACIB: Mécène du Rayonnement de l’Opéra
