Swan Lake, Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failure, it is now one of the most popular ballets of all time.
The Nutcracker, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination. The plot is an adaptation of E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 short story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The ballet's first choreographer was Marius Petipa, with whom Tchaikovsky had worked three years earlier on The Sleeping Beauty, assisted by Lev Ivanov. Although the complete and staged The Nutcracker ballet was not as successful as had been the 20-minute Nutcracker Suite that Tchaikovsky had premiered nine months earlier, The Nutcracker soon became popular.
Antal Doráti was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1943.
Ballet as a music form progressed from simply a complement to dance, to a concrete compositional form that often had as much value as the dance that went along with it. The dance form, originating in France during the 17th century, began as a theatrical dance. It was not until the 19th century that ballet gained status as a "classical" form. In ballet, the terms 'classical' and 'romantic' are chronologically reversed from musical usage. Thus, the 19th century Classical period in ballet coincided with the 19th century Romantic era in music. Ballet music composers from the 17th–20th centuries, including the likes of Jean-Baptiste Lully, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky, and Sergei Prokofiev, were predominantly in France and Russia. Yet with the increased international notoriety seen in Tchaikovsky's and Stravinsky's lifetime, ballet music composition and ballet in general spread across the western world.
The Mariinsky Ballet is the resident classical ballet company of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Marius Ivanovich Petipa, born Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa, was a French and Russian ballet dancer, pedagogue and choreographer. Petipa is one of the most influential ballet masters and choreographers in ballet history.
Lev Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer and later, Second Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet. As a performer with the Imperial Ballet, he achieved prominence after performing as an understudy in a benefit performance of La Fille Mal Gardée. He is most famous as the choreographer of Acts II and IV of Swan Lake, which include the Dance of the Little Swans, Act II of Cinderella, and The Nutcracker, which he choreographed alongside Marius Petipa.
William Harold Wheeler Jr., is an American orchestrator, composer, conductor, arranger, record producer, and music director. He has received numerous Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations for orchestration, and won the 2003 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations for Hairspray.
Riccardo Eugenio Drigo was an Italian composer of ballet music and Italian opera, a theatrical conductor, and a pianist.
Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky was the Director of the Imperial Theatres in Russia from 1881 to 1898 and director of the Hermitage from 1899 to his death in 1909.
Sir Anthony James Dowell is a retired British ballet dancer and a former artistic director of the Royal Ballet. He is widely recognized as one of the great danseurs nobles of the twentieth century.
The Cape Town City Ballet Company, formerly known as the CAPAB Ballet Company, is a dance company based in Cape Town, South Africa.
The 1895 Petipa/Ivanov/Drigo revival of Swan Lake is a famous version of the ballet Swan Lake,, . This is a ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky based on an ancient German legend, presented in either four acts, four scenes, three acts, four scenes or, more rarely, in two acts, four scenes. Originally choreographed by Julius Reisinger to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, it was first presented as The Lake of the Swans by the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre on 20 February/4 March 1877 in Moscow, Russia. Although the ballet is presented in many different versions, most ballet companies today base their stagings both choreographically and musically on this revival by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, staged for the Imperial Ballet, first presented on 15 January/27 January 1895, at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia instead of the original version.
The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre (SPBT) is a Russian classical ballet company. It was founded in 1994 by Konstantin Tachkin, who has continued to direct the company over its 25-year history. The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre is housed in a complex on Liteyniy prospect, situated in the heart of Saint-Petersburg, which in Imperial Russia had served as the House of Officers.
The Singapore Ballet is Singapore's national dance company, founded in 1988 by Anthony Then and Goh Soo Khim. The Artistic Director of the company is Janek Schergen.
Robert Augustine Irving, DFC*, was a British conductor whose reputation was mainly as a ballet conductor.
Alexander Gorsky, a Russian ballet choreographer and a contemporary of Marius Petipa, is known for restaging Petipa's classical ballets such as Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and The Nutcracker. Gorsky “sought greater naturalism, realism, and characterization” in ballet. He valued acting skills over bravura technique. His interpretations of ballets were often controversial and he often used artists outside the dance world to create sets and costumes.
Adam Sztaba is a Polish composer, music producer, conductor, arranger, pianist and television personality.
The Swingin' Nutcracker is a 1960 RCA Victor album by American jazz trumpeter and arranger Shorty Rogers performing compositions adapted from The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Skylar Paley Brandt is an American ballet dancer who is currently a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre.
