The BALLETS of LEONIDE MASSINE
in the repertoire of the Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow
Première: April 14, 2005
LE TRICONE
Ballet in one act
Music by Manuel de Falla
World Première: 22 July 1919 at the Alhambra Theatre, London.
Choreography by Léonide Massine
Revived by Lorca Massine
Designs by Pablo Picasso
Libretto by Gregorio Martinez Sierra based on motifs of the story,
El sombrer de tres picos, by Pedro Antonio de Alarcon
Characters:
The Miller
Miller’s Wife
Corregidor
Wife of Corregidor
The Dandy
Soldiers, inhabitants of village, homeless children
SYNOPSIS
A village. The miller stands before his house, whistling to a blackbird who sits in a cage.
The miller’s wife comes out of the house and teases her husband. He chases her and
they embrace.
The couple go to the well to draw water. While the miller is busy at the well, a dandy
passes by and blows kisses to his wife, who responds flirtatiously. The miller looks up
and sees this exchange and chases the dandy off. He is not angry with his wife. He is
delighted that other men find her as beautiful as he does. They are very much in love.
Now the governor of the province, the corregidor, enters with an escort. A doddering old
fool, he looks absurd in his finery among the simple folk of the village. He wears a three-
cornered hat, symbol of his class and position.
Almost immediately, the corregidor eyes the miller’s wife and decides that she must be
his. The miller’s wife is polite to him, but no more. He passes on. Noting that his wife is
getting all the attention, the miller decides that he’d better give another girl some attention.
He playfully flirts with one of the lovely girls of the village, Now that both husband and wife
have cause to be jealous, they are amused at each other and embrace.
The miller goes into the house. His wife, remaining outside, dances a brilliant fandango.
The corregidor has come back and secretly watches her. Soon he approaches her and
tries to make advances. The woman eludes him cleverly and flees. The old man, however,
purses her. The miller has watched this scene from inside the house and runs out to help
his wife. The corregidor can run no more and falls to the ground exhausted. The miller and
his wife pick him up, dust him off, and try to act as if it were all an accident, but the
corregidor, furious with them, suggests that this is only the beginning of what they may
expect of him. The husband and wife dance together.
Evening falls. The village folk come to the miller’s house to join in a festival with the happy
couple. The miller gives them wine and then dances alone a farruca, which everyone
applauds. The escorts of the corregidor enter. The men arrest the miller and take him off.
Abandoned by her friends, the miller’s wife is alone.
The corregidor is back again, seeking her favor now with real determination. The miller’s
wife throws him to the ground as he clumsily holds her. He rises with difficulty and pursues
her to the village bridge, which crosses a running stream. On the bridge, the corregidor
again attempts to embrace the girl. In the process of pushing him away, the miller’s wife
pushes him off the bridge into the stream. She laughs at him but helps the corregidor out
of the water. But the old fool takes up the chase again.The miller’s wife takes a gun from
the house and, threatening the corregidor with buckshot, flees over the bridge away from
the village. The corregidor stands in front of the miller’s house alone, his clothes still
dripping from the dunking he got in the stream. He takes off his outer garments and his
three-cornered hat, lays them out to dry, and goes into the house to sleep. Dawn comes.
The miller has escaped the corregidor’s henchmen and returns home. In front of his house,
he sees the corregidor’s clothes and the three-cornered hat! Then he observes the
corregidor himself, walking around in one of his own nightshirts! The miller decides there
is only one thing to do. He will pursue the corregidor’s wife,who is also young and
beautiful! On the walls of his house he draws a caricature of the corregidor and leaves.
Now the poor corregidor is attacked by his own soldiers, who don’t recognize him in the
miller’s nightshirt. He curses them, and the village folk come to see what the trouble is.
The miller and his wife who have found each other outside the town come in. Their friends
are told what the corregidor has tried to do, and in anger all the people rise up against the
governor and his cohorts. The intruders are routed,and all dance triumphantly, led by the
miller ad his wife. A dummy representing the defeated corregidor is thrown higher and
higher into the air by the crowd.
LES PRESAGES
Ballet in one act
Music by Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky’s Symphony N 5
World Première:
April 13, 1933 by the Ballets Russes Colonel de Basil, Monte-Carlo
Choreography by Léonide Massine
Revived by Lorca Massine
Designs by Igor Chapurin
Characters:
The Hero
Action
Passion
Frivolity
Fate
The ballet consists of four sections:
The first
Life, with its ambitions and temptations;
The second
Passion, and the contest between sacred and profane love;
The third
Frivolity
The fourth
The culmination of man’s destiny through conflict.
GAITE PARISIENNE
Ballet in one act
Music by Jacques Offenbach
World Première: Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo,
Théâtre de Monte Carlo, Monaco 5 April 1938
Choreography by Léonide Massine
Revived by Lorca Massine
Designs by Raimonda Gaetani
Characters:
Glove seller
Flower girl
The Peruvian
La Lionne
The Baron
The Duke, her escort
The officer
Lady in green, her companion
The cocodettes, ladies of easy virtue, waiters, soldiers,
cancan dancers, dancing master
SYNOPSIS
The setting is the Café Tortoni, in Paris during the Second Empire. The ballet does not
have a conventional narrative.
Various members from all levels of society meet, including upper-class aristocrats, high
society-ladies, as well as a lower-class flower girl, along with the professional can-can
dancers. The Glove Seller becomes the attention for various rival suitors, including a
baron and an officer. Another suitor is a Peruvian tourist with two carpetbags, full of
jewelry, hoping to make his fortune in Paris. In due course, a quarrel between the
customers ensues. After order is restored, the ballet culminates in a high-spirited
can-can, the celebrated can-can from Orpheus in the Underworld. However, with the
"Barcarolle" from Les Contes d'Hoffmann as the featured music after the can-can, the
café customers disperse and the café closes for the evening. The ballet ends as the
Peruvian is left alone, ready to search for new adventures.