Le Tombeau de Couperin (ballet)

Choreography#

Le Tombeau de Couperin features eight couples divided into two groups, called quadrilles, that dances separately. Balanchine wrote that the ballet “doesn’t say anything beyond the combination of these dancers moving to Ravel’s lovely score.” Dance critic Richard Buckle described, “The mood is both pastoral and elegiac.” Author Nancy Reynolds found that the ballet “did not observe the overtones of lament” in the score, but “retained the aura of formal dances” through the use of couples and geometric formations.

Production#

Balanchine decided that for French composer Maurice Ravel’s centenary in 1975, the New York City Ballet would hold the Ravel Festival to honor him. The dancers are dressed in practice clothes. The lighting of the ballet is designed by Ronald Bates. Following Balanchine’s death, Dunleavy inherited the rights to the ballet.

Original cast#

;Left Quadrille *Judith Fugate *Jean-Pierre Frohlich *Wilhelmina Frankfurt *Victor Castelli *Muriel Aasen *Francis Sackett *Susan Hendl *David Richardson ;Right Quadrille *Marjorie Spohn *Hermes Condé *Delia Peters *Richard Hoskinson *Susan Pilarre *Richard Dryden *Carol Sumner *Laurence Matthews Source:

Performances#

Le Tombeau de Couperin premiered on May 29, 1975, at the New York State Theater, on the third program of the Ravel Festival, conducted by Robert Irving.

Critical reception#

Reviewing a performance months after the premiere, Clive Barnes of the New York Times wrote, “In Le Tombeau de Couperin he just uses the ensemble, but he uses it with such grace and sensibility that it is itself a star. The ballet looks so handsome and its movements are so extraordinarily well‐aligned and well‐attuned to the music that the entire work from beginning to end absolutely sings. It is one of those ballets that you watch with ever developing wonderment and pleasure, and it should, in the future, stand as a kind of signature for the City Ballet ensemble.”

External links#

• Tombeau de Couperin on the New York City Ballet’s website
• Le Tombeau de Couperin on the George Balanchine Trust’s website