Apollo (ballet)

Apollo (ballet)

Apollo (originally Apollon musagète and variously known as Apollo musagetes, Apolo Musageta, and Apollo, Leader of the Muses) is a ballet in two tableaux composed between 1927 and 1928 by Igor Stravinsky. It was choreographed in 1928 by balletmaster George Balanchine, with the composer contributing the libretto. The scenery and costumes were designed by André Bauchant, with new costumes by Coco Chanel in 1929. The scenery was executed by Alexander Shervashidze, with costumes under the direction of Mme. A. Youkine. The American patron of the arts Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge had commissioned the ballet in 1927 for a festival of contemporary music to be held the following year at the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C.

Apollo was presented for the first time on 12 June 1928 by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt in Paris. It is Balanchine's oldest surviving ballet, and was his first great public success. It marked the beginning of his significant and enduring collaboration with Stravinsky, and featured the neoclassical style for which Balanchine was to become renowned. He looked upon Apollo as the turning point of his life, "in its sustained oneness of tone and feeling".

The story centres around Apollo, the Greek god of music, who is visited by three muses: Terpsichore, muse of dance and song; Polyhymnia, muse of mime; and Calliope, muse of poetry. The ballet plainly takes Classical antiquity as its subject, though its plot suggests a contemporary situation. It is concerned with the reinvention of tradition, since its inspiration is "classique", or even post-baroque; nevertheless, it uses a simplified orchestra, with only 34 string instruments (8.8.6.8.4).