Performing ballet music by Debussy, Stravinsky, De Falla, Satie, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Poulenc, Griffyn explores the way the Ballet Russes represented the exotic world—from the Far East to Africa and from the Indian sub-continent to pagan Russia.  The Ensemble also welcome the introduction of ‘typewriter’ and ‘foghorn’ to its lineup…

PROLOGUE

Henry Cowell – Who Wrote This Fiendish Rite of Spring?
Introduction – text from Letters to the Editor, The Chicago Tribune

IMAGES OF SPAIN
Manuel de Falla – Ballet Suite
Music from El Amor Brujo and the Ballets Russes production El Sombrero de Tres Picos

IMAGES OF THE FAR EAST
Igor Stravinsky – Nightingale’s Song
Music from the Ballets Russes production Le Chant du Rossignol

IMAGES OF ANCIENT GREECE
Claude Debussy – Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Music from the Ballets Russes production of the same name

IMAGES OF AFRICA
Francis Poulenc – Rhapsodie Negre
Ballets Russes composer Poulenc’s Opus One

IMAGES OF ARABIA
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Arabian Dances
Music from The Nutcracker Suite – one of Diaghilev’s first choreographed productions pre-Ballets Russes

IMAGES OF PAGAN RUSSIA
Igor Stravinsky – Three Russian Songs
Music from the Ballets Russes’ most iconic composer

IMAGES OF THE SUBCONTINENT
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Song of India
Music from the Ballets Russes production Sadko

IMAGES OF MODERN AMERICA
Erik Satie – The Little American Girl
Music from the Ballet Russes production Parade

EPILOGUE
Henry Cowell – Who Wrote this Fiendish Rite of Spring (reprise)

13 February 2011 @ National Gallery of Australia