Choreography by George Balanchine
Staged by Victoria Simon and John Taras
Music by Georges Bizet
Costume designs after Karinska
Lighting by Mark Stanley


TIMING: 35:00

Symphony in C was given its American Ballet Theatre Company Premiere on Tuesday, October 23, 2001 at City Center, New York, danced by Paloma Herrera, Ethan Stiefel, Nina Ananiashvili, Jose Manuel Carreño. Ashley Tuttle, Angel Corella, Sandra Brown and Sascha Radetsky.

Georges Bizet composed his Symphony in C when he was a 17-year-old pupil of Charles Gounod at the Paris Conservatory. The manuscript was lost for decades, and was published only after it was discovered in the Conservatory’s library in 1933. George Balanchine first learned of the long-vanished score from Stravinsky. He required only two weeks to choreograph it as Le Palais de Cristal for the Paris Opera Ballet, where he was serving as a guest ballet master. When he revived the work the following year for its United States premiere, he simplified the sets and costumes and changed the title.

Under the title Le Palais de Cristal, Symphony in C was given its World Premiere by the Paris Opera Ballet at the Paris Opera House on July 28, 1947, danced by Lycette Darsonval, Tamara Toumanova, Micheline Bardin, Madeleine Lafon, Alexandre Kalioujny, Roger Ritz, Michel Renault and Max Bozzoni.

Symphony in C was given its United States premiere by Ballet Society (later New York City Ballet) at City Center, New York on March 22, 1948, danced by Maria Tallchief, Tanaquil LeClercq, Beatrice Tompkins, Elise Reiman, Nicholas Magallanes, Francisco Moncion, Herbert Bliss and Lew Christensen.