Sylvia, originally Sylvia ou La Nymphe de Diane, is a full-length ballet in two or three acts, first choreographed by Louis Mérante to music by Léo Delibes in 1876. Sylvia is a typical classical ballet in many respects, yet it has many interesting features which make it unique. Sylvia is notable for its mythological Arcadian setting, creative choreographies, expansive sets and, above all, its remarkable score.

The ballet's origins are in Tasso's 1573 poem "Aminta," which describes the basic plot of Delibes' work. Jules Barbier and Baron de Reinach adapted this for the Paris Opera.^[1][2] The piano arrangement was composed in 1876 and the orchestral suite was done in 1880.^[3]

When Sylvia premiered on June 14, 1876 at the Palais Garnier, it went largely unnoticed. In fact, the first seven productions of Sylvia were not successful. It was the 1952 revival, choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton, that popularized the ballet. Ashton's success set the stage for the 1997, 2004 and 2005 productions, all of which were based on his 1952 choreography. ( From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_(ballet))

Sylvia ballet with DARCEY BUSSEL



(Clément Philibert) Léo Delibes (21 February, 1836 – 16 January, 1891) was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage.

Léo Delibes was born in Saint-Germain-du-Val, now part of La Flèche (Sarthe), France, in 1836. His father was a mailman, but his mother was a talented amateur musician and his grandfather was an opera singer. He was raised mainly by his mother and uncle following his father's early death. In 1871, at the age of 35, the composer married Léontine Estelle Denain. Delibes died 20 years later in 1891, and was buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris.

Starting in 1847, Delibes studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire as a student of Adolphe Adam. A year later, he also began taking voice lessons, though he would end up a much better organ player than singer. He held positions as a rehearsal accompanist and chorus master at the Théâtre Lyrique, second chorus master at the Paris Opéra, (1864), and as organist at Saint-Pierre-de-Chaillot between 1865 and 1871. His first of many operettas was Deux sous de charbon ("Two sous-worth of coal"), written in 1856 for the Folies-Nouvelles.

A ceremonial cantata, Algers, for Napoleon III on the theme of Algiers, brought him to official attention; a collaboration with Léon Minkus resulted, in which his contribution of an act's worth of musical numbers for a ballet La Source (1866) brought him into the milieu of ballet. Delibes achieved true fame in 1870 with the success of his ballet Coppélia; its title referred to a mechanical dancing doll that distracts a village swain from his beloved and appears to come to life. His other ballet is Sylvia (1876).

Delibes also composed various operas, the last of which, the lush orientalizing Lakmé (1883), contains, among many dazzling numbers, the famous coloratura showpiece known as the Légende du Paria or Bell Song ("Où va la jeune Indoue?") and The Flower Duet ("Sous le dôme epais"), a barcarolle that British Airways commercials made familiar to non-opera-goers in the 1990s. At the time, his operas impressed Tchaikovsky enough for the composer to rate Delibes more highly than Brahms—which seems faint praise when one considers that the Russian composer considered Brahms "a giftless bastard."

In 1867 Delibes composed the divertissement Le Jardin Animé for a revival of the Joseph Mazilier/Adolphe Adam ballet Le Corsaire. He wrote a Mass, his Messe brève, and composed operettas akmost yearly and occasional music for the theater, such as dances and antique airs for Victor Hugo's Le roi s'amuse, the play that Verdi turned into Rigoletto. Some musicologists believe that the ballet in Gounod's Faust was actually composed by Delibes.

Main Works

• Ballets:

La Source (1866)

Valse ou Pas de Fleurs for Adolphe Adam's Le Corsaire (1867)

Coppélia (1870)

Sylvia (1876)

• Operas:

Maître Griffard (1857)

Monsieur de Bonne-Etoile (1860)

Les Musiciens d'Orchestre (1861; with Offenbach, Erlanger, and Hignard)

Le Jardinier et son Seigneur (1863)

Le Boeuf Apis (1865)

Malbrough s'en va-t-en Guerre (1867; 4th act only)

La Cour du Roi Pétaud (1869)

Fleur-de-lys (1873)

Le Roi l’a Dit (1873)

Jean de Nivelle (1880)

Lakmé (1883)

Kassya (1893)

• Opérettes:

Deux sous le Charbon ou Le Suicide de Bigorneau (1856)

Deux Vieilles Gardes (1856)

Six Demoiselles à Marier (1856)

L'Omelette à la Follembuche (1859)

Les Eaux d'Ems (1861)

Mon Ami Pierrot (1862)

Le Serpent à Plumes (1864)

L'Ecossais de Chatou (1869)

• Other:

La Tradition. A prologue (1864)

( From Wiki)