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ARMIDA'S PAVILION PREMIERE * FIRST PRODUCED ST PETERSBURG, 1907 |
For Parisian audiences used to seeing ballets danced in tutus against a generalised backdrop, the lavish and historically inspired costumes of Alexandre Benois were a revelation. They were meticulously constructed by the chief costumier of the Imperial Theatres of St Petersburg and were based on the costumes worn at the court of Louis X1V-the Sun King. The ballet was enthusiastically received. However it was overshadowed, on the first night, by the more outrageous Cleopatra and The Polovstian Dances on the same program. One of the most original aspects of Serge Diaghilev's approach was to program a number of short and often very different ballets on the same night. |
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