Wikipedia:Very good articles/Le Spectre de la rose

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Le Spectre de la rose (English: The Spirit of the Rose) is a short ballet. It is about a young girl who dreams of dancing with the spirit of a souvenir rose from her first ball. Jean-Louis Vaudoyer wrote the ballet story. He based it on a verse by Théophile Gautier.

The dances were designed by Michel Fokine. The music was Hector Berlioz's 1841 orchestration of Carl Maria von Weber's piano music Afforderung zum Tanz (English: Invitation to the Dance). Léon Bakst designed the sets and costumes.

The ballet was first presented in Monte Carlo on 19 April 1911. Vaslav Nijinsky danced The Rose and Tamara Karsavina danced The Young Girl. Spectre became internationally famous for the leap (jump) Nijinsky made through a window at the ballet's end. After it was presented, the ballet was described as "immediate success" by writer Grace Robert.