# Top Recommended Ballets



## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Would anyone be interested in a Top Recommended Ballets list?


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

I somehow managed to read the title as "Top Recommended Beliefs".


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I don't think I'm knowledgable enough to do this.....if it were non operatic music for the stage/theatre I would definitely participate though. Ballets, incidental music and overtures...stuff like that.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

You might as well start with some of the 19th-century classics:

Tchaikovsky - _Nutcracker_; _Sleeping Beauty_; _Swan Lake_
Delibes - _Coppélia_; _Sylvia_
Adolphe Adam - _Giselle_
Hérold - _La fille mal gardée_
Minkus - _La bayadère_; _Don Quixote_

Then some of the early 20th-century ones:

Stravinsky - _The Firebird_; _Petrushka_; _The Rite of Spring_
Ravel - _Daphnis et Chloë_
Falla - _The Three-Cornered Hat_; _El amor brujo_ (Love, the Magician)
Glazunov - _The Seasons_; _Raymonda_
Bartók - _The Miraculous Mandarin_; _The Wooden Prince_
Debussy - _Jeux_

Then some slightly later 20th-century ballets:

Copland - _Appalachian Spring_; _Billy the Kid_; _Rodeo_
Prokofiev - _Romeo and Juliet_; _Cinderella_; _The Prodigal Son_
Khachaturian - _Gayaneh_; _Spartacus_
Milhaud - _Le boeuf sur le toit_; _La création du monde_
Poulenc - _Le biches_
Shostakovich - _The Age of Gold_
Stravinsky - _Pulcinella_; _Apollo_; _Orpheus_; _The Fairy's Kiss_; _Jeu de cartes_; _Agon_


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I don't think I'm knowledgable enough to do this.....if it were non operatic music for the stage/theatre I would definitely participate though. Ballets, incidental music and overtures...stuff like that.


Good idea - I'm not knowledgeable about ballet either, hence why I want to find out where to start. I like the idea of having incidental music and overtures as well.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

A useful list of ballets, courtesy of SimonNZ.

There is also the question of ballets set to pre-existing music - would we include them, or only original music written specifically for ballet?


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I'd be willing to vote on stuff! I've heard a lot of ballet. That's my specialty, among the many subgenres of classical out there.

I don't like the idea of adding incidental music and overtures into the mix, as I consider that more into the "tone poem" programmatic category, but not relating to dance always. Incidental music is a lot like Movie music to me. But, if that will help get people inspired to vote, very well.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I don't know about anyone else but my lack of knowledge about very famous ballet scores has rendered me having favourites such as Adam Zero by Arthur Bliss and Kraanerg by Xenakis. How about we include more than just ballet, but other music with the intentions for dance? And Do They Do by Michael Nyman and waltzes by Strauss come to mind...but then again many of these works don't have a narrative/theatrical nature that both actual ballet scores and incidental music have.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

MoonlightSonata said:


> Would anyone be interested in a Top Recommended Ballets list?


Definitely Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty. His melodies are touching. A great composer with great melodic invention.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Delicious Manager said:


> You might as well start with some of the 19th-century classics:
> 
> Tchaikovsky - _Nutcracker_; _Sleeping Beauty_; _Swan Lake_
> Delibes - _Coppélia_; _Sylvia_
> ...


Ballet music is wonderful. When it comes right down to it, all of my very favorite music is ballet music. Delicious Manager's list is a good start. I'd add to it Ravel's Ma Mere L'Oye, & La Valse.

Edit: I'd also add Bernstein's Fancy Free.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I don't know about anyone else but my lack of knowledge about very famous ballet scores has rendered me having favourites such as Adam Zero by Arthur Bliss and Kraanerg by Xenakis. How about we include more than just ballet, but other music with the intentions for dance? And Do They Do by Michael Nyman and waltzes by Strauss come to mind...but then again many of these works don't have a narrative/theatrical nature that both actual ballet scores and incidental music have.


Yes, I'd approve of Concert Waltzes, Polonaises, and Mazurkas of the like, or ballet segments within operas. Must be dance music though! Something either meant to be danced to, or is a commentary on dance music. Les Sylphides counts thus, but not symphonies that were turned into ballet scores.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Delicious Manager said:


> You might as well start with some of the 19th-century classics:
> 
> Tchaikovsky - _Nutcracker_; _Sleeping Beauty_; _Swan Lake_
> Delibes - _Coppélia_; _Sylvia_
> ...


The real question is ... are these being looked at from a musical or choreographic standpoint? Some of them exist in multiple versions by various choreographers (e.g. Romeo & Juliet) and I think that is just as important as the music.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Becca said:


> The real question is ... are these being looked at from a musical or choreographic standpoint? Some of them exist in multiple versions by various choreographers (e.g. Romeo & Juliet) and I think that is just as important as the music.


I was thinking from a purely musical standpoint, but that's because I really don't know anything at all about dancing.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Becca said:


> The real question is ... are these being looked at from a musical or choreographic standpoint? Some of them exist in multiple versions by various choreographers (e.g. Romeo & Juliet) and I think that is just as important as the music.


There should probably be a separate thread in the ballet subforum for choreographers and choreography, now that you mention it. It's amazing to me what a difference seeing imaginative and intelligent choreography has made for my opinion of a ballet. Unfortunately, sometimes the best versions don't endure or make it beyond a given nation's borders.


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

Becca said:


> The real question is ... are these being looked at from a musical or choreographic standpoint? Some of them exist in multiple versions by various choreographers (e.g. Romeo & Juliet) and I think that is just as important as the music.


Good question. For myself I enjoy ballet, and admire the dancers enormously (I can barely stand on one leg), but I don't go to it and am interested only for the music. I am entirely unequipped to discuss choreography, which can change from production to production anyway, unlike (theoretically) the score. Therefore famous ballets like Giselle and Les Sylphides figure really low on my list, in which Stravinsky is streets clear at the top, probably followed by Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky. What is it with these Russians?


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