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Tchaikovsky |
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TH 209 CinderellaСандрильонаProjected ballet in 4 acts (1870).
HistoryThe idea for the ballet Cinderella dates from the autumn of 1870. "Just imagine", the composer wrote to Modest Tchaikovsky on 5 October 1870, "that I've undeertaken to write the music for a ballet Cinderella, and that this vast four-act score must be ready by the middle of December!" [1]. The same information was conveyed in a letter to Anatolii Tchaikovsky, in which the compser added: "... since I have concluded an agreement, I can't go back on my word, although there are only two months remaining, and I've only just started" [2]. Whether the composer failed to carry out the work because of the extremely limited time period allowed, or because of a change of heart, we cannot be sure. It is only known that a year later, on 4 October 1871, the Board of the Imperial Theatres in Moscow planned to stage the ballet The Magic Shoe, or Cinderella, and approached the Lepizig ballet-master Julius Reisinger to do the choreography, "composed to music for this new ballet commissioned from Mr Gerber" [3]. However, Iurii Gerber did not write the music. The music for the ballet in 5 acts and 13 scenes was providd by the German composer Wilhelm Carl Mühldorfer. The author of the libretto was Karl Val'ts. The first production took place on 14 December 1871. Tchaikovsky did not make any further reference to the ballet. No sketches for the ballet have survived. From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), p.
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