''My Brother, My Sisters'' is a one-act ballet created by

Kenneth MacMillan Sir Kenneth MacMillan (11 December 192929 October 1992) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer who was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977, and its principal choreographer from 1977 until his death. Ea ...

in 1974 for the

Stuttgart Ballet Stuttgart Ballet is a leading German ballet company. Dating back to 1609, then the court ballet of the dukes of Württemberg, the modern company was founded by John Cranko and is known for full-length narrative ballets. The company received the L ...

, under the title ''Mein Bruder, meine Schwestern''. The music is by

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

(

Five Pieces for Orchestra The ''Five Pieces for Orchestra'' (''Fünf Orchesterstücke''), Op. 16, were composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1909, and first performed in London in 1912. The titles of the pieces, reluctantly added by the composer after the work's completion upo ...

, Op. 16) and

Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stea ...

(Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10 and Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6). The story is loosely based on the lives of the

Brontë family The Brontës () were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte (1816–1855), Emily (1818–1848) ...

. The designer was Yolanda Sonnabend, who had first collaborated with him on 1963's ''Symphony''. The first performance was on 21 May 1978, at Stuttgart. MacMillan recreated the work for the

Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...

in April 1980 at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

."My Brother, My Sisters"
Royal Opera House Collections Online, retrieved 8 October 2014

Original cast

Birgit Keil Birgit Keil (born 22 September 1944) is a German ballet dancer. She was prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet and was internationally known as ''The German Ballerina'', She has been teaching at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst ...

* Richard Cragun * Lucia Montagnon *

Reid Anderson Reid Anderson (born 15 October 1970) is a bassist and composer from Minnesota. He is a member of The Bad Plus with drummer Dave King, saxophonist Chris Speed, and guitarist Ben Monder. The original lineup of The Bad Plus first played together ...

* Jean Allenby * Sylviane Bayard * Hilde Koch

Notes

Ballets by Kenneth MacMillan Ballets to the music of Arnold Schoenberg Ballets to the music of Anton von Webern 1978 ballet premieres Ballets designed by Yolanda Sonnabend {{ballet-stub