''Valse Triste'' is a ballet choreographed by

Peter Martins Peter Martins (born 27 October 1946) is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. Martins was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet and with the New York City Ballet, where he joined George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and John Taras as ...

when he was balletmaster at the

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company' ...

Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...

's eponymous waltz as well as the music called ''Scene with Cranes'' from his

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...

for the play ''

Kuolema ''Kuolema'' (''Death'') is a drama by the Finnish writer Arvid Järnefelt, first performed on 2 December 1903. He revised the work in 1911. The play is notable for its incidental music: a group of six compositions created by the author's broth ...

'' (''Death''). The crane is a symbol of death in Finnish literature.''Repertory Week'', New York City Ballet, Spring season, 2008 repertory, week 2 The premiere took place on May 23, 1985, at the

New York State Theater The David H. Koch Theater is a theater for ballet, modern and other forms of dance, part of the Lincoln Center, at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Originally ...

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

, with original lighting by

Ronald Bates Ronald Bates (July 14, 1932 - August 25, 1986) was an American ballet lighting designer, particularly for the New York City Ballet. Early life and career Bates was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1932. He studied scenic design at Los Angeles City ...

and current lighting by Mark Stanley.

Original cast

Patricia McBride Patricia McBride (born August 23, 1942 in Teaneck, New Jersey) is a ballerina who spent nearly 30 years dancing with the New York City Ballet. McBride joined the New York City Ballet in 1959. She became a principal in 1961, becoming the company's ...

Ib Andersen Ib Andersen (born 14 December 1954) is a Danish ballet dancer, choreographer, and painter. Biography Early days Born in Copenhagen, Andersen was first exposed to dance through ballroom dancing. At age 7, he was accepted into the Royal Dani ...

Notes

{{Reflist

Articles

NY Times, Elizabeth Kaye, January 1, 1995

Reviews

Alastair Macaulay Alastair Macaulay is an English writer and dance critic. He was the chief dance critic for ''The New York Times'' from 2007 until he retired in 2018. He was previously chief dance critic at ''The Times'' and Literary Supplement and chief theater cr ...

, January 25, 2008
NY Times
Jack Anderson, January 6, 2000
NY Times

Jennifer Dunning Jennifer Dunning (born February 4, 1942) is a writer and critic for ''The New York Times'' on the subjects of dance and ballet. She is the author of the 1985 ''But First a School: The First Fifty Years of the School of American Ballet'', the 1996 ...

, June 22, 1992 New York City Ballet repertory Ballets by Peter Martins 1985 ballet premieres Ballets to the music of Jean Sibelius Ballets designed by Ronald Bates