Daphnis and Chloe designed by Léon Bakst and choreographed by Mikhail Fokine to an original score commissioned from Maurice Ravel received 2 performances at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 8 and 10 June 1912. It was performed again at the Monte Carlo Opera House in 1914 and received its first performance in London at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 9 June 1914 receiving 5 performances that season. It was eventually revived in Monte Carlo on 1 January 1924 where it received 4 performances and it had a further 2 at the Gran Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona, Spain, its last being on 30 April 1924. Fokine did also mount Daphnis and Chloe for the Paris Opera.
From the start Daphnis and Chloe was an unlucky ballet. The narrative was one Fokine had planned for many years (having submitted a proposal for a ballet on Longus’ narrative to the Imperial Theatre, St Petersburg). It was planned by Diaghilev for his 1911 season but it had to be postponed as Maurice Ravel had failed to complete the score. Sets and costumes by Léon Bakst were transferred to another work set in Greece, Narcisse. When the ballet was premiered at the end of the 1912 season (during which Nijinsky’s ‘Greek’ ballet L’Après-midi d’un faune had been premiered) many of the costumes from Narcisse appear to have been re-used. Fokine was so put out at his treatment during the 1912 season he resigned from the company and Daphnis and Chloe only returned to the repertory when Fokine returned for the 1914 season.
The colourful tunics were created for the Shepherds and Pirates as they were called in the Paris programme and Greeks and Brigands as they are named in the London programme. Bakst created similar tunics for several other productions in the pre-War years.