L'Errante
Set Design
ca. 1933 (made)
ca. 1933 (made)
| Artist/Maker |
The ballet, L’Errante, choreographed by George Balanchine, with libretto and designs by Pavel Tchelitchew, was created to music by Franz Schubert orchestrated by Charles Koechlin (The Wanderer, fantasy for piano Op.15 1822 transcribed by Franz Liszt) was first performed by Les Ballets 1933 at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris on 10 June, 1933 and at the Savoy Theatre, London on 30 June 1933 (Preview 28 June)
L’Errante, described as ‘a choreographic fantasy’, concerned a woman’s search for an elusive ‘dream’ faced with phantoms and shadows including men who turn into strangers, an apparent funeral with an empty bier, a child with flowers, angels and revolutionaries. Noted for its use of colour (largely projected light) and drapery it was a work of mood rather than narrative and best summed up by the choreographer in The Sunday Times (2 July 1933) as ‘impossible to describe; its all visual’.
L’Errante was the ballet that best encapsulated the work of the short-lived but innovative company, Les Ballets 1933, created by George Balanchine and Boris Kochno (a true successor of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes). It was images of this ballet that were used for the publicity of the company.
Tilly Losch created the central role wearing a green dress designed by Molyneux described by Parker Tyler as ‘a glittering green sheath with a very long train; its colour is supposedly that of the salamander: magical dweller in fire’. The train of the dress was ‘of nightmare length’ so that ‘as she runs her great train of laquered green silk ripples behind her like waves of the sea’.
The ‘design’ in the Theatre & Performance collection indicates Tchelitchew’s increasing lack of interest in traditional painted sets and growing fascination with projections on gauzes and fabrics. It is uncertain as to whether this image was used to create the set but it was certainly reproduced in the souvenir for Les Ballets 1933 to illustrate the final moment of the ballet described by Donald Windham in ‘The Stage and Ballet Designs of Pavel Tchelitchew’, Dance Index Vol 3 No.1 1944 p.13 ‘Two images stand out at the climax of the ballet – a writhing shadow of man ascends the shadow of a rope ladder into the sky, and a great, wet cloud of white Chinese silk cascades from heaven and obliterates the woman, leaving the mirror again crystal, white and empty.’ This effect of a curtain or cloud of falling silk went on to be used as the climax of other stage productions in the twentieth century,
Balanchine and Tchelitchew created a revised version of L’Errante for American Ballet with Tamara Geva at the Adelphi Theater, New York on 1 March 1935.
L’Errante, described as ‘a choreographic fantasy’, concerned a woman’s search for an elusive ‘dream’ faced with phantoms and shadows including men who turn into strangers, an apparent funeral with an empty bier, a child with flowers, angels and revolutionaries. Noted for its use of colour (largely projected light) and drapery it was a work of mood rather than narrative and best summed up by the choreographer in The Sunday Times (2 July 1933) as ‘impossible to describe; its all visual’.
L’Errante was the ballet that best encapsulated the work of the short-lived but innovative company, Les Ballets 1933, created by George Balanchine and Boris Kochno (a true successor of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes). It was images of this ballet that were used for the publicity of the company.
Tilly Losch created the central role wearing a green dress designed by Molyneux described by Parker Tyler as ‘a glittering green sheath with a very long train; its colour is supposedly that of the salamander: magical dweller in fire’. The train of the dress was ‘of nightmare length’ so that ‘as she runs her great train of laquered green silk ripples behind her like waves of the sea’.
The ‘design’ in the Theatre & Performance collection indicates Tchelitchew’s increasing lack of interest in traditional painted sets and growing fascination with projections on gauzes and fabrics. It is uncertain as to whether this image was used to create the set but it was certainly reproduced in the souvenir for Les Ballets 1933 to illustrate the final moment of the ballet described by Donald Windham in ‘The Stage and Ballet Designs of Pavel Tchelitchew’, Dance Index Vol 3 No.1 1944 p.13 ‘Two images stand out at the climax of the ballet – a writhing shadow of man ascends the shadow of a rope ladder into the sky, and a great, wet cloud of white Chinese silk cascades from heaven and obliterates the woman, leaving the mirror again crystal, white and empty.’ This effect of a curtain or cloud of falling silk went on to be used as the climax of other stage productions in the twentieth century,
Balanchine and Tchelitchew created a revised version of L’Errante for American Ballet with Tamara Geva at the Adelphi Theater, New York on 1 March 1935.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | L'Errante (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Watercolour and gouache with pen and sepia on cartridge paper |
| Brief description | Set design by Pavel Tchelitchev for L'Errante, Les Ballets 1933, Theatre des Champs Elysees, Paris, 10 June 1933 |
| Physical description | Grey box set with a billowing white drape. A ladder against the back wall, upper left. At front, left, two sketchily drawn figures: a woman in a long flowing dress grasps the shoulders of a man, who stands with his back to her and his arms outstretched. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Purchased from the estate of Edward James |
| Summary | The ballet, L’Errante, choreographed by George Balanchine, with libretto and designs by Pavel Tchelitchew, was created to music by Franz Schubert orchestrated by Charles Koechlin (The Wanderer, fantasy for piano Op.15 1822 transcribed by Franz Liszt) was first performed by Les Ballets 1933 at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris on 10 June, 1933 and at the Savoy Theatre, London on 30 June 1933 (Preview 28 June) L’Errante, described as ‘a choreographic fantasy’, concerned a woman’s search for an elusive ‘dream’ faced with phantoms and shadows including men who turn into strangers, an apparent funeral with an empty bier, a child with flowers, angels and revolutionaries. Noted for its use of colour (largely projected light) and drapery it was a work of mood rather than narrative and best summed up by the choreographer in The Sunday Times (2 July 1933) as ‘impossible to describe; its all visual’. L’Errante was the ballet that best encapsulated the work of the short-lived but innovative company, Les Ballets 1933, created by George Balanchine and Boris Kochno (a true successor of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes). It was images of this ballet that were used for the publicity of the company. Tilly Losch created the central role wearing a green dress designed by Molyneux described by Parker Tyler as ‘a glittering green sheath with a very long train; its colour is supposedly that of the salamander: magical dweller in fire’. The train of the dress was ‘of nightmare length’ so that ‘as she runs her great train of laquered green silk ripples behind her like waves of the sea’. The ‘design’ in the Theatre & Performance collection indicates Tchelitchew’s increasing lack of interest in traditional painted sets and growing fascination with projections on gauzes and fabrics. It is uncertain as to whether this image was used to create the set but it was certainly reproduced in the souvenir for Les Ballets 1933 to illustrate the final moment of the ballet described by Donald Windham in ‘The Stage and Ballet Designs of Pavel Tchelitchew’, Dance Index Vol 3 No.1 1944 p.13 ‘Two images stand out at the climax of the ballet – a writhing shadow of man ascends the shadow of a rope ladder into the sky, and a great, wet cloud of white Chinese silk cascades from heaven and obliterates the woman, leaving the mirror again crystal, white and empty.’ This effect of a curtain or cloud of falling silk went on to be used as the climax of other stage productions in the twentieth century, Balanchine and Tchelitchew created a revised version of L’Errante for American Ballet with Tamara Geva at the Adelphi Theater, New York on 1 March 1935. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.2092-1986 |
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| Record created | May 12, 2011 |
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