Requiem Canticles (Balanchine)
Encyclopedia
Requiem Canticles is a ballet made by New York City Ballet
co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine
to eponymous music
from 1966 by Igor Stravinsky
in memoriam Martin Luther King, Jr. It received a single performance on May 2, 1968, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center
, conducted by Robert Irving
with Margaret Wilson
, contralto, and John Ostendorf, bass. Costumes and candelabra were by Rouben Ter-Arutunian
and lighting by Ronald Bates
, the corps de ballet in long white robes bearing a three-branched candelabra. A lone woman searches among them and at the end a figure in purple representing Martin Luther King, Jr., is raised aloft.
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
to eponymous music
Requiem Canticles
Requiem Canticles is a 15 minute composition by Igor Stravinsky, for contralto and bass soli, chorus, and orchestra. Stravinsky completed the work in 1966, and it received its first performance that same year....
from 1966 by Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
in memoriam Martin Luther King, Jr. It received a single performance on May 2, 1968, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
, conducted by Robert Irving
Robert Irving (conductor)
Robert Augustine Irving, DFC*, was a British conductor whose reputation was mainly as a ballet conductor.Born in Winchester, England, the son of mountaineer and author R. L. G. Irving, he was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, graduating with a degree in music...
with Margaret Wilson
Margaret Wilson
Dame Margaret Wilson DCNZM is a New Zealand academic and former politician. She was Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives during the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand. She is a member of the Labour Party.-Early life:...
, contralto, and John Ostendorf, bass. Costumes and candelabra were by Rouben Ter-Arutunian
Rouben Ter-Arutunian
Rouben Ter-Arutunian was a costume and scenic designer for dance, opera, theater and television.Born in Tiflis, Georgia, he attended the Reimann Art School from 1939 to 1941, studied film music at the Hochschule fur Musik and took courses at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University , 1941–43, and at the...
and lighting by Ronald Bates
Ronald Bates
Ronald Bates was production stage manager for New York City Ballet where he began working in 1957. He studied scenic design at Los Angeles City College after serving in the Navy...
, the corps de ballet in long white robes bearing a three-branched candelabra. A lone woman searches among them and at the end a figure in purple representing Martin Luther King, Jr., is raised aloft.
Original cast
- Suzanne FarrellSuzanne FarrellSuzanne Farrell is an eminent 20th century ballerina and the founder of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C....
- corps de ballet
- Arthur MitchellArthur Mitchell (dancer)Arthur Mitchell is an African-American dancer and choreographer who created a training school and the first African-American classical ballet company, Dance Theatre of Harlem...