Thursday, January 9, 2014

Coppelia Delibes


http://youtu.be/SfE08ueLkYY Léo Delibes studied at Paris Conservatoire, and he was an average student. His first major success was achieved with the ballet Coppélia which was based on a story by ETA Hoffmann. The ballet was staged in 1870. He excelled as an operetta composer and his career expanded with the success of Lakme. Coppelia is about Dr. Coppelius and his doll Coppélia which comes to life one day. Delibes followed Coppelia in 1876 with Sylvia,a story that is set in pagan Greece. The 1866 ballet La Source had given Delibes an earlier acclaim in partnership with the established composer Minkus. Delibes’s last opera, Kassya, was orchestrated by Massenet after the composer’s death.