This article is about Balanchine's 1957 ballet. For the classical Greek word, see
Agon. For other uses, see
Agon (disambiguation).
Agon (1957) is a ballet for twelve dancers, with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by George Balanchine. Composition began in December 1953 and concluded in April 1957; the music was first performed on June 17, 1957 in Los Angeles conducted by Robert Craft, while the first stage performance was given by the New York City Ballet on December 1, 1957 at the City Center of Music and Drama, New York. The composition's long gestation period covers an interesting juncture in Stravinsky's composing career, in which he moved from a diatonic musical language to one based on twelve-tone technique; the music of the ballet thus demonstrates a unique symbiosis of musical idioms. The ballet has no story, but consists of a series of dance movements in which various groups of dancers interact in pairs, trios, quartets etc. A number of the movements are based on 17th-century French court dances – saraband, galliard and bransle. It was danced as part of City Ballet's 1982 Stravinsky Centennial Celebration.
[edit] Instrumentation
Agon is scored for a large orchestra consisting of piccolo, 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones (2 tenor, 1 bass), harp, piano, mandolin, timpani, tom-tom, xylophone, castanets, and strings.
[edit] Original
[edit] NYCB revivals
[edit] 2008 Winter tour
[edit] 2008 Summer tour to Copenhagen
[edit] 2009 Fall tour to Japan
[edit] first cast
[edit] second cast
[edit] 2010 Winter
[edit] Further reading
- Joseph, Charles M., Stravinsky and Balanchine: A Journey of Invention
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- White, Eric Walter, Stravinsky: the composer and his works
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[edit] Articles
[edit] External links
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