Le Spectre de la rose

This article is about Folkine's ballet. For the 1946 motion picture, see Specter of the Rose.

Russian ballerina Tamara Toumanova in a 1940 performance of the ballet

Le Spectre de la Rose is a ballet of the Ballets Russes based on a poem by Théophile Gautier. The music, by Carl Maria von Weber, was his 1819 piano piece Invitation to the Dance, in the 1841 orchestration by Hector Berlioz. Choreography was by Michel Fokine and set and costume design by Léon Bakst. It premiered on April 19, 1911 by the Ballets Russes in the Théâtre de Monte Carlo.

The story is about a debutante who falls asleep after her first ball. She dreams that she is dancing with the rose that she had been holding in her hand. Her dream ends when the rose escapes through the window. The dancers at the original performance were Vaslav Nijinsky as the Rose and Tamara Karsavina as the Girl.

Specter of the Rose is also the name of a motion picture released by Republic Pictures in 1946. It was written and directed by Ben Hecht, and concerns a half-mad ballet dancer who may have murdered his first wife. It has no plot similarity with the ballet, but excerpts from the ballet including the Weber/Berlioz music are heard in the film.

Casts

The Australian Ballet, 2009 Fall for Dance festival

• Gina Brescianini

• Tzi-Chao Chou