Stravinsky - Les Noces - the Royal Ballet

Zenaida Yanowsky and David Pickering as the Bride and Bridegroom.

The Royal Ballet's version of Les Noces holds a special claim to authenticity and history, as
it was staged by the original choreographer, Bronislava Nijinska in 1966, and documented with much detail.

It was premiered on June 13, 1923, by the Ballets Russes.

Nijinska's austere vision is one of celebration and ritual among the family and community, not so much with the two principals.

Critic Alfred Kalisch, reviewing the London premiere of the ballet, described it as "enough to convert intending brides and bridegrooms to celibacy."

As always, Stravinsky's music seems to make more sense when danced to.

Robert Craft wrote: "The lament in the epithalamium at the end of Svadebka is as much for the loss of Holy Mother Russia as for the virginity of Nastasia Timofeyvna."