Petrushka — 1911 ballet by Igor Stravinsky, Michel Fokine and Alexandre Benois, Ballets Russes
Petrushka is a landmark Ballets Russes production uniting Stravinsky's music, Fokine's choreography, and Benois's designs into an enduring work of total theatrical art.
Key Facts
- World premiere date
- 13 June 1911
- Premiere venue
- Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris
- Original choreographer
- Michel Fokine
- Lead role (premiere)
- Vaslav Nijinsky as Petrushka
- Stage design & costumes
- Alexandre Benois
- Ballet company
- Ballets Russes (Sergei Diaghilev)
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Sergei Diaghilev commissioned Igor Stravinsky to compose a new ballet for the 1911 Paris season of the Ballets Russes. Stravinsky collaborated with choreographer Michel Fokine and designer Alexandre Benois, who also helped shape the libretto, drawing on the Russian folk puppet tradition of Petrushka for the story and setting.
Petrushka premiered on 13 June 1911 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. The ballet depicts three puppets—Petrushka, the Ballerina, and the Moor—brought to life during a Saint Petersburg Shrovetide Fair in the 1830s. Petrushka's unrequited love, jealousy, death at the Moor's hands, and spectral defiance of the Charlatan form the dramatic arc of the work.
The ballet was immediately acclaimed and became one of the most celebrated Ballets Russes productions. Its integration of music, choreography, and visual design was widely praised as a model of unified theatrical art. It has remained a staple of the ballet repertoire, typically performed with its original designs and choreography, and is regarded as one of the greatest ballets ever created.