[Hornlist] Ballet? To whose music?

[Ralph Mazza]

A Boston newspaper today carried an ad for the coming season of Boston 
Ballet.  Six productions were listed, but no mention was made of the 
composers.  Of course, I know about Swan Lake and Nutcracker, and I can 
venture a wild guess on Stars and Stripes.  Finding the composer of the 
music for Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes (Virgil Thompson) was 
surprisingly easy.   But I had to look up Lady of the Camellias 
(Chopin) and Don Quixote (Ludwig (Leon) Minkus).  I found reviews of 
several performances of these last two that mentioned everyone 
connected with the production except the guy who sweeps up after, the 
musicians, and  composer.
The only time I was blown away by a ballet was a performance of Romeo 
and Juliet set to the Prokofieff score, and I only went to that one 
because I was familiar with the music and counted on that to rescue the 
evening if I didn't like the dancing. Do ballet impresarios believe the 
music to be so trivial a part of the production as to be unworthy of 
attribution? 
  
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