"was featured in the 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony held in Fisht Olympic Stadium, Sochi, Russia on February 7. The ""Sabre Dance"" has been used by numerous figure skaters, including: Sabre Dance ""Sabre Dance"" (, ""Suserov par""; , ""Tanets s sablyami"") is a movement in the final act of Aram Khachaturian's ballet ""Gayane"" (1942), where the dancers display their skill with sabres. It is Khachaturian's best known and most recognizable work. He apparently felt that its popularity ""deflected attention from his other works."" Its middle section is based on an unnamed Armenian folk song. According to Tigran Mansurian, it is"
"(1940) and the Cello Concerto (1946). His other significant compositions include the ""Masquerade Suite"" (1941), the Anthem of the Armenian SSR (1944), three symphonies (1935, 1943, 1947), and around 25 film scores. Khachaturian is best known for his ballet music—""Gayane"" (1942) and ""Spartacus"" (1954). His most popular piece, the ""Sabre Dance"" from ""Gayane"", has been used extensively in popular culture and has been covered by a number of musicians worldwide. His style is ""characterized by colorful harmonies, captivating rhythms, virtuosity, improvisations, and sensuous melodies"". During most of his career, Khachaturian was approved by the Soviet government and held several high"
"the ""Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia"". Aegina discovers Spartacus’s camp and observes the lovers emerging from their tent the next morning. Aegina sends word to Crassus, who sends his army in pursuit. Internecine struggles break out among Spartacus’s forces. Finally, Crassus’s forces discover Spartacus and impale him upon their spears. Spartacus’s closest followers recover his body and carry it off while Phrygia mourns her loss. Khachaturian extracted and arranged music from the ballet in 1955 for four orchestral suites: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba; timpani, percussion ; strings. Spartacus (ballet)"
"Ludwig Minkus Ludwig Minkus (), also known as Léon Fyodorovich Minkus (23 March 1826 – 7 December 1917), was a Jewish-Austrian composer of ballet music, a violin virtuoso and teacher. Minkus is noted for the music he composed while serving as the official Composer of Ballet Music to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres in Russia. During his long career, he wrote for the original works and numerous revivals staged by the renowned Ballet Masters Arthur Saint-Léon and Marius Petipa. Among the composer's most celebrated compositions was his score for ""La source"" (1866; composed jointly with Léo Delibes), ""Don Quixote"" (1869);"
"Medea's Dance of Vengeance Medea's Dance of Vengeance is a composition (1955, Opus 23a) by the American composer Samuel Barber derived from his earlier ballet suite ""Medea"". Barber first created a seven-movement concert suite from this ballet (""Medea"", Op.23), and five years later reduced this concert suite down to a single-movement concert piece using what he felt to be the strongest portions of the work. He originally titled it ""Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance"", but shortly before his death, he changed the title to simply ""Medea's Dance of Vengeance"". ""Dance of Vengeance"" is scored for a larger orchestra than"
"Vladimir Vasiliev (dancer) Vladimir Viktorovich Vasiliev (Russian: Влади́мир Ви́кторович Васи́льев), (born April 18, 1940) is a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer from Moscow, Russia. He was a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet and its director from 1995 to 2000. He was best known for his role of Spartacus and his powerful leaps and turns. Vladimir Vasiliev was named ""God of the dance"" and is regarded as a classical dancer on the same level as Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. At the height of their careers, Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maximova were the golden couple of Russian ballet. Vladimir Vasiliev"
"Babek (ballet) Babek ()– is a heroic Spartacus like ballet in two acts, based on the story of the people’s liberation struggle against Abbasid Caliphate under the leadership of Babak Khorramdin. Akshin Alizadeh composed the music and the prominent Azeri choreographers of the Soviet era Rafiga Akhundova and Maksud Mamedov choreographed the ballet for Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater (National Ballet of Azerbaijan) in 1986. The ballet creation narrates the story of the brave Iranian and Azerbaijanian national hero, Babak Khorramdin, who in the 9th century led the rebellion against foreign occupying forces and local feudal lords in"
"Caro Zakarian (1895–1967) are representative composers of the pre- and early Soviet Armenian era. The most famous, however, was Aram Khatchaturian (1903–1978), internationally well known especially for his music for various ballets and the immortal ""Sabre Dance"" from his composition for the ballet ""Gayane"". Gevorg Armenian (1920– ), Anahit Tsitsikian (1926–1999), Arno Babadjanyan (1921–1983), Barseg Kanatchian (1885–1967), Edward Mirzoyan (1921–2012), Boris Parsadanian (1925–1997), Ashot Zohrabyan (1945 -), and Aram Satian (1947 –) represent other Soviet era Armenian composers. Iosif Andriasov's (1933–2000) music and ethics made him internationally recognized as one of the most important figures in contemporary culture. Alexander Arutiunian"
"Theatre and Performance. A full catalogue and details of access arrangements are available here. Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (; ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian-born composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Serge Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: ""The Firebird"" (1910), ""Petrushka"" (1911), and ""The Rite of Spring"" (1913). The last of these transformed the way in which subsequent"
"Selective bibliography Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include ""Der Rosenkavalier"", ""Elektra"", ""Die Frau ohne Schatten"" and ""Salome""; his Lieder, especially his ""Four Last Songs""; his tone poems, including ""Don Juan"", ""Death and Transfiguration"", ""Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks"", ""Also sprach Zarathustra"", ""Ein Heldenleben"", ""Symphonia Domestica"", and ""An Alpine Symphony""; and other instrumental works such as ""Metamorphosen"" and his Oboe Concerto. Strauss was also a prominent conductor in Western Europe and the Americas, enjoying"
"in composing one internationally acclaimed work in the last 30 years of his life, the ballet ""Spartacus"". According to James Bakst, what made Khachaturian unique among Soviet composers is ""the blending of national Armenian vocal and instrumental intonations with contemporary orchestral techniques"". Khachaturian's music is characterized by an active rhythmic development, which reaches either a mere repetition of the basic formula (ostinato) or ""a game of emphasis within this formula"". Khachaturian is best known internationally for his ballet music. His second ballet, ""Gayane"", was largely reworked from his first ballet, ""Happiness"". ""Spartacus"" became his most acclaimed work in the post-Stalin"
"Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include ""Der Rosenkavalier"", ""Elektra"", ""Die Frau ohne Schatten"" and ""Salome""; his Lieder, especially his ""Four Last Songs""; his tone poems, including ""Don Juan"", ""Death and Transfiguration"", ""Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks"", ""Also sprach Zarathustra"", ""Ein Heldenleben"", ""Symphonia Domestica"", and ""An Alpine Symphony""; and other instrumental works such as ""Metamorphosen"" and his Oboe Concerto. Strauss was also a prominent conductor in Western Europe and the Americas, enjoying quasi-celebrity status"
"by Igor Moiseyev; however it was the 1968 production, choreographed by Yury Grigorovich, which achieved the greatest acclaim for the ballet. It remains one of Khachaturian's best known works and is prominent within the repertoires of the Bolshoi Theatre and other ballet companies in Russia and the former Soviet Union. Principal Characters: The Roman consul Crassus returns to Rome from his latest conquests in a triumphal procession. Among his captives are the Thracian king Spartacus and his wife Phrygia. Spartacus laments his captivity and bids a bitter farewell to Phrygia, who is taken off to join Crassus’ harem of concubines."
"Salome (opera) Salome, Op. 54, is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann's German translation of the French play ""Salomé"" by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer. The opera is famous (at the time of its premiere, infamous) for its ""Dance of the Seven Veils"". The final scene is frequently heard as a concert-piece for dramatic sopranos. Oscar Wilde originally wrote his ""Salomé"" in French. Strauss saw the play in Lachmann's version and immediately set to work on an opera. The play's"
"compositions best representing the genre of historical and epic music. The composer, Akshin Alizadeh, has mentioned Babek as the composition he was born and living for to create: """"Babek"" is my whole life. I applied much effort into this ballet. When I was working on this ballet, I felt myself like a gladiator. I wrote this composition during the course of 10 years."" Babek (ballet) Babek ()– is a heroic Spartacus like ballet in two acts, based on the story of the people’s liberation struggle against Abbasid Caliphate under the leadership of Babak Khorramdin. Akshin Alizadeh composed the music and"
"Yakobson was taking jobs in minor provincial theaters where he staged various short ballets. He was not allowed to stage grand ballets. In 1953, after the death of Stalin, the anti-Semitic campaign gradually decayed, and in 1955 Yakobson was again invited to Leningrad to stage a ballet; this time it was ""Spartacus"" by Aram Khachaturian. Yakobson was the first choreographer who agreed to work on this ballet. Yakobson's choreography violated all canons of classical ballet. He removed the ballet pointe shoes and tutus, and actors were dressed in tunics and sandals like in ancient Rome. He replaced the classic ballet"
"commissioned to compose the scores for the one-act ballets ""Les Saisons"" and ""Les Ruses d'amour"", while Drigo was commissioned to compose the score for the two-act ballet ""Les Millions d'Arléquin"". While working on the score for ""Les Millions d'Arléquin"", Drigo took daily walks through the St. Petersburg Summer Garden and along the banks of the Neva River, all the while thinking of his native Italy. During one such walk, Drigo composed the ballet's famous ""Sérénade"", which included a solo mandolin, and the ""Berceuse: Variation pour Columbine"", which was written especially for the harpist Albert Zabel. ""Les Millions d'Arléquin"" was first"
"was ballet master in Vienna and collaborated with Beethoven on the ballet ""The Creatures of Prometheus"". He returned to Italy in 1804 and became the ballet master of ""La Scala"" ballet school in Milan. He is considered the father of a new kind of performance called """" where the pantomime served the dance and the ensembles were very significant. He died in Milan. Viganò's elder sister, Vincenza Viganò-Mombelli was also a dancer and the librettist of Rossini's first opera ""Demetrio e Polibio"". Salvatore Viganò Salvatore Viganò (March 25, 1769 – August 10, 1821), was an Italian choreographer, dancer and composer."
"either preceding version (ballet or concert suite). It calls for: ""Dance of Vengeance"" was premiered on February 2, 1956 by the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Dimitri Mitropoulos. The concert suite was recorded by the New Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Barber. Medea's Dance of Vengeance Medea's Dance of Vengeance is a composition (1955, Opus 23a) by the American composer Samuel Barber derived from his earlier ballet suite ""Medea"". Barber first created a seven-movement concert suite from this ballet (""Medea"", Op.23), and five years later reduced this concert suite down to a single-movement concert piece using what he felt"
"period. These two compositions ""remain his most successful compositions"". According to Jonathan McCollum and Andy Nercessian, his music for these two ballets ""can safely be included among the best known pieces of classical music throughout the world, a fact that is vitalized by perception that these are perhaps the only works through that the world really knows Armenian music"". Ann Haskins of ""LA Weekly"" suggests that he has thus ""made an indelible mark on the world of ballet"". ""Spartacus"" was popularized when the ""Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia"" was used as the theme for a popular BBC drama series ""The"
"Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (; ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian-born composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Serge Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: ""The Firebird"" (1910), ""Petrushka"" (1911), and ""The Rite of Spring"" (1913). The last of these transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for Stravinsky's enduring reputation as"
"Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his ""Pavane"", Requiem, ""Sicilienne"", nocturnes for piano and the songs ""Après un rêve"" and ""Clair de lune"". Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style. Fauré was born into a"
"1984. He was responsible for the opera's folk dances in the 1950s, and then for Opera performances in the 1960s, including Gounod's Faust, Wagner's Tannhaüser. In 1968, he choreographed ""Spartacus'"", his first ballet in three acts with the Soviet Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian. His work has been widely recognized in Hungary and abroad, having performed and presented performances in theaters and Opera houses in Moscow, Rome, Prague, Bordeaux, Edinburgh, Cologne, Saint Petersburg, Kiev, Berlin, Monte Carlo, Vienna, Salzburg, Paris, Turin, London, Zurich and Sydney. László Seregi died on May 11, 2012 in Budapest at the age of 83. László Seregi"
"Sarabandes The Sarabandes are three dances for solo piano composed in 1887 by Erik Satie. Along with the famous ""Gymnopédies"" (1888) they are regarded as his first important works, and the ones upon which his reputation as a harmonic innovator and precursor of modern French music, beginning with Debussy, principally rests. The ""Sarabandes"" also played a key role in Satie's belated ""discovery"" by his country's musical establishment in the 1910s, setting the stage for his international notoriety. French composer and critic Alexis Roland-Manuel wrote in 1916 that the ""Sarabandes"" represented ""a milestone in the evolution of our music...pieces of an"
"1973), Nutcracker (1966), Spartacus (1968), Swan Lake (1969), Ivan the Terrible (1975), Angara (1976), Romeo and Juliet (1979), The Golden Age (1982), and Raymonda (1984). He also designed Sergeyev's ""Raymonda"" (Kirov, 1948), ""Swan Lake"" (Kirov, 1950), and ""The Sleeping Beauty"" (Kirov, 1952) and Vainonen's ""The Nutcracker"" (Kirov, 1954). American reviewers, writing of touring Soviet productions, praised Mr. Virsaladze's designs for their grand scale, tastefulness, sensitivity to period and style and for often furthering the action of the ballet. Simon Virsaladze Simon (Soliko) Virsaladze () (Tbilisi, 24 January 1909 – Tbilisi, 9 February 1989) was a Georgian and one of the"
"Basil Poledouris Basil Konstantine Poledouris (; August 21, 1945 – November 8, 2006) was an American composer, conductor, and orchestrator of film and television scores, best known for his long-running collaborations with directors John Milius and Paul Verhoeven. His best known works include music for films like ""Conan the Barbarian"" (1982), ""Red Dawn"" (1984), ""RoboCop"" (1987), ""The Hunt for Red October"" (1990), ""Free Willy"" (1993), and ""Starship Troopers"" (1997). Poledouris won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special for his work on the four-part miniseries ""Lonesome Dove"" in 1989, and was a"
"Spartacus (film) Spartacus is a 1960 American epic historical drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick, written by Dalton Trumbo, and based on the novel of the same title by Howard Fast. It is inspired by the life story of Spartacus, the leader of a slave revolt in antiquity, and the events of the Third Servile War, and stars Kirk Douglas in the title role, Laurence Olivier as Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus, Peter Ustinov, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, as slave trader Lentulus Batiatus, John Gavin as Julius Caesar, Jean Simmons as Varinia, Charles"
"Leonard Salzedo Leonard Salzedo (24 September 1921 – 6 May 2000) was an English composer and conductor of Spanish descent. Salzedo was born in London. He studied composition under Herbert Howells and violin under Isolde Menges at the Royal College of Music in London, before becoming a professional composer in 1944. He worked closely with the Ballet Rambert, for whom his first ballet, ""The Fugitive"", was commissioned. His most successful ballet was ""The Witch Boy"" based on the ‘Ballad of Barbara Allan’. He was musical director of the Ballet Rambert from 1967 to 1972 and principal conductor with the Scottish"
"Boléro Boléro is a one-movement orchestral piece by the French composer Maurice Ravel (1875–1937). Originally composed as a ballet commissioned by Russian actress and dancer Ida Rubinstein, the piece, which premiered in 1928, is Ravel's most famous musical composition. Before ""Boléro"", Ravel had composed large-scale ballets (such as ""Daphnis et Chloé"", composed for the Ballets Russes 1909–1912), suites for the ballet (such as the second orchestral version of ""Ma mère l'oye"", 1912), and one-movement dance pieces (such as ""La valse"", 1906–1920). Apart from such compositions intended for a staged dance performance, Ravel had demonstrated an interest in composing re-styled dances,"
"Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of Spartacus Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of Spartacus is a 1992 concept album produced and composed by Jeff Wayne with Lyrics by Gary Osborne, telling the story of Roman gladiator, Spartacus. It starred Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones (in her first recording role), Fish, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and Scots singer Alan King as Spartacus. It was also the first Jeff Wayne release that is not related to his musical adaptation of ""The War of the Worlds"". Based on a story outline by Jeff Wayne, the script was written by writer Brian Sibley and playwright John Spurling with"
"John Antill titled ""Gentle Genius"", published in 1987. In 1971, Antill was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire for services to Australian music. In 1981, he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG). In 1985, the year before his death, he received an Honorary Doctorate in Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong. John Antill John Henry Antill, CMG, OBE (8 April 190429 December 1986) was an Australian composer best known for his ballet ""Corroboree"". Antill was born in Sydney in 1904, and was educated and trained in"
"The Rite of Spring The Rite of Spring (; ) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky with stage designs and costumes by Nicholas Roerich. When first performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 29 May 1913, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a sensation. Many have called the first-night reaction a ""riot"" or ""near-riot,"" though this wording did not come about until reviews of later performances in 1924, over a"
"Léo Delibes Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (; 21 February 1836 – 16 January 1891) was a French composer of the Romantic era (1815–1910), who specialised in ballets, operas, and other works for the stage. His most notable works include the ballets ""Coppélia"" (1870) and ""Sylvia"" (1876), as well as the operas ""Le roi l'a dit"" (1873) and ""Lakmé"" (1883). Delibes was born in Saint-Germain-du-Val, now part of La Flèche (Sarthe), France, in 1836; his father was a mailman, and his mother a talented amateur musician. His grandfather had been an opera singer. He was raised mainly by his mother and"