About

August Bournonville's 1836 ballet to a score by Herman Løvenskiold — a manifesto of Romantic ballet and one of the earliest surviving works in the international repertoire. A young Scottish farmer named James is bewitched, on his wedding day, by an ethereal sylph. The libretto, by Adolphe Nourrit, sets the pattern for every ballet-blanc that followed. The Mariinsky performs it in the Bournonville tradition, preserved almost unchanged from the Royal Danish Ballet.