Adelphi Orchestra To Debut Original Work of Dance Set to Ravel's 'Mother Goose Suite' on 3/13

The concert, funded in part by the Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation and the Bergen County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs is free and open to the public.

Choreographed and danced by Cara Anne Chapman, Lisa Kuhnen and Temple Kemezis the dance animates five literary fairy tales which Maurice Ravel translated into music over a century ago. The stories are interwoven as a dream sequence which takes place during the 100 year curse of the Sleeping Beauty: La pavane de la Belle au bois dormant (Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty); Petit Poucet (Tom Thumb); Laideronnette; Impératrice des Pagodes ( Little Ugly One, Empress of the Pagodas) Les Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête (The conversations of Beauty and the Beast) and Le jardin féerique (The Fairy Garden).

Based on short stories by French authors Charles Perrault (1628-1703) Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy's (1650-1705) and Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (1711-1780), Ravel's Mother Goose Suite first began as piano duet for four hands in 1908. Three years later at the suggestion of Jacques Rouché, director of the Théâtre des Arts, Ravel adapted his composition for ballet and "Ma mère l'Oye" premiered January 29, 1912 at the Théâtre des Arts in Paris.

The first American orchestral performance of Ravel's "Mother Goose" in the form of the familiar, five-movement suite was given by Walter Damrosch with the New York Symphony Orchestra on November 8, 1912, literally months after the ballet's premiere. While the orchestral version of Ravel's beloved "Mother Goose Suite" is popularly performed throughout the world, ballet productions are infrequent. Major productions of the Mother Goose ballet to date include Jerome Robbins's 1975 production for the New York City Ballet and Todd Bolender's production for the American Concert Ballet in 1943.

French Impressionist Concert
Adelphi Orchestra
March 13th 2PM
Riverdell High School 55 Pyle St, Oradell, NJ 0766
Free and open to the public