Capriccio Espagnol
Touched-up backdrop for Capriccio Espagnol, by
Mariano Andreu
The Ballet Russe Collection
Ballet choreographed by Leonide Massine.
Music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Scenery by Mariano Andreu.
First production by the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo,
Monte-Carlo, 1939.
"A sequence of 5 dances, without any continuous plot, the ballet
develops as a grand Spanish divertissement, based upon individual
characters: a gipsy fortune teller, a young gipsy boy, a girl from
the country and a peasant. The decor was originally designed for
Fokine's Jota Araganosa."
Horst Koegler, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of
Ballet
"Massine's Capriccio received comparatively little
serious criticism, not even that awarded such frolics as Le
Beau Danube and Gaite Parisienne. Yet if only a
trifle, its admirers... considered it expertly crafted."
Jack Anderson, The One and Only:The Ballet Russe de Monte
Carlo
The backdrop is the only remnant of this ballet in our
collection, and is unfortunately quite heavily moisture-stained.
The picture above has been touched-up and hopefully represents a
reasonable approximation of what the drop may have looked like; see
below for the "real" picture.
Backdrop for Capriccio Espagnol, by Mariano
Andreu