The Australian Ballet’s 2009 tribute to Sergei Diaghilev, Firebird and Other Legends, included Mikhail Fokine’s Petrouchka which premiered in Paris on 13 June 1911 with Nijinsky in the role of the fairground puppet who loses his heart to the empty-headed ballerina doll and is killed by the jealous blackamoor.

With Igor Stravinksy’s astonishing music and Alexandre Benois’ designs – the setting is Admiralty Square in St Petersburg during the Butter Week, a riotous holiday time before the strict 40 days of Lent – the ballet quickly established itself as a masterpiece.  Colonel de Basil’s companies brought Petrouchka to Australia in 1936, 1938 and 1940 with such brilliant stars as Igor Yousskevitch and Yurek Shabelevsky in the title role and Helene Kirsova and Irina Baronova as the doll.  Edouard Borovansky, who had stayed in Australia after the 1938-39 tour and formed the Borovansky Ballet, produced it in 1951 with designs by William Constable and Miro Zloch and Peggy Sager as the puppet and the doll. Read the rest of this entry »