La Boutique fantasque

La Boutique fantasque, also known as "The Magic Toyshop" or "The Fantastic Toyshop", is a ballet in one act conceived by Léonide Massine, who devised the choreography for a libretto written with the artist André Derain, a pioneer of Fauvism. Derain also designed the décor and costumes for the ballet. Ottorino Respighi wrote the music based on piano pieces by Gioachino Rossini. Its world premiere was at the Alhambra Theatre in London on 5 June 1919, performed by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
Massine described how, in Rome for a ballet season, Respighi brought the score of Rossini's "Péchés de vieillesse" to Diaghilev. The impresario played them to Massine and Respighi. Toulouse-Lautrec was an influence on the period setting and style of "La Boutique fantasque", and Massine envisaged the principal character "quite Lautrec-like". Diaghilev arranged for Massine to meet Derain in Paris, and they worked out the scenario with the artist's marionette theatre at his home on the rue Bonaparte. The date of the action was moved from 1832 to the 1860s.
The story of the ballet has similarities to "Die Puppenfee" ("The Fairy Doll") of Josef Bayer, an old German ballet that had been performed by Jose Mendez in Moscow in 1897 and by Serge and Nicholas Legat in Saint Petersburg in 1903. Others note the similarities to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier".
Massine's scenario centers on the love story between two can-can dancer dolls in a toyshop, incorporating elements of comedy, national folk dance and mime, as well as classical choreography.
Story.
The ballet is set in France in 1860. A world-famous toymaker has created exquisite dancing dolls in his magic toyshop. The automata perform various dance routines for the prospective customers. At first the toys entertain two English ladies and an American family. Some dolls perform a tarantella for the guests, followed by other dolls dressed as playing cards who dance a mazurka. Then two dolls come in and perform another routine involving a snob and a melon vendor. New customers arrive, a Russian family, and everyone welcomes them. Five Cossack dolls enter and perform a traditional dance, followed by an animal act featuring two dancing poodles.
Then the shop-keeper introduces his most sophisticated dancing dolls, a pair of can-can dancers, a flashly-dressed man and girl, come in and perform their routine. Their dance is so enchanting that the American family decides to buy the male doll while the Russian family buys the female dancing doll. The deals are made and paid for, the dolls are placed in separate boxes and collection is arranged for the next day.
Darkness descends, but during the night, the dolls magically come to life and start dancing. They are upset that the two can-can dancers who are lovers are going to be separated, and a plot is hatched to hide them before the customers return in the morning.
When the shop opens the next day and the customers come in to pick up their dolls, they discover that the can-can dancers are no longer there. The customers, not knowing about the secret life of the dolls, blame the shop owner and attack him and his assistant. In the ensuing fracas, the dolls come to the shopkeeper's rescue with the Cossack dolls attacking the customers with their bayonets. Driven out of the shop, the customers watch incredulously through the window as the happy dolls and the shopkeeper dance merrily inside with the re-united can-can dancers.
Original cast.
Among the large cast in the original production were:
Performance history.
According to ballet historian Cyril Beaumont, the first night was packed with well-known artists and performers eagerly awaiting the new ballet. Picasso made a sketch of Massine and Lopukhova in their final pose. Paris saw "La Boutique fantasque" for the first time on Christmas Eve 1919. Despite Massine's dismissal from the Ballets Russes in early January 1921, the ballet was revived in the following May at the Prince's Theatre in London and at the Gaîté-Lyrique in Paris in 1925 and on tour in Europe in the following years, and was on the bill of the final performance of Diaghilev's company in Vichy on 4 August 1929; the impresario died two weeks later in Venice.
The enormous success of Colonel de Basil's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in Europe and America prompted J.C. Williamson Management to arrange the company's first tour to Australia and New Zealand. Thus, "La Boutique fantasque" was the first ballet by Léonide Massine to be performed in Australia. It had its Australian premiere at the Theatre Royal, Adelaide, during the opening night of the Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo tour on 13 October 1936. Valentina Blinova and Leon Woizikowski were particularly celebrated as the can-can dancers.
When Massine left the company of Colonel de Basil in 1937, "La Boutique fantasque" was among the works involved in a copyright dispute. Following a legal ruling in 1937, de Basil was no longer allowed to perform pre-1932 works by Massine. The performance rights then reverted to the choreographer.
Massine subsequently mounted the work for the re-formed Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo some time in 1939, where it formed a triptych of high-spirited ballets with his "Gaîté Parisienne" and "Le Beau Danube". The ballerina roles in all three ballets became indelibly associated with the elegant and witty interpretations of Alexandra Danilova.
Massine mounted "La Boutique fantasque" for Ballet Theatre, later known as American Ballet Theatre, in 1942 and its American premiere took place at the Central High School Auditorium in Omaha, Nebraska, on 4 January 1943. Among the cast were Simon Semenoff (Shopkeeper), Nicolas Orloff (Shop Assistant), Muriel Bentley (English Old Maid), Antony Tudor (American Patron), Jerome Robbins (American Boy), Nora Kaye and Yurek Lazowsky (Tarantella Dancers), John Taras (Melon Hawker), André Eglevsky (Cossack Chief), Karen Conrad and John Kriza (Dancing Poodles), and Irina Baronova and Léonide Massine (Can-can Dancers).
The Royal Ballet in London mounted the work in 1947 as part of the renewal of its repertoire for Covent Garden; Massine was in charge of the production and danced his original role. In 1948, Danilova appeared alongside him. The Royal Ballet touring company revived the piece in Stratford in 1968 and it remained in their repertory for several years after, and Massine returned to coach the company for the 1978 run.
Score.
Buckle notes that as the ballet took shape it became clear that each musical number was "perfect of its kind" and that there was ample variety of tunes and related dances. The Rossini piano works used include "Gherkins", "Radishes", "Butterflies", "Themes in Variation", "Almonds", "Petit Caprice (Style Offenbach)", "Tarantelle pur Sang", "Castor Oil", "Abortive polka", and "La Danza".
The music was a major contribution to the success of the ballet, whose score was well-orchestrated, kept Rossini's harmonies, and generally retained his phrasing unaltered while investing his melodies with a new breadth. The instrumentation is piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, side drum, xylophone, percussion, celesta, harp and strings.
Recordings.
Respighi's score soon took on an existence of its own in the concert hall as a suite. It has been performed many times and is enduringly popular on record. Recordings have included the following: