Raymonda was first performed in 1898 in St. Petersburg, the center of Russian Imperial Ballet, at the blue and gold Mariinsky Theater with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Alexander Glazunov.  The young George Balanchine, who as a student danced in the ballet, thought the choreography “superb,” the music beautiful, and the convoluted story “nonsense and difficult to understand.” The sprawling narrative, however, is set in a sumptuous and exotic setting and really all you need to know is that it is set in medieval Hungary and centers on a young woman who is torn between two men — the courtly  Christian crusader knight, Jeanne de Brienne, to whom she is betrothed and the passionate and powerful Saracen warrior, Abderakhman who falls in love with her and tries to win her for his own.

In many ways the subject of Raymonda still resonates in the news today. Set against the background of the crusades, it concerns, (in fairytale form) the clash between Christian and Muslim cultures as represented by the two rivals, who engage in mortal combat for her hand.  Unsurprisingly, Jean de Brienne wins. The dances of Act III, which will you see danced by SF Ballet, celebrate  his victory and his marriage with Raymonda.

Although not as well known in the United States as Tchaikovsky ballets like Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, Raymonda has always held an important place in the Russian repertory. Ballet students grow up watching their elders perform it and (like Balanchine) are given small roles. The boys dream of someday embodying the noble crusader or the swashbuckling Saracen and the beautiful and proud Raymonda is a role coveted by would-be ballerinas. Rudolph Nureyev’s production (“after Petipa”) of which you will see Act III, helped to make the ballet better known to American and Australian audiences.

According to Balanchine, Glazunov was one of the most important ballet composers to emerge after Tchaikovsky; he learned well from the older composer how to write music for the special needs of an evening length dance drama. As you will hear, he can evoke moods and enhance dramatic action and also provide lyrical and foot-tapping music for dances that showcase the talents of the many dancers that made up the Mariinsky company in St. Petersburg and the San Francisco Ballet now.  Balanchine adored the music from Raymonda – and returned to it again and again in a series of ballets that he created for his own company, from Raymonda Variations, to the aptly named Cortège Hongrois.

As this last title suggests, Raymonda is also about the fascinating sounds and infectious rhythms of the Hungarian Gypsy music that inspired not only Glazunov, but composers all across Europe  in the nineteenth and early twentieth century including Tchaikovsky’s stamping “Czardas” in Swan Lake, Brahms’s “Hungarian Dances,” Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsodies” and Ravel’s fantasy for violin and orchestra, “Tzigane.”

References to Hungarian rhythms and dances abound in Raymonda’s most famous dance,  in  the finale of  Act III.  It begins as Raymonda, on point, weaves back and forth on the stage to a rhapsodic (seemingly improvised) riff  in which piano and plucked strings mimic the distinctive sounds of the cymbalom — a large Hungarian dulcimer. Raymonda’s proud almost preening posture (one arm angled behind the head, the other placed akimbo on her waist) as she punctuates her movement with sharp claps of her hands also reveals the deep Hungarian roots of the dance.  In her next appearance the music thrillingly builds in power and volume as the ballerina alternately raises each pointed foot up to the opposite knee at ever increasing speed.  And watch, too, for the exhilarating moments when the corps de ballet fill the stage swinging and skimming along in a balleticized czardas with angled arms framing their heads and torsos.  It is such infectious dance music that you may be tempted to try it at home with the music turned up and the curtains down.  Enjoy!

SF Ballet in Nureyev's Raymonda Act III (© Erik Tomasson).