Abstract:
This paper takes as its starting point the 1914 production by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Golden Cockerel (le Coq d’or to the French), a production that holds a special position in the work’s history for the peculiarities of its staging: the singers sat throughout the performance, dressed in identical caftans and relegated to the sides of the stage; dancers in costume provided the action. The resulting “opera-ballet,” complete with musical cuts and two of each character, provoked much criticism in the French press.