''Nobilissima visione'' (''The Noblest Vision'') is a 50-minute

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

(or, more precisely, a "dance legend") in six scenes by

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ' ...

, originally choreographed by Léonide Massine for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. The libretto by Hindemith and Massine depicts episodes from the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. The work was completed in February 1938 and premiered at

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr ...

in London on 21 July 1938, with sets and costumes by

Pavel Tchelitchew Pavel Fyodorovich Tchelitchew ( ; russian: Па́вел Фёдорович Чели́щев) ( – 31 July 1957) was a Russian-born surrealist painter, set designer and costume designer. Early life Tchelitchew was born to an aristocratic famil ...

and under the baton of the composer. He led one performance of the new ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York (for which the title was temporarily altered to ''Saint Francis'') on 14 October of the same year.''Selected Letters of Paul Hindemith'', 1995, pp. 118-19. After the ballet premiere, Hindemith extracted a 20-minute

orchestral suite A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/ concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

(retaining the ''Nobilissima visione'' name) in three movements, using five of the original eleven movements: # Introduction and Rondo # March and Pastorale # Passacaglia The first performance of the suite in Venice was at

Teatro La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (, "The Phoenix") is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice bec ...

on 13 September 1938 and has become a regularly programmed orchestral work. Though the ballet was originally scored for a small orchestra, the suite was for a full symphony orchestra from the outset. The suite does not attempt to follow the action of the ballet, instead Hindemith extracted only those portions of the score which he felt would be most effective in the concert hall. Hindemith himself conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in a 21 November 1956

stereophonic Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

recording of the suite, which was released by

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

References

Notes Sources * Hindemith, Paul (1995). ''Selected Letters of Paul Hindemith''. Yale University Press. * Ballets by Léonide Massine Ballets by Paul Hindemith Compositions by Paul Hindemith 1938 compositions Cultural depictions of Francis of Assisi 1938 ballet premieres {{classical-composition-stub

See also

References