''Mother Goose'' is a

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 ...

made for

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's fir ...

's Ravel Festival by balletmaster

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

to Ravel's music and scenario, the '' Ma Mère l'Oye Suite'' from 1908, orchestrated by the composer in 1912. The premiere took place on May 22, 1975, at the

New York State Theater The David H. Koch Theater is a theater for ballet and dance at Lincoln Center in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Originally named the New York State Theater, the venue has been home to the New York City Ballet sinc ...

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

, with costumes by

Stanley Simmons Benjamin Stanley Simmons (March 10, 1871 – September 8, 1931) was an American architect. Life Born in Charles County, Maryland, in 1872, Simmons came as a child came to Washington, DC, Washington, D.C., where he would later establish his car ...

and lighting by

Jennifer Tipton Jennifer Tipton (born September 11, 1937) is an American lighting designer. She has designed for dance, theater, and opera. She is known for working on many productions of American Ballet Theatre. Life and career Tipton was born in Columbus, Ohi ...

. At its premiere it bore the French title, which was retained when it was first revived in January 1978 but anglicized by May of that year.NY Times review by Jack Anderson, May 30, 1978
/ref> ''Ma Mère l'Oye'' was written as a suite of five pieces for

piano four hands Piano four hands (, , ) is a type of piano duet involving two players playing the same piano simultaneously. A duet with the players playing separate instruments is generally referred to as a ''piano duet, piano duo''.Bellingham, Jane"piano du ...

and later orchestrated and adapted into a ballet, by M. Ravel, with the addition of a prelude, an opening scene and four interludes connecting the five original pieces.

Cast

Original

Muriel Aasen Muriel may refer to: Places *Muriel de Zapardiel, a municipality in the province of Valladolid, Spain * Muriel, Zimbabwe, a settlement * Muriel Lake, British Columbia, Canada * Muriel Lake (Alberta), Canada * Muriel Peak, a summit in California P ...

* Delia Peters *

Tracy Bennett Tracy Bennett is an editor and puzzle editor. She edits The New York Times Games products Wordle and Strands. Early life Bennett was born Tracy Pinkham and grew up in Maine. Her parents were both in the Navy when her older sister, Cinda, wa ...

* Deborah Koolish * Colleen Neary * Richard Hoskinson * Matthew Giordano *

Jay Jolley Jays are a paraphyletic grouping of passerine birds within the family Corvidae. Although the term "jay" carries no taxonomic weight, most or all of the birds referred to as jays share a few similarities: they are small to medium-sized, usually ...

Daniel Duell This is a list of New York City Ballet dancers. Principal dancers Soloists This is a list of New York City Ballet soloists. Corps de ballet The following is a list of the current members of the corps de ballet. * Victor Abreu * Dominika A ...

References

* ''

Playbill ''Playbill'' is an American monthly magazine for Audience, theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of ''Playbill'' are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the ...

'', NYCB, Thursday, May 15, 2008 * ''Repertory Week'', NYCB, Spring Season, 2008 repertory, week 3

Footnotes

Reviews

''NY Times'' review

Jennifer Dunning Jennifer Dunning (born February 4, 1942) is a writer and critic for ''The New York Times'' on the subjects of dance and ballet. She is the author of the 1985 ''But First a School: The First Fifty Years of the School of American Ballet'', the 1996 ...

, April 29, 1983
''NY Times'' review
Jack Anderson, January 6, 1983
''NY Times'' review

Anna Kisselgoff Anna Kisselgoff (born 12 January 1938) is a dance critic and cultural news reporter for ''The New York Times''. She began at the ''Times'' as a dance critic and cultural news reporter in 1968, and became its Chief Dance Critic in 1977, a role she h ...

, June 11, 1990
''NY Times'' review

, June 27, 1991
''NY Times'' review

, February 15, 1992
''NY Times'' review

Gia Kourlas Gia Kourlas is an American dance critic. Since 2019, she had written as the dance critic for ''The New York Times''. Early life and education Kourlas was raised in Columbus, Ohio. She began dancing at age 5; a few years later, she switched to f ...

, May 17, 2008 {{Jerome Robbins Ballets by Maurice Ravel Ballets by Jerome Robbins New York City Ballet Ravel Festival New York City Ballet repertory 1975 ballets Ballets designed by Jennifer Tipton Ballets based on fairy tales Works based on nursery rhymes Ballets based on works by Charles Perrault