Tonight some friends and I are attending Boston Ballet’s performance of Coppelia. I hadn’t realized this, but prior to this Boston Ballet had never staged the now standard Balanchine production. Coppelia is one of the most performed ballets on the planet, but it is Balanchine’s 1970′s production that has made it a standard.

From the recent Boston Globe review:

Originally choreographed by Arthur Saint Léon in 1870, “Coppélia’’ is based on the book by Charles Nuitter after E.T.A. Hoffman’s “Der Sandman.’’ In choreographing his “Coppélia,’’ Balanchine collaborated with Alexandra Danilova, a ballerina famous for playing Swanilda with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. The ballet, which debuted in 1974, draws its first two acts from the 1884 restaging by Marius Petipa and adds an explosive original third act, full of lilting Romanticism and brio.

The story of Coppelia is pretty simple. A mysterious and faintly diabolical inventor, Doctor Coppelius has made, among other mechanical figures, a life-size dancing doll, named Coppelia. Coppelia is so lifelike and enchanting that Franz, a village swain, falls in love with her. Swanhilda, Franz’s true beloved, shows him the folly in his ways by dressing as the doll and pretending to come to life. The story ends happily with a festive wedding (between two humans).

There’s much comparison between Coppelia and Frankenstein, but where Frankenstein represents the dark side of the theme of scientist as creator of life, then Coppelia is the light side.

I’ve seen Coppelia before – in San Francisco last, if memory serves. Most of the enjoyment from watching this ballet comes from the music, the costumes and the dancing.

George Balanchine’s production of the comedic ballet “Coppélia,’’ danced with spunk and wry wit by the Boston Ballet, reads like a simultaneously melodic and rambunctious coming-of-age story. Its components, equal parts mime and intricate dance steps, spring straight from the lush Léo Delibes score, making it a rare find among narrative ballets: Here the music is the message, as much as the plot line and physical action are.

Reviews of this new Boston Ballet production have been generally very good and I’m looking forward to seeing it.