1966 – The Royal Ballet Touring Company dances Act III of Marius Petipa’s Raymonda for the first time

Marius Petipa’s Raymonda was originally performed by the Imperial Russian Ballet in St Petersburg in 1898 to music by Alexander Glazunov. Rudolf Nureyev staged the full-length Raymonda for The Royal Ballet Touring Company at the Spoleto Festival in 1964 with Doreen Wells as Raymonda and himself as Jean de Brienne. That version was never performed again by the company, but when Nureyev later staged dances from Act III of Raymonda for the company, he again cast Wells in the ballerina role, alongside Keith Rosson as Jean de Brienne, which was performed at the Suomen Kansallisooppera in Helsinki in May 1966. The company then gave Raymonda Act III its Covent Garden premiere two months later, and it joined the repertory of The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden in 1969.
In his staging of the dances from Raymonda, Nureyev became instrumental of our understanding in the West of Petipa’s ballet. The production is an homage to Petipa’s exquisitely wrought choreography, where we see the apotheosis of the French choreographer’s skill. Nureyev concentrated the glittering, autumnal glow of Petipa’s ballet into a one-act feast of dancing, and the Byzantine-infused designs by Barry Kay were an ideal partner for Nureyev’s sensuous choreography.