La Sylphide: 1832 and Beyond is the first English-language book dedicated to La Sylphide, one of the most enduring of the Romantic ballets in today's repertory.
'La Sylphide: 1832 and Beyond' is the first English-language
book dedicated to La Sylphide, one of the most enduring of
the Romantic ballets in today's repertory. The authors of this
collection of essays are practitioners and historians of dance
and music, and they bring to bear their expertise in a wide
variety of specialities including ballet technique, literature,
folklore, iconography, dance reconstruction, historiography,
and performance practice.
Indeed, nothing less than this expansive
reach is required to do justice to La Sylphide, an
immensely popular musico-dramatic stage work inspired by
literature, influenced by the visual arts and la mode; a work
that made history with its choreography and its star performer.
It cropped up in countless versions (some heretofore
little known) delighting its audiences and occasionally ( for
interesting reasons) dismaying them.
Contributors are Ivor Guest, Debra H. Sowell, Sandra Noll Hammond,
Matilda Ertz, Erik Aschengreen, Helena Kopchick Spencer, Ole Norlyng,
Alexander Bennett, Ornella Di Tondo and Marian Smith.