#pantalon

Pantomime ballet in one act by Michel Fokine. Music by Robert Schumann, orchestrated by Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov, Anatole Liadov, Nicholas Tcherepnine, and Alexander Glazounov. Choreography by Fokine. Décor and costumes by Léon Bakst. First performance by the Ballets Russes: Teater des Westens, Berlin, May 20, 1910. First performance in Paris: Théâtre National de l’Opéra, June 4, 1910.

Fokine had created Carnaval for a benefit given in St. Petersburg on February 20, 1910. In May of the same year, the ballet was included in the repertoire of the Ballets Russes. 

The first sketch for the Carnaval set which Bakst submitted to Diaghilev represented an immense terrace overlooking a garden, but for this particular ballet Diaghilev wanted to circumscribe the stage area at the Opéra, and he suggested to Bakst the idea of an interior. 

The success of Carnaval in Paris was due, in large part, to the brilliant execution of Fokine’s choreography by Karsavina and Nijinsky. 

...

Diaghilev told me about a funny incident that occurred during one performance of Le Carnaval. Enrico Cecchetti, who was miming the role of Pantalon, an elderly dandy of the Romantic period, mixed up the order of the program one evening and appeared onstage in Carnaval dressed in his costume for the Chief Eunuch in Schéhérazade.