The Delibes Connection
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From the Pennsylvania Ballet production of Coppelia
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said that he liked the music of Leo Delibes because the French composer made “no pretensions to depth.”
Well, maybe--but without Delibes’ ballet scores for Sylvia and Coppelia, we would not have Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, or The Nutcracker. And that was a debt that Tchaikovsky himself was happy to admit.
In this hour, the impact of Delibes on ballet music in general, and Tchaikovsky’s in particular.