La Sylphide Tickets

Stanislavsky Music Theatre, Moscow, Russia

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Available Dates: 19 Sep - 30 Oct, 2025 (5 events)

Important Info

Type: Ballet

City: Moscow, Russia

Duration: 2h 30min with 1 interval

Acts: 2

Intervals: 1

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast

Performers

Choose the date to see the peformers

Creators

Composer: Jean-Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer

Choreographer: Philippo Taglioni

Choreographer: Pierre Lacotte

Overview

Today, the Stanislavsky Theatre, located in XIX century historical building just 750 metres (9-minute walk) from the Bolshoi, remains the only theatre in Russia where audiences can experience Taglioni–Lacotte’s legendary La Sylphide — a ballet that not only made history but continues to enchant with its ethereal beauty. Adding to the magic, the performance features outstanding dancers who have graced the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre and trained at the same world-renowned academies as Bolshoi artists, bringing with them the same school of excellence, mastery, and artistic depth. Ballet at the Stanislavsky Theatre is the great and affordable alternative to the Bolshoi.

In 1832, a momentous event changed the course of classical dance forever: for the first time, a ballerina rose en pointe. This historic moment took place in La Sylphide, staged in France by Filippo Taglioni especially for his daughter, the legendary Marie Taglioni.

Just four years later, a different version appeared in Copenhagen: August Bournonville’s La Sylphide, created for the Royal Danish Ballet. It was intended as a “substitute” — the theatre wished to stage Taglioni’s celebrated ballet but was denied permission. Economical as they were, the Danes preserved Bournonville’s version, which went on to dominate the stages of the 20th century.

Taglioni’s La Sylphide, however, seemed lost to history, surviving only as a symbol of Romantic ballet. As the ballet historian André Levinson once wrote:“Marie Taglioni — with her Nordic blood — danced what Kant thought, what Novalis sang, what Hoffmann dreamed.”

Then, in 1972, French choreographer Pierre Lacotte achieved the impossible: through meticulous research in archives, eyewitness accounts, and old engravings, he reconstructed the legendary original production. His work became the first — and most renowned — in a line of revivals of the great ballets of the past.

In 2011, Lacotte himself brought La Sylphide to Moscow, personally overseeing every rehearsal at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre with uncompromising precision. The production was later revived in 2021 under the direction of Laurent Hilaire.

History

Premiere of this production: 28 November 1836, Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark

La Sylphide is a romantic ballet in two acts. There were two versions of the ballet; the original choreographed by Filippo Taglioni in 1832, and a second version choreographed by August Bournonville in 1836. Bournonville's is the only version known to have survived and is one of the world's oldest surviving ballets.

Synopsis

Act 1

In the hall of a Scottish farmhouse, James Ruben, a young Scotsman, sleeps in a chair by the fireside. A sylph gazes lovingly upon him and dances about his chair. She kisses him and then vanishes when he suddenly wakes. James rouses his friend Gurn from sleep, and questions him about the sylph. Gurn denies having seen such a creature and reminds James that he is shortly to be married. James dismisses the incident and promises to forget it.

James' bride-to-be, Effie, arrives with her mother and bridesmaids. James dutifully kisses her, but is startled by a shadow in the corner. Thinking his sylph has returned, he rushes over, only to find the witch, Old Madge, kneeling at the hearth to warm herself. James is furious with disappointment.

Effie and her friends beg Old Madge to tell their fortunes, and the witch complies. She gleefully informs Effie that James loves someone else and she will be united with Gurn. James is furious. He forces Madge from the hearth and throws her out of the house. Effie is delighted that James would tangle with a witch for her sake.

Effie and her bridesmaids hurry upstairs to prepare for the wedding, and James is left alone in the room. As he stares out the window, the sylph materializes before him and confesses her love. She weeps at his apparent indifference. James resists at first, but, captivated by her ethereal beauty, capitulates and kisses her tenderly. Gurn, who spies the moment from the shadows, scampers off to tell Effie what has happened.

When the distressed Effie and her friends enter after hearing Gurn's report, the sylph disappears. The guests assume Gurn is simply jealous and laugh at him. Everyone dances. The sylph enters during the midst of the revelry and attempts to distract James.

As the bridal procession forms, James stands apart and gazes upon the ring he is to place on Effie's finger. The Sylph snatches the ring, places it on her own finger, and, smiling enticingly, rushes into the forest. James hurries after her in ardent pursuit. The guests are bewildered with James' sudden departure. Effie is heartbroken. She falls into her mother's arms sobbing inconsolably.

Act 2

In a fog-shrouded part of the forest, Madge and her companion witches dance grotesquely about a cauldron. The revellers add all sorts of filthy ingredients to the brew. When the contents glow, Madge reaches into the cauldron and pulls a diaphanous, magic scarf from its depths. The cauldron then sinks, the witches scatter, the fog lifts, and a lovely glade is revealed.

James enters with the sylph who shows him her charming, woodland realm. She brings him berries and water for refreshment but avoids his embrace. To cheer him, she summons her ethereal sisters who shyly enter and perform their airy dances. The young Scotsman is delighted and joins the divertissement before all flee for another part of the forest.

Meanwhile, the wedding guests have been searching the woodland for James. They enter the glade. Gurn finds his hat, but Madge convinces him to say nothing. Effie enters, weary with wandering about the forest. Madge urges Gurn to propose. He does and Effie accepts his proposal.

When they all have left, James enters the glade. Madge meets him, and tosses him the magic scarf. She tells the young farmer the scarf will bind the sylph to him so she cannot fly away. She instructs him to wind the scarf about the sylph's shoulders and arms for full effect. James is ecstatic. When the sylph returns and sees the scarf, she allows James to place it around her trembling form.

As James embraces the sylph passionately, her wings fall off, she shudders, and dies in James' arms. Sorrowfully, her sisters enter and lift her lifeless form. Suddenly, a joyful wedding procession led by Effie and Gurn crosses the glade. James is stunned. James directs his gaze heavenward; he sees the sylph borne aloft by her sisters. James collapses. Madge exults over his lifeless body. Justice has triumphed.

Venue Info

Stanislavsky Music Theatre - Moscow
B. Dmitrovka, 17

The Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre is a music theatre in Moscow.

The Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre was founded in 1941 when two companies directed by the legendary reformers of twentieth-century theatre — Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko — merged: the Stanislavsky Opera Theatre (established at the end of 1918 as an Opera Studio of the Bolshoi Theatre) and the Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre (set up in 1919 as a Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre).

The new theatre followed the artistic principles of its founders, who applied the system of the Moscow Art Theatre to opera and ballet. Both Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko rejected the current conception of opera as «costume concert». They wanted to bring it closer to drama and comedy, revealing the main idea of the plot through psychologically motivated action. The ballet company entered the Theatre as a part of Nemirovich-Danchenko's troupe. It was the former company of the Moscow Art Ballet, established in 1929 by Victorina Krieger, the valued ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre. She was Artistic Director and one of the principal dancers of the Moscow Art Ballet. Soon after Stanislavsky's death, Nemirovich-Danchenko took charge of all the companies (Vsevolod Meyerhold invited by Stanislavsky to work for his theatre, was arrested in 1939, and no other stage director could prove equal to Nemirovich-Danchenko). Then the theatre was given its present name.