La Péri (Dukas)

At the end of his days of youth, the Magi having observed that his star had faded, Iskender travels throughout Iran in search of the Flower of Immortality.

As the Peri slowly disappears in the light and returns to Paradise, Iskender realizes with calmness that he has been stranded and left to die.

The original music to La Péri was written in 1911 by Paul Dukas as a Poème dansé en un tableau ("dance poem in one scene"), his last published work.

Dukas scored La Péri for one piccolo (doubling third flute), two flutes, two oboes, one English horn, two clarinets in A, one bass clarinet in B flat, three bassoons; four horns in F, three trumpets in C, three trombones, one tuba; a percussion section that includes timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine and xylophone; one celesta; two harps and strings.

Dukas had been commissioned to write the music for the Ballets Russes with designs by Léon Bakst, with Natalia Trouhanova as the Peri and Vaslav Nijinsky as Iskender.

[1] The ballet entered the Paris Opera's repertoire in 1921, with Anna Pavlova and Hubert Stowitts dancing as the Peri and Iskender and designs by René Piot, and Philippe Gaubert conducting.