The ballet premiered as The Night Shadow with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo on Wednesday, 27 February 1946, at City Center of Music and Drama, New York, with sets and costumes designed by Dorothea Tanning and costumes executed by Karinska.
The original 1946 program describes the story as follows: Amid the somber walls of a decaying castle a masked ball has just begun.
As the poet turns to follow, he sees a lovely white apparition gliding across the roofs toward him.
The coquette, flushed with jealousy, steals out to tell the host....All too soon the marvelous sleep-walker drifts away.
As he lies unconscious among the terrified guests the white figure of his love appears once more, gently raises him and together they glide away.The ballet was renamed La Sonnambula in 1961, and has been revived numerous times.