[1] The ballet was written by Jean-Louis Vaudoyer who based the story on a verse by Théophile Gautier and used the music of Carl Maria von Weber's piano piece Aufforderung zum Tanz (Invitation to the Dance) as orchestrated by Hector Berlioz.

Michel Fokine was the choreographer and Léon Bakst designed the original Biedermeier sets and costumes.

Spectre became internationally famous for the spectacular leap Nijinsky made through a window at the ballet's end.

His idea was based on "Le Spectre de la rose", a verse by Théophile Gautier, and Aufforderung zum Tanz, a work for piano by Carl Maria von Weber and orchestrated by Hector Berlioz in 1841.

[4][5] In 1819, Carl Maria von Weber wrote a work for piano called Aufforderung zum Tanz.

He also wrote a program for this work about a young man and woman who meet, dance, and part at a ball.

This version of the music was used for a short ballet in Weber's opera Der Freischütz at the Paris Opéra.

[7] It was the Berlioz version of the original piano piece that was used for the ballet Le Spectre de la rose.

[11] Fokine dropped the port de bras of classical ballet in designing the dances for Nijinsky.

Nijinsky became an androgynous character in this ballet, one showing masculine power in his legs and a feminine delicacy in his arms.

Romula de Pulszky, later to be his wife, wrote that he looked like "a celestial insect, his eyebrows suggesting some beautiful beetle".

It was said that he built a large house called Le Château du Spectre de la Rose with the profits from the sale of the petals.

[4][17] The Young Girl has been called "the forgotten woman of ballet", and, as time has passed, the part has become routine.

He first danced The Rose on stage (24 times) in New York City for the Joffrey Ballet's Diaghilev program in 1979.

[21][22] A unique pink diamond discovered and cut in Moscow and valued by the Gemological Institute of America at a minimum of $60 million was named “Le Spectre de la Rose” as a tribute to a legendary Russian ballet miniature.