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Rh LE PAVILLON D'ARMIDE

One of the earlier productions of M. Fokine, Armide, forms an important link with such traditional ballets as Le Lac des Cygnes and the other productions of Petipa.

As originally produced it included a prologue and an epilogue, with so much genuine plot in them as to supply the action of the ballet with an interesting raison d'être. There was the old story of the tired traveller and the insinuating stranger, and the grateful offer of a lodging for the night. And then, after the dream, which was the ballet, the scene of awakening and sinister disillusion. As recently performed, however, this pantomime setting has been clipped away, with the result that certain episodes in the ballet have lost something of their point. 39