Boléro

Boléro was commissioned by the dancer Ida Rubinstein, who had asked Ravel for an orchestration of pieces from Albéniz's Iberia; when the rights proved to be tied up he wrote something of his own instead. The ballet was staged at the Paris Opéra on 22 November 1928, choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska with designs by Alexandre Benois, the setting a Spanish tavern. Two themes alternate over an unchanging snare-drum ostinato for some fifteen minutes, the only development being one of orchestral colour and volume. Ravel described it, without much affection, as orchestration without music.