Flore et Zéphire

Flore et Zéphire is a one-act ballet choreographed by Charles-Louis Didelot to music by Cesare Bossi, premiered in London at the King's Theatre, Haymarket on Thursday, 7 July 1796. The ballet tells the story of Zephyr, the fickle west wind, and his wife Flora, a nymph of flowers and springtime. The ballet was originally composed in 1795 for performance in Lyon, France, and was revised in 1796 prior to its London premiere.Flore et Zéphire used "flying machines" to send dancers soaring above the stage on nearly invisible wires, in order to enhance the presentation of Flora and Zephyr as spirits of the air. The ballet is credited with the introduction of dancing en pointe to the stage.

The story of 'Zephyr et Flore' is set on Mount Olympus in Greece, where Boreas, the north wind, plots to abduct Flora, the wife of Zephyr, the west wind. Introducing a game of blind man's bluff, Boreas separates the couple and kills Zephyr with an arrow. He then takes Flora to his cave, where she faints from fright. Nine muses in mourning bring Zephyr's body to Mount Olympus where, after his funeral procession, he comes back to life. The muses tie Flora securely to Zephyr's wrist so they will not be separated again and Boreas is punished.

In 1795 Didelot created the ballet La Métamorphose for Lyon, and in 1796 he revised the work as Flore et Zéphire. The ballet premiered in London at the King's Theatre in 1796, ultimately ushering in a new and important—but brief—era in ballet subsequently known as the Pre-Romantic.

Pre-Romanticism in ballet belonged largely to the Anacreontic genre, which emphasized light-hearted treatment of Classical subjects rather than the restrained formality of Classicism. Anacreontism had become popular at the end of the eighteenth century when the taste for Greek and Roman antiquarianism had run its course at the court of Louis XIV. As a whole, Pre-Romantic ballet coincided with the birth of the Romantic movement in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century.

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