Symphony in C (ballet)

Symphony in C, originally titled Le Palais de Cristal, is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Georges Bizet's Symphony in C (1855). The music of the ballet, which Bizet wrote at the age of 17 while studying with Charles Gounod at the Paris Conservatory, was lost and only rediscovered and published in 1933 (Stravinsky informed Balanchine of this).

The premiere was on Monday, July 28, 1947, in the Théâtre National de l'Opéra with the Paris Opéra Ballet where Balanchine was guest ballet master. According to City Ballet docents the four movements were originally associated with and designed using the colors four gemstones, three of which Balanchine subsequently retained for the three movements of his 1967 ballet Jewels: Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds. Even before the ballet was renamed Symphony in C, he had eliminated the color scheme and changed to the white costumes still used.

The NYCB premiere took place as the final piece on the first performance, October 11, 1948, of the newly renamed City Ballet at the City Center of Music and Drama with costumes by Karinska. Jerome Robbins was in the audience at that performance and is quoted as saying that he immediately wrote to Balanchine asking to be hired in any capacity.Suzanne Farrell says that Symphony in C is the first ballet she ever saw and determined at once to become a ballerina and join City Ballet; both of which she did. When she was in rehearsal learning her role from Balanchine, he asked her whether she could touch her knee with her nose en penchée, which she could, and this addition to the choreography remains to this very day.

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