Ballet in four acts on a libretto by Vladimir Beghicev and Vasili Geltzer Despite his contemporaries’ fears that Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s (1840 – 1893) penchant for ballet would considerably affect his symphony-writer reputation, it was precisely his symphonic talent that mainly helped the composer promote the genre, once music was upgraded from mere support of choreography to an expressive component of the utmost importance in conveying the artistic ...