Blessed with one of the most glorious scores in all of ballet, Raymonda premiered in 1898 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Peterburg, Russia. This was Marius Petipa’s last great ballet, an evocation of a knight and his lady love during the Crusades. Rudolf Nureyev staged the ballet a number of times after his 1961 defection to the West. In 1983, when he became director of the Paris Opera Ballet, he tinkered one last time. —L.J.

Similar events around the world: Raymonda, Yuri Grigorovich choreography of 2003, after Petipa and Gorsky, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow (July 12–13 and October 26–27, 2019).