Roland Petit and Violette Verdy in Le Loup, 1953“The ballet of the season, of the year, perhap

Roland Petit and Violette Verdy in Le Loup, 1953

“The ballet of the season, of the year, perhaps of the decade, was Le Loup, with a magnificent dramatic score by Henri Dutilleux and Carzou’s superb romantic set. Anouilh’s story of metamorphosis, slight as it is, gives a wonderful opportunity for mounting suspense and a climax of tragedy as tense as anything we have seen in ballet. Petit builds up a contrasting group of characters; the dumb emotional animal, first soothed then haunted and terrified, the girl who gives love, sympathy and understanding and the masses who are out to kill when there is something different that they do not understand.” – Arnold Haskell