What is Le Dieu Bleu?
{{italictitle}} {{Infobox ballet | name = Le Dieu Bleu | image = Le Dieu Bleu 1911.jpg | image_size = 250px | caption = Nijinsky as The Blue God | alt = Nijinsky as The Blue God | choreographer = [[Michel Fokine]] | composer = [[Reynaldo Hahn]] | librettist = [[Jean Cocteau]]<br />[[Federico de Madrazo y Ochoa]] | based_on = Original story | premiere = 13 May 1912 | place = [[Théâtre du Châtelet]]<br />[[Paris]] | ballet_company = [[Diaghilev]]'s [[Ballets Russes]] | characters = The Young Man<br/>The Young Girl<br/>The Goddess<br/>The Blue God<br/>The High Priest<br/>The [[Drunk]]en [[Temple]] Dancer | designer = [[Léon Bakst]] | setting = [[India]] | created_for = [[Nijinsky]] | genre = Mythology | type = [[Neoclassicism|Neoclassical ballet]] }} '''''Le Dieu Bleu''''' ({{lang-en|The Blue God}}) is a [[ballet]] in one act. [[Jean Cocteau]] and [[Federico de Madrazo y Ochoa]] wrote the story of the ballet. [[Reynaldo Hahn]] wrote the music. [[Michel Fokine]] designed the dances, and [[Léon Bakst]] designed the sets and [[costume#Theatrical costume|costume]]s. The ballet was first [[wikt:perform|performed]] in [[Paris]] at the [[Théâtre du Châtelet]] on 13 May 1912. It was a failure. [[Critic]]s thought [[Nijinsky]] {{ndash}} the dancer for whom the ballet was designed {{ndash}} did more [[wikt:pose#Verb|posing]] than dancing. Producer [[Sergei Diaghilev]] blamed Hahn's music for the failure. ''Le Dieu Bleu'' was staged three times in Paris in 1912 and three times in [[London]] in 1913. The ballet has not been [[wikt:revive|revived]]. == Background == Ballet [[impresario]] and producer [[Sergei Diaghilev]] staged two [[wikt:exotic|exotic]] ballets for the [[Ballets Russes]]: ''Cléopâtre'' in 1909 and ''Schéhérazade'' in 1910. Both were great successes with the [[Paris]]ian public. He hoped that ''Le Dieu Bleu'' (another exotic ballet) would be equally successful.<ref name=sch71/> ''Dieu'' was one of