Allumez les étoiles

Ballet in one act with choreography by Petit, libretto by Petit and Jean Ristat, and music by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Mussorgsky, and Georgian folk songs. Premiered 5 May 1972 by Ballet de Marseilles, Marseilles, with Petit, B. Malinowski, and Lowski. It is based on the life of the revolutionary poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, and was inspired by lines he wrote in 1913: ‘Listen!—they are lighting | Up the stars.’