The sudden rage for Russian ballet, ignited by the exciting premieres and other spectacular productions of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, impelled playwright J.M. Barrie (of Peter Pan fame) to pen a lightly satirical play about Russian ballet. Since the subject matter of the play was dance, a considerable amount of incidental music was needed. The English late-Romantic composer Arnold Bax received the commission to provide it. Subtitled "showing how they love, how they marry, how they are made, with how they die and live happily ever afterwards, " this play featured as its female lead a dancer who mimed or danced all her part, including even the responses in her wedding ceremony. Although the overall tone of the work is lightly satirical, some of Bax's music has considerable emotional weight, especially the music concerning the love of the Ballerina for Lord Vere and her decision to bear him a child. This costs her her life, since when the new "Russian Dancer" is made living, one must die so that the greatness of Russian ballet may live on.

Being a dancer, though, the Ballerina gets to perform an encore after her death. When it is time for her to return to her funeral bier, the ballet company's Maestro takes on the sacrifice himself, allowing her to live as a British aristocrat's wife and the mother of the new little Russian Dancer, already well-enough developed that she is chasing butterflies in the garden, on point!

The music is richly romantic, in an idiom not too far removed from that of Delius or Vaughan Williams. Although the repertoire is a little on the specialized side, the music is capable of providing a great deal of pleasure to most listeners.

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