Music by Léo Delibes • Libretto by Charles-Louis-´Etienne Nuitter •
Originally Choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon •
Coppélia is a comic ballet based upon two stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann: Der Sandmann (The Sandman) and Die Puppe (The Doll). Dr. Coppélius is an inventor who has made a life-size dancing doll. It is so lifelike that Franz, a village youth, becomes infatuated with it and sets aside his true heart’s desire, Swanhilda. She shows him his folly by dressing as the doll, pretending to make it come to life and ultimately saving him from an untimely end at the hands of the inventor.