A Saint Petersburg fair provides the setting for the violent yet beautiful story of the ugly puppet «Petrushka». With this bizarre dance epic set in the world of circus artistes, Igor Stravinsky and his co-librettist Alexander Benois created the foundations for a new ballet aesthetic. The first work that Stravinsky composed away from his Russian homeland, it was premiered in 1911 in Paris. Emmanuel Chabrier’s dashing and charming «Bourrée fantasque» and the exotic sound-world of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Fifth Piano Concerto, his «Egyptian», were also instant hits with the French public.