Coppélia is a funny ballet about a toymaker, a life-size doll, and a clever girl who pretends to be the doll. The music is by the French composer Léo Delibes. It was first danced in Paris in 1870. It ends with a wedding, and nobody is hurt.
Quick facts
- Music by: Léo Delibes
- First danced: Paris, 1870
- Acts: three
- Based on: a tale by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who also wrote the story behind The Nutcracker
- Kind of story: a comedy
The characters
- Swanhilda: a lively village girl
- Franz: the young man she is going to marry
- Dr. Coppélius: an old toymaker who keeps to himself
- Coppélia: the beautiful girl on his balcony, who never moves or speaks
- Swanhilda’s friends and the people of the village
The story
Act 1: the village square
Swanhilda sees a girl sitting on Dr. Coppélius’s balcony with a book. She waves. The girl does not look up. Swanhilda is cross.
Then Franz comes by. He sees the girl too, and he blows her a kiss. Swanhilda sees him do it, and now she is angry with them both.
The village leader arrives with news. A new bell is coming to the town, and there will be a festival. Couples who marry on that day will get a gift of money.
Swanhilda picks an ear of wheat. An old saying goes: shake it, and if it rattles, your sweetheart loves you. She shakes it and hears nothing. She tells Franz the wedding is off.
That evening, Dr. Coppélius goes out and drops his key. Swanhilda and her friends find it. They tiptoe into his house to meet the girl on the balcony. A little later, Franz comes with a ladder and climbs toward the balcony window.
Act 2: the toymaker’s workshop
The workshop is dark and full of figures that stand quite still. The girls bump into one, and it starts to move. They are dolls, built to dance when they are wound up.
Behind a curtain sits the girl from the balcony. Swanhilda touches her. She is a doll too. Franz has been blowing kisses to a toy.
Dr. Coppélius comes home and chases the girls out. Swanhilda hides behind the curtain.
Franz climbs in at the window. The toymaker catches him and then has an idea. He gives Franz a drink that puts him to sleep. With a book of spells, he tries to draw the life out of Franz and pour it into his doll.
Behind the curtain, Swanhilda has put on the doll’s dress. She steps out with stiff arms and blinking eyes. Dr. Coppélius is thrilled. His doll is alive.
She moves in jerks at first, and then more and more like a real girl. She dances a Spanish dance and a Scottish dance. Then she runs wild. She winds up every doll in the room, wakes Franz, and the two of them run away.
Dr. Coppélius finds his real doll behind the curtain, limp and without her dress. He has been tricked.
Act 3: the festival of the bell
The whole village gathers for the festival. Franz has learned his lesson, and Swanhilda forgives him. They are married.
Dr. Coppélius arrives, upset about his broken dolls. He is given a bag of money to make up for the damage, and he goes home content.
The village dances to celebrate. There are dances for the hours of the day: dawn, prayer, work, and more. Swanhilda and Franz dance last.
Music to hear first
Mazurka, from Act 1. A proud, stamping dance in three beats, from Poland.
Swanhilda’s Waltz, from Act 1. A light, turning tune.
Czardas, from Act 1. A dance from Hungary that starts slow and ends fast.
Music of the Automatons, from Act 2. A tinkling tune for the mechanical dolls.
Waltz of the Hours, from Act 3. A sweeping waltz for the festival.
Read Delibes for kids.
Things to do together
Be the doll. Play Music of the Automatons. Move with stiff arms and legs. When the music stops, freeze.
Doll or girl? One person moves like a doll and then like a real person. The others call out the moment it changes.
Wind-up friends. One child is the toymaker and winds up the others, one at a time. Each one dances until they run down.
Stamp the mazurka. Count “one, two, three” and stamp on two.
Tell it back. After you read the story, ask your child to tell it in three sentences: one for each act.
Seeing Coppélia with a child
- It can be a good first full-length ballet. The story is easy to follow without words, and the second act is full of jokes.
- Read the story first. A child who knows the plot can follow the acting.
- Check the length. Ask the theater how long the show runs and how many breaks it has.
- Watch the hands. In ballet, acting is done with gestures. Ask your child to spot the moment Swanhilda says “no wedding.”
Read ballet for kids: where to start and what to wear to the ballet or the opera with kids.
More ballet stories
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Use it with your kids
Print a listening page, a practice chart, or a composer fact sheet. Or try a tool, such as the composer timeline or the piece picker.