The story of the ballet is taken from the Biblical parable and transplanted to Russian soil. Boris Kochno, Diaghilev’s secretary and librettist, took certain liberties to heighten the themes of sin and forgiveness: two attentive sisters were substituted for the obedient son of the original story; how the Prodigal Son “wasted his substance with riotous living” was brought to the forefront by placing it in the present tense; and the story ends with the Son’s return to a grave patriarch (not the celebratory father in the original). Read More