Apollo is the 1928 neoclassical ballet by Igor Stravinsky based on the mythological god Apollo.
Originally titled Apollon musagète, the ballet presents Apollo as the leader of the Muses. Three Muses visit him: Calliope, associated with poetry; Polyhymnia, associated with mime and rhetoric; and Terpsichore, associated with dance and song. The story uses classical mythology but presents it through a highly controlled modern ballet style.
Stravinsky composed the score between 1927 and 1928 for a commission supported by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and connected with a Library of Congress festival. The first version premiered in Washington, D.C., on 27 April 1928, choreographed by Adolph Bolm. George Balanchine created the better-known Ballets Russes production, which premiered in Paris on 12 June 1928.
Apollo is considered a landmark of neoclassical ballet because it combines an ancient subject with spare staging, formal structure, and Stravinsky’s refined writing for strings. It is not to be confused with his earlier ballets Petrushka, The Firebird, or The Rite of Spring.