At seventy-one, Hans Werner Henze is the elder statesman of German composers. Long interested in ballet, he wrote Ondine in 1958 for Frederick Ashton and Orpheus in 1979 for William Forsythe.

As Henze approached his seventieth birthday, the Schwetzingen Festival, near Heidelberg, commissioned three ballet scores from him. Delayed for a year, they premiered under the collective title Tanzstunden ("Dance Lessons") on May 25 in performances by the German State Opera Ballet. ...