""Listened to the Leo Delibes' ballet Sylvia. In fact, I actually listened, because it is the first ballet, where the music constitutes not only the main, but the only interest. What charm, what elegance, what richness of melody, rhythm, harmony. I was ashamed. If I had known this music early then, of course, I would not have written Swan Lake." -- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to Sergei Taneyev (composer) on December 7, 1877."