W. A. Mozart composed his one and only ballet during his stay in Paris in September, 1777. It was J. G. Noverre (1727-1810), a dancer, choreographer, theorist and ballet reformer, who offered the composer to create a ballet. The all-stars premiere took place on June 11, 1778 in Paris at the Royal Academy of Music.
''The Little Nothings'' (''Les petits riens'') was performed only a few times during Mozart's lifetime. Since then, the ballet was forgotten for a long time, but it was revived at the beginning of the 20th century. This work contains no longer those innovative features for choreographers that were important for the first production, the ballet has become a history that arouses interest and inspires new interpretations of classics.
The comic one-act ballet ''Les petits riens'' represents a farewell to the old style, the stylistics of the past. The ballet plot includes three miniature scenes. Scene 1: the shepherdesses catch Cupid with a net and imprison him in a cage. Scene 2: game of blind man's buff. Scene 3: Cupid makes two shepherdesses jealous of the third one, disguised as a shepherd, but she reveals her secret. The performance ends with diverse figures.