Cesare Pugni
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Cesare Pugni (Russian Чезаре Пуньи) (31 May 1802?, Genoa?, Italy — 26 January 1870, St. Petersburg, Russia) was an Italian composer of ballet music, while in his early career he scored Bel canto Opera, symphonies, and various other forms of orchestral music quite successfully. He is most noted for the ballets he scored while serving as Ballet Composer to Her Majesty's Theatre in London, and First Imperial Ballet Composer to the Romanov's Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, collaborating with such distinguished choreographers as Jules Perrot, Arthur Saint-Léon, Paul Taglioni, and Marius Petipa. Pugni is the most prolific composer of the genre of ballet music that has ever lived - by the end of his life he had scored 312 original ballets, and a gargantuan number of incidental dances, such as divertissements, variations, and additional music for interpolation into already exsisting works, as well as adapting and revising scores for ballets by other composers. Of the original ballets for which Pugni wrote music, he is most noted for Ondine (AKA The Naiad and the Fisherman) (1843); La Esmeralda (1844); The Pharaoh's Daughter (1862); and The Little Humpbacked Horse (AKA The Tsar Maiden) (1864). Of the various incidental dances, etc. for which he scored music, he is most noted for the Pas de Six from La Vivandière (AKA Markitenka) (1844); the Pas de Quatre (1845); the Carnival in Venice Pas de Deux (AKA The Fascination Pas de Deux from Satanella) (1859); and his additional music for Le Corsaire (circa 1856, 1863).
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[edit] Early life
There will likely never again be a greater contributor of music for the art of ballet than Cesare Pugni, who is without question the most prolific composer of the genre that has ever lived. The poet and historian Donald Sidney-Fryer's A Checklist of Ballet Scores by Cesare Pugni puts the number at 312 complete ballets, the majority of which were written for the most influential choreographers of the 19th century from Milan, to Paris, Berlin, London, and finally St. Petersburg, among them - Jules Perrot, Arthur Saint-Léon, Paul Taglioni, and Marius Petipa. Nearly every great Ballerina of the Romantic epoch, from Marie Taglioni to Fanny Cerrito, Lucile Grahn, Fanny Elssler, Carlotta Grisi, and Carolina Rosati, all danced the majority of their legendary triumphs in ballets set to his music. In Pugni's early career, mostly while in Milan, he also scored five well-received Bel canto operas, over forty masses, 4 (known) symphonies, and many other orchestral pieces, the majority of which were written for small ensembles such as string quartets.
Historians are not certain of the exact year of his birth, as it has been given as both 1802, and 1805. Likewise the place of his birth is not know for certain either, as both Milan and Genoa have been given. The most authoritative facts concerning the composer's birth appear to be Genoa, Italy on May 31, 1802. His father, Carlo Pugni, was a well-known clockmaker with a successful shop in the Palazzo del Duomo, near Milan's cathedral. It is interesting to note that the word Pugni means fists in Italian.
It was certainly in Milan that the young Pugni received his musical education, though he was not instructed at the Milan Conservatory as has been stated by many historians. He began his musical studies at a very young age, likely by way of private lessons, under Bonifazio Asioli, who taught him composition and counterpoint, and from Alessandro Rolla, who for many years was lead violinist in the orchestra at La Scala and a prominent composer, who taught Pugni the violin (Rolla is also noted as the teacher of the young Niccolò Paganini). Other names associated with Pugni's musical training are Peter Von Winter and Carlo Soliva, both of whom scored operas for La Scala between 1816 and 1818. At the age of seven Pugni scored his first composition, probably for the violin, an instrument he excelled in. Pugni "grew up" in the theatre, so to speak, likely making himself more and more useful to the artists of La Scala as he became a young man. In time he began to show a great facility for composition, with an extraordinary talent for creating melody and for orchestration.
It appears that the first ballet to have been associated with the composer was the Balletmaster Gaetano Gioja's (teacher of Fanny Elssler) Il castello di Kenilworth (The Castle of Kenilworth - based on Walter Scott's novel Kenilworth), produced at La Scala in 1823 (Gaetano Donizetti would later write his opera Il castello di Kenilworth based on the same theme). The printed libretti for this work credits the music as being a pastiche of themes derived from "various well-known composers", for which Pugni himself adapted the music. In 1826 Pugni received his first commission for the ballet Elerz e Zulmida, to be mounted by the Balletmaster Louis Henry. The success of that work brought about three more commissions from Henry, and soon Pugni was sought out by some of the most distinguished choreographers then working in Italy, among them Salvatore Taglioni (uncle of the legendary Marie Taglioni), and Giovanni Galzerani. Pugni's growing popularity as a capable composer of light, melodious music for dancing was attested by the publication of a number of piano reductions of excerpts from his works, among them, the popular Scottish Dance from his 1837 ballet L'Assedio di Calais (The Siege of Calais), which like every one of his works which was published throughout his life and career sold very well.
Though he demonstrated considerable talent for composing ballet music, Pugni's real ambition was to become a celebrated composer of opera. There had been occasions where he had been commissioned to compose an aria "to order" for various performances at La Scala, and such assignments encouraged him to pursue his ambition further. In 1831 his opera Il Disertore Svizzero (The Swiss Deserter) premiered at the Teatro Canobbiana in Milan, with his teacher Alessandro Rolla as conductor. The work was praised for its variety and originality, and was revered by the composer's fellow musicians. Pugni's next opera was La Vendetta, produced at La Scala in 1832, premiering with great success.
It was during this time that Pugni began to compose a substantial number of masses, symphonies, and various other orchestral pieces. One Sinfonia in particular was scored for two orchestras, both playing the same piece with one orchestra a few bars behind the other. This piece so impressed Giacomo Meyerbeer that he was known to hold up a manuscript of the work in order to show his friends a supreme example of virtuosity in composition. Such success as a musician appropriately coincided with his appointment as Maestro al Cembalo (or Director of Music) at La Scala. Next to this appointment Pugni also taught the violin and counterpoint when time allowed. He even instructed the visiting Mikhail Glinka, who revered Pugni as a composer and teacher of music.
Pugni scored two more operas for the Teatro Canobbiana in 1833 and 1834, both of which were listened to with considerable respect (many historians have claimed that Pugni's last three operas were utter failures, which is wholly inaccurate). Pugni also continued composing various orchestral pieces, all of which were earning him great prestige and notoriety.
It would seem that all of the composer's ambitions were about to be fulfilled, especially that of becoming celebrated composer of opera, for which he had put forth much effort in laying the groundwork. But only two years after his appointment as Maestro al Cembalo, all of his prospects collapsed, and he was dismissed from La Scala for what appears to have been the misappropriation of funds, a likely by-product instigated by his notorious passion for gambling and liquor. The post of Maestro al Cembalo was taken over by Pugni's two assistants, Giacomo Panizza and Giovanni Bajetti. In 1834 the composer left La Scala in utter disgrace, and did not return to Milan for many years.
[edit] Paris
With his wife and children Pugni made his way to Paris, where for some time they lived in extreme poverty while the composer searched desperately for employment. In late 1834 Pugni was reunited with an old friend, the Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, who at that time was engaged at the Théâtre Italien to premiere his opera I Puritani, while at the same time preparing a special version of the work for the opera in Naples. For the Naples production the principle soprano role was to be revised for the vocal talents of the Prima Donna Maria Malibran, and since the production of I Puritani in Paris was putting Bellini under considerable pressure, he called upon Pugni to copy the parts of the score that would be presented in Naples without change. Not only did Pugni do this, but he also made a second copy of the complete score, and subsequently tried to sell the manuscript to La Scala at a high price. La Scala refused, and not to long after word reached Bellini, who was crushed, as he had not only paid Pugni for the copying but had also given him money when needed in order to feed his family, and was often known to not only give Pugni his own unwanted clothes but also begged his lady friends to send their unwanted dresses over to Signora Pugni. Bellini would later recall in an unfinished letter written not long before his death in 1835 how Pugni's "infamous conduct shattered my faith in human nature".
In 1836 Pugni received a commission from Louis Henry, the choreographer for whom he had written several of his first ballet scores while in Milan, to compose music for the ballet Liacone, to be produced in Naples. At that time Henry was engaged at the Paris Opera, staging the ballet sections of Gioacchino Rossini's opera William Tell, for which Henry utilized music from Pugni's ballet L'Assedio di Calais. Pugni then travelled to Naples to assist with the music for the opera's dance-sections. This was to be Henry's last ballet; he died soon after of cholera.
Pugni then returned to Paris where he accepted a position teaching violin at the Paganini Institute, and subsequently no music flowed from his pen for nearly ten more years.
[edit] London
In 1843 Pugni accepted a position as Ballet Composer at Her Majesty's Theatre in London from its director Benjamin Lumly. These were very successful and productive years for the composer, where between the theatre's 1843 and 1850 seasons Pugni produced an impressive series of scores for three of the greatest choreographers at that time: Jules Perrot, Arthur Saint-Léon, and Paul Taglioni. Working under pressure and having to meet deadlines drove Pugni to produce, as he had no problem meeting the heavy demand for ballet music. Next to the complete ballets he composed during his time in London, he also scored a substantial number of supplemental Pas, variations, divertessments, and incidental dances. In 1845 alone he produced six new scores, including the celebrated divertessment Pas de Quatre. His music was always highly praised by the public and critics alike - his almost super-human capacity for creating a nearly endless variety of lively, infectious, and danceable melodies was all the more accented by his clever and colorful orchestrations.
Jules Perrot always made certain that Pugni was involved in composing the music for his work, as from 1843 on-wards few ballets were produced by him that did not have Pugni as composer. Nearly everyone of these works were great successes, and the public and critics marveled at how fresh and new both choreographically and musically each spectacle was. In 1843 Perrot produced Ondine, a tale of a jealous Naiad inlove with an Italian fisherman, for the great Ballerina Fanny Cerrito, for which Pugni wrote one of his greatest scores. In 1844 Perrot produced his most celebrated and enduring work, the spectacular La Esmeralda for the great Ballerina Carlotta Grisi, set to Pugni's joyous music. In 1846 Perrot produced the oriental extravaganza Lalla Rookh for which Pugni composed a score full of Arabian styled themes, and that same year Perrot and Pugni also mounted the celebrated Catarina, which was one of Lucile Grahn's greatest triumphs.
It was throughout the late 1840s that Pugni began to collaborate with Paul Taglioni and Arthur Saint-Léon on a regular basis, who were both occasionally engaged in London as guest choreographer. During this period Pugni was composing four to five full-length works every year between these choreographers and Perrot, and showed no signs of it weighing down on his fantasy. Pugni left a profound impression on Saint-Léon, who was just as skilled a musician as he was a dancer and choreographer. During the 1840s Saint-Léon was engaged as Balletmaster at the Paris Opera, and Pugni traveled there often to score music for the choreographer's works. Pugni and Saint-Léon created many successful works while in Paris, among them, La Vivandière in 1844, La Violon du Diable in 1849, and Stella in 1850, for which Pugni wrote a score filled with a great variety of sparkling Neopolitan melodies.
In the short span of their collaboration Pugni wrote many celebrated scores for Paul Taglioni, who would later site Pugni as the greatest composer of ballet music he had ever worked with. In 1847 he wrote than four short ballets for Taglioni, among them - Coralia and Thea. In 1849 Taglioni mounted The Winter Pastimes, which was set to Pugni's music that suggested an enchanted wood in winter, and in 1850 the celebratedLes Métamorphoses (AKA Satanella).
During the 1840s Pugni accompanied Perrot on many occasions to stage a number of their works in various theatres throughout Europe. In 1845 they staged La Esmeralda for La Scala in Milan, and later that year for the Court Opera Ballet in Berlin, where the title role was danced by the great Fanny Elssler. In 1847 Pugni and Perrot mounted Catarina for La Scala, where they returned later that same year to stage Lalla Rookh. In 1848 Perrot was invited at the behest of Fanny Elssler to stage La Esmeralda for the great Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. While in the Imperial capital Perrot was offered the position of Maître de Ballet (First Balletmaster/Chief Choreographer) to begin in the 1850-1851 season, which he accepted.
[edit] Russia
The Imperial Ballet (today the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet) of St. Petersburg, Russia was the most opulent and well-funded ballet company in the world at that time, being a dependant of the Tsar, who had the wealthiest and most resplendant court in all of Europe. The Imperial treasury lavished a yearly budget on the company of over 1,000,000 roubles, and it was to this legendary ballet company that Perrot was now the head Balletmaster and choreographer. Not willing to occupy such a position without his favorite collaborator, Perrot recommended to the Court Minister that Pugni accompany him to Russia so that he may serve as the official composer of ballet music to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres. With Pugni's considerable talent and expertise in the field, he was offered the post of First Imperial Ballet Composer with excellent terms, a position he naturally accepted.
In the winter of 1850 Pugni severed all ties to London and Paris, never to return to western Europe again. At some point not long after his relocation to London in 1843 Pugni married his second wife Marion (or Mary Ann) Linton, with whom he fathered a large family (Pugni has a number of decendants from this marriage today), though upon his relocation to Russia he supposedly went alone, the reasons of which are not clear. Whatever the case, in 1860 Pugni began a relationship with a Serf woman named Daria Petrovna Belinskaya-Pugni, with whom he had eight children, though the two were never married. Aside from his duties to the Imperial Theatres, Pugni began teaching violin and counterpoint at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1852, a position he held until shortly before his death.
In 1855 Pugni wrote The Star of Granada, his first ballet for the choreographer Marius Petipa, who had been serving as Jules Perrot's assistant and Premiere Danseur to the Imperial Ballet since his arrival in Russia in 1847. Petipa was fast becoming a celebrated choreographer in his own right, creating ballets more and more.
In 1858 Perrot left Russia, and Pugni found himself in need by both Petipa and Arthur Saint-Léon, who was by then engaged as Maître de Ballet to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres. The two choreographers, both highly gifted in their art, were engaged in a rather healthy and productive rivalry on the Imperial stage, and though their ballets were considerably different in style and technique Pugni scored the music for nearly every one of them.
In 1862 Pugni scored music for Petipa's The Pharaoh's Daughter, produced in only 6 weeks for the Italian Prima Ballerina Carolina Rosati. The production was so successful it won for Petipa the position of second Balletmaster, though he still had to contend with Saint-Lèon. In 1864 Pugni scored the music for Saint-Lèon's The Little Humpbacked Horse, which itself was as equally as successful as The Pharaoh's Daughter. The march from the third act of this ballet was a favorite of Tsar Alexander II (many of Pugni's marches and entr'actes were performed at Imperial balls and diplomatic functions).
Pugni began to become more and more unreliable as he aged, becoming severely depressed and retreating more and more into the bottle to the point of addiction, gambling away his money, neglecting his work, and leaving his family to fend for themselves for days at a time. As a result, Petipa found it increasingly difficult to extract music from him, and soon Pugni was delivering a musical product that became increasingly "run-of-the-mill" and banal, though there were occasions where he would find inspiration and deliver a fine score.
In his memoirs Petipa quoted a letter written him by Pugni in 1860, "I tearfully ask you to send some money; I am without a penny". The letter also included freshly composed sections for Petipa's upcoming ballet The Blue Dahlia. With the premiere fast approaching, Petipa had been receiving music from the composer piecemeal, and it had become clear to Petipa that Pugni had put off scoring the more difficult sections, the action sequences, to the last. By the mid 1860s, such situations became commonplace.
Pugni began inventing unbelievable excuses for not delivering music on time; for example he once told Petipa his cat had scratched his hand, making him unable to hold his pen. On one occasion Pugni came to rehearsal without the day's required music, informing Petipa that it was due to having no candles in which to write by. Petipa subsequently arranged to have a large box of candles delivered to Pugni's home, only to have the composer inform him at the following day's rehearsal that he did not write the required music because he was forced to sell the candles in order to eat. Many of Pugni's colleagues, who respected his talent very much, found themselves helping him whenever possible, though eventually many of them found his irresponsibility to be beyond all redemption. Petipa came to the point where he was forced to hire someone to watch over the composer to insure music would be prepared for the next day's rehearsals, and likewise to make certain scores were completed on time. Regardless of the situation, Pugni managed to compose eight new scores between 1865 and 1868 alone for the Imperial Ballet, though they were mostly short one act ballets and divertessments.
Saint-Léon was also having difficulty with the unreliable Pugni, and he began to turn to the Czech composer Léon Minkus for ballet music. In 1865 Saint-Léon wrote to his friend Charles Nuitter, "Pugni has nearly died. He was found in the woods 16 versts from the city (St. Petersburg) owing 300 roubles to tradesmen. The Court Minister paid the sum, and a collection from the dancers of the company, who produced 200 roubles, is serving to feed him, his wife, and his eight children, five of whom are very young. He owes 5,800 roubles in all, while for the past twenty years he has been receiving 1,200 francs a month (for Royalties for scores performed in Paris) plus a benefit!" (Pugni was also receiving a substantial amount of Royalties for performances in London, as well as his fees for composing in St. Petersburg).
In 1868 Pugni composed the music for Petipa's Tsar Kandavl (AKA Le Roi Candaule), a lavish ballet with fantastical themes that premiered to a resounding success. It was to be Pugni's last evening-length score. Unbeknownst to many, Petipa originally made plans to have Pugni compose music for his ballet Don Quixote, to be mounted at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre in 1869. But Pugni's irresponsibility quickly forced Petipa to reconsider, and instead he turned to Léon Minkus (Don Quixote would prove to be one of both Petipa and Minkus' most celebrated and enduring works, surviving well into the present day).
In late 1869 Pugni pulled himself together to score the music for Petipa's one act ballet The Two Stars. His score was considered by everyone involved to be among his greatest works for the ballet, but it was to be the sad and wayward composer's swan song - he died on January 26, 1870.
Cesare Pugni, the art of Ballet's most prolific composer, was laid to rest in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg. Today, he lies not far from such great artists of the ballet as Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Pugni died in utter poverty, and with his death his large family was completely destitute. In honor of the composer, and for a benefit performance for his family, a gala was prepared with excerpts from many of Pugni's works by Petipa in May of 1870. Later that year, Petipa mounted a revival of Catarina, premiering on November 1, 1870, again as a benefit performance for the composer's family. Petipa then presented Pugni's final work, The Two Stars, on January 21, 1871 for the benefit performance of the Imperial Ballet's Premiere Danseur Pavel Gerdt. The ballet premiered to great success and remained in the repertory of the St. Petersburg ballet until just before the Russian Revolution of 1917. Petipa also staged the work under the title The Two Little Stars for the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in 1878. The ballet was restaged for the company in a new version by the Balletmaster Ivan Clustine in 1897, a production which was retained in the Bolshoi's repertory until 1925.
Today Cesare Pugni has no other memorial than his music, the vast majority of which goes unplayed in various libraries and theatre archives. The hardships brought upon the Russian Ballet by the events of the 1917 Revolution caused a great number of works to cease being performed, many of which were set to Pugni's music. Today, these ballets live on only in faded photographs and old reviews. Recent movements and interests in restoring the heritage of ballet has brought about revivals of works from the Romantic and Classical epochs, and as result more and more of Pugni's music is beginning to re-emerge.
[edit] Postscript
It is significant to note that three of Cesare Pugni and Daria Petrovna's descendants danced with the Imperial Ballet - his son Nicolai Cesarevich Pugni, who danced in the Corps de Ballet from 1882 until a few months before his death in 1896. Another was his granddaughter Léontina Konstantsiia Tsezarevna Pugni, daughter of Pugni's son Cesare Cesarevich, who danced as a soloist from 1903 to 1913 as well as touring Scandinavia and Germany with Anna Pavlova's company from 1908-1909.
Pugni's grandson Alexander Shiraev, son of Pugni's daughter Ekaterina Cesarevna, was a much celebrated soloist and character dancer in St. Petersburg. He served as the Imperial Ballet's second Balletmaster, succeeding Lev Ivanov upon his death in 1901. Shiraev later served as Balletmaster to the post-revolution Imperial Ballet. Shiraev revived many ballets, among them Petipa's staging of Pugni's Ondine with Anna Pavlova in the title role, as well as the first post-revolution The Nutcracker staged in Russia, with Fedor Lopukhov, along with many other works. Another of Pugni's grandsons is the celebrated artist Ivan Puni (or Jean Pougny) (1894-1956), son of Pugni's son Albert Linton-Pougny (1848-1925), who was born of his second wife, Marion Linton.
After Saint-Léon's death in 1870, Petipa was named Maître de Ballet, selecting Léon Minkus (1826-1917) as Pugni's successor as First Imperial Ballet Composer to the Imperial Theatres. Minkus held the post from 1871 until 1886, when it was abolished by the director of the Imperial Theatres Ivan Vsevolozhsky. Minkus would score the music for such ballets as Petipa's Don Quixote (1869), and La Bayadère (1877), among others.
[edit] The music of Cesare Pugni
It is a rather common misconception that Pugni cobbled together melodies "borrowed" from other composers for his own scores. Since the majority of Pugni's music which still survives in modern performance just so happens to contain numbers that consist of "borrowed" themes, it has been widely assumed and even given as fact that he based his scores on the melodies of others. Although Pugni did in fact "borrow" music, it was usually done at the behest of a Balletmaster or Ballerina who wanted a particular theme for their Pas. For example, one such "borrowed" theme is to be found in Petipa's 1859 Venetian Carnival Grand Pas de Deux (also known as the Fascination Pas de Deux from Satanella), which contains themes from one of Niccolò Paganini's violin concertos.
Some of Pugni's "borrowings" were in fact done by the composer as an homage to the Ballerina - Pugni was well-known for attempting to curry favor from the Ballerinas by dedicating scores to them or incorperating their favorite themes. Marie Taglioni's variation from Perrot's famous Pas de Quatre is based on a theme taken from Johann Strauss I's 1828 The Suspension Bridge Waltz - the Wonder of the World (Kettenbrücke-Walzer). Although this "borrowing" could have been at Perrot's request, it was likely Pugni who was responsible for it: Strauss's waltz was written in honor of the great suspension-bridge completed in 1828 in Budapest, and likely it was an ode to Taglioni suggesting she was also a "wonder of the world". Another "borrowed" theme turns up in the Ballerina's variation from the Pas de Six from Saint-Léon's 1844 La Vivandière, which contains a theme from the Ballerina's variation (Pas Seul) of Adolphe Adam's score for Ferdinand Albert's 1842 La Jolie Fille du Gand - Pugni likely "borrowed" this theme for the great Fanny Cerrito, who danced the leads in both works, as the audience would have likely remembered her great success in the varition from La Jolie Fille du Gand, a ballet which was given only two years before the premiere of La Vivandière.
Pugni's score for Saint-Léon's Diavolina, a ballet set in 18th century Naples that was staged for the Paris Opera in 1863, was a pastiche of popular Italian airs, all chosen by Saint-Léon for Pugni to interpolate into his score. One Parisian critic of the publication Le France Musicale who viewed the premiere of Diavolina was under the impression Pugni had chose these selections himself, stating in his review that the composer "...has found it fit to pillage the celebrated collection of popular airs called 'Passatempi Musicali'...with an admirable candour, he has literally transcribed from it a dozen well-known airs. He has also added other no less well-known airs, such as 'Le Roi Dagobert' and 'Marlborough'...A pleasing musical hors d'oeuvre to mention is the 'Danse des Pêcheurs', which is none other than the 'Chasse aux Hirondelles', a polka-galop by Maximilian Graziani, from whon Saint-Léon has often borrowed airs for his ballets."
The judgement of history that Cesare Pugni was a hack composer whose music is nowhere near deserving of serious notice rests, not on a balanced assessment of his work, but on generalised statements that have taken hold over the last fifty or so years when modern audiences and critics have encountered the music of the 19th century specialist ballet composers, and the impression of such music in relation to the more symphonic ballet scores of such composers as Glazunov, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and so on. Interestingly, many have dismissed Pugni as a hack composer while only having heard a minute fraction of his work, the majority of which is not even presented as he originally scored it.
Pugni was well-known for the quickness with which he worked, requiring very little time to complete an entire score. His ballet Ondine took him only three weeks, and La Esmeralda just two weeks. He was known to prepare brilliant individual dances and divertessments in a single day, and if the need should arise he could score a supplemental variation for a Ballerina in only an hour or less, along with complete orchestration. Such speed in composition had its consequences however, for some of Pugni's surviving scores show errors, unevenness, and the occasional negligence, but taken as a whole was always eminently danceable and far superior to the work of many other ballet composers of his time - indeed few composers of the period knew their metre better than Cesare Pugni.
Pugni was always on the lookout for inspiration for his scores. According to Benjamin Lumley's account of the creation of La Esmeralda Pugni and Perrot "often burnt the midnight oil in working out the scenario, where Pugni was always ready to seize any idea that might suggest itself for a situation or Pas. Pugni's scores always reflected the genre, locale, or mood of the scenario, a feature sorely lacking in many of the ballet compositions of the period, as during this time, no matter if the ballet was set in the Middle-East, France, or Spain, many composers gave out the same style of music. His greatest talent was in his nearly super-human ability to craft an unlimited variety of infectious and memorable melodies for his ballets.
For Perrot's 1843 Ondine, Pugni composed music for the under-water scenes to reflect the setting, with instrumentaion suggesting enchanted caverns beneath the sea. The reviews for the ballet's premiere from The Times, a London newspaper, praised Pugni's score as being "singularly appropriate, quite descriptive, and adding charm to the perfection of the ballet. In the scene were the young fisherman Mattéo is conveyed into the depths of the sea, and the Naiads dance their many fascinations around him, the musical accompaniments which describe the rise and fall of the waves are eminently characteristic and beautiful: the very ripple of the flow, and the rushing sound of the ebb over the pebbly strand are heard, and fully satisfy the ear." For Saint-Léon's 1850 Stella, set in 18th century Italy, Pugni created a score filled with a great variaty of scintillating Neopolitan melodies, while for the death of Esmeralda in Perrot's 1844 La Esmeralda Pugni scored a somber organ solo. A critic from the London newspaper The Illustrated London praised Pugni's score for Paul Taglioni's 1849 The Winter Pastimes (AKA The Ice Skaters), which was set in a winter garden and on a frozen lake. The critic described Pugni's music as "graphically describing every episode, even imitating the sound of gliding on ice."
Pugni's score for Perrot's 1846 Catarina was hailed as a masterwork of genius, according to one critic of The Times "Pugni's music (for Catarina) is filled with an overwhelming wealth of magnificent melodies, making one marvel at his unlimited fantasy, which never seems to falter. His waltzes and polkas are some of the most beautiful ever heard of the stage of (Her Majesty's Theatre), and cause Perrot's equally masterful dances to sparkle with extraordinary brilliance." The critics who attended the premiere of Saint-Léon's 1864 The Little Humpbacked also hailed Pugni's score as a work of genius, as it contained agreat variety of differing musical styles for Russian folk dances, fantastical scenes set on magical isles and under-water, and for the oriental style of the Khan's palace. One critic of the St. Petersburg Gazette reported "Pugni's music is of the highest quality and originality, filled with wondrous and memorable themes. Mme. Muravieva (the creator of the lead role of the Tsar Maiden) made her entrance in the 'Grand Ballabile' set by or Balletmaster (Arthur Saint-Léon) on an enchanted isle. She danced her variation with cabrioles and pirouettes 'sur le pointe' (on her toes) to Pugni's beautiful violin solo, which moved the audience to such a degree that they at once demanded an encore." The critic went on - "Pugni has written a (Waltz for the Anitmated Frescoes) in the Khan's palace that has a most wonderful melody...as well as a spectacular march in the last scene played by the orchestra with great pomp, that no less pleased the Emperor (Tsar Alexander II) a great deal. The composer was called for (during the curtain calls) by the public no less that ten times."
Like many of the specialist ballet composers who came before him and after him, Pugni used rehearsals to create a vast majority of his scores. He would often present many multiple melodic passages to the Balletmaster for his approval for a particular Pas or scene. In 1848 Pugni accompanied Jules Perrot to St. Petersburg, where the Balletmaster staged the first Russian production of La Esmeralda for the Imperial Ballet, with Pugni revising his original score. The memoirs of the Ballerina Anna Petrovna Natarova gives an account of a rehearsal held for the production - "...in 1848 we had a chance to see how the Balletmaster Perrot, in truth a genius, produce the ballet 'La Esmeralda' (for the Imperial Ballet). The composer Pugni arrived (at rehearsal) with music and showed Perrot what he had written. Pugni came with two violinists: Alexander Nikolaevich Lyadov and Sokolov. Perrot had determined in advance the tempi and the number of bars for each piece. Pugni had prepared it thus: at one end of a piece of paper he had written the motif of a particular number, but if the sheet were turned upside-down, you would find written there another theme for the same piece. He shows Perrot the music. The musicians play it. Perrot listens. 'Well then, will it do?' asks Pugni. 'No it won't says Perrot. And we young girls waited impatiently for Pugni to turn over the page. This very much entertained us. 'And how about this?' asked Pugni. 'That is fine' answered Perrot."
An extensive archive of Cesare Pugni's music is to be found in the archives of the Paris Conservatoire, which is today incorporated in the Department of Music of the National Library of France, as well as some manuscripts which are extant in the British Library, and the Paris Opèra. The collection extant in the Paris Conservatoire is mostly of the ballets of Jules Perrot, the majority of which were scored by Pugni. Much of these ballets, along with many others Pugni composed in London and in St. Petersburg were published in their day in piano reduction, and sold very well, though no manuscript appears to be extant, a testament to the popularity of the music, as most likely the scores were played until they fell apart. The National Library of France holds not nearly as many scores, but it does contain manuscripts of a few of the ballets Pugni scored for Arthur Saint-Léon, including the original manuscript for The Little Humpbacked Horse. Perhaps the greatest archive of Pugni's original scores is housed in the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg, which it has been said contains every ballet Pugni wrote while in Russia (including revisions to other works created for other theatres abroad), among them, the coveted original score for The Pharaoh's Daughter, as well as many other scores for ballets produced elsewhere that were also mounted in Russia. Another archive of Pugni's is to be found in the archives of the Harvard University Library Theatre Collection, which holds the famous Sergeyev Collection - a cache of choreographic notation and musical répétiteurs for the ballets of Marius Petipa.
The few modern musicologists who have studied Pugni's other compositions (such as Ivor Guest): his masses, operas, symphonies, and other orchestral pieces, are quite surprised that the same hand that scored such ballets as Ondine, La Esmeralda, or The Pharaoh's Daughter composed such innovative and original pieces. The quality of these works clearly demonstrates his ability as a composer - his symphonies were written in the same style as those of Joseph Haydn, many of which are far more complicated, where as his operas were scored in the same manner as those of Rossini, or perhaps Bellini. A few of his masses and his orchestral pieces, particularly his pieces for small orchestras can be occasionally heard in performance, largely in Europe, by many prominent ensembles. Perhaps one day more of these pieces will come to light.
[edit] Revivals and Works still in performance
It is only in Russia that one can see a performance of any of Pugni's full-length ballets that have either survived through time to the present day, or that have been revived after many years of absence from the stage.
Of the full-length works that have withstood the test of time, there is only The Little Humpbacked Horse and La Esmeralda. The Little Humpbacked Horse left the active repertory of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet (the former Imperial Ballet) long ago, and today the work is only presented in its full-length form by the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet (school of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet), occasionally given with the top graduates of a school year in the lead roles. Petipa revived The Little Humpbacked Horse for the first and last time in 1895 (under the title The Tsar Maiden), with the great Ballerina Pierina Legnani as the Tsar Maiden. Since then the ballet has been kept alive by many different Balletmasters, teachers, and choreographers, among them - Alexander Gorsky, Pyotr Gusev, Agrippina Vaganova, Natalia Dudinskaya, Konstantin Sergeyev, and Ninel Kurgapkina. Today the ballet is light-years away from the opulent spectacle that it once was, with Pugni's score heavily weighed down with additional music from many different composers. Musically and Choreographically only fragments of Pugni, Saint-Léon, and Petipa's text remain, giving one a tiny glimpse at what was once this glorious ballet.
La Esmeralda is given in modern times in a more authentic staging both choreographically and musically, by way of the Mussorgsky Ballet's 1981 revival. This production was mounted by Nicolai Boyarchikov, director of the Mussorgsky Ballet, and Tatiana Vecheslova, former Prima Ballerina of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet. Vaganova mounted a revival of La Esmeralda with Vecheslova in the lead in 1931. Prior to this Vecheslova had danced in Petipa's last revival of the ballet (for Mathilde Kschessinskaya in 1898), which was retained in the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's repertory until 1928. The Mussorgsky Ballet director Boyarchikov decided to mount a revival of La Esmeralda as it was danced before Vaganova's version, which Vecheslova still remembered. Vecheslova restored many of the scenes and dances which had become either lost or altered over time, including Mathilde Kschessinskaya's original Pas de Deux written especially for her by Riccardo Drigo in 1898 (known in modern times as the La Esmeralda Pas de Deux), and the elaborate Grand Pas Classique from Act II danced by Fleur-de-Lys, Captain Phoebus, 3 female soloists, and the Corps de Ballet. For this production Pugni's score, with additions by Drigo dating from 1886 and 1898, was restored with the aid of a repètitèur used by the Imperial Ballet before the turn of the 20th century. Today this production is still in the active repertory of the Mussorgsky Ballet, and was recently filmed and released onto DVD, though unfortunately the near 3-hour production was edited for the filming, trimming it down to a little over 55 minutes.
Regarding modern revivals, Arthur Saint-Léon's 1844 Pas de Six from the ballet La Vivandière (AKA Markitenka, as it is known in Russia) was reconstructed in 1975 by the dance notation expert Ann Hutchinson-Guest and Pierre Lacotte for the Joffrey Ballet from Saint-Léon's own original choreographic notation, which included the original orchestral parts for Pugni's music. In 1978 the Balletmaster Pierre Lacotte staged the work for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet, who still maintain it in their repertory. Today this reconstructed Pas de Six is given by many companies throughout the world.
In 2000 Lacotte mounted a revival of the 1862 Pugni/Petipa ballet The Pharaoh's Daughter, last performed in 1928, for the Bolshoi Ballet, though unfortunately he was refused access to Pugni's original score, preserved in the archives of the Mariinsky Theatre, and Lacotte was forced to piece together the music from various sources, with the Bolshoi Theatre conductor Alexander Sotnikov serving as orchestrator. In 2006 Lacotte mounted a revival of the original production of the 1843 Pugni/Perrot ballet Ondine (AKA The Naiad and the Fisherman) for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet. Both works were choreographed by Lacotte "in the style of the epoch", with The Pharaoh's Daughter containing only 4 dances from Petipa's own staging, a few of which were reconstructed from the Stepanov Choreographic Notation from the Sergeyev Collection.
In the west (primarily in North America ) the average balletomane will likely only ever encounter Pugni's Pas de Quatre (revived by Anton Dolin in 1941), originally staged by Perrot in 1845 at Her Majesty's Theatre, which is the most performed work of all of Pugni's output, though the music is presented in a reorchestration by Leighton Lucas, as the original manuscript was destroyed when Her Majesty's Theatre burned down in 1867. The original piano reduction of Pas de Quatre is housed in the National Library of France, which includes Pugni's original orchestral parts for the Variation of Mme. Cerrito, the only part of the complete score to have survived.
Aside from Pas de Quatre, western balletomanes may encounter Pugni's additional music for the ballet Le Corsaire, as has been staged in recent years in the United States by American Ballet Theatre and the Boston Ballet - the Variation of Gulnare, usually interpolated into the scene Le Jardin Animé, or his extended version of Adolphe Adam's Pas des Odalisques, for which he added the first, and second variations and coda for Petipa's revival of 1863.
Occasionally various western ballet troupes perform fragments from the Pugni/Perrot La Esmeralda - the Grand Pas de Six, with Petipa's choreography revised by Agrippina Vaganova, which also includes two additional dances by Riccardo Drigo dating from 1898 - the Dance pour quatre danseuses and the Grand Coda.
The Pugni/Drigo La Esmeralda Pas de Deux (in which the lead Ballerina dances the famous "Tambourine Variation") is often incorrectly credited to Pugni alone - the male variation was scored by Pugni - it was originally interpolated into the Pas by Vakhtang Chabukiani in the 1940s, as the Pas de Deux originally contained no male variation - the music for this variation was originally a variation for Esmeralda from a different scene in the context of the original full-length ballet. The coda of the Pas de Deux is also by Pugni as well - it is an extraction from Act II of The Pharaoh's Daughter, being the Marche de Pharaon in which many children dressed in white dance a large ensemble number. The famous "Tambourine Variation" for the Ballerina is by Drigo, though it is based on a theme from Pugni's Romanesca from his and Perrot's 1846 ballet Catarina.
Another staple of the modern ballet repertory is the Pas de Deux for Diane and Actéon, almost always incorrectly credited to either Pugni or Drigo alone, which originally comes from Petipa's 1903 revival of Pugni's Tsar Kandavl (AKA Le Roi Candaule), for which Drigo revised Pugni's music for the Pas de Diane. Vaganova later interpolated this Pas into her 1935 revival of La Esmeralda, refashioning the old choreography as an athletic tour de force for the dancers Galina Ulanova and Vakhtang Chabukiani. Over time this Pas came to be incorrectly credited as an original extract from La Esmeralda, often mistakenly given as an interpolation for Petipa's 1886 revival of the ballet, for which Drigo also added new music.
More and More companies outside of Russia have been staging sections of Pugni's The Little Humpbacked Horse - specifically the fabulous Waltz of the Animated Frescoes (AKA Dance of the Lively Frescoes), the Grand Ballabile from the scene The Enchanted Isle of the Mermaids, and the Scène Sous-Marine (Under-Water Scene), known today as The Ocean and the Pearls, all of which include choreography by Alexander Gorsky after Petipa and Saint-Léon. In the United States only the Universal Ballet Academy of Washington D.C. present the Waltz of the Animated Frescoes, while the all-male company Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo have recently added the elaborate Scène Sous-Marine to their repertory, the only company in the United States to date to present this piece.
Rarely will one ever encounter the various other pieces Pugni scored for the orchestra alone, such as his many hymns, masses, and chamber music, which occasionally turn up in orchestral performances. Pugni's most performed orchestral pieces are his Gran Quartetto in E flat major for clarinet, violin, viola and cello in 3 Movements, and his Terzettino for Two Violins and Viola , which is are both staples of European string ensembles. These pieces show how different Pugni's style of writing was from his ballet music, and are a testament to his ability to write many forms of orchestral music. Unfortunately his five Bel canto operas, all of which were much revered in their day, have not survived in performance.
[edit] Video
- Satanella/Carnival in Venice Pas de Deux as danced by Inna Dorofeyeva and Vadim Pisarev.
- La Vivandière/Markitenka Pas de Six -
- Entrée and Grand Adagio
- Grand Allegretto
- Dance for Two Coryphées I
- Dance for Two Coryphées II
- Variation for Mme. Cerrito (as Kathi)
- Variation for Mons. Saint-Léon (as Hans)
- Grand Coda Générale
- Pas de Quatre as danced in Japan at the Tokyobunkakaikan by Nina Ananiashvili's 1993 touring Company -
- Entrée & Grand Adagio
- Grand Allegretto
- Variation of Lucile Grahn
- Variation of Carlotta Grisi
- Interlude Marie Taglioni & Lucile Grahn
- Variation of Fanny Cerrito
- Variation of Marie Taglioni
- Grand Coda
- The Pharaoh's Daughter - excerpts of the revival as danced by the Bolshoi Ballet.
- The Pas de Flèche from The Pharaoh's Daughter Pt.1
- The Pas de Flèche from The Pharaoh's Daughter Pt.2
- The Kingdom of the Rivers from The Pharaoh's Daughter
- The Pharaoh's Daughter - Grand Pas d'action
- Entrée; Variation I (Petipa); Variation II (Petipa); Variation III (Petipa); Grand Adagio
- Variation of Ramzé (choreography by Petipa)
- Variation of Aspicia
- Variation of Taor
- Grand Coda Générale (pt.1)
- Grand Coda Générale (pt.2)
[edit] Historical Lithographs and Photos from the ballets of Pugni
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[edit] The Works of Cesare Pugni
(to be written)
[edit] External Links
Cesare Pugni, Marius Petipa and 19th-century ballet music by Rodney Stenning-Edgecombe
[edit] Sources
- Beaumont, Cyril W. Complete Book of Ballets.
- Bolshoi Ballet. Program from The Pharoah's Daughter. Bolshoi Theatre, 2001.
- Edgecombe, Rodney Stenning. Cesare Pugni, Marius Petipa, and 19th Century Ballet Music. Musical Times, Summer 2006.
- Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet. Program from Ondine. Mariinsky Theatre, 2006.
- Petipa, Marius. The Diaries of Marius Petipa. Trans. and Ed. Lynn Garafola. Published in Studies in Dance History - 3.1 (Spring 1992).
- Guest, Ivor Forbes. Cesare Pugni. Published in Dance Gazette - February 1979, no, 1, pp. 22-24.
- Guest, Ivor Forbes. Cesare Pugni: A Plea For Justice. Published in Dance Research - Vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 30-38
- Wiley, Roland John. Dances from Russia: An Introduction to the Sergeyev Collection Published in The Harvard Library Bulletin - 24.1 January 1976.
- Wiley, Roland John, ed. and translator. A Century of Russian Ballet: Documents and Eyewitness Accounts 1810-1910.
