La Esmeralda (ballet)
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La Esmeralda is a ballet in 3 acts, 5 scenes, inspired by Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot; with music by Cesare Pugni and design by William Grieve (scenery), D. Sloman (machinery), Mme. Copere (costumes).
It was first Presented by the Ballet of her Majesty's Theatre, London on March 9, 1844 with the Ballerina Carlotta Grisi as Esmeralda, Jules Perrot as Gringoire, Arthur Saint-Leon as Phoebus, Adelaide Frassi as Fleur de Lys, and Antoine Louis Coulon as Quasimodo.
Throughout its performance history the ballet has been revived a number of times, most notably by Jules Perrot at the Bolshoi, St. Petersburg, 2 January 1849 (with Pugni revising his original score); Marius Petipa (St. Petersburg 1872, with a new Pas de Dix to music by Yuli Gerber; 1886 with a new Pas de Deux for the Ballerina Claudina Cucchi that became known as the Pas Cucchi (music by unknown); and 1899 with additional music by Riccardo Drigo for the Pas de Six - the Danse Pour Quatre Danseuses and the Coda, and a new Pas de Deux created especially for the Prima Ballerina Assoluta Mathilde Kschessinskaya, also to Drigo's music, though based in part on some of Pugni's original themes - today this Pas de Deux is known as the La Esmeralda Pas de Deux, and is danced today mostly in the choreographer Ben Stevenson's 1982 version); Agrippina Vaganova, (Leningrad 1931, with a "new" Pas d'action for Galina Ulanova and Vakhtang Chabukiani fashioned from the Pas de Diane from Petipa's 1903 revival of his 1868 ballet Tsar Kandavl (AKA Le Roi Candaule) to music by Drigo (based in part on Pugni's original music) which is known today as the Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux); Pyotr Gusev (Leningrad, 1949); Tatiana Vecheslova and Nicolai Boyarchikov (Leningrad - for the Mussorgsky Ballet - 1981, in a revival of Petipa's original revival of 1898).
Today the ballet is presented in its full-length form only in Russia and parts of Eastern Europe. Outside of Russia and Eastern Europe only excerpts are given - the La Esmeralda Pas de Deux and the Pas de Six, but mostly the Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux is given, which in all actuality is not originally from the ballet (it is often miscredited as having been added by Petipa to his 1886 revival of La Esmeralda).
[edit] See also
- Cesare Pugni — Composer
- Marius Petipa - Choreographer
