Sergeyev Collection

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A Drawing of Nicholas Grigorovich Sergeyev, made in 1929. Although the collection mostly documents the ballets of Marius Petipa, the collection is named after Sergeyev.

The Sergeyev Collection is a collection of choreographic notation, music, photos, and set and costume designs that document twentyfour ballets and twentyfour dances from various operas that made up the repertory of the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia around the turn of the 20th century (the company is known today as the Kirov or Mariinsky Ballet). With the exception of three of the ballets recorded in the collection, all of the choreographic notations document the works and revivals of the great choreographer Marius Petipa, the Imperial Ballet's renowned Maître de Ballet en Chef (First Balletmaster/Chief Choreographer) from 1870 until 1903, with varying degrees of detail.

The Stepanov method of dance notation was utilized to document the works included in the collection. This method was devised by the former Danseur of the Imperial Ballet Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov, who began the notation project himself in the early 1890s.

The Sergeyev Collection is named after Nicholas Sergeyev, the régissuer of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres from 1903 to 1918, who brought the collection out of Russia after the Russian revolution of 1917. Today, the Sergeyev Collection is housed in the Harvard University Library Theatre Collection, where it has been since 1969.

1 The origins of the collection
2 Use of the Collection in Modern Times
3 Works documented in the collection
4 References

[edit] The origins of the collection

The project of documenting the repertory of the Imperial Ballet (as well as dances from operas) began in 1893, with Vladimir Stepanov notating the one-act ballet The Magic Flute, produced by Lev Ivanov and the composer Riccardo Drigo. This was done as a demonstration of sorts for the committee of the Imperial Ballet to show the effectiveness of Stepanov's newly devised method of dance notation (this committee, which made decisions on the appointment of dancers, repertory, etc., consisted of Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov - second Balletmaster to the company, Ekaterina Vazem - former Prima Ballerina of the company and an influential teacher at the Imperial Ballet School, Pavel Gerdt - Jeune Première Danseur Noble to the company, and Christian Johansson - the great Danish teacher of the Imperial Ballet School). Soon the project was approved with state funding, and Stepanov began notating nearly every work that made up the repertory of the Imperial Ballet (the first work to be notated after The Magic Flute, was the 1894 Petipa/Drigo ballet The Awakening of Flora. Following that, Petipa's choreography for the scene Le Jardin Animé from Le Corsaire was documented).

After Stepanov's death in 1896, the Danseur Alexander Gorsky took over the notation project, and during this time he perfected Stepanov's notating system further. After Gorsky departed St. Petersburg in 1900 to take up the post of Balletmaster to the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre, the former Danseur of the Imperial Ballet Nicholas Sergeyev took over the project. By 1903 Sergeyev became ballet régisseur to the St. Petersurg Imperial Theatres. With the assistance of two other Danseurs - Alexander Chekrygin (who joined the project in 1903), and Victor Rakhmanov (who joined the project in 1904), nearly every work in the repertory of the Imperial Ballet was notated, along with twentyfour of Petipa's dances from various operas.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Nicholas Sergeyev left Russia for the west, and took with him all of the notations, which he had kept in three wooden crates. In 1920 he was invited by Sergei Diaghilev to stage The Sleeping Beauty from the notations for the Ballets Russe in Paris, but Diaghilev's insistance on altering passages of Petipa's choreography (which was considered almost sacorsanct in Russia) caused Sergeyev to withdraw his services.

A Page of the Stepanov choreographic notation from the Sergeyev Collection for the Petipa/Minkus La Bayadère, circa 1900

In 1921 Sergeyev took over the post of régisseur to the Latvian National Opera Ballet in Riga, and during his appointment with the company he added a substantial amount of the music belonging to the notated ballets, among them, complete orchestral parts for Paquita by Eduard Deldevez, The Little Humpbacked Horse by Cesare Pugni, and Giselleand Le Corsaire by Adolphe Adam, all in their performance editions (most of which contain a substantial number of scenes and dances taken from other works, as well as additional material by other composers). In 1924, Sergeyev mounted Petipa's definitive version of Giselle from the notations for the Paris Opera Ballet, with the great Ballerina Olga Spessivtseva in the title role, and Anton Dolin as Albrecht. This was the not only the first time the Parisian ballet had danced Giselle since the 1800s, but also the first western production of Petipa's version, which is today the traditional text of the work danced by nearly every company in the world.

In the 1930s, with the aid of the notations, Sergeyev made what is perhaps his most substantial contribution to the art of ballet - at the invitaion of Dame Ninette de Valois, Sergeyev staged Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, the Ivanov/Petipa/Cecchetti Coppelia, and The Nutcracker (in the original 1892 choreography) for the Vic-Wells Ballet of London, the precurssor of the Royal Ballet, who still almost religiously perform these ballets with little changes from when they were first staged. Sergeyev's revivals of these ballets in London formed the nucleus of what is now known as the Classical Ballet Repertory, and as a result these works went on to be staged all over the world.

After Sergeyev died in Nice, France on June 23, 1951 the notations passed on for a brief time to a Russian associate of his, in whose possession they remained until Mona Inglesby, director of the International Ballet (a English company which disbanded in 1953), purchased the collection from him. In 1969 Inlegsby sold the notations to Harvard University, where they remain today as part of the Harvard University Library's theatre collection. It was around the time that the notations were purchased by Harvard that they were given the name The Sergeyev Collection. For some time the notations were useless, as no one knew how to read Stepanov's notating method. It was not until Stepanov's original primer was found in the Mariinsky Theatre library that the notations were able to be deciphered.

A page from the violin reduction included in the Sergeyev Collection of Pugni's 1862 score for Petipa's The Pharoah's Daughter. This is the Pas de Guirlandes, a variation for the Ballerina Carolina Rosati

Not all of the notations are 100% complete, with some being rather vague in sections, leading some historians and scholars who have studied the collection to theorize that they were probably made to function simply as "reminders" for the Balletmaster or régisseur already familiar with these works. Aside from the valuable notations, the collection includes photos, set and costume designs, and music for most of the ballets in their performance score editions (mostly in piano and/or violin reduction), many of which include a substantial number of dances, variations, etc. interpolated from other works, as was the custom in 19th century ballet. In some instances during a ballet's performance history in the 19th century, entire scenes, dances, and variations were interpolated from other works, which was standard practice at the time. When these ballets left the stage forever, all that survived from them were the extracted numbers added to other works. One example of this is the music and notations for Le Corsaire, which contain additions from some of Petipa's ballets which were no longer in the active repertory at the time the notations were prepared - The Vestal (1888), The Adventures of Peleus (1876), The Rose, the Violet, and the Butterfly (1857), and Pygmalion (1883).

[edit] Use of the Collection in Modern Times

Aside from Sergeyev's use of the notations, a surprising few number of ballet companies have utilized the collection in modern times. It was not until 1984 that the collection was put to use by someone other than Sergeyev. That year the historians Peter Wright and the musicologist/professor Roland John Wiley staged an adaptation of the original 1892 choreography for The Nutcracker for the Royal Ballet. In 1999, the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet used the notations to stage a reconstruction of Petipa's original 1890 production of The Sleeping Beauty (while still retaining elements of the choreography as revised in Soviet times). In 2001 the company also mounted an almost totally complete reconstruction of Petipa's 1900 revival of La Bayadère.

In 2000, the Balletmaster/choreographer Pierre Lacotte created a version of Petipa's The Pharaoh's Daughter for the Bolshoi Ballet, which was last performed in 1928. Originally Lacotte had intended to reconstruct the work from the notations, though in the end he chose to choreograph nearly all of the ballet himself "in the style of the epoch". Lacotte only used the notations, along with variations shown to him by former dancers, to stage a few numbers in the ballet's Grand Pas d'action (a.k.a Grand Defilé Suite). Though he also had five of the original six "River variations" reconstructed, he opted not to use any of them, and choreographed only three of the original numbers himself.

The Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's revivals of The Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadère, along with the revived dances for Lacotte's revival of The Pharoah's Daughter were all reconstructed by Douglas Fullington, one of only a few people in the world who can read the Stepanov method of notation. In 2004, with the assistance of Manard Stewart, Fullington mounted a reconstruction of Petipa's original 1899 choreography for the scene Le Jardin Animé from the ballet Le Corsaire for the Pacific Northwest Ballet School's annual recital at the Seattle Opera House. Petipa's original choreography in relation to what is believed today to be his choreography are very different - it is believed that the scene Le Jardin Animé as performed in its traditional edition by most companies today contains about only 10% of Petipa's own compostion.

In 2006, the Stepanov notation expert Doug Fullington reconstructed twentyfive of Petipa's dances for Le Corsaire for the Bayerisches Staatsballett's (Bavarian State Ballet) production. This was done from the documents of the Sergeyev Collection.

To date, these reconstructions are the extent of The Sergeyev Collection having been utilized for the purposes of reviving the original choreography for performance.

[edit] Works documented in the collection

Note - Except where noted, all of the documented choreography in The Sergeyev Collection is the creation of Marius Petipa. The year listed is the most recent version which was documented.

Paquita Petipa (music -Deldevez; add. Minkus) – 3 acts (1901)
Giselle Petipa/Coralli/Perrot (music -Adam; add. Burgmüller/Minkus. Score revised by Minkus, 1884) – 2 acts (1899)
The Sleeping Beauty Petipa (music -Tchaikovsky; with minor revisions by Drigo, 1890) – Prologue and 3 Acts (1890)
The Nutcracker Ivanov/Petipa? (music -Tchaikovsky) – 2 Acts-3 Scenes (1892)
The Awakening of Flora Petipa (music -Drigo) – 1 Act (1894)
La Fille Mal Gardée Petipa/Ivanov (music -Hertel, add. Hérold/Pugni/Delibes/Rubenstein/Drigo) – 3 Acts-4 Scenes (the notations document Lev Ivanov's 1894 revival based on his and Petipa's revival of 1885)
Swan Lake Petipa/Ivanov (music -Tchaikovsky. Score revised/edited by Drigo, 1895) – 3 Acts-4 Scenes (1895)
Coppelia Petipa/Ivanov/Cecchetti (music -Delibes) – 2 acts (1894 - the notations document Enrico Cecchetti's 1894 revival based on Petipa and Ivanov's revival of 1884)
The Whims of the Butterfly (AKA The Caprices of a Butterfly) Petipa (Music -Krotkov) – 1 Act (1895)
The Little Humpbacked Horse (AKA The Tsar Maiden) Petipa/Saint-Léon (music -Pugni; add. Drigo/Liszt. Score revised by Drigo, 1895) – 4 Acts-10 Scenes (1895)
The Calvary Halt (AKA Halte de Cavalerie) Petipa (music -Armshiemer) – 1 Act (1896)
Raymonda Petipa (music -Glazunov) – 3 Acts-4 Scenes (1898)
La Esmeralda Petipa/Perrot (music -Pugni; add. Gerber/Drigo. Score revised by Drigo, 1886 and 1899) – 3 Acts-5 Scenes (1899)
The Pharaoh's Daughter Petipa (music -Pugni; add. Drigo. Score revised by Drigo, 1898) – 4 Acts-7 Scenes (1898)
Le Corsaire Petipa/Mazilier?/Perrot? (music -Adam; add. Oldenburg/Pugni/Minkus/Trubetskoi/Fitinhof-Schell/Gerber/Ivanov/Zabel/Drigo. Score revised by Drigo, 1899) – 3 Acts-4 Scenes (1899)
Harlequin's Millions (AKA Harlequinade or Les Millions d'Arlequin) Petipa (music -Drigo) – 2 Acts (1900)
The Trial of Damis (AKA Les Ruses d'Amour or The Pranks of Love or Lady Soubrette) Petipa (music -Glazunov) – 1 Act (1900)
The Pupils of Dupré Petipa (music -Vizentini, fashioned from themes by Strauss II, Delibes, Auber, Massenet, and Rubinstein) – 2 Acts (1900 - this is an abridgement of Petipa's 1886 ballet The King's Command, originally in 4 Acts and 6 Scenes )
La Bayadère Petipa (music -Minkus) – 4 Acts (1900)
Tsar Kandavl (AKA Le Roi Candaule) Petipa (music -Pugni; add. Minkus/Drigo; Score revised by Drigo, 1903) – 4 Acts-6 Scenes (1903)
The Talisman Petipa/Legat (music -Drigo) - excerpt (the notations document only the Grand Pas d'action from Nikolai Legat's revival of 1909 based on Petipa's revival of 1895)
Small Balletic Pieces - numerous items from the various ballets.
Ballet sections from 24 Operas

Ballets documented in the collection by other choreographers

The Enchanted Forest Ivanov (music -Drigo) – 1 Act (1887)
The Magic Flute Ivanov (music -Drigo) – 1 act (1893)
The Fairy Doll the brothers Nikolai and Sergei Legat (music -Bayer; add. -Drigo. Score revised by Drigo, 1903) – 1 Act-2 Scenes (1903 - Sergei and Nikolai Legat)
Songe du Rajah (1930 - Nicholas Sergeyev's slightly revised version of the scene The Kingdom of the Shades from Petipa's La Bayadère)