The Haarlem Tulip

Emma Bessone as Emma in the Ivanov/Fintinhof-Schell The Haarlem Tulip, St. Petersburg, 1887

The Haarlem Tulip (AKA The Tulip of Haarlem, or The Tulip Field) - Fantastic ballet in 3 Acts-4 Scenes, with choreography by Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa?, and music by Baron Boris Fitinhof-Schell.

First presented by the Imperial Ballet on October 4/16 (Julian/Gregorian calendar dates), 1887, at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. Principal Dancers - Emma Bessone (as Emma), Pavel Gerdt (as Peters), and Alfred Bekefi (as Andreas).

[edit] Revivals

Revival by Claudia Kulichevskaya and Pavel Gerdt under the title The Tulip Field for students of the Imperial Ballet School, first presented on April 3/15, 1902 in the school's theatre.

Revival by Alexander Shiraev for the Imperial Ballet, with a new Pas de Trois fashioned from the Pas de Six from the ballet Javotte by Camille Saint-Saëns. First presented on April 16/28, 1903 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. Principal Dancers - Vera Trefilova (as Emma), Nikolai Legat (as Peters), and Gyorgy Kiaksht (as Andreas). With Tamara Karsavina, Elena Poliakova, and Mikhail Obukhov in the Pas de Trois.

Mariia Anderson as Emma in the Ivanov/Fintinhof-Schell The Haarlem Tulip, St. Petersburg, 1892

Most historical essays concerning 19th century Russian Ballet that mention this work credit both Petipa and Ivanov as choreographer (one exception is the Yearbook of the Imperial Theatres 1902-1903), as do contemporary press accounts of the premiere and subsequent revivals. The exhaustive research conducted by Roland John Wiley for his book The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov tell that it was in fact Ivanov who staged the entire work, and if Petipa did contribute in any way to the production it is not known.