Ondine, ou La naïade is a ballet with choreography by Jules Perrot and music by Cesare Pugni, with a libretto inspired by the novel Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. Pugni dedicated his score to the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Augusta, a long-time balletomane and patron of the arts in London. Whilst the original London production used the title Ondine, ou La naïade, Perrot staged a revival of the ballet under the title, ''La naïade et le pêcheur'', a title which was used for all subsequent productions of the ballet.
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The ballet was first presented by the ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre, London on 22 June 1843. Fanny Cerrito danced the title rôle, while Perrot himself played her mortal beloved, the fisherman Mattéo.
The original scenery was designed by William Grieve. A contemporary review described it as " ... one of the most beautiful productions that any stage ever boasted of." and praised Cerrito as a " ... step-revealing goddess."[1]
Cesare Pugni's was hailed as a masterwork of ballet music. The Times, a London newspaper, described Pugni's score as
| “ | ... singularly appropriate, quite descriptive, and adds charm and perfection to the ballet. In the scene where 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. | ” |
The ballet bore little resemblance to de la Motte Fouqué's Undine:
"The plot is no more like the romantic baron's story than it is like that of Robinson Crusoe, excepting so far as a water-nymph is the heroine. Therefore, the readers of Undine have to unlearn all they know, if they would avoid mystification while witnessing the marvels of the new ballet."[2]
Their only point in common appears to be the ill-fated love of a water sprite, Ondine, with for a mortal man who already has a mortal sweetheart. However, the ballet's divergence from the original novel "derive from intermediary works linking the book and the ballet, which Perrot used to enrich and enhance his theatrical conception".[3] The greatest changes that Perrot made to the basic plot were the change of location from the darkly evocative Danube to the sunnier shores of Sicily, and the transformation of the aristocratic Sir Huldbrand into the humble fisherman Matteo, while Undine's rival Bertalda became the orphan Giannina. In many ways, Perrot's ballet is more similar to René-Charles Guilbert de Pixerécourt's play of the story, Ondine, ou la Nymphe des Eaux, which was first presented in Paris in 1830 while Perrot was also performing there.
The ballet is divided into three acts and six scenes.
During his engagement as Premier Maître de Ballet of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres in Russia, Jules Perrot presented an elaborately expanded production of Ondine, ou La Naïade under the title La Naïade et le pêcheur (The Naiad and the Fisherman) at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre on 11 February [O.S. January 30] 1851. For the production, Cesare Pugni, who had accompanied Perrot to Russia, extensively revised and expanded his original score of 1843. The production premièred to great success.
On 23 July [O.S. 11 July] 1851, Perrot presented his production for a performance at Peterhof Palace staged especially for the celebrations held in honor of the name-day of the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, daughter of Emperor Nicholas I. For the performance, a stage was erected above the water of the lake of the Ozerky Pavilion.
Marius Petipa revived Perrot's La Naïade et le pêcheur for the Imperial Ballet on several occasions throughout his career as Premier Maître de Ballet during the latter half of the 19th century. In 1867 he revised much of the choreography for the performance of Ekaterina Vazem, with Pugni composing two new variations especially for her performance. Petipa later staged his own complete revivals of the full-length work:
Cesare Pugni's grandson, Second Maître de Ballet of the Imperial Theatres and former Premier danseur Alexander Shiryaev, mounted a revival of La Naïade et le pêcheur especially for the Prima ballerina Anna Pavlova. The revival premièred on 20 December [O.S. 7 December] 1903, and was the last revival of Perrot's ballet staged in Imperial Russia, though the full-length ballet continued being performed by the Leningrad ballet until 1931.
The Ballet Master Pierre Lacotte staged a revival of Perrot's ballet under the title Ondine for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet, a production that opened on 16 March 2006 at the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg, Russia, with a new version of Cesare Pugni's score assembled from his original composition of 1843 and his revised edition of 1851.
Sir Frederick Ashton paid tribute to Perrot in his own choreography for Hans Werner Henze's music for Ondine by incorporating his own version of the Shadow Dance into the first act.
HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE
THE SHADOW DANCE FROM "ONDINE."
| “ | Of its own beauty is the mind diseased, And fevers into false creation! |
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says Byron; but we require some stronger, more satisfactory reason why, in sober health, we become occasionally indifferent to the beautiful realities of our own earth, and fly to the immortals for ecstacies that, after all, are but a poet's dream. Everybody is not a Numa, and therefore cannot indulge in the blissful phantasy that he holds intercourse with "moulds beyond the earth;" and yet we would if we could, such is our "longing after immortality."
| “ | Egeria! sweet creation of some heart Which found no mortal resting-place so fair As thine ideal breast! |
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how often hast thou been conjured up to our imagination! But "hence! unreal mockeries, hence!" and leave us to our task, not of criticism on the present occasion, but that of recording one of the most beautiful productions that any stage ever boasted of. The ballet of "Ondine," everybody by this time knows, is founded on La Motte Fouqué's fanciful and interesting story of "Undine," but does not adhere very faithfully to the original. Never mind: narration must give way to impersonation, particularly when we see such a "step-revealing goddess as Cerito [sic: should be Cerrito] in the principal character. Her dancing the pas de l'ombre (which is illustrated above) is in the highest degree beautiful, and inclines us to agree more than ever with the old Greek assertion that "Dancing is silent poetry." Nothing can be more enchanting than Cerito's innocent surprise when she first sees her shadow, and thinks it (or makes you believe she thinks it) to be something tangible and
| “ | lovely in outline as herself. | ” |
The dioramic effect of the scene in which this pas occurs reflects the highest possible credit upon Grieve, the artist. No other stage-painter is so acquainted with the use of compound lights, commonly called mediums. It is a splendid specimen of skill in the art, and it is only to be regretted that such things are so evanescent, for we could see them a thousand times "with yet unwearied eyes." Although Cerito is la déesse of the scene, we must not be indifferent to the exquisite grace of Guy Stephan. She is one who could take the place of any more talked-of rival, and leave criticism nothing to do but applaud with rapture. In fact, the danseuse that in the presence of Taglioni was honoured with an encore of one of her pas must be allowed to
| “ | range herself on level with the best. | ” |
Video of Pierre Lacotte's 2007 revival of Ondine for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet:
Introduction et premier tableau & the grand ballabile des pêcheurs:
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