Marius Petipa

Maestro Marius Ivanovich Petipa, Maître de Ballet of the Imperial Theatres. St. Petersburg, February 14, 1898. Photo reads - "Souvenir à Mlle. A. Vaganova. M. Petipa 14/2 98. St. Pétersbourg"

Marius Ivanovich Petipa (ru. Мариус Иванович Петипа) (born Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa on 11 March, 1818 in Marseille, France - died in Gurzuf in the Crimea, Russian Empire, in what is today the Ukraine, on 14 July, 1910) - was a ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Marius Petipa is often given the title "Father of Classical Ballet", and is cited nearly unanimously by the most noted artists of the classical ballet to be the most influential balletmaster and choreographer that has ever lived (among them - George Balanchine, who cited Petipa as his primary influence).

Petipa is equally noted for the ballets he created, some of which have survived to the present day in versions either faithful to, inspired by, or reconstructed from the original - The Pharaoh's Daughter (1862); Don Quixote (1869); La Bayadère (1877); The Talisman (1889); The Sleeping Beauty (1890); The Nutcracker (choreographed by Lev Ivanov, with Petipa's counsel and instruction) (1892); The Awakening of Flora (1894); The Calvary Halt (AKA Halte de Cavalerie) (1896); Raymonda (1898); and Harlequin's Millions (AKA Harlequinade) (1900). Petipa also resurrected a substantial amount of works created by other choreographers which had long left the stage of other European theatres. By way of Petipa's productions, many of these works lived on to the present day - Le Corsaire (1856, 1863, 1868, 1885, and 1899); Giselle (1850 with counsel and instruction from Jules Perrot, 1884, 1899); La Esmeralda (1866, 1872, 1886, and 1899); Coppelia (1884, 1894 with Enrico Cecchetti); Paul Taglioni's La Fille Mal Gardée (1885 with Ivanov); The Little Humpbacked Horse (AKA The Tsar Maiden) (1895); and Swan Lake (1895 with Ivanov). There are a number of various divertissements and incidental Pas from Petipa's original works and revivals that have survived in performance even when the full-length work did not, either in versions based on Petipa's original or choreographed anew by others - the Grand Pas Classique, Pas de Trios and Children's Polonaise and Mazurka from Paquita (1881); the Venetian Carnival Grand Pas de Deux (AKA the Fascination Pas de Deux from Satanella) (1859/1870); The Talisman Pas de Deux (1889); the La Esmeralda Pas de Deux (1899); the Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux (1903/1931 in a version by Agrippina Vaganova); The Cavalry Halt Pas de Deux (1896); the Don Quixote Pas de Deux (1869); the La Fille Mal Gardée Pas de Deux (1885/1894); and the Harlequinade Pas de Deux (1900). All of the full-length ballets and individual pieces which have survived in performance are today considered to be cornerstones of the Classical Ballet repertory.

Early Life and Career

Marius Petipa was born Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa in Marseilles, France on March 11, 1818. His mother Victorine Grasseau was a well-known tragic actress and teacher of drama, while his father, Jean Petipa was a much respected Balletmaster, choreographer, and teacher. At the time Marius Petipa was born his father was engaged as Premier Danseur (Principal Male Dancer) to the Ballet du Grand-Théâtre de Marseille (AKA the Ballet du Salle Bauveau), and in 1819 was appointed Maître de Ballet (First Balletmaster/Chief Choreographer) to the theatre. The young Marius spent his early childhood traveling throughout Europe with his family, as his parents' professional engagements took them from city to city. By the time he was six years old his family had relocated to Brussels, Belgium, where his father was appointed both Maître de Ballet and Premier Danseur to the Ballet du Théâtre de la Monnaie, and one of the first of the first teachers of the Conservatoire de la Danse, which he helped to establish. The young Marius received his general education at the Grand College in Brussels, while also attending the Brussels Conservatoire where he studied music and learned to play the violin.

Portrait of Marius Petipa at age nine in his début performance as a Savoyard in his father Jean Petipa's production of La Dansomani, Brussels, 1827

Petipa's father began Marius' lessons in ballet at the age of seven. At first the young boy resisted, caring very little for the artform, but very soon he came to love the ballet that was so much the life and identity of his family, and he excelled quickly. He made his début in 1827 at the age of nine in his father's production of Pierre Gardel's La Dansomani, performing in the juvenile role of a Savoyard. Soon afterward the Belgian Revolution of 1830 left Jean Petipa without employment, and the Petipa family was left in dire straits for some years.

In 1834 the Petipa family relocated to Bordeaux, France where Marius' father had secured the position of Maître de Ballet to the Ballet du Grand Théâtre. Here, Marius completed his academic education, as well as his ballet training under the great Auguste Vestris, and by 1838 at the age of twenty he was appointed Premier Danseur to the Ballet de Nantes in Nantes, France. During this time in Nantes the young Petipa began to try his hand at choreography, creating a string of one-act ballets and divertissements.

In July 1839 the twenty-one year old Petipa accompanied his father on a tour of the United States with a group of dancers. Among the many engagements was a performance of Jean Coralli's La Tarentule at the National Theatre on Broadway, being the first ballet performance ever seen in New York City. The tour proved to be a complete disaster however, as many in the uncultured American audiences of that time had never before seen ballet. To add to the fiasco, the American impresario who arranged the engagements stole a large portion of the performance receipts and subsequently disappeared without a trace. Upon leaving for France, Petipa's ticket only allowed him passage to Nantes, but instead of returning to that city he stowed away in the cabin of a woman he be-friended so that he may continue on to Paris. By 1840 he had made his début as a dancer with the famous Comédie Française, and during his début he partnered the legendary Ballerina Carlotta Grisi in a benefit performance held for the actress Rachel. Petipa also took part in performances with the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique (or the Paris Opera Ballet, as it is known today), where his brother Lucien Petipa was engaged as Premier Danseur.

Bordeaux

Petipa was offered the position of Premier Danseur to the Ballet du Grand Théâtre in Bordeaux in 1841. There, he studied further with the great Vestris, all the while dancing the leads in such ballets as La Fille Mal Gardée, La Péri, and Giselle. While performing with the company his skills as not only a dancer but as a partner were much celebrated - his partnering with Carlotta Grisi during a performance of La Péri was talked about for years to come, particularly one acrobatic catch of the ballerina that dazzled the audience, prompting the famous dramatist Théophile Gautier to say that the feat would become "...as famous as the Niagra Falls". While in Bordeaux Petipa began mounting his own original productions, which were viewed with considerable respect, among them - La Jolie Bordelaise (The Beauty of Bordeaux), La Vendange (The Grape Picker), L’Intrigue Amoureuse (The Intrigues of Love), and Le Langage des Fleurs (The Voice of the Flowers).

Madrid

In 1843 Petipa was offered the position Premier Danseur at the King's Theatre in Madrid, Spain, where for the next three years he would acquire an acute knowledge of traditional Spanish Dancing, while producing new works, most of them on Spanish themes - Carmen et Son Toréro (Carmen and the Bullfighter), La Perle de Séville (The Pearl of Seville), L’Aventure d’une Fille de Madrid (The Adventures of a Madrileña), La Fleur de Grenada (The Flower of Grenada), and Départ Pour la Course des Taureaux (Leaving for the Bull Races). In 1846 he began a love affair with the wife of the Marquis de Chateaubriand, a prominent member of the French Embassy. Learning of the affair, the Marquis challenged Petipa to a duel and, rather than keep his fateful appointment, Petipa quickly left Spain, never to return. He then travelled to Paris where he stayed for a brief period. While in the city he took part in a performances with the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique where he partnered Thérèse Elssler, sister of Fanny Elssler.

St. Petersburg, Russia

Early career

Petipa accepted the position of Premier Danseur to the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia, a position which had become vacant upon the departure of the French Danseur Emile Gredlu. On May 24, 1847 the twenty-nine year old Petipa arrived in the imperial capital. It is possible that Petipa's name was changed from Victor Marius Alphonse to Marius Ivanovich upon being baptised into Russian Orthodoxy.

For his début, Petipa mounted the first Russian production of Joseph Mazilier's celebrated ballet of 1846 Paquita, staged with assistance of the Danseur Frédéric Malevergne. In this work Petipa made a successful début on September 26, 1847 in the largely mimed role of Lucien d’Hervilly. Petipa then staged another of Mazilier's works with his father (who had followed Petipa to Russia not long after he arrived there), the celebrated 1840 ballet Le Diable Amoureux (The Devil In Love), first presented in St. Petersburg under the title Satanella on February 10, 1848, for which Petipa performed the lead male role of Fabio. It is significant to note that Petipa's father became teacher of the Classe de Perfection for the graduating class of Ballerinas at the Imperial Ballet School (school of the Imperial Ballet - known today as the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet), and held the position until his death in 1855 at the age of fifty-nine.

At the time Petipa had arrived in St. Petersburg, the Imperial Ballet had been in a considerable decline since the 1842 departure of the great Marie Taglioni, who had been engaged in the Imperial Capital as guest Ballerina. The productions of Paquita and Satanella brought about a measure of praise and attention for the company. According to the critic Raphael Zotov - "Our lovely ballet company was reborn with the productions of 'Paquita' and 'Satanella', and its superlative performances placed the company again at its former level of glory and universal affection."

In December of 1849 Petipa then presented his own original, full-length ballet, Leda, the Swiss Milkmaid. Later that month Petipa staged the ballet sections of Friedrich von Flotow's Alessandro Stradella for the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Opera, which would prove to be the first and last choreography he would stage for the next six years, as his duties as a dancer would soon take first place to those as fledgling choreographer.

Students of the Imperial Ballet School in the Petipa/Minkus Children's Polonaise and Mazurka from Act II of Paquita, St. Petersburg, 1881

In the winter of 1849, the great French Balletmaster Jules Perrot arrived in St. Petersburg, having accepted the position of Maître de Ballet to the Imperial Ballet. He was accompanied by his chief collaborator, the prolific Italian ballet composer Cesare Pugni, who was appointed First Imperial Ballet Composer. The majority of the works that Perrot would go on to stage in St. Petersburg were revivals of ballets he had already produced with Pugni in London for the Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre, where he had been engaged previously as Maître de Ballet. Petipa not only danced the principal roles in many of Perrot's productions (those in which Perrot did not dance the lead himself) but also assisted in staging them (such as Giselle in 1850, and Le Corsaire in 1858), all the while learning a great deal from the man who at the time was arguably the greatest choreographer in all Europe. Although Petipa did not create his own original works during this period, he was nonetheless allowed by Perrot to stage a substantial number of dances for various operas, many of which survived well into the early 20th century. It was around this time that Petipa began teaching at the Imperial Ballet School.

By 1850 Petipa's first child, a son named Marius Mariusovich Petipa (1850-1919) was born. His mother, Marie Thérèse Bourdin, with whom Petipa had a brief liaison, died only five years later. In 1854 Petipa married the Ballerina Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa. Together they had two children - Marie Mariusovna Petipa (1857-1930) (who would go on to become a celebrated dancer with the Imperial Ballet, creating the role of the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty in 1890), and Jean Mariusovich Petipa (1859-1971?). In spite of his marriage, Petipa was well-known for his many affairs with women, which he made no effort in hiding, much to the chagrin of his wife.

On January 9, 1855 Petipa presented his first original ballet in over six years, a divertissement titled The Star of Grenada, for which he collaborated for the first time with the composer Pugni. The work was presented not on the main stage of the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre (principal theatre of the Imperial Ballet and Opera until 1886) but in the theatre of the Mikhailovsky Palace. It would be two years until Petipa would present his next work, mounted especially for a gala performance at Peterhof on October 8, 1857 - The Rose, the Violet, and the Butterfly, to the music of Prince Pyotr Georgievich of Oldenburg, proved to be very successful, though when it was presented on the stage of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre two weeks later the production was credited to Perrot. On April 23, 1859 Petipa mounted The Parisian Market to the music of Pugni, with his wife Mariia in the lead role of Lizetta. The ballet was a great success, so much so that Petipa was invited to Paris two years later to mount the work at the Théâtre Impérial de l´Opéra under the title Le Marché des Innocents, with his wife reprising her role.

In 1858 Perrot retired to his native France, never to return to Russia again, and Petipa hoped to succeed him as Maître de Ballet - choreography was a logical alternative to dancing for the now 41 year old Petipa, who was soon to retire from the stage, and he had shown much promise in the annals of creating ballets. But it was not to be - the great French choreographer Arthur Saint-Léon was given the position instead by the director of the Imperial Theatres Andrei Saburov, and soon a healthy and productive rivalry between he and Petipa ensued, bringing the Imperial Ballet to new heights throughout the 1860s. Petipa's ten years as an assistant to Perrot had taught him much, and although he had only staged two ballets of his own in previous decade, the success of The Parisian Market, as well as the many dances for various operas he staged allowed him to perfect his talent, and in 1862 he staged a ballet that shown with the genius for which he would be forever remembered.

The Pharaoh's Daughter

The great Italian Ballerina Carolina Rosati had been engaged as guest artist with the Imperial Ballet since 1855, and by 1861 her contract with the company was coming to an end. Upon leaving St. Petersburg, the Ballerina had decided to retire from the stage forever. By contract she was allowed one last benefit performance in an all new production, and in late 1861 she requested from the director Saburov that preparations begin post haste. Saburov soon put all other rehearsals and projects on hold, and asked Petipa if he could stage a ballet for Rosati in only six weeks. Confidently, Petipa answered "Yes, I shall try, and probably succeed."

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Svetlana Zakharova as the Princess Aspicia in the Pas de Flèche from the Bolshoi Ballet's revival of the Petipa/Pugni The Pharaoh's Daughter, Moscow, 2003

While in Paris staging his ballet The Parisian Market, Petipa had received the completely worked out scenario from the dramatist Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges for a ballet titled The Pharaoh's Daughter (Saint-Georges was a much celebrated and sought-after librettist, having created among many other libretti the scenario for the Romantic masterwork Giselle). Petipa decided that this scenario, set in exotic ancient Egypt, would be perfect for the effective production Rosati so desired. During this time Europe was fascinated with all things concerning the art and culture of the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, and Petipa was sure that a ballet on such a subject would be a great success.

Petipa began work immediately, collaborating with the composer Pugni, who wrote his melodious and apt score with the quickness for which he was well known. The Pharaoh's Daughter premiered on January 18, 1862 to an unrivaled success - the work exceeded even the opulent tastes of the age, as so lavish and exotic a ballet had not been seen on the Imperial stage for some time. The work went on to become the most popular ballet in the entire repertory, having been performed 203 times by February of 1903. The great success of the work earned for Petipa the position of second Balletmaster, with perhaps only Saint-Léon's contract preventing him from attaining the coveted post of Maître de Ballet. The ballet reconstitution one can see today is due to French choreographer Pierre Lacotte.

Saint-Léon answered the success of Petipa's The Pharaoh's Daughter with a ballet adaptation of Pyotr Yershov's famous poem The Little Humpbacked Horse. The work proved to be a great success equal to that of The Pharaoh's Daughter, with its series of fantastical Grand Ballabile set on an enchanted Isle and under-water, grand processions, and well staged national dances. Though Saint-Léon was by title and technicality Petipa's superior, the two men were viewed as equals by the critics and balletomanes, and would rival one another with splendid productions throughout the 1860s, with the two of them having not only their own respective audiences but also their own Ballerinas - Petipa mounted the majority of his works at that time for his wife, the Prima Ballerina Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa, while Saint-Léon mounted his works mostly for the great Marfa Muravieva (interestingly, nearly every work Petipa and Saint-Léon produced during the 1860s was set to the music of the composer Pugni). Petipa's final ballet of the 1860s would prove to be one of his most successful and enduring works - Don Quixote was mounted for the Ballet of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and was the first ballet in which Petipa collaborated with the Czech composer Léon Minkus.

Maître de Ballet of the Imperial Ballet

In 1868 Petipa presented the exotic grand ballet Tsar Kandavl (AKA Le Roi Candaule). This work, set to the usually tuneful and apt music of Pugni was an enormous success, going on to break attendance records at the theatre. In 1869 Saint-Léon's contract was set to expire. The failues of his two most recent ballets - his 1866 Le Poisson Doré (a ballet adaptation of Pushkin's 1835 poem The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish), and his 1869 Le Lys (The Lily) - caused the Minister of the Imperial Court to not renew his contract. While in the Café de Divan in the Avenue de l'Opéra in Paris Saint-Léon died of a heart attack on September 2, 1870, and not long before him so had the composer Pugni, Petipa's chief collaborator, on January 26 of that same year.

Petipa was named Première Maître de Ballet en Chef on February 29, 1870. For the remainder of the 19th century Petipa would transform the ballet of St. Petersburg with his ballet à grand spectacle, all the while redifining the pure-dance element in ballet. His masterfully composed ensembles, Grand Pas, variations, and incidental dances demanded the highest execution of technique from his dancers. Although the Imperial Ballet School (school of the Imperial Theatres) had always been among the greatest ballet academies in Europe, a renaissance in the quality of teaching methods of the instructors of the school began, improving the quality of teaching even more. As a result a syllabus of sorts began to evolve for training the young students, though it would be decades before this form of teaching the art of ballet would be cultivated, perfected, and given a name - the Vaganova method.

In 1875 Petipa and his wife, Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa separated, and in 1882 she died of virulent smallpox in Pyatigorsk. In 1876 Petipa married the Ballerina Lyubov Savitskaya, who before she married Petipa had given birth to their first child. Together, they had six children - Nadezhda Mariusovna Petipa (1874-1945), Evgeniia Mariusovna Petipa (1877-1892), Victor Mariusovich Petipa (1879-1939), Lyubov Mariusovna Petipa (1880-1917), Marius Mariusovich Petipa II (1884-1922), and Vera Mariusovna Petipa (1885-1961). With so many children, Petipa stood at the head of a rather large family by the time he reached his 70s, having many grand-children, in-laws, and god-children. Although he was well provided for at the expense of the Imperial treasury, he was not rich, and lived strictly within his means. He kept track of all of his living expenses in journals, as well as box-office receipts at the theatre. But he was also by no means a "penny-pincher", always lavishing presents upon his children and grandchildren, or giving them money whenever he could.

In 1877 Petipa mounted his greatest masterwork to date - La Bayadère, set in exotic ancient India, proved to be a work that would endure well into modern times. The cheered premiere on January 23, 1877 turned out to be a point of intersection for the art of ballet - La Bayadère contained Petipa's masterfully choreographed Grand Pas Classique set in the context of a vision scene (or Ballet Blanc) that would in essence mark the transition of the Romantic ballet evolving into what we now know today to be the Classical Ballet - The Kingdom of the Shades. This scene was and has remained perhaps one of the ultimate tests for the Corps de Ballet, the Classical Ballerina, and the Premier Danseur.

By the early 1880s Petipa began mounting revivals of older ballets more frequently. Many of these works had all but disappeared from the stages of Europe in spite of the great receptions they had been given upon their premieres, and Petipa would breathe new life into them in such a way that many of them would endure to the present day in stagings derived from his versions. Among them, his definitive revival of Mazilier's Paquita in 1881, for which he added a Grand Pas Classique, Pas de Trois and Children's Polonaise and Mazurka to the music of Minkus - these dances, particularly the Grand Pas Classique, would go on to be one of his most enduring and celebrated compositions, surviving well into the present day. Another was Mazilier's 1856 Le Corsaire - a ballet Petipa had revived in 1856, 1863, and 1868, he would present his most definitive staging to date in 1885.

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Students of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in the Dance of the Lotus Blossums from the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's reconstruction of the Petipa/Minkus La Bayadère, St. Petersburg, 2001

Petipa also revived Giselle - another ballet that Petipa had revised quite a few times, 1884 would see his definitive revival of the work, a version which it is said is still performed in his staging largely unchanged by the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet. Other ballets Petipa would revive during the 1880s - Saint-Léon's final ballet Coppelia in 1884, Paul Taglioni's 1864 version of La Fille Mal Gardée (with his Second Balletmaster Lev Ivanov) in 1885 for the visiting Italian Ballerina Virginia Zucchi, and Perrot's La Esmeralda in 1886, again for Zucchi.

In 1881, the new Emperor Tsar Alexander III appointed Ivan Vsevolozhsky director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, an extremely cultured, and noble aristocratic that would prove to be one of Petipa's greatest confidants and collaborators. In 1886 he prompted the inspection of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre by architects who found the building to be unsafe, and rather than spend millions of roubles on a renovations, Vsevolozhsky soon transferred both the ballet and opera to the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, much to the chagrin of the orchestra and opera singers who found Mariinsky's acoustics to be weaker. Both companies remain at that theatre today.

The Golden Age of Petipa and the Imperial Ballet

The ballets of Petipa were lavish spectacles that could have only been produced in the opulent atmosphere of the Imperial Russian court, which was at the time the wealthiest and most resplendent in all Europe. The treasury of the Tsar lavished over 10,000,000 roubles a year on the Imperial Ballet, opera, and the Imperial Theatrical School, home of the Imperial Ballet School (today the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet). Every season Petipa presented a new ballet, as well as revivals of older works, the staging of dance sections for operas, and the preparations of various galas and celebrations for royal nuptuals, birthdays, official state visits, or for visiting Royalty.

The works of the Imperial Ballet were presented to a public that adored the ballet, and knew the artform very intimately. They had the highest expectations and standards, with many critics from various newspapers reporting in detail every performance. To create ballets for such a public meant that Petipa had to constantly maintain the utmost level of perfection and excellence in his works. With the art of ballet flurishing in this kind of an environment, the 19th century saw the Imperial Ballet reached what is considered to be it's "golden age".

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Diana Vishneva as the Princess Aurora (center), Veronika Part as the Lilac Fairy (left), and Adrien Fadayev as Prince Desiré (right) in the Grand Adagio from the Vision Scene of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's reconstruction of Petipa's original 1890 production of The Sleeping Beauty, St. Petersburg, 1999

This era began in the late 1880s when Petipa presented his colossal extravaganza set in ancient Rome The Vestal, set to the music of the composer Mikhail Ivanov, a student of Tchaikovsky's. Then, in 1889, the director Vsevolozhsky commissioned Tchaikovsky to score music for Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty in 1889. The ballet's premiere on January 3, 1890 was, a resounding success, and is today considered to be the quintessential Classical Ballet, as well as among Petipa's ultimate masterpieces of choreography. The ballet proved to be so popular in fact that by April of 1903 it had been performed 100 times in only thirteen years, being one of the most popular works in the Imperial Ballet's repertory, second only to Petipa's The Pharaoh's Daughter.

In essence, what is now considered to be the art of Classical Ballet and classical technique came into its own in the 1890s in St. Petersburg, where virtuoso Ballerinas were finally met in technique from the Danseurs, and lavish productions accentuated the masterful choreography Petipa created for not only his new works but for his many revivals of older ballets, such as Perrot's Ondine and Philippe Taglioni's original La Sylphide, both staged in 1892.

Vsevolozhsky then commissioned a second score for a ballet from Tchaikovsky. The Nutcracker was perhaps doomed from the start - the libretto, created by Petipa from E. T. A. Hoffman's tale was completely devoid of the dramatic action and mime sequences then in vogue with ballet audiences, and the role of the lead Ballerina was reduced merely to a Grand Pas de Deux in the second act. Petipa soon passed on the duties of mounting the ballet to his Second Balletmaster Lev Ivanov. It is believed that this was done because Petipa fell ill, but illness did not keep him from rehearsing other ballets during that time. It is likely Petipa "washed his hands" of the ballet, as long experience showed him that such a work would not be well received (there are many contemporary accounts that site Petipa as choreographer of The Nutcracker, with Ivanov merely putting on the "finishing touches"). The Nutcracker premiered on December 6, 1892 on a double bill with Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta, and was indeed received in manner that in no way pointed to the place the work would one day have in the ballet repertory. Petipa's illness kept him from composition for nearly the whole of 1893, but he still found strength to supervise the production of a work where perhaps the greatest Ballerina since Marie Taglioni would make her début on the Imperial stage.

A ballet adaptation of Charles Perrault's Cinderella (or Zolushka) was chosen for the new production of the 1893-1894 season to music by the composer Baron Boris Fitinhof-Schell, and being that Petipa was ill the choreography fell into the hands of Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti. In the title role the new guest Ballerina, the Italian virtuosa Pierina Legnani made her début, and on the evening of the premiere, December 3, 1893, her phenomenal technique and beauty of execution swept all before her. In the coda of the Grand Pas d'action of the last act she astounded the audience by performing a feat never before executed by any Ballerina - 32 fouettés en tournant. The public demanded an encore, and Legnani performed no less that twentyeight more fouettés - according to press accounts of the performance she never moved an inch. Legnani's success in Cinderella was so great she was quickly named Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the Imperial Ballet, and though her initial contract was for only two years, she was nevertheless invited to remain with the Imperial Ballet for eight more years. In 1894 the Ballerina Mathilde Kschessinskaya was named Prima Ballerina of the Imperial Ballet, second only in rank to Legnani, and although she was eventually named Prima Ballerina Assoluta it was nevertheless Legnani who proved to be Petipa's greatest muse, as nearly every new ballet he mounted throughout his remaining years with the Imperial Ballet were with Legnani in the principal role, among them - Raymonda in 1898, and Les Ruses d'Amour in 1900 - while he would give Kschessinskaya almost all of the leads in his revivals - among them, his 1898 revival of The Pharaoh's Daughter and his 1899 revival of La Esmeralda.

In 1894 Petipa returned to choreography from his illness with his first completely original ballet since The Sleeping Beauty. Set to the score by Drigo, the one-act The Awakening of Flora was mounted especially for the celebrations at Peterhof of the wedding of Tsar Alexander III's daughter, the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna to the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, premiering on July 28, 1894. The short work was hailed as a masterpiece, as was Drigo's score. Drigo would in fact prove to be Petipa's chief collaborator for his remaining ten years with the Imperial Ballet - the composer not only wrote completely new scores, but the bulk of his duties would be in revising older scores for Petipa's revivals, as well as the endless task of scoring supplemental Pas and variations.

In 1893 Tchaikovsky died, and in February 1894 a memorial concert was given in his honor at the Mariinsky Theatre. For the occasion Lev Ivanov mounted the second scene from Tchaikovsky's 1877 Swan Lake - a work first produced in Moscow that was not successful. It was soon decided that a revival of the full-length work be mounted for the 1894-1895 season - Ivanov would stage the scenes with the swans (act I-scene II and act III - or act II and act IV as in most western productions), while Petipa would stage the rest of the work (act I-scene I and act II, or act I and act II as in most modern western productions), Drigo would revise the 1877 score in accordance with Petipa's instructions, and Tchaikovsky's brother Modest would revise the ballet's scenario. The premiere on January 15, 1895 with Legnani in the dual role of Odette/Odile was a great success, and in Petipa and Ivanov's version Swan Lake would go on to become one of the greatest of all ballets, remaining to the present day as one of the ultimate tests for the Classical Ballerina and the Corps de Ballet.

The Turn of the 20th Century

Feeling his advanced old age, Petipa would spend the remainder of the turn of the 20th century devoting most of his energies into staging revivals - the old Maestro saw to it that these productions, as well as the rest of the repertory of the Imperial Ballet, would be preserved in the method of Stepanov choreographic notation in an effort to preserve his life's work (today this collection of notation is called the Sergeyev Collection). In the winter of 1895 Petipa presented lavish revivals of his 1889 ballet The Talisman, and Saint-Léon's 1864 The Little Humpbacked Horse (as The Tsar Maiden), both with Legnani in the principal roles. The turn of the 20th century saw Petipa present even more spectacular revivals - The Pharoah's Daughter in 1898, La Esmeralda, Giselle, Le Corsaire in 1899, and La Bayadère in 1900. These revivals would prove to be Petipa's final "finishing touch" on these works.

But Petipa also mounted new works - on May 14, 1896 the new Emperor and Empress, Tsar Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna were coronated at the Upensky Sobor Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. For the celebrations in honor of the event which were held at the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre three days later, Petipa presented a one-act ballet to Drigo's music - The Pearl. The ballet, set in an under-water kingdom, proved to be the greatest success on the bill.

On January 7, 1898 the near eighty year old Petipa presented one of his greatest ballets - Raymonda, set in Hungary during the middle ages to the music of Alexander Glazunov, which premiered to great success. Petipa's Pas classique hongrois (AKA Raymonda Pas de Dix) from the last act of the ballet would go on to be one of his most celebrated and enduring excerpts, with the challenging choreography he lavished onto Legnani (who danced the title role) becoming one of the ultimate tests of the Classical Ballerina.

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Victoria Tereshkina as Raymonda and Ilya Kuznetsov as Abderakhman with two unidentified suitors in the Grand Pas d'action from Act II of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's production of the Petipa/Glazunov Raymonda, St. Petersburg, 2004

Petipa presented what would prove to be his final masterpiece on February 10, 1900 at the Hermitage Theatre - Harlequin's Millions (known more popularly today as Harlequinade, based on George Balanchine's 1965 revival), a balletic Harlequinade set to Drigo's music. Harlequinade was dedicated by both Drigo and Petipa to the new Empress, Alexandra Feodorovna, a work which would prove to be the last enduring flash of Petipa's choreographic genius.

Petipa's Final Years With the Imperial Ballet

In spite of his vast accomplishments, Petipa's last years with the Imperial Ballet were anything but easy. By the turn of the 20th century new innovations in the art of classical dance began to become apparent. With all of this, Petipa's rocky relationship with the new director of the Imperial Theatres, Vladimir Telyakovsky, appointed to the position in 1901, served as the catalyst of the Balletmaster's end. Telyakovsky made no effort in disguising his dislike of Petipa's art, as he felt that the ballet had become stagnant under him, and felt that other, more youthful Balletmasters should have a chance at the helm of the Imperial Ballet. But even at the age of eighty-three, and suffering from the constant pain brought on by a severe case of the skin disease pemphigus, the old Maestro Petipa showed no signs of slowing down, much to Telyakovsky's chagrin.

One example of Telyakovsky's efforts in his attempt to "de-throne" Petipa came in 1903 when he invited Alexander Gorsky, a former Premièr Danseur to the Imperial Ballet, to stage his own version of Petipa's 1869 ballet Don Quixote. Gorsky had been engaged as Balletmaster to the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre, and in 1900 he mounted a complete revision of Don Quixote in a version radically different from Petipa's original, though it was still in many ways based on it with regard to the dances. Petipa was of course furious when he learned this new version would completely replace his own, as he had not even been consulted on the production of a ballet that was originally his creation. While watching a rehearsal of Gorsky's production at the Mariinsky Theatre, Petipa was heard yelling out "Will someone tell that young man that I am not yet dead?!". Petipa was further frustrated by the fact that the Imperial Theatre's newly appointed régisseur Nicholas Sergeyev was traveling throughout the Russian Empire and mounting many of Petipa's works while being paid large sums with no regard given to their original creator

Petipa made a rather unsuccessful attempt at being "innovative" with his 1902 one-act ballet The Heart of the Marquis, which aside from having the usual string of divertissements and various Pas and variations, boasted spoken passages where poetry was read by members of the St. Petersburg French Drama Troupe. The polite audience composed of the Imperial court applauded Petipa's efforts, but the work was completely mocked in the press and by many members of the Imperial Ballet.

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Funeral cortège for Marius Petipa, July 17, 1910, St. Petersburg, Russia

In late 1902 Petipa began work on a ballet adaptation of the tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - The Magic Mirror. Petipa mounted the work for his own benefit performance, which was to mark a "semi-retirement" for the Balletmaster. The ballet, set to the music of the avant-garde composer Arsenii Koreshchenko, was given on February 9, 1903 at the Mariinsky Theatre to an audience composed of the whole Imperial Family and many members of the St. Petersburg nobility. The production boasted an unorthodox score which from all accounts clashed with Petipa's classical, academic choreography. The bizarre décor and costumes were also considered to be unsuited for a classical ballet, and when they were revealed, the audeience broke out into laughter, hisses, and whistles. From accounts of the dancers involved, Petipa's choreography was of great quality, but was unfortunately completely lost in the debacle of the unusual production. In spite of this Petipa received a roaring ovation from the audience at the end of the performance - the applause was not for the ballet, but for his life's work. The Magic Mirror was given scathing reviews in the press, and in the end the work was a failure. Petipa had created ballets before that were failures in the past, but at the age of eighty-four, and with severely strained relations with the director, the failure proved horrifically costly. Not long afterward rumour began to circulate that Petipa was to be replaced, and Telyakovsky even made an announcement to the Stock Trade Bulletin, a St. Petersburg newspaper, "The Ballet Company will have to get used to a new Balletmaster - Alexander Gorsky. He will stage his own versions of 'The Little Humpbacked Horse' and 'Swan Lake'. He has staged both ballets (for the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre) entirely differently and in a much more original manner." In the end Gorsky never succeeded Petipa as Première Maître de Ballet en Chef. The coveted post would later go to Mikhail Fokine.

Telyakovsky knew that he could not legally end Petipa's employment, as he was still contracted as Première Maître de Ballet en Chef, so he began a cruel campaign in which to drive the aging Balletmaster from the theatre. In 1902 Telyakovsky set up a new committee made up of influential members of the Imperial Theatres that would in essence take away Petipa's powers with regard to casting, repertory, and the appointment of dancers, though much to Telyakovsky's chagrin the members of the committee appointed Petipa chairman. Soon after Telyakovsky began purposely not sending carriages to collect Petipa for a particular rehearsal, or not sending him lists of casting for various ballets, and even not informing Petipa of various rehearsals taking place, for which the Balletmaster was legally required to know about. But at the age of eighty-four, and with his poor health, Petipa seemed to not have much energy to fight with a cruel theatre director. He was invited in March of 1904 to stage The Pharoah's Daughter at the "new" Paris Opéra (the Palais Garnier) by relatives of Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges (who wrote the ballet's libretto), but his health prevented him from it.

Petipa's grave in the Alexander Nevsky Monestery, St. Petersburg, Russia

Despite the situation with Telyakovsky and the condition of his health, Petipa still managed to work, as he was constantly sought by the dancers of the Imperial Ballet for coaching, and he even managed to revise some of the dances in his old works. In 1904 the great Anna Pavlova, one of Petipa's favorite Ballerinas, asked him to revive the dances of Giselle especially for her. Petipa then coached Pavlova for her début in Paquita, and even created a new variation for her to Drigo's music that is still danced today by the lead Ballerina in the famous Paquita Grand Pas Classique. According to the Ballerina Olga Preobrajenskaya, "...by the time I entered His Majety's ballet in 1889, (Petipa) was a true master. I have always found myself fortunate to have witnessed such genius, for by the time Petipa reached his 80s, his art had reached a perfection unparalleled. Our ballet was unrivaled anywhere in Europe due to his genius."

Petipa's diaries reflect his constant fear of his aging body, and that his he had little time left to live. Aware of this, the Balletmaster spent nearly every minute he could creating variations and various numbers, as well as reworking many of the dances in his older works (including the dances of his 1868 ballet Tsar Kandavl in 1903, for which he added a new version of his celebrated Pas de Diane that would later become the famous Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux). Such work prompted him to write in his diaries "I am amazing."

Petipa then set to work on what would prove to be his final ballet - The Romance of the Rosebud and the Butterfly to the music of Drigo was, according to Preobrajenskaya, "...a little masterpiece." The work was scheduled to be presented on January 23, 1904 for a performance at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage, but the director Telyakovsky abruptly cancelled the performance only two weeks prior to the premiere, giving no explanation as to why. For Petipa this was the final straw, and soon afterward he was rarely seen at the theatre or the Imperial Ballet School (where rehearsals were held). The minister of the Imperial Court, the aristocrat Baron Fredericks gave Petipa the title "Balletmaster for life", and granted him a yearly pension of 9,000 roubles.

In his diaries Petipa noted his final composition on January 17, 1905 - a variation to the music of Pugni for the Ballerina Preobrajenskaya from his own long-gone-from-the-stage revival of Paul Taglioni's 1849 The Traveling Dancer. He remained in St. Petersburg until 1907, and then, at the suggestion of his physicians, left with his family to the resort Gurzuf in the Crimea, where the air was more agreeable with his health. Petipa spent his remaining years in Gurzuf as a bitter and sad old man who constantly feared his own inevitable death, but more than anything he longed to choreograph. In 1907 he wrote in his diary "I can state that I created a ballet company of which everyone said: St. Petersburg has the greatest ballet in all Europe." Petipa died on July 14, 1910 at the age of ninety-two, and was laid to rest three days later in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg.

The Notation of Petipa's Work

It was in 1891 that many of Petipa's original ballets, revivals, and dances from operas began to be notated in the method of Dance Notation created by Vladimir Stepanov. The project began with a demonstration to the committee of the Imperial Ballet (consisting of Petipa, Lev Ivanov, the former Prima Ballerina Ekaterina Vazem, the Jeune Premier Danseur Noble Pavel Gerdt, and the great teacher Christian Johansson) with Stepanov himself notating Lev Ivanov and Riccardo Drigo's 1893 ballet The Magic Flute, and not long afterward the project was set into motion. After Stepanov's death in 1896 the great Danseur Alexander Gorsky took over the project, all the while perfecting the system. After Gorsky departed St. Petersburg in 1900 to take up the post of Balletmaster to the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre, the project was taken over by Nicholas Sergeyev, former Danseur of the Imperial Ballet (and later régisseur in 1903) with his team of notators - Alexander Chekrygin joined the project in 1903, and Victor Rakhmanov in 1904.

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

After the Russian Revolution of 1917 Nicholas Sergeyev left Russia with the notations in hand. In 1921 Sergeyev took over the post of régisseur to the Latvian National Opera Ballet in Riga, and during his appointment there he added a substantial amount of the musical scores belonging to the notated ballets. In the 1930s, with the aid of the notations, Sergeyev went on to stage Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Coppelia (as danced by the Imperial Ballet), and The Nutcracker for the Vic-Wells Ballet of London (later the Royal Ballet) who still almost religiously perform the ballets with little changes from when they were first staged - it was through these revivals by Sergeyev in London with aid of these notations that the great ballets of Petipa where first staged in the west, forming the nucleus of what is now known as the Classical Ballet reperotry for not only the ballet of England but for the world.

In 1969 the Harvard University Library purchased the collection, which is today known as the Sergeyev Collection. The collection consists of choreographic notation documenting the compositions of Marius Petipa for his original ballets and revivals (the collection also includes two notations for ballets by Lev Ivanov (his 1893 The Magic Flute and 1887 The Enchanted Forest), and one by the brothers Nikolai and Sergai Legat (their 1903 revival of The Fairy Doll), as well as Petipa's choreography for dances from operas, along with various Pas, incidental dances, etc. from various other works. Not all of the notations are 100% complete, with some being rather vague in sections, leading some historians/scholars who have studied the collection to theorize that they were made to function simply as "reminders" for the Balletmaster or régisseur already familiar with these works. The collection also includes photos, set and costume designs, and music for most of the ballets in 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.

Petipa's Memoirs and Biographies

Below is a listing for further reading on Marius Petipa. To date there is no publication which is currently in print.

• Russian Ballet Master: The Memoirs of Marius Petipa (English) translated by Helen Whittaker/Introduction by Lillian Moore. Out-of-print. NOTE - Petipa's memoirs were first published in 1907 in Russia, and were then published in the west many years later. The current publication is out-of-print, and was released in 1971.

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Petipa's memoirs in their french translation, published in 1992.

• The Diaries of Marius Petipa translated, edited, and introduction by Lynn Garafola. Published in Studies in Dance History. 3.1 (Spring 1992). Out-of-print. NOTE - this publication includes Petipa's diaries from the last years of his life, beginning in 1903 until 1907. It also includes a complete list of his works for the Imperial Ballet, as well as the dances he staged for the works of the Imperial Opera. It also includes extensive notes for all of the diary entries and the works mentioned.

• Mémoires (French) trans. by Galia Ackerman, Pierre Lorrain. Out-of-print. - Petipa's memoirs in French.

• Memuary Mariusa Petipa solista ego imperatorskogo velichestva i baletmeistera imperatorskikh teatrov (The Memoirs of Marius Petipa, Soloist of His Imperial Majesty and Ballet Master of the Imperial Theatres) (Russian). Out-of-print. NOTE - Petipa's memoirs in Russian as originally published in 1907.

• A Century of Russian Ballet: Documents and Eyewitness Accounts 1810-1910 translated, and written by Roland John Wiley. Out-of-print. NOTE - This book discusses the most important productions presented by the Imperial Ballet from 1810 in the time of Charles Didelot on through until Mikhail Fokine's Le Pavillon d'Armide in 1907. It includes accounts of the company and the Imperial Ballet School as well as discussions of Petipa himself from dancers, composers, and historians.

• Currently the scholar and ballet historian Roland John Wiley is working on a full biography of Marius Petipa.

The Original Works and Revivals of Marius Petipa for the Imperial Ballet of Russia

NOTE - The following chronology details both Petipa's original works mounted in Russia as well as his revivals of ballets originally produced by other choreographers. Except where noted, all of these works were choreographed/revived by him alone. All dates are given in the old style of the Julian calendar as used in Imperial Russia until after the Russian Revolution of 1917 (being twelve days behind the rest of the world in the 19th century, and thirteen days behind in the 20th century). Following the revolution the country adopted the more standard Gregorian calendar.

NOTE - Except where noted, all premieres of original works and revivals produced prior to 1886 were given at the St. Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, principal theatre of the Imperial Ballet and Opera until 1886. All premieres of original works and revivals produced after 1886 were given at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.

• Paquita (Revival) - Ballet in 2 Acts-3 Scenes. Choreography staged with Frédéric Malevergne after Joseph Mazilier. Original music by Edouard Deldevez. First presented on September 26, 1847, with music orchestrated by Konstantin Liadov; revival presented on December 27, 1881, with new music by Ludwig Minkus for the Grand Pas Classique (a.k.a. Paquita Grand Pas) and Mazurka des enfants of Act II, and a Pas de trois (a.k.a. Minkus Pas de Trois) for Act I.

• Le Diable Amoureux (a.k.a. Love and Hell) (Revival, presented as Satanella) - Pantomime Ballet in 3 Acts-7 Scenes. Choreography staged with Jean Petipa after Joseph Mazilier). Original music by Napoléon Henri Reber and Francois Benoist. Original premiere - September 21, 1840, presented by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique, Paris. Revival - February 10, 1848, with music orchestrated by Konstantin Liadov. NOTE - this ballet is based on the 1772 occult romance Le Diable Amoureux by Jacques Cazotte.

• Leda, the Swiss Milkmaid - Demi-Caractère Ballet in 2 Acts-2 Scenes. Music by Adalbert Gyrowetz. Premiere - December 4, 1849.

• Giselle (Revival) - Fantastic Ballet in 2 Acts. Choreography after Jean Coralli & Jules Perrot. Original music by Adolphe Adam with additions by Friedrich Burgmüller (for the Peasent Pas de Deux and the Danse des Vignerons). Revivals - January 26, 1850 based on Perrot's direction; February 5, 1884, with additional music and orchesreations by Ludwig Minkus.

• The Star of Granada - Divertissement. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - January 9, 1855 at the St. Petersburg for the Imperial court at the Imperial Theatre of the Mikhailovsky Palace.

• The Rose, the Violet, and the Butterfly - Dance Scene in 1 Act. Music by Grand Duke Peter II of Oldenburg (AKA Prince Oldenburg). Premiere - October 8, 1857 for the Imperial court at the Imperial Theatre of Tsarskoe Selo; October 20, 1857 at the St. Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre.

• Le Corsaire (Revival) - Grand Ballet in 4 Acts-5 Scenes. Original music by Adolphe Adam. Choreography after Joseph Mazilier. Original premiere - January 23, 1856, presented by the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris. Revivals - January 12, 1858 (staged with Jules Perrot), with additional music by Grand Duke Peter II of Oldenburg (AKA Prince Oldenburg); January 24, 1863, with additional music by Cesare Pugni; January 25, 1868, with additional music by Léo Delibes; November 10, 1885, with additional music by Léon Mikus; January 13, 1899, with additional music by Riccardo Drigo.

• A Marriage During the Regency (AKA The Regency Marriage) - Ballet in 2 Acts. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - December 18, 1858.

• Venetian Carnival Grand Pas de Deux (AKA the Satanella Pas de Deux or the Fascination Pas de Deux from Satanella) - Classical Pas de Deux. Music by Cesare Pugni on a theme by Nicolò Paganini. Premiere - February 12, 1859. NOTE - this Pas de Deux was originally created by Petipa for his wife, the Prima Ballerina Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa, to be added to her performance in a work titled The Carnival in Venice, and though the work did not last but a few performances in the repertory of the Imperial Theatres the Pas de Deux nevertheless survived in an independent form. In 1870 Petipa interpolated the piece into his production of the ballet Le Diable Amoureux (AKA Satanella as it was known in Russia), where it acquired the title The Fascination Pas de Deux. The piece outlived Satanella as well, and it has survived well into the present day as an independent piece, having been staged by many companies all over the world. Today it is known as either the Carnival in Venice Pas de Deux or as the Fascination Pas de Deux from Satanella, or quite simply as the Satanella Pas de Deux.

• The Parisian Market - Comic Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - April 23, 1859. NOTE - Petipa staged this ballet for the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris, a production which premiered on May 29, 1861 under the title Les Marché des Innocents. The ballet was revived by Lev Ivanov for a performance for the Imperial court at the Imperial Theatre of Krasnoe Selo, premiering July 6, 1892.

• The Blue Dahlia (AKA Le Dahlia Bleu) - Fantastic Ballet in 2 Acts. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - April 12, 1860. NOTE - Pavel Gerdt, Jeune Premier Danseur to the Imperial Ballet for many years, presented a revival of this ballet on March 5, 1905. Petipa disliked Gerdt's work to such a degree that he requested his name be removed from the program.

• Terpsichore - Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - November 15, 1861 for the Imperial court at the Imperial Theatre of Tsarskoe Selo.

• The Pharaoh's Daughter (AKA The Daughter of the Pharoah, La Fille du Pharaon, or Doch Faraona) - Grand Ballet in 3 Acts-9 Scenes with Prologue and Epilogue. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - January 18, 1862. Revivals - November 10, 1885; October 21, 1898. NOTE - the success of this ballet earned Petipa the rank of Second Balletmaster to the Imperial Ballet, a position he held until 1869, when he was named Maître de Ballet (First Balletmaster/Chief Choreographer). By February 1903 The Pharaoh's Daughter was the most popular and performed work in the repertory of the Imperial Ballet, having been performed 203 times. The ballet was performed in 1928 for the last time in St. Petersburg (known then as Leningrad) with the great Ballerina Marina Semenova as the Princess Aspicia. In 2000 the work was then revived by Pierre Lacotte for the Bolshoi Ballet. Although Lacotte choreographed the entire ballet afresh "in the style of the epoch", there were dances interpolated that derived from Petipa's original productions, having been reconstructed from the Stepanov Choreographic Notation of the Sergeyev Collection - two variations for female soloists, and a Waltz for Choryphées, all of which were added to the Grand Pas d'action of the ballet's second Act; as well as five out of the six original "River Variations" from Petipa's Kingdom of the Rivers - specifically the Guadalquivir, the Thames, the Neva, the Congo, and the Tiber (but not the Rhine). However Lacotte chose not to use any of the reconstructed material and instead opted to re-choreograph only three of them himself - the Guadalquivir, the Congo, and the Neva, while using the music for the river Thames for a comic variation for the character John-Bull/Passifont. As well, Lacotte added a variation for a male soloist he learned from the former Imperial Ballet Danseur Alexander Volonine, as well as the Variation of Ramzé which he learned from the former Kirov Ballerina Ninel Kurgapkina. Both variations were used in the Grand Pas d'action of the ballet's second Act. To date the Bolshoi Ballet is the only company in the world with The Pharaoh's Daughter in their repertory.

• The Beauty of Lebanon (AKA The Mountain Spirit) - Fantastic Ballet in 3 Acts-7 Scenes. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - December 12, 1863.

• La Prima Ballerina (AKA The Ambush or L'embuscade or The Traveling Dancer) (Revival, presented as The Traveling Dancer) - Episode in 1 Act. Choreography after Paul Taglioni. Original music by Cesare Pugni. Original Premiere - June 14, 1849, presented by the Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre, London. Revival - November 4, 1865 with Pugni revising his original score. NOTE - this ballet was revived by Lev Ivanov for a performance for the Imperial court at the Imperial Theatre of Krasnoe Selo premiering July 26, 1893. A variation from this ballet, composed by Petipa in 1905 for the Ballerina Olga Preobrajenskaya, was the last choreography Petipa ever created (as noted in his Diaries).

• La Esmeralda (Revival) - Ballet in 4 Acts-5 Scenes. Choreography after Jules Perrot. Original music by Cesare Pugni. Original premiere - March 9, 1844, presented by the Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre, London. Revivals - December 17, 1886; November 21, 1898, with new music by Riccardo Drigo. NOTE - this ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on December 21, 1848 in a staging by Perrot. Although the revivals of 1886 and 1898 are considered to be Petipa's definitive revisions of this ballet, Petipa had previously reworked the choreography and added new dances on many occasions, specifically - in 1871 Petipa arranged a Pas de Dix to the music of Yuli Gerber for the Ballerina Eugeniia Sokolova; in 1872 Petipa added a Pas de Cinq to the music of Léon Minkus for the Ballerina Adèle Grantzow; for his revival of 1886 Petipa added a new Pas de Deux for the Ballerina Claudina Cucchi that became known as the Pas Cucchi to music by an unknown composer; for his revival of 1898 Petipa expanded the Pas de Six from Act II with new dances to the music of Drigo - the Danse Pour Quatre Danseuses and a Coda, as well as the famous La Esmeralda Pas de Deux to the music of Drigo (partially based on music by Pugni) for the Ballerina Mathilde Kschessinskaya. What is today known as the Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux is often miscredited as having been added by Petipa to his 1886 revival of La Esmeralda - this Pas d'action was fashioned by Agrippina Vaganova from the Pas de Diane from Petipa's 1868 Tsar Candavl (AKA Le Roi Candaule) to Drigo's music (based in part on Pugni's original music for the Pas de Diane) for her 1935 revival of La Esmeralda at the Mariinsky Theatre. The first dancers to dance the Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux were Galina Ulanova and Vakhtang Chabukiani.

• Florida - Ballet in 3 Acts-5 Scenes. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - January 10, 1866.

• Tatiana - Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - November 18, 1866 for the Imperial court at the Imperial Theatre of the Mikhailovsky Palace, St. Petersburg.

• Faust (Revival) - Fantsatic Ballet in 3 Acts-7 Scenes. Choreography after Jules Perrot. Original music by Giacomo Panizza, Sir Michael Andrew Costa, Niccolò Bajetti. Original premiere - February 12, 1848, presented by the Ballet of La Scala, Milan, Italy. Revivals - November 2, 1867 with a new adaptation to the score by Cesare Pugni. NOTE - this ballet was first presented in St. Petersburg on February 2, 1854 in a staging by Perrot, with Cesare Pugni adapting the original score. By January 1869 the ballet had been performed 100 times, and Petipa sent a letter of congratulations to Perrot, who was in Paris at that time.

• The Benevolent Cupid - Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - March 6, 1868, presented by students of the Imperial Ballet School, on the stage of the school's theatre.

• The Slave Girl - Divertissement in 1 Act. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - April 27, 1869 for the Imperial Court at the Imperial Theatre of Tsarskoe Selo.

• Tsar Kandavl (AKA Le Roi Candaule or King Candaules or Tsar Kandav'l) - Grand Ballet in 4 Acts-6 Scenes. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - October 17, 1868. Revivals - November 24, 1891; April 9, 1903, with new music and revisions by Riccardo Drigo. NOTE - this ballet was based on events described by Plutarch and Herodotis in the history of Gyges, King of Lydia, Turkey. The work was produced with the utmost splendour and opulence, achieving an outstanding success with its first twenty-two performances and breaking attendance records at the St. Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre. Petipa's Grand Pas de Venus and Lydian Ballabile were considered masterpieces of choreography. For his revival of 1903 Petipa added several new dances to the music of Drigo - for the Act 2-Scene 1 Grand Pas de Venus, a new Adagio and dances for the Nymphs, Satyrs, and Cupid; new variations for the three Graces; and completely new choreography for the bathing scene of Act 3-Scene 1; a revision of the Act 4-Scene 2 Pas d'action known as the Pas de Diane for the characters Diana, Endymion, and the Satyr to Drigo's music as revised from Pugni's original (this Pas was later revised by Agrippina Vaganova in 1935 as the Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux for the dancers Galina Ulanova and Vakhtang Chabukiani to be added to her revival of La Esmeralda, and is today a major repertory staple of ballet companies all over the world).

• Don Quixote - Grand Ballet in 4 Acts-8 Scenes. Music by Léon Minkus. Premiere - December 14, 1869, presented by the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre. Revivals - November 9, 1871 for the Imperial Ballet, with Minkus revising his original score. NOTE - Alexander Gorsky, once Premier Danseur to the Imperial Ballet, staged a new version of this work for the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in 1900, with additional music composed by Anton Simon, including the Variation of the Dryad Queen from the scene of Don Quixote's Dream (AKA The Garden of Dulcinea or The Kingdom of the Dryads) that is still retained as part of the ballet's performance tradition (later added by Rudolf Nureyev to be danced by Margot Fonteyn in the Le Corsaire Pas de Deux in 1961). In 1903 Gorsky staged his version of Don Quixote for the Imperial Ballet. For the premiere the role of Kitri was danced by Mathilde Kschessinskaya, and for her performance Riccardo Drigo composed two new variations - the famous Variation of Kitri with the Fan for the ballet's Grand Pas de Deux, and a variation for Kitri for the scene of Don Quixote's dream (sometimes referred to as The Garden of Dulcinea or the Kingdom of the Drayds). Both of these additions remain part of the performance tradition of the ballet to the present day, and are often incorrectly credited to Minkus as composer.

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(left to right) Elsa Vill, Pierre Vladimirov, and Elizaveta Gerdt in the Petipa/Minkus Pas de Trois from Paquita, St. Petersburg, 1909

• Trilby - Fantastic Ballet in 2 Acts-3 Scenes. Music by Yuli Gerber. Premiere - January 25, 1870, presented by the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre. Revival - January 17, 1871 for the Imperial Ballet at the St. Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre.

• Catarina (AKA La Fille du Bandit) (Revival) - Ballet in 3 Acts-4 Scenes. Choreography after Jules Perrot. Original music by Cesare Pugni. Original premiere - March 3, 1846, presented by the Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre, London. Revivals - November 1, 1870. NOTE - this ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on February 4, 1849 in a staging by Perrot. Enrico Cecchetti presented his own revival on October 25, 1888 with additional music by Riccardo Drigo.

• The Two Stars (AKA The Stars or The Two Little Stars) - Anacreontic Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Cesare Pugni. Premiere - January 31, 1871. Revival - February 25, 1878, presented by the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre as The Two Little Stars. NOTE - this was not only the final work of the composer Cesare Pugni before he died on January 26, 1870, but also his 312th score for the ballet, making him the most prolific composer of ballet music that has ever lived.

• Camargo (AKA La Camargo) - Ballet in 3 Acts-9 Scenes. Music by Léon Minkus. Premiere - December 17, 1872. NOTE - this ballet is based on an incident in the life of the famous 18th century dancer Marie Camargo, when her and her sister where abducted by the Comte de Melun and taken to his mansion in May of 1728. Petipa's Second Balletmaster Lev Ivanov presented a revival of this ballet in January 28, 1901, which was mounted especially for the farewell benefit performance in honor of the Imperial Ballet's Prima Balerina Assoluta Pierina Legnani, who left for her native Italy shortly there after.

• Le Papillon (AKA The Butterfly) (Revival) - Fantastic Ballet in 4 Acts. Choreography after Marie Taglioni. Original music by Jacques Offenbach. Original premiere - November 26, 1861, presented by the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris. Revival - January 7, 1874, with new music and revisions by Léon Minkus. NOTE - Petipa added a variation to this ballet known as the Dance of the Butterfly to a waltz by Luigi Venzano especially for the Prima Ballerina Ekaterina Vazem - this variation became quite celebrated among the St. Petersburg balletmomanes and became known as the Pas Vazem. One of Petipa's additions to this ballet was a variation composed by Minkus known as the Variation of Prince Djalma. When Petipa revived La Bayadère in 1900 the Premier Danseur Nikolai Legat interpolated the variation into the Grand Pas d'action of the ballet's last scene. Today the variation is still retained in the Grand Pas d'action of La Bayadère and is danced by the character Solor.

• Ondine (AKA The Naiad and the Fisherman or La Naiade) (Revival, presented as The Naiad and the Fisherman) - Fantastic Ballet in 3 Acts-5 Scenes. Choreography after Jules Perrot. Original music by Cesare Pugni. Original premiere - June 22, 1843, presented by the Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre, London. Revivals - January 31, 1871; October 27, 1874, with new music by Léon Minkus; and September 20, 1892, with new music by Riccardo Drigo. NOTE - this ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on January 30, 1851 in a staging by Perrot, with Pugni revising and expanding on his original score. In 1867 Petipa rehearsed the Prima Ballerina Ekaterina Vazem in the title role, and for her performance he added two new variations to the music of Pugni and elaborated on the famous Pas de l'Ombre. In 2000 Pierre Lacotte presented a revival of this ballet for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet based on Perrot's original 1843 production, with Pugni's score restored from a violin reduction.

• The Bandits (AKA La Gitanilla) - Ballet in 2 Acts-5 Scenes with Prologue. Music by Léon Minkus. Premiere - January 26, 1875. NOTE - this ballet was based on the novel La Gitanilla by Miguel Cervantes. The ballet's Grand Pas, known as The Allegory of the Continents, was a famous excerpt often performed independently throughout the late 19th/early 20th century by the Imperial Ballet.

• The Adventures of Peleus (AKA Thetis and Peleus or The Wedding of Thetis and Peleus or Les Noces de Thétis et Pélée) - Mythological Ballet in 3 Acts-5 Scenes. Music by Léon Minkus with additional music by Léo Delibes. Premiere - July 14, 1876 for the Imperial Court at the Imperial Theatre of Peterhof; September 25, 1876 at the Mariinsky Theatre. Revival - July 28, 1897 for the Imperial Court at Peterhof as The Wedding of Thetis and Peleus. NOTE - the portions of the score belonging to Delibes were adapted from his music for Victor Hugo's play Le roi s'amuse (a subject which was later used for Verdi's Rigoletto). Petipa mounted his revival of 1897 for a special performance at Peterhof for the visiting Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor of the German Empire and King of the Kingdom of Prussia.

• A Midsummer Night's Dream - Fantastic Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Léon Minkus, based on Felix Mendelssohn's original incidental music. Premiere - July 14, 1876 for the Imperial Court at the Imperial Theatre of Peterhof; September 26, 1876 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. NOTE - the music for this production was adapted by Minkus from Mendelssohn's original music, which was composed for a German production of the Shakespeare play.

• La Bayadère - Grand Ballet in 4 Acts-7 Scenes with apotheosis. Music by Léon Minkus. Premiere - January 23, 1877. Revivals - January 14, 1884; December 3, 1900. NOTE - in the original production of 1877, Petipa had the famous scene The Kingdom of the Shades danced in a castle on a fully lighted stage, but for his revival of 1900, Petipa set the scene in the mountains of the Himalayas on a darkened stage, a tradition which is retained in every modern staging of the work. In 2001, the Balletmaster Sergei Vikharev staged a reconstruction of Petipa's 1900 revival for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet, and restored Minkus' original hand-written score. The original decor and costumes were completely restored, as was the original choreography using the Stepanov Choreographic Notation from the Sergeyev Collection.

• Roxana, the Beauty of Montenegro (AKA Roxana) - Fantastic Ballet in 4 Acts. Music by Léon Minkus. Premiere - January 29, 1878. NOTE - the ballet historian Konstantin Skalkovsky tells in his study In the Theatre World of how Minkus' Grand Marché from this ballet's third Act "was the favorite piece of Tsar Alexander II, who in general did not love music. Several units of our troops (the Russian Army) stormed the Plevna (during the liberation of Bulgaria during the Russo-Turkish War) to the music of this march".

• The Daughter of the Snows (AKA Snegurochka) - Fantastic Ballet in 3 Acts-5 Scenes. Music by Léon Minkus. Premiere - January 7, 1879. NOTE - this ballet was based on the Russian Fairy-tale Snegurochka, which also served as the subject for the play The Snow Madien by Alexander Ostrovsky with music by Tchaikovsky in 1873. The subject was also used by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for his opera of the same title in 1881.

• Frizak, the Barber (AKA Frizak or The Double Wedding) - Comic Ballet in 1 Act. Music orchestrated by Léon Minkus, based on various themes derived from Italian Opera from such composers as Giacomo Meyerbeer, Giuseppe Verdi, Vincenzo Bellini, Gioacchino Rossini, and Pietro Mascagni. Premiere - March 11, 1879. NOTE - this ballet was perhaps a new version of a work of the same title originally produced by Petipa's father Jean Petipa for the Ballet du Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Belgium, which premiered on February 19, 1822.

• Mlada - Fantastic Ballet in 4 Acts-9 Scenes. Music by Léon Minkus. Premiere - December 2, 1879. Revival - September 25, 1896. NOTE - in 1870 the composers César Cui, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky and Alexander Borodin, known as "The Mighty Handful", had intended to produce an opera based on the same libretto and under the same title for premiere in 1872, with Minkus scoring the music for the ballet sections. Although the music had been completed the project was aborted. Most of the composers who contributed to the score used their music for later works. When scoring the music for Petipa's 1879 ballet adaptation, Minkus utilized the music he scored for the aborted project. Rimsky-Korsakov later composed his own complete score for an opera based on the same libretto in 1889-1890, and when Petipa presented his revival of his 1879 ballet adaptation in 1896 he utilized the same décor as was used in the opera.

• La Fille du Danube (AKA The Daughter of the Danube) (Revival) - Ballet in 2 Acts-4 Scenes. Choreography after Filippo Taglioni. Original music by Adolphe Adam. Original premiere - September 21, 1836, presented by the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris. Revival - February 24, 1880, with new music and revisions by Léon Minkus. NOTE - this ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on January 29, 1838 in a staging by Marie Taglioni and Filippo Taglioni. In 1999, the Balletmaster Paul Chalmers revived Taglioni's original version of this ballet for the Verona Ballet of Verona, Italy.

• Zoraiya, the Moorish Girl in Spain (AKA Zoraiya) - Ballet in 4 Acts-7 Scenes. Music by Léon Minkus. Premiere - February 1, 1881. NOTE - the Grand Pas des Toréadores from this ballet - set for the Matador Espada (male soloist), a Street Dancer (female soloist), and eight bull-fighters - was interpolated by Alexander Gorsky into his 1900 revival of Petipa's Don Quixote for the Ballet of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. When he staged his version of the work for the Imperial Ballet in 1903 he retained this interpolation. Today, the Grand Pas des Toréadores remains part of the performance tradition of the ballet Don Quixote, and is danced by companies all over the world.

• La Vivandière (Revival, presented as Markitenka) - Ballet in 1 Act. Choreography after Arthur Saint-Léon. Original music by Cesare Pugni. Original premiere - May 23, 1844, presented by the Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre, London. Revival - October 8, 1881 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. NOTE - this ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on December 15, 1855 in a staging by Jules Perrot after Saint-Léon, with Pugni revising his original score. The work was also revived by Lev Ivanov in a version based on Petipa's 1881 production premiering February 4, 1901. A Pas de Six from Saint-Léon's original version of this ballet was notated in his own method of dance notation known as La Sténochorégraphie in 1848. In 1975 the Pas de Six was reconstructed, along with Pugni's original music, by the dance notation expert Ann Hutchinson-Guest and Pierre Lacotte for the Joffrey Ballet. In 1978 Lacotte staged the piece for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet, who still retain it in their repertory. The Pas de Six has since been staged by many ballet companies all over the world, and is known as either the La Vivandière Pas de Six or the Markitenka Pas de Six.

• Pâquerette (Revival) - Ballet in 4 Acts-7 Scenes. Choreography after Arthur Saint-Léon. Original music by Francois Benoist, presented by the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris. Revival - January 10, 1882, with new music by Léon Minkus. NOTE - this ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on January 28, 1860 with new music by Cesare Pugni in a staging by Saint-Léon.

• Night and Day (AKA La Nuit et le Jour or The Night and the Day) - Fantastic Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Léon Minkus. Premiere - May 18, 1883, danced by the Imperial Ballet at the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre. NOTE - this ballet was produced for the festivities held at the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in honor of the coronation of Tsar Alexander III and Empress Mariia Feodorovna, who were coronated at the Moscow Kremlin three days prior to the ballet's premiere.

• Pygmalion (AKA The Cyprus Statue) - Ballet in 4 Acts-6 Scenes. Music by Prince Nikita Trubestkoi. Premiere - December 11, 1883. NOTE - in 1899, a variation from this ballet was chosen by Pierina Legnani to be added to the scene Le Jardin Animé from Le Corsaire as a solo for the character Medora. This variation is still retained for Medora in the scene Le Jardin Animé in most productions of the ballet, particularly in the version danced by the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet.

• Coppelia (Revival) - Ballet in 3 Acts. Choreography after Arthur Saint-Léon. Original music by Léo Delibes. Original premiere - May 25, 1870, presented by the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris. Revival - November 25, 1884. NOTE - This ballet was first presented in Russia on Jauary 24, 1882 by the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in a staging by Joseph Hansen after Saint-Léon. Enrico Cecchetti presented his revival of Petipa's version on January 25, 1894 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.

• Le Diable à Quatre (AKA The Willful Wife) (Revival, presented as The Willful Wife). Choreography after Joseph Mazilier. Original music by Adolphe Adam. Original premiere - August 11, 1845, presented by the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris. Revival - January 23, 1885, with new music and revisions by Léon Minkus. NOTE - originally this ballet was presented in 2 Acts-3 Scenes. The first production of the work for the Imperial Ballet was presented on November 14, 1851 with new music by Cesare Pugni in a staging by Jules Perrot, who expanded the ballet to 4 Acts-5 Scenes. A variation from this ballet, to music by Adam, is also part of the famous Paquita Pas de Trois (or Minkus Pas de Trois), and is almost always danced by the lead male soloist.

• La Fille Mal Gardée (Revival, presented as Vain Precautions) - Ballet in 3 Acts-4 Scenes. Choreography staged with Lev Ivanov and Virginia Zucchi after Paul Taglioni. Original music Peter Ludwig Hertel. Original premiere July 24, 1864. Revival - December 15, 1885, with additional music by Ferdinand Hérold. NOTE - this ballet was originally presented by the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre in Bordeaux, France on July 1, 1789 to a pastiche score. The work was later given a new staging by Jean Pierre Aumer to a new score based on the original music composed by Ferdinand Hérold, presented on November 17, 1828 by the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris. This version of the ballet was staged by Jules Perrot for the Imperial Ballet in 1854, a staging which was retained in the Imperial Ballet's repertory until Petipa, Ivanov, and Zucchi presented a new version of the work in 1884 - a staging derived from Paul Taglioni's compeltely new version mounted for the Court Opera Ballet in Berlin to the music of Hertel in 1864. Lev Ivanov revived this ballet on two different occasions in stagings based on his and Petipa's 1885 revival, the first staged especially for the German Ballerina Hedwige Hantenbürg premiering September 25, 1894; then in a revival for the Imperial court at the Imperial Theatre of Krasnoe Selo premiering April 8, 1901.

• The Magic Pills - Ballet-Féerie in 3 Acts-13 Scenes. Music by Léon Minkus. Premiere - February 9, 1886. NOTE - this ballet has the distinction of being the first new ballet ever to be produced at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre for the Imperial Ballet.

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Mathilde Kschessinskaya as Niriti in Nikolai Legat's revival of the Petipa/Drigo The Talisman, St. Petersburg, 1909

• The King's Command (AKA L'Ordre du Roi) - Ballet in 4 Acts-6 Scenes. Music by Albert Vinzentini based on themes from works by Johann Strauss II, Léo Delibes, Daniel Auber, Jules Massenet, and Anton Rubinstein. Premiere - February 14, 1886 at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre. Revivals - November 30, 1887; February 14, 1900 presented for the Imperial Court at the Hermitage Theatre in an abriged version in 2 Acts under the title The Pupils of Dupré. NOTE - this was the last ballet to be given at the St. Peterbsurg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre before it was torn down in 1886. For his revival of 1887 Petipa added two new dances - the Gallarda, and a Pas de Deux titled The Fisherman and the Pearl for Virginia Zucchi and Enrico Cecchetti.

• The Sacrifices to Cupid (AKA L'Offrandes à l'Amour or The Offerings to Cupid or The Offerings to Love or Happiness is Loving)- Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Léon Minkus. Premiere - July 22, 1886 for the Imperial Court at the Imperial Theatre of Peterhof; November 25, 1886 at the. NOTE - this ballet was presented in a revival by Lev Ivanov on September 26, 1893. This was the last ballet to be scored by Minkus as First Imperial Ballet Composer before the post was abolished by the director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres Ivan Vsevolozhsky.

• Fiametta - Fantastic Ballet in 4 Acts. Choreography after Arthur Saint-Léon. Original music by Léon Minkus. Original premiere - November 22, 1863, presented by the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre. Revival - December 6, 1887, staged with Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti, with Minkus revising his original score. NOTE - this ballet was first produced by Saint-Léon for the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre under the title The Flame of Love or the Salamander, premiering on November 12, 1863. Saint-Léon then staged the work for the Imperial Ballet under the title Fiametta or the Devil in Love, premiering on February 14, 1864, with Minkus revising his original score. Saint-Léon also staged the work for the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris under the title Néméa, ou l'Amour Vengé (Nemea or Avenged Love), premiering on July 11, 1864, again with Minkus revising his original score. The change in titles of this ballet has caused much confusion among historians, as many of them have come to the conclusion that each restaging of the ballet was a completely different work.

• The Haarlem Tulip (AKA The Tulip of Haarlem, or The Tulip Field) - Fantastic ballet in 3 Acts-4 Scenes. Choreography by Lev Ivanov and Petipa?. Music by Baron Boris Fitinhof-Schell. Premiere - October 4, 1887. NOTE - Most historical essays of the Imperial 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. A revival of the work was presented by students in the theatre of the Imperial Ballet School in a version mounted by Claudia Kulichevskaya and Pavel Gerdt on April 3, 1902. This revival presented the ballet as The Tulip Field. A revival staged for the Imperial Ballet by Alexander Shiryaev was presented on April 16, 1903. For this revival Shiryaev interpolated a Pas de Trois in the first Act fashioned from the Pas de Six from Camille Saint-Saëns ballet Javotte.

• The Vestal - Grand Ballet in 3 Acts-4 Scenes. Music by Mikhail Ivanov. Premiere - February 17, 1888.

• The Talisman (AKA Le Talisman) - Fantastic Ballet in 4 Acts-7 Scenes. Music by Riccardo Drigo. Premiere - January 25, 1889. Revivals - October 22, 1895, with Drigo revising his original score. NOTE - Nikolai Legat presented a revival of this ballet on November 29, 1909, for which Drigo completely re-orchestrated his original score. The ballet was revived in 1997 by the Balletmaster Paul Chalmers for the Arena Ballet of Padua, Italy (hometown of Riccardo Drigo) in honor of the 150 anniversary of Drigo's birth. The artist Alexander Benois tells in his memoirs (titled Memoirs) of his extreme delight with Drigo's score, which he said inspired a "short infatuation" in him as a young student at the Saint Petersburg State University - "It was Drigo's simple and charming music that had attracted both Valetchka (Walter Nouvelle - member of Mir iskusstva) and me (to Petipa's The Talisman). In fact we had been so delighted with it at the premiere that our noisy approval had attracted the attention, and seemed to shock, the then rather popular St. Petersburg General Governor Grösser...he turned round (from his permanent seat in the front row stalls), affecting a severe expression, and shook his finger at us. My enthusiasm was so great, however, that I could not stop applauding and even felt compelled to exclaim "Mais puisque, Excellence, c'est un chef d'oeuvre!" - upon which his Excellency deigned to bestow on me a fatherly smile."

• The Whims of the Butterfly (AKA The Caprices of a Butterfly, or Les Caprices du Papillon) - Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Nikolai Krotkov. Premiere - June 5, 1889. Revival - October 22, 1895. NOTE - this ballet was produced for the celebrations held for the Imperial court at the Imperial Theatre at Peterhof in honor of the wedding of the Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich (son of Tsar Alexander II and Empress Mariia Alexandrovna, and brother of Tsar Alexander III) to the Princess Alexandra of Greece. This ballet was based on the poem The Grasshopper Musician by Yakov Polonsky.

• The Sleeping Beauty - Ballet-Féerie in 3 Acts-6 Scenes with prologue and apotheosis. Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, with revisions by Riccardo Drigo. Premiere - January 3, 1890. NOTE - Riccardo Drigo made minor adjustments to the Tchaikovsky's score for the original production. In 1999 the Balletmaster Sergei Vikharev staged a reconstruction of Petipa's original production of 1890 for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet. The original decor and costumes were completely restored, as was the original choreography using the Stepanov Choreographic Notation from the Sergeyev Collection.

• The Water Lily - Choreographic Fantasy in 1 Act. Music by Nikolai Krotkov. Premiere - November 11, 1890.

• Kalkabrino - Fantastic Ballet in 3 Acts. Music by Léon Minkus. Premiere - February 13, 1891. NOTE - this was Minkus' last ballet for the Imperial Theatres, as well as his last known composition - he retired to Vienna in late 1891.

• A Fairy Tale (AKA A Magic Tale) - Fantastic Ballet in 1 Act. Music by (?) Richter. Premiere - April 4, 1891, presented by students of the Imperial Ballet School, on the stage of the school's theatre. NOTE - Anna Pavlova participated in this ballet as a young girl during her first year as a student at the Imperial Ballet School, being the very first ballet she ever performed in.

• La Sylphide (Revival) - Fantastic Ballet in 2 Acts. Choreography after Filippo Taglioni. Original music by Jean-Madeliene Schnietzhoeffer. Original premiere - March 12, 1832, presented by the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris. Revival - January 19, 1892, with new music and revisions by Riccardo Drigo. NOTE - this ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on May 28, 1835 in a staging by Antoine Titus. Among the new dances Drigo composed for Petipa revival of 1892 was a variation for the Ballerina Vavara Nikitina that was later interpolated into the famous Grand Pas Classique from Paquita by Petipa for Anna Pavlova in 1904. This variation, composed originally by Drigo as a slow gavotte for solo harp, is still retained as part of the performance tradition of the Grand Pas Classique, and is typically danced by the leading Ballerina.

• The Nutcracker - Ballet-Féerie in 2 Acts-3 Scenes with Apotheosis. Choreography by Lev Ivanov and Petipa?. Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Premiere - December 6, 1892. NOTE - it is not known for certain what Petipa's true contribution was to the staging of this ballet. Historically, the most common explanation regarding the original staging is that Petipa, who had originally planned to mount the work himself, fell ill, and so the production of the dances fell into the hands of his Second Balletmaster, Lev Ivanov, although he still followed Petipa's counsel and instructions. According to the ballet historian Sergei Khudekov "the production of the ballet 'The Nutcracker'...has been attributed to L. Ivanov. This is not true. This ballet was mounted by Marius Petipa. Only one act (Act II) was assigned to L. Ivanov, who dealt with beautifully with his task...".

• Cinderella (AKA Zolushka) - Fantastic Ballet in 3 Acts. Choreography by Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti with Petipa supervising the production. Music by Baron Boris Fitinhof-Schell. Premiere - December 5, 1893. NOTE - for this ballet, Cecchetti staged Acts I and III, while Ivanov staged Act II, all under the supervision of Petipa. It is likely that Petipa staged some of the ballet's dances. The premiere of this work in 1893 has the distinction of being the first performance of a ballet to ever have a Ballerina perform 32 fouettés en tournant - performed by the Italian Ballerina Pierina Legnani who danced the title role. Lev Ivanov later staged the work for the Ballet of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre, premiering July 19, 1898.

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Mariia Anderson as the Fairy Godmother in the Petipa/Ivanov/Cecchetti/Fitinhof-Schell Cinderella, St. Petersburg, 1893

• The Awakening of Flora (AKA Flora's Awakening, or Le Réveil de Flore) - Anacreontic Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Riccardo Drigo. Premiere - July 28, 1894 for the Imperial Court at Peterhof; February 17, 1894 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. NOTE - this ballet was produced for the celebrations held for the Imperial court at the Imperial Theatre at Peterhof in honor of the wedding of the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna (daughter of Tsar Alexander III and Empress Mariia Feodorovna) to the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich.

• Swan Lake (Revival) - Fantastic Ballet in 3 Acts-4 Scenes. Choreography staged with Lev Ivanov after Julius Reisinger. Original music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Original premiere - February 20, 1877, presented by the Ballet of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. Revival - January 15, 1895, with revisions and additions orchestrated by Riccardo Drigo. NOTE - for their revival of 1895, Petipa and Ivanov changed Act 2 to Act 1-Scene 2, thus changing Act 3 to Act 2, and Act 4 to Act 3. Both Petipa and Ivanov staged the ballet - Petipa staged Act 1-Scene 1 and Act 2, while Ivanov staged Act Act 1-Scene 2 and Act 3. For this revival, Drigo revised Tchaikovsky's original score based on Petipa and Ivanov's instructions.

• The Little Humpbacked Horse (AKA Konyok Gorbunyok or Tsar-Devitsa or The Hunch-back Horse) (Revival, presented as The Tsar Maiden) - Magic Ballet in 4 Acts-8 Scenes with apotheosis. Choreography after Arthur Saint-Léon. Original music by Cesare Pugni. Original premiere - December 3, 1866, presented by the Imperial Ballet. Revival - December 6, 1895, with additional music and revisions by Riccardo Drigo.

• The Calvary Halt (AKA Halte de Cavalerie) Character Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Johann Armsheimer. Premiere - January 21, 1896.

• The Pearl - Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Riccardo Drigo. Premiere - May 17, 1896, danced by the Imperial Ballet at the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre. NOTE - this ballet was produced for the festivities held at the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in honor of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who were coronated at the Kremlin three days prior to the ballet's premiere.

• Bluebeard - Ballet-Féerie in 3 Acts-7 Scenes. Music by Peter Schenck. Premiere - December 8, 1896. NOTE - this ballet was revived by Nikolai Legat in 1910 for the Imperial Ballet.

• Raymonda - Grand Ballet in 3 Acts-4 Scenes with apotheosis. Music by Alexander Glazunov. Premiere - January 7, 1898.

• The Trial of Damis (AKA Les Ruses d'Amour or The Pranks of Love or Lady Soubrette) - Ballet in 1 Act. Music by Alexander Glazunov. Premiere - January 17, 1900 for the Imperial Court at the Imperial theatre of the Hermitage; January 23, 1900 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.

• The Seasons - Allegorical Ballet in 1 Act-4 Scenes. Music by Alexander Glazunov. Premiere - February 7, 1900 for the Imperial Court at the Imperial theatre of the Hermitage; February 13, 1900 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, presented with Harlequin's Millions. NOTE - this ballet was revived by Nikolai Legat in 1907 for the Imperial Ballet.

• Harlequin's Millions (AKA Harlequinade or Les Millions d'Arlequin) - Harlequinade in 2 Acts. Music by Riccardo Drigo. Premiere - February 10, 1900 for the Imperial Court at the Imperial theatre of the Hermitage; February 13, 1900 at the Mariinsky Theatre, presented with The Seasons. NOTE - this ballet was revived in 1965 by George Balanchine for the New York City Ballet. Two extracts from Drigo's score - Notturno d'amour - Serenade and the Valse Bluette are well-known repertory pieces for the soloist instrumentalist, particularly the violinist and pianist.

• The Heart of the Marquis Pantomime Ballet in 1 Act, with a prologue and epilogue in verse written by Frédéric Febvre. Music by G. Giraud. Premiere - February 22, 1902, for the Imperial Court at the Imperial theatre of the Hermitage. NOTE - all of the verse presented in this ballet were read by members of the St. Petersburg French Drama Troupe.

• The Magic Mirror - Fantastic Ballet in 4 Acts-7 Scenes. Music by Arsenii Koreshchenko. Premiere - February 9, 1903.

• The Romance of the Rosebud and the Butterfly - Ballet in 1 Act-3 Scenes. Music by Riccardo Drigo. NOTE - this ballet was completely staged and ready for its premiere for the Imperial court at the Imperial theatre of the Hermitage, scheduled for January 23, 1904. However only two weeks before the ballet's premiere the Director of the Imperial Theatres Vladimir Telyakovsky cancelled the performance. This was Petipa's last ballet.

Video

—Excerpts of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's reconstruction of Petipa's 1890 production of 'The Sleeping Beauty'

• Pt.1 March / Grand Procession of the Fairy Tales

• Pt.2 Pas de Quatre of the Precious Stones / Pas de Caractère: Puss in Boots & the White Cat

• Pt.3 Pas de Deux of the Bluebird & Princess Florine

• Pt.4 Pas de Caractère: Little Red Riding Hood / Pas de Caractère: Cinderella & Prince Fortuné / Pas Berrichon: Tom Thumb & the Ogre

• Pt.5 Grand Pas de Deux Classique

—Video of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's production of 'Raymonda'

• Excerpts from Act I -pt.1

• Excerpts from Act I -pt.2

• Excerpts from Act I -pt.3

• Excerpts from Act I -pt.4

• Excerpts from Act I -pt.5

—Video of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's production of 'Le Corsaire'

• The scene Le Jardin Animé -pt.1

• The scene Le Jardin Animé -pt.2

• The Pas d'Esclave

External links

• Biographical/analytical article on Petipa

Sources

• Beaumont, Cyrl W. Complete Book of Ballets.
• Garafola, Lynn / Petipa, Marius. The Diaries of Marius Petipa. Trans, Ed., and introduction by Lynn Garafola. Published in Studies in Dance History. 3.1 (Spring 1992).
• Guest, Ivor Forbes. Jules Perrot - Master of the Romantic Ballet.
• Guest, Ivor Forbes. Letters from a Ballet Master - The Correspondence of Arthur Saint-Léon. Introduction by, and Edited by Ivor Guest.
• Petipa, Marius. Memuary Mariusa Petipa solista ego imperatorskogo velichestva i baletmeistera imperatorskikh teatrov (The Memoirs of Marius Petipa, Soloist of His Imperial Majesty and Ballet Master of the Imperial Theatres).
• 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.
• Wiley, Roland John. The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov.
• Wiley, Roland John. Tchaikovsky's Ballets.

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