"La Esmeralda"? Questions.....reconstructions?

[Solor]

-Will Lacotte restore this ballet? I read in an interview of his that he was interested.

-Is the full length version of this ballet still danced?

-When was the last time the Mariinksy performed this ballet in full?

-Does anyone have a history of this ballet in perfomance? It seems as if this was a ballet that all the great ballerinas of old danced, so why is it gone....or is it?

[Mireille]

It is still performed by the Maly and there is a video (PAL) available in Russia.

[rg]

the new translation of vera krasovskaya's VAGANOVA includes some discussion of vaganova's 1933(?) revival of ESMERALDA.

gorsky did his own version called GUDULE'S DAUGHTER earlier in the 20th c.

(sorry no ref works at hand at this moment)

the version at the maly th. is by boyarchikov - who restaged the soviet version w/ help from tatiana vecheslova (vaganova's original esmeralda).

lacotte told some nyc journalists that he didn't really see himself reviving perrot's ESMERALDA, though he says he still hopes to work on ONDINE.

(his reasons for staying away from ESMERALDA included the fact that he thinks petit's NOTRE DAME DE PARIS is a good piece of work)

souritz's book on early 20th c. soviet choreography discusses the post-imperial period revivals of works like ESMERALDA & includes mention of the need then seemingly necessary to revise scores, such as pugni's from perrot's prod. which if mem. serves was overseen by asafiev.

[rg]

fyi: i'm trying to post on the ballet history topic some historic photo cards of ESMERALDA from leningrad from the mid-30s to the late '40s.

[Natalia]

The Vaganova bio's description of Vaganova's 'Esmeralda' describes an altogether-different work from the traditional Petipa-after-Perrot Imperial/Tsarist version. To see the closest approximation to the Imperial version, look to the Maly's version. As Mireille writes, a one-hour condensation of that production exists on Russian commercial tape (PAL format). I have seen the full version at the Maly Theater several times & it truly has the look and feel of a grand Petipa ballet.

It is absolutely criminal that that video omitted most of the Act II Fleur de Lys Grand Pas Classique. The series of classical female variations (three bridesmaids + Fleur) that are omitted on the tape are TO DIE FOR.

I believe that Peter Gusev was responsible for the Maly's Esmeralda staging, just as he staged the wonderful complete Corsaire for the Maly.

[mohnurka]

Where could this video of Esmeralda be found? In stores in Russia? Online? (Our video player is able to play PAL).

[Natalia]

I bought mine at the Bolshoi Theater's shop. I've seen it on sale at the Mariinsky & Maly Theaters of St. P., too.

I can't imagine that it's not available on-line, somewhere, somehow.

[Solor]

Does anyone know the last time that the Mariinsky pefomed this ballet in full? It does not seem to be in the rep. any longer. Strange for a ballet that was a big test of the ballerina once upon a time.

[rg]

re: maly th. prod of ESMERALDA and its stagers, the prog. i have dug out from a trip to st. pete in '95 has boyarchikov's name under that of perrot and petipa (as 'original' ''redaktsii'")- alas i cannot read all the text preceeding boyarchikov's credit - i'll try to transliterate it here: KHUDOZHYESTVENNIE RUKOVODITYEL POSTANOVKI

the next credit line includes the consultants - or what i take KONSULTANT to mean - and these are both T.M.VECHESLOVA and P. A. GUSEV

my program comes from june, 1995 - alas the precise date is not printed on the program itself and i didn't note it by hand at the time.

the insert/note included with the program giving the ballet's summary is headed by commentary signed by vecheslova, presumably noting the ballet's place in history, etc.

the last revision of the ballet at the kirov seems to date from 1948 (the two later publicity photos posted on ballet history thread date from this prod); according to the RUSSIAN BALLET ENCYCLOPEDIA the maly th. version still being done in '95 dates from '82.

[atm711]

Does anyone know the last time that the Mariinsky pefomed this ballet in full?

I don't know the last time, but I do know the first time. It was in 1848 with Fanny Elssler. "A contemporary informs us that Elssler's miming was so touching in the scene where Esmeralda bids Gringoire farewell and crosses to the scaffold, that many spectators shed tears" (CWBeaumont) She also used this ballet for her farewell performance at the Bolshoi in 1851.

[Mel Johnson]

The Bolshoi was still dancing Esmeralda well into the 1950s. It was so "politically correct", all that emphasis on "the struggling masses" and its anti-clericalism.