the first Marie Petipa

[rg]

[this scan has been removed - it's use w/o permission on a site prompted me to do this.]

the [no longer] attached Disderi carte de visite/photo examples show, to the best of my knowledge Marie Surovshchikova - Marius Petipa's first russian wife and mother of marie (lilac fairy, etc) petipa (b. 1857) and of marius (an actor, born 1884 and known in russia as Marius Mariusovich II).

the c.d.v. photos date from marie sergeyevna surovshchikova-petipa's two appearances at the paris opera.

the photo on the right shows (according to ivor guest's captioning for THE BALLET OF THE SECOND EMPIRE) the ballerina in her 1861 paris appearance, as Gloriette in LE MARCHE DES INNOCENTS (a.k.a. THE PARISIAN MARKET in russia, whence M. S. S-P danced the leading role in 1859, then named Lizetta).

the photo on the left shows marie surovshchikova, again according ivor guest, as Mazourka in LE DIABLE A QUATRE, and likely dates from 1862.

contemporary notices variously praised the visiting russian dancer for her warmth, wit and for the elegance of her arms.

acc'd. to guest M.S.S-P died of virulent smallpox in 1881.

[Hans]

She looks very slender and beautiful--nice arches!

[Paul Parish]

Yes in deed, really beutiful feet --

but the first thing I noticed was how lovely she is through the ribs.

[Solor]

If Marie died in 1881, how could she have given birth to Marius Jr. in 1884? Surley a mistake.....typo?

[Estelle]

If Marie died in 1881, how could she have given birth to Marius Jr. in 1884? Surley a mistake.....typo?

rg had mentioned Petipa's two sons called Marius in the following post:

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...ndpost&p=173434

so perhaps there was some confusion between "Marius I" and "Marius II" ?

By the way, rg, could you post a summary of Petipa's wives and children, because it sounds like a complicated family ?

And do you know if there still are living descendants of Petipa ?

By the way, I've tried looking for some Petipas in France, and it actually is a very rare name, with only 32 people born with that name in all France between 1891 and 1990 (while there were about 2500 homonymous "Petitpas").

[rg]

special greetings to estelle.

my facts and figures re: la famille petipa all come from lynn garafola's consistently and thoroughly researched information - i have done no primary research of my own.

the introduction to her translation of petipa's diaries includes some of the following facts:

she lists 2 wives: 1] maria sergeevan surovshchikova-petipa (1836-1882) - mother of maria m. petipa and jean m. and 2] liubov leonidovna savistkaya (1854-1919) mother of the marius's next six childern including marius II. [marius (I) was the son of marie therese bourdin, to whom, apparently marius ivanovich was not married; she apparently died in 1855].

the other children of this second wife include: nadezhda, a dancer (1874-1945), evgenia (1877-1892), victor (the actor, like marius II) (1879-1939), liubov, a dancer (1880-1917), marius II (1884-1922), and finally vera (1885-1961), given as a dancer/actress by garafola and, in her father's view, the most talented of his dancer children.

[Solor]

Thnx RG -

I think it would be very fascinating to know what hasppened to Marius's children post-revolution, up to thier deaths, and what became of thier chidren, but that is a looong story Im sure, but like life, Im sure its anything but boring!

Most of them seemed to have died relatively young..........I thinks it's even more interesting that none of his descendants ever came out of the woodwork to make an impact on the balletworld regarding ballets, etc., or even becoming great dancers, as Grand Pas Petipa had a big family.

Yes Vera lived till 1961 - long enough into the 20th century to see her father's legacy take hold, and to see his ballets form the foundation of everyone's repertoire - I wonder what her views were on all of this, or if she contributed to any stagings of ballets, or anything 'ballet-ish' for that matter. Im sure she knew much!!!!

[rg]

a few months back THE DANCING TIMES published as story by tony devereux about petipa and that included information about the family, including some about vera, which i hadn't previously read. (his work with petipa is less concerned with the male offspring than the female.)

[Solor]

Ive been emailing the Dancing Times about back-issues non-stop for over 2 months now.....and still no reply.........?

[rg]

the subscription manager is on the masthead is given as Kim Thompson, with the following e-address: kim@dancing-times.co.uk

perhaps this person can help with back issue orders.