"Cupid" Don Q variation also in Paquita...

[Joseph]

Why did Petipa use the same variation for both ballets? Or perhaps it was not Petipa, but does anyone know? I know there are slight changes in the arms, etc. but a colleague of mine and I got into a discussion about it to no avail...

Surely someone here knows as usual...

[Mel Johnson]

Easy one. Actually, much, if not most of what we see in the Paquita grand pas is not in the ballet Paquita. In 1896, Petipa assembled a whole lot of favorite variations for his audience's favorite ballerinas and showed them as a sort of "Your Hit Parade". Almost ANYthing can show up in a Paquita grand pas production.

[stinger784]

That always cracks me up. It's a gala but not really a gala.

[vrsfanatic]

I remember being very confused in my first Don Q to see the Paquita variation included. I am embarassed to say that it was not until I went to Russia that I learned the story Major Johnson has passed along. Koegler dates the Petipa Paquita is dated 1847 with the addition of the Pas de Trois and Grand Pas in 1881. Petipa's Don Q is dated 1871. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

[Paul Parish]

It was a benefit, wasn't it? In somebody's (Geltzer's?) honor? cast with nothing but ballerinas, who each did her signature variation. Petipa added the harp variation for Pavlova very late in his career.

I can't find my source for this, but I THINK it was a divertissement plugged into a complete performance, rather like the Viennese new Year's practice of expanding the party scene in Die Fledermaus with 'special guest stars' singing party pieces.

[Mel Johnson]

Yes, it was a special concert assembled for the centenary of Catherine the Great's death. Mathilde Kschessinskaya was a sort of associate producer, selecting the variations and suggesting to Petipa who should do them. No doubt, she wouldn't have suggested anybody who posed a threat to her dominance (M.K. on Pavlova: "Poor skinny little thing, and no turnout at all!"), but she could read audiences, and knew what they liked.