Stepanov Notation of "Le Delire D'Un Peintre"

[FauxPas]

I have been reading Roland John Wiley's "Lev Ivanov and His Ballets". In a chapter about Ivanov's support of Stepanof's system of notation there is a mention of this ballet. Evidently sometime in the 1880's Christian Johannson (who danced the painter Alvarez with Fanny Elssler as Florida in the 1840's) taught Perrot's choreography for this dance to Stepanov who notated it in his newly invented system. Then Stepanov revived the ballet from the notes with Students of the Imperial Ballet School. The experiment evidently was a great success all around.

Do these notes still survive? I don't think there are in the Harvard Sergeyev collection? Of course a musical score for the ballet and perhaps a repetiteur would help matters. Certainly a Pierre Lacotte and Doug Fullington could reconstruct the whole thing if the materials could be found in the Kirov Music Library archives.

Any thoughts on this? Another lost ballet from the Romantic period within our reach!

[Hans]

Well, I'd leave Lacotte out of the equation, but I think it's a very exciting possibility. I wonder if any scene/costume sketches survive.

[FauxPas]

Well, I'd leave Lacotte out of the equation, but I think it's a very exciting possibility.  I wonder if any scene/costume sketches survive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There are prints of Adele Dumilaitre and Lucien Petipa (or Perrot?) dancing the ballet in the original Paris staging that give a clear idea as to the set and costumes. I think this is a one act extended pas de deux type thing like "Spectre de la Rose".

Perrot and Elssler dancing the Castilliana Bolero

[Hans]

I hope Doug sees this thread. Could any of our French posters explain what "Delire" means? Is it perhaps related to the English word "delirium?" If so, I suppose the title would mean something like, "The Vision/Hallucination of a Painter"...?

[Mel Johnson]

The Maryinsky Library/Archive is a great and spastic thing. It has tons of stuff it hasn't catalogued yet, and this could well be part of it. Every so often, it spits something out, and the world shakes, as it did with that photo of Marussia Petipa as the Lilac Fairy in her chemise.

[Pamela Moberg]

Afraid I havent got my books close at hand at the moment, so I cannot answer the question.

But never mind, my beloved Pehr Christian Johansson was mentioned on this board... Heavens, what joy, I thought he was forgotten by everybody except myself.

When I find out, I hope I will be able to answer. I have only one letter that Johansson wrote to Bournonville from P-burg and there is nothing there. :huepfen024:

[rg]

here are some NYPL cat. entries:

Délire d'un peintre Chor: Jules Perrot; Louis François Gosselin (pas de deux for Elisa Scheffer & Mme. Planquet); mus: Cesare Pugni. First perf: London, Her Majesty's Theatre, Aug. 3, 1843.//First Austrian perf: Vienna, Apr. 21, 1844; under title: Des Malers Traumbild.//First Russian perf: St. Petersburg, Bolshoi Theater, Oct. 31, 1848, Imperial Russian Ballet; under title: Le rêve du peintre.

Enciclopedia dello spettacolo (under: Pugni, Cesare), cols. 588-589.//Dance perspectives. Binney, Edwin III. A century of Austro-German dance prints, autumn 1971, p. 53.//*MGZRS English 19th-century clippings [scrapbook]. The illustrated London news, Nov. 18, 1843.

Délire d'un peintre - Original title: Des Malers Traumbild. Chor: Paul Taglioni after Jules Perrot; mus: Cesare Pugni. Perf: Berlin, Königliche Theater, June 3, 1859.

Uncat. Schäffer, C. Die Königlichen Theater in Berlin, 1886, p 151.

[Mel Johnson]

The German translation tips off what "Délire" means. It comes out to, "The Painter's Dream-Picture".

[Pamela Moberg]

According to my old tome there seem to have been several versions of "Delire" about.

One such version, referred to a "pantomime ballet in one act" was arranged (whatever that might mean - he did his own version?) by Alexandre Fuchs and performed at the Stockholm Opera between Oct. 1845 - June 1849 - a total of 15 performances.

Johansson did definitely not dance in this one as he was already living in St. Petersburg by then.

The title of the ballet is translated into Swedish - "Målarens drömbild" and quite literally in English it would be "The painter's dream picture".

[Estelle]

I hope Doug sees this thread.   Could any of our French posters explain what "Delire" means?  Is it perhaps related to the English word "delirium?"  If so, I suppose the title would mean something like, "The Vision/Hallucination of a Painter"...?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is indeed related to "delirium", as both words come from the same Latin word "delirium"; it's first meaning is a mental state characterized by confusion and disorientation (e.g. in some cases of fever, or the "delirium tremens" for alcoholics) but by analogy it can also mean a state of great exaltation or excitation.

[doug]

Sorry not to have chimed in - this ballet is not part of the Harvard University collection of Stepanov notations (however, there are some fragmentary bits, although most of those have been identified by now), and I don't believe any other Stepanov notation scores have been found outside this collection (although I would like to be wrong about that!).