"Ballettmeister"?

[Fosca]

Does anybody know how a German (or maybe Austrian) word came to be the Russian expression for ballet master/choreographer? Why not maître de ballet, almost all the St. Petersburg ballet masters of the 19th century were French... Was it maybe Franz Hilverding who brought the expression to St. Petersburg?

[volcanohunter]

Just a guess, but if Russian variants of musical designations like Kapellmeister (капельмейстер) and Konzertmeister (концертмейстер) had already been adopted, "балетмейстер" would have been a logical extension.

[Fosca]

Yes, that sounds like the perfect explanation, thank you! So the Germans, who never had any impact on ballet history (except may for financing Jean-Georges Noverre some years) at least contributed a job description, hurray

[sandik]

Yes, that sounds like the perfect explanation, thank you! So the Germans, who never had any impact on ballet history (except may for financing Jean-Georges Noverre some years) at least contributed a job description, hurray

Well, you could say they made up for it by hosting Cranko at Stuttgart and Forsythe at Frankfurt.

[Fosca]

And Neumeier at Hamburg. Though you may not like him in the US, his Lady of the Camellias made a world career.

[sandik]

And Neumeier at Hamburg. Though you may not like him in the US, his Lady of the Camellias made a world career.

Absolutely -- I've always been interested in the connection between him and Sibyl Shearer.