Marius Petipa
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| Maestro Marius Ivanovich Petipa, St. Petersburg, February 14, 1898. Photo reads - "Souvenir à Mlle. A. Vaganova. M. Petipa 14/2 98. St. Pétersbourg" |
Marius Ivanovich Petipa (born Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa on
11 March,
1818 in
Marseilles,
France - died in
Gurzuf,
Russia on
14 July,
1910) was a ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be among the greatest and most influential choreographers of the ballet - an artform still dominated by his legacy nearly a century after his death. During his career with the
St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet generations of dancers came to prominence, many of whom are now legends of the dance. During the early 20th century - with the famous
Ballets Russes - as well as after the
Russian Revolution of 1917 - these influential dancers in turn took the art of Russian Ballet to the world. Petipa is also equally noted for the ballets he created during his career with the
Imperial Ballet (some of which have survived to the present day in versions either faithful to, based on, inspired from, or reconstructed from the original) among them -
The Pharoah's Daughter (1862);
Don Quixote (1869);
La Bayadère (1877);
The Sleeping Beauty (1890);
The Nutcracker (choreographed by
Lev Ivanov, based on Petipa's sketches) (1890);
The Calvary Halt (AKA
Halte de Cavalerie) (1896);
Raymonda (1898); and
Harlequin's Millions (AKA
Harlequinade) (1900). Petipa also resurrected a substantial number of ballets created by other choreographers, with many of these revivals becoming the definitive versions - among these works -
Le Corsaire (1856, 1863, 1868, 1885, and 1899);
Giselle (1850, 1884, 1899);
La Esmeralda (1866, 1872, 1886, and 1898);
Coppelia (1884);
Paul Taglioni's
La Fille Mal Gardée (with Ivanov) (1885);
The Little Humpbacked Horse (AKA
The Tsar Maiden) (1895); and
Swan Lake (with Ivanov) (1895). There are a number of surviving extracts from Petipa's original works and revivals that have survived in performance even when the full-length work did not, either in versions based on the original or by other choreographers - among them - the
Grand Pas Classique,
Pas de Trios (AKA
Minkus Pas de Trois), and
Children's Polonaise and Mazurka from Petipa's 1881 revival of
Paquita; the 1859
Venetian Carnival Grand Pas de Deux (AKA the
Carnival in Venice Pas de Deux or the
Satanilla Pas de Deux);
The Talisman Pas de Deux (created by
Pyotr Gusev from Petipa's 1889
The Talisman); the 1898
La Esmeralda Pas de Deux (in versions by many different choreographers); the
Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux derived from the
Pas de Diane from Petipa's 1868
Tsar Candavl (today danced in a version by
Agrippina Vaganova, originally added to her 1931 revival of
La Esmeralda); the
Pas de Deux from the 1896
The Cavalry Halt; the 1899
Le Corsaire Pas de Deux (in versions by Vaganova and
Vakhtang Chabukiani); the 1869
Don Quixote Pas de Deux (in versions by
Alexander Gorsky and
Rostislav Zarakhov); and the
Harlequinade Pas de Deux (created by Pyotr Gusev from Petipa's 1900
Harlequin's Millions). All of the complete ballets and individual pieces which have survived in performance are today considered to be cornerstones of the Classical Ballet repertory.
Marius Petipa was born in
Marseilles,
France on March 11, 1818. His father,
Jean Petipa was a noted dancer and Balletmaster, while his mother,
Victorine Grasseau was a tragic actress. The young Marius spent his early childhood traveling throughout
Europe with his family, as thier professional engagements took them from city to city. By the time Petipa was six years old his family had settled in
Brussels, Belgium, where his father was engaged as both
Maître de Ballet (or First Balletmaster/Chief Choreographer) and
Premiere Danseur (or Principle Male Dancer) to the
Ballet du Théâtre de la Monnaie. Marius recieved his general education at the
Grand College in Brussels, while also attending the Brussels Conservatoire where he studied music and learned to play the
violin.
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| Students of the Imperial Ballet School in the Petipa/Richter A Fairy Tale. St. Petersburg, 1891. A young Anna Pavlova is kneeling while holding the left side of the birdcage. |
Just as Jean Petipa had begun his first son, Marius' brother
Lucien with his lessons in ballet at the age of seven (Lucien Petipa would go on to be one of the most famous male ballet dancers of his time, creating the role of Albrecht in
Giselle, among his many accomplishments), so to did Marius begin his lessons at that age, though at first the young boy resisted, caring very little for the artform. But very soon he came to love the ballet that was so much the life and identity of his family, and he excelled quickly, making his début in 1827 at the age of nine in his father's production of
Pierre Gardel's
La Dansomani in the juvinile role of a Savoyard. Soon afterward the
Belgian Revolution of 1830 left Jean Petipa without employment, and the family was left in dire straits for some years.
In 1834 the Petipa family relocated to
Bordeaux, France where Marius' father was appointed
Maître de Ballet to the
Ballet of the Grand Théâtre. Here, Marius not only completed his academic education but also his ballet training under the great
Auguste Vestris, and in 1838 at the age of twenty was appointed
Premiere Danseur to the
Ballet de Nantes in
Nantes, France. It was during his engagement with the company that the young Petipa began to try his hand at choreography, creating a string of one-act ballets and
divertessments.
In 1839 the twentyone year old Petipa accompanied his father on a tour of the
United States with a group of dancers. The tour proved to be a complete disaster, as many in the American audiences of that time had never seen ballet. Upon returning to
France Petipa chose to travel on to
Paris rather than return to Nantes. By 1840 he had made his début as a dancer with the famous
Comédie Français, and during that performance he partnered the legendary Ballerina
Carlotta Grisi in a benefit held for the actress
Rachel.
Bordeaux
Soon afterward in 1841 Petipa was offered the position of
Premiere Danseur to the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre in Bordeaux. Petipa returned to the city and studied further with the great Vestris, all the while dancing the leads in such ballets as
La Fille Mal Gardée,
La Péri, and
Giselle. While performing with the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre his skills as a not only a dancer but as a partner were much celebrated - his partnering of Carlotta Grisi during a performance of
La Péri was talked about for years to come, particularly one acrobatic catch of the Ballerina that dazzled the audience, prompting the famous dramatist
Théophile Gautier to say that the feat would become "...as famous as the Niagra Falls". While in Bordeaux Petipa also began to mount his own original productions, which were viewed with considerable respect, among them -
La Jolie Bordelaise (
The Beauty of Bordeaux),
La Vendange (
The Grape Harvest),
L'Intrigue Amoureuse (
The Intrigues of Love), and
Le Langage des Fleurs (
The Voice of the Flowers).
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| Evgenii Ivanchenko as Solor in the scene The Kingdom of the Shades from the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's reconstruction of the Petipa/Minkus La Bayadère, St. Petersburg, 2002 |
Madrid
In 1843 Petipa was offered the position
Premiere Danseur to the
King's Theatre in
Madrid, Spain, where for the next three years he would acquire an acute knowledge of traditional
Spanish Dancing, while producing new works, most of them on Spanish themes -
Carmen et Son Toréro (
Carmen and the Bullfighter),
La Perle de Séville (
The Pearl of Seville),
L'Aventure d'une Fille de Madrid (
The Adventures of a Madrileña),
La Fleur de Grenada (
The Flower of Grenada), and
Départ Pour la Course des Taureaux (
Leaving for the Bull Races). In 1846 he began a love affair with the wife of the Marquis de Chateaubriand, a prominent member of the French Embassy. Learning of the affair the Marquis challenged Petipa to a duel, and rather than keep his fateful appointment Petipa quickly left Spain, never to return. He then travelled to Paris where he stayed for a brief period. While in the city he took part in a performance at the
Paris Opera where he partnered
Thérèse Elssler, sister of
Fanny Elssler.
Early Career
In 1847 Petipa accepted the position of
Premiere Danseur to the
Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia, which had become vacant upon the departure of the French Danseur
Emile Gredlu. On May 24, 1847 the twentynine year old Petipa arrived in the imperial capital.
For his début, Petipa mounted the first Russian production of the choreographer
Joseph Mazilier's celebrated 1846 ballet
Paquita with assistance from the Danseur
Frédéric Malevergne, in which Petipa made a successful début on September 26, 1847 in the largely mimed role of Lucien d'Hervilly. Petipa and his father (who had followed Petipa to Russia not long after he arrived there) presented thier staging of Mazilier's 1840 ballet
Le Diable Amoureux (
The Devil In Love) under the title
Satenilla (as it became known in Russia) on February 10, 1848, for which Petipa took on the lead male role of Fabio.
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| Petipa's first wife, Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa as Lizetta in the Petipa/Pugni The Parisian Market, Paris, 1861 |
Both productions brought about a measure of praise and attention for the Imperial Ballet that the company had not recieved for some years, as by the time Petipa had arrived in St. Petersburg the company had been in a considerable decline since the 1842 departure of the great
Marie Taglioni, who had been engaged in the Imperial Capital as guest Ballerina. According to the critic
Raphael Zotov "Our lovely ballet company was reborn with the productions of
Paquita and
Satanilla, and its superlative performances placed the company again at its former level of glory and universal affection." In Decemebr of 1849 Petipa then presented his own original, full-length ballet,
The Swiss Milkmaid (AKA
Leda). The production would prove to be the first and last original work Petipa would stage for the Imperial Ballet for the next six years, as Petipa's duties as a dancer would soon take first place to those as a fledgling choreographer.
In the winter of 1849, the great French Balletmaster
Jules Perrot arrived in St. Petersburg, having accepted the position of
Maître de Ballet to the Imperial Ballet. He was accompanied by his chief collaborator, the prolific Italian ballet composer
Cesare Pugni, who himself had accepted the post of
First Imperial Ballet Composer to the company. The majority of the works that Perrot would go on to stage during his career in St. Petersburg were revivals of ballets he had already produced with Pugni as composer in
London for the
Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre, where he had been engaged previously as
Maître de Ballet. Petipa not only danced the lead male roles in some of these productions (those in which Perrot had not taken the lead) but also assisted in staging them, all the while learning a great deal from the man who at the time was arguably the greatest choreographer in all
Europe. Petipa would also stage a substantial number of dances for various operas.
By 1850 Petipa's first child, a son named Marius Mariusovich Petipa (1850-1919) was born. His mother was Marie Thérèse Bourdin, with whom Petipa had had a brief liaison, and who died only five years later. In 1854 Petipa married the Ballerina
Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa. Together they had three children -
Marie Mariusovna Petipa (1857-1930) (who would go on to become a celebrated dancer with the Imperial Ballet, creating many roles in Petipa's works, among them, the role of the Lilac Fairy in
The Sleeping Beauty in 1890), and Jean Mariusovich Petipa (1859-1971?).
On January 9, 1855 Petipa presented his first original ballet in over six years, a divertessment titled
The Star of Grenada, for which he collaberated for the first time with the composer Pugni. The work was presented not on the main stage of the
Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre (principle theatre of the Imperial Ballet and Opera until 1886) but at the
Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. It would be two years until Petipa would present his next work, mounted especially for a gala performance at
Peterhof on October 8, 1857 -
The Rose, the Violet, and the Butterfly, to the music of
Grand Duke Peter II of Oldenburg (AKA Prince Oldenburg) proved to be very successful, though when it was presented on the stage of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre two weeks later the production was credited to Perrot. On April 23, 1859, Petipa mounted
The Parisian Market to the music of Pugni, with his wife Mariia in the lead role of Lizetta. The ballet was a great success, so much so that Petipa was invited to Paris two years later to mount the work for the Paris Opera under the title
Le Marché des Innocents with his wife again in the lead.
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| Svetlana Zakharova as Aspicia in the Pas de Fleche from the Bolshoi Ballet's revival of the Petipa/Pugni The Pharoah's Daughter, Moscow, 2003 |
In 1859 Perrot retired to his native France, never to return to Russia again, and Petipa hoped to succeed him as
Maître de Ballet. Choreography was a logical alternative to dancing for the now 41 year old Petipa, who was soon to retire from the stage, and he had shown much promise in the annals of creating ballets. But it was not to be - the great French choreographer
Arthur Saint-Léon was given the position instead by the director of the Imperial Theatres
Andrei Saburov, and soon a healthy and productive rivalry between he and Petipa ensued, bringing the Imperial Ballet to new hieghts throughout the 1860s. Petipa's ten years as an assistant to Perrot had taught him much. Although he had only staged two ballets of his own in previous decade, the success of
The Parisian Market, as well as the many dances for various operas he staged allowed him to perfect his talent, and in 1862 he staged a ballet that shown with the genius for which he would be forever remembered.
The Pharoah's Daughter
The great Italian Ballerina
Carolina Rosati had been engaged as guest Ballerina with the Imperial Ballet, and her contract with the company was soon coming to an end. Upon leaving St. Petersburg, the Ballerina had decided to retire from the stage forever. By contract she was allowed one last benefit performance in an all new production, and in late 1861 she requested from the director Saburov that preperations begin post haste. Saburov then turned to Petipa, asking if he could prepare the ballet in a matter of six weeks. Confidently, he answered "Yes, I shall try, and probably succeed."
While in Paris staging his ballet
The Parisian Market Petipa had recieved the completely worked out scenario from the dramatist
Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges for a ballet titled
The Pharoah's Daughter (Saint-Georges was a librettist of great talent, having created among many other lebretti the scenario for the Romantic masterwork
Giselle). Petipa decided that this scenario, set in exotic ancient
Egypt, would be perfect for the effective production Rosati so desired. During this time Europe was fascinated with all things concerning the ancient Egyptian Pharoah's art and culture, and Petipa was sure this would prove to be a great factor in the ballet's success.
Petipa began work immediately, collaborating with the composer Pugni, who scored the music with the quickness for which he was well known.
The Pharoah's Daughter premiered on January 18, 1862 to an unrivaled success, as so lavish and exotic a ballet had not been seen on the Imperial stage for some time, even exceeding the opulent tastes of the age. The work was a dream of ancient Egypt, with decor representing the colossal palaces of the Pharoahs, a scene set at the bottom of the
Nile river, a spectacular
Grand Pas d'action for the ballet's second act set in the Pharoah's magnificent hall, and a lion hunt with the princess Aspicia (the lead Ballerina role) and her entourage of lion huntresses, among many other highlights.
The Pharoah's Daughter went on to become the most popular work in the entire repertory of the Imperial Ballet, by February 1903 having been performed 203 times. The great success of the work earned for Petipa the position of second Balletmaster, with perhaps only Saint-Léon's contract preventing him from attaining the coveted post of
Maître de Ballet.
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| The Corps de Ballet in the Scène Sous-Marine (Under-Water Scene) from Petipa's revival of the Saint-Lèon/Pugni The Little Humpbacked Horse, St. Petersburg, 1895 |
Saint-Léon answered the success of Petipa's
The Pharoah's Daughter with a ballet adaptation of
Pyotr Yershov's famous poem
The Little Humpbacked Horse. The work proved to be a great success equal to that of
The Pharoah's Daughter, with it's series of fantastical
Grand Ballabile set on an enchanted Isle and under-water, grand processions, and well staged national dances. Though Saint-Léon was by title Petipa's superior the two men were essentialy equals, and would rival one another with splendid productions throughout the 1860s, with the two of them having not only thier own respective audiences but also thier own Ballerinas - Petipa mounted the majority of his works at that time for his wife, the
Prima Ballerina Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa, while Saint-Léon mounted his mostly for the great
Marfa Muravieva (intrestingly enough, Petipa and Saint-Léon both collaborated on most of these ballets with the composer Pugni). Petipa's final ballet of the 1860s would prove to be one of his most successful and enduring works -
Don Quixote was mounted for the
Ballet of the Bolshoi Theatre in
Moscow, and was the first ballet in which Petipa collaborated with the Czech composer
Léon Minkus.
While in the Café de Divan in the Passage de l'Opèra in Paris, Saint-Léon died of a heart attack on September 2, 1870, and not long before him so had the composer Pugni, Petipa's chief collaborator, on January 26 of that same year. Not long after Petipa was named
Maître de Ballet, choosing the composer Minkus as his chief collaborator, succeeding Pugni as
First Imperial Ballet Composer. A new era in ballet had begun. For the remainder of the 19th century Petipa would transform the ballet of St. Petersburg with his
Grand Ballet Spectacles, all the while redifining the pure-dance element in ballet. His masterfully composed ensembles,
Grand Pas, variations, and incidental dances demanded the highest execution of technique from his dancers, and as a result there began a renaissance in the quality of teaching methods of the instructors of the
Imperial Ballet School (school to the Imperial Theatres), and so a "syllabus" of sorts began to evolve for training the young students, though it would be many years before this form of teaching the art of ballet would be cultivated, perfected, and given a name - the
Vaganova technique.
In 1875 Petipa and his wife, Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa seperated, and in 1882 she died of virulent
smallpox in
Pyatigorsk. In 1876 Petipa married the Ballerina
Lyubov Savitskaya, who before they had taken thier marriage vows had given birth to thier first child. Together, they has six children - Nadezhda Mariusovna Petipa (1874-1945), Evgeniia Mariusovna Petipa (1877-1892), Victor Mariusovich Petipa (1879-1939), Lyubov Mariusovna Petipa (1880-1917), Marius Mariusovich Petipa II (1884-1922), and Vera Mariusovna Petipa (1885-1961). With so many children, Petipa stood at the haed of a rather large family by the time he was a middle-aged man, having many grand-children, in-laws, and god-children. Although he was well provided for at the expense of the Imperial treasury, he was not rich, and lived strictly within his means. He kept track of all of his living expenses in journals, as well as box-office reciepts at the theatre. But he was also by no means a "penny-pincher", always lavishing presents upon his children and grandchildren, or giving them money whenever he could.
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| Students of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in the Dance of the Lotus Blossoms from Act IV of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's reconstruction of the Petipa/Minkus La Bayadère, St. Petersburg, 2001 |
In 1877 Petipa mounted his greatest masterwork to date -
La Bayadère, set in exotic ancient
India, proved to be a work that would endure well into modern times. The cheered premiere on January 23, 1877 turned out to be a point of intersection for the art of ballet -
La Bayadère contained Petipa's masterfully choreographed
Grand Pas Classique set in the context of a vision scene (or
Ballet Blanc) that would in essence mark the transition of the Romantic ballet evolving into what we now know today to be the Classical Ballet -
The Kingdom of the Shades. This scene was and has remained perhaps one of the ultimate tests for the
Corps de Ballet, the Classical Ballerina, and the
Premiere Danseur.
By the early 1880s Petipa began mounting revivals of older ballets more frequently. Many of these works had all but disappeared from the stages of Europe inspite of the great receptions they had been given upon thier premieres, and Petipa would breathe new life into them in such a way that many of them would endure to the present day in stagings derived from his versions. Among them,
Le Corsaire - a ballet Petipa had revived in 1856 and 1863, he would present his definitive staging in 1885,
Giselle - another ballet that Petipa had revised quite a few times, 1884 would see Petipa's definitive revival of the work, a version which it is said is still performed in his staging largely unchanged by the
Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet. Other ballets Petipa would revive during the 1880s - Saint-Léon's final ballet
Coppelia in 1884,
Paul Taglioni's 1864 version of
La Fille Mal Gardée (with his Second Balletmaster
Lev Ivanov) in 1885 for the visiting Italian Ballerina
Virginia Zucchi, and Perrot's
La Esmeralda in 1886, again for Zucchi.
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| Adrian Volsky as Basilio & Elvira Ostriokova as Kitri in the Moreño Dance from Act I of the National Ballet of Lithuania's production of the Petipa/Gorsky/Minkus Don Quixote, Vilnius, 2000 |
In 1881,
Tsar Alexander III appointed
Ivan Vsevolozhsky as the new director of the Imperial Theatres, a man who would prove to be one of Petipa's greatest confidants and collaborators. In 1886 he prompted an inspection of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre by architects who found the theatre to be unsafe, and soon both the ballet and opera were transferred to the
Mariinsky Theatre, where both companies remain to the present day, much to the chagrin of the orchestra and opera singers who found that theatre's acoustics to be weaker.
Petipa was known to constantly retouch the dances of a ballet, regardless of whether or not he was actually presenting an official revival of the work. As was the custom of the period Petipa would add new dances into these works either to original music or to music interpolated from another work, and almost for every performance a Ballerina would come to him so that he could compose a new variation for her in accordance with her talents. More often that not Petipa gave no regard to musical style and consistency in relation to the original score and the new dances. By the end of the 19th century most of these works had been reworked with additional numbers so many times that the production could easily credit five or six different composers. One such ballet that survives to the present day in various stagings based on Petipa's revival is
Le Corsaire - although the authenticity of the choreography with regard to Petipa's stagings could definately be called into question, the ballet still retains music for the dances he added to it, with the score containing musical contributions from no less than seven different composers.
Also in 1886 the director Ivan Vsevolozhsky took the bold step of abolishing the post of
First Imperial Ballet Composer in an effort to allow new, more "symphonic" composers to score music for the ballet. Up to that point ballet music had always been provided by composers known as "specialists" - composers who specialized in the annals of creating the simple, light, melodious, colorful, and rhythmically clear music then in vogue for ballets. The most famous of these composers was Pugni and Minkus, and although thier music was always very entertaining and effective in serving its purpose, most "symphonic" composers sneered at the very idea of scoring music for dancing, and Vsevolozhsky had an ambition to change this.
The first successful ballet to a "symphonic" score was Petipa's 1888 ballet
The Vestal, to the music of
Mikhail Ivanov. The ballet, set in ancient Rome, paved the way for such composers as
Nicolai Krotkov, with his scores for Petipa's 1889
The Whims of the Butterfly and 1890
The Water Lily. Another was
Riccardo Drigo, musical director of the Imperial Italian Opera and chief conductor of the ballet, who scored music for Ivanov's 1887
The Enchanted Forest and Petipa's 1889
The Talisman. Finally, Vsevolozhsky commissioned the great composer Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky to score music for Petipa's
The Sleeping Beauty, and following his "symphonic" example would come
Johann Armshiemer, who scored Petipa's
The Calvary Halt in 1896,
Pytor Schenk for Petipa's
Bluebeard also in 1896, and
Alexander Glazunov with his scores for Petipa's
Raymonda in 1898, and
Les Ruses d'amour (AKA
The Trial of Damis or
Lady Soubrette) and
The Seasons in 1900.
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| Svetlana Zakharova as Aurora in the Rose Adagio from the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's reconstruction of the Petipa/Tchikovsky The Sleeping Beauty, St. Petersburg, 1999 |
Contrary to popular belief, Petipa nonetheless still preferred to work with "specialists" - even after the success of
The Sleeping Beauty Petipa would commission one last ballet from Minkus -
Kalkabrino in 1891 would prove to be the composer's last known composition - he retired to
Vienna later that year. Drigo was the composer who in fact proved to be the "happy medium" between the ballet music of the "specialists" and the "symphonic" ballet music so craved by Vsevolozhsky, as Drigo followed the aesthetic lines established by the old "specialists" in melodic style and musical structure, while still lavishing upon his scores symphonic qualities with regard to orchestration and harmonic content. Although the official post of
First Imperial Ballet Composer had been abolished, Drigo was in essence the successor of both Pugni and Minkus.
In order to extract the proper music from his composers, Petipa drew up elaborate instructions for the music he required music for a ballet, in which he specified the number of bars, the tempi, and occasionally even the orchestration. His instructions to Tchaikovsky for
The Sleeping Beauty have survived, for example -
when requesting music for the scene in which Aurora is awakened - "no.19 Désiré runs to the bed. Agitated music. 24 bars.""no.20 Finally he rushes over to the sleeping beauty and kisses her forehead. The music makes a
crescendo. At the moment of the kiss it dies down.""no.21 The spell is broken. The music expresses astonishment, then joy and happiness. It retains its excitment and ardour until the end of the act."
when requesting music for the dances Petipa was no less detailed in his requirements. For the
Pas de Quatre of the Jewels'' in Act III - "no.3
Pas de QuatreFairies of burnished gold, silver, sapphires, and diamonds.
Allegro in 6/8, quite brilliant-64 bars. The four entrances (variations), each from 24 to 32 bars - 1) Burnished gold - a gold charm. 2) Silver - the sound of coins must be heard. Im polka time. 3) Sapphire - five points, music in quintuple time. 4) Diamond - sparks, glistening like electricity, 2/4 quick. 5) Short coda in the same character as the diamond variation, in 2/4, 48 bars"
The premiere of
The Sleeping Beauty on January 3, 1890 was a resounding success. Today the ballet considered to be Petipa's greatest masterpiece of choreography, and the work is cosidered today to the the quintessential Classical Ballet. The ballet proved to be so popular in fact that by April of 1903 it had been performed 100 times, being one of the most popular works in the Imperial Ballet's repertory, second only to Petipa's
The Pharoah's Daughter. The success of
The Sleeping Beauty also marked the beginning of what is considered to be the Imperial Ballet's golden age - the 1890s and early 1910s, in which the evolution in ballet technique that Petipa had instigated was now clearly showing signs of having petrified. In essence, what is now considered to be the art of
Classical Ballet and technique came into its own in the 1890s in St. Petersburg, where virtuoso Ballerinas were finally met in technique from the male Danseurs, and lavish productions accentuated the masterful choreography Petipa created for not only new works but also many spectacular revivals of older ballets, such as Perrot's
Ondine and
Philippe Taglioni's original
La Sylphide both in 1892.
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| Pierre Vladimirov as the Bluebird in the Petipa/Tchaikovsky The Sleeping Beauty, St. Petersburg, circa 1910 |
Vsevolozhsky then commissioned a second score for a ballet from Tchaikovsky.
The Nutcracker was perhaps doomed from the start - the libretto, created by Petipa from
E. T. A. Hoffman's classic tale was completely devoid of the dramatic action and mime sequences then in vogue with ballet audiences, and the role of the lead Ballerina was reduced merely to a
Grand Pas de Deux in the second act. Petipa soon passed on the duties of mounting the ballet to his Second Balletmaster Lev Ivanov. It is believed that this was done because Petipa fell ill, but illness did not keep him from rehearsing other ballets during that time. It is likely Peitpa "washed his hands" of the ballet, as long experience probably showed him that the ballet would not be well recieved.
The Nutcracker premiered on December 6, 1892 on a double bill with Tchaikovsky's opera
Iolanta, and was indeed recieved in manner that in no way pointed to the place the work would one day have in the ballet repertory. Petipa's illness kept him from composition for nearly the whole of 1893, but he still found strength to supervise the production of a new ballet, a work in which perhaps the greatest Ballerina since
Marie Taglioni would make her début.
A ballet adaptation of
Charles Perrault's
Cinderella (or
Zolushka) was chosen for the new production of the 1893-1894 season to music by the composer Baron Boris Fitinhof-Schell, and being that Petipa was ill the choreography fell into the hands of Lev Ivanov and
Enrico Cecchtti. In the title role the new guest Ballerina, the Italian virtuosa
Pierina Legnani made her début, and on the night of the premiere on December 3, 1893 her phenominal technique and beauty of execution swept all before her. In the coda of the
Grand Pas d'action of the last act she astounded the audience by performing a feat never before executed by any Ballerina -
32 fouettés en tournant. Legnani's success in
Cinderella was so great she was quickly named
Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the Imperial Ballet.
The next year the Ballerina
Mathilde Kschessinskaya was named
Prima Ballerina of the Imperial Ballet, second only in rank to Legnani. Contrary to her own memoirs, Kschessinskaya was absulutely despised by Petipa, as he firmly believed she came to her position on the ballet stage through her considerable influence with the Russian Imperial Court, as she was in fact involved at the time in a well known affair with the heir to the Russian throne, the
Tsarevich Nicholas II. Although Petipa did not care for her character he nonetheless could not deny her great dance gift, but still it was Legnani who would prove to be Petipa's greatest muse, as nearly every new ballet he mounted throughout his last ten years with the Imperial Ballet were with Legnani in the principle role, while he would give Kschessinskaya nearly all of the leads in his revivals.
|
| Farukh Ruzimatov as the slave in the Petipa/Drigo Pas de Deux from Le Corsaire, St. Petersburg, 1994 |
For the 1893-1894 season Petipa returned to choreography from his illness with his first completely original ballet since
The Sleeping Beauty.
The Awakening of Flora to the music of Drigo was mounted especially for the celebrations at
Peterhof of the wedding of Tsar Alexander III's daughter, the
Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna to the
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, premiering on July 28, 1894. The short one-act ballet was hailed as a masterpiece, as was Drigo's score. Drigo would in fact prove to be Petipa's chief collaborator for his remaining ten years with the Imperial Ballet.
In 1893 Tchaikovsky died, and in January 1894 a memorial concert was given in his honor at the Mariinsky Theatre. For the occasion Lev Ivanov mounted the second act from Tchaikovsky's 1877 ballet
Swan Lake - a work first produced in
Moscow that was not successful. Ivanov's choreography was considered a masterwork, and it was soon decided that a revival of the full-length work be mounted for the 1894-1895 season - Ivanov would stage the scenes with the swans (act I-scene II and act III - or act II and act IV as in most western productions), while Petipa would stage the rest of the work (act I-scene I and act II, or act I and act II as in most western productions), Drigo would revise the 1877 score in accordance with Petipa's instructions, and Tchaikovsky's brother Modest would revise the ballet's scenario. The premiere on January 15, 1895 with Legnani in the dual roleof Odette/Odile was a resounding success, and in Petipa and Ivanov's version
Swan Lake would go on to become one of the greatest of all ballets, remaining to the present day as one of the ultimate tests for the Classical Ballerina and the
Corps de Ballet.
Revivals and Final Masterworks
Feeling his advanced old age, and (as reflected in his diaries) feeling that his time was running out, Petipa would spend the remainder of the 19th century putting most of his energies into reviving old ballets. On December 6, 1895 he presented a lavish revival of Saint-Léon's 1864 ballet
The Little Humpbacked Horse (presented in 1895 as
The Tsar Maiden) with Legnani in the lead. In 1898 he presented spectacular revivals of both
La Esmeralda and
The Pharoah's Daughter with Kschessinskaya in the leads. He then revived
Giselle and
Le Corsaire in 1899 (for which he added the famous
Le Corsaire Pas de Deux to Drigo's music for Legnani, who danced the lead), and
La Bayadére in 1900.
|
| (left to right) Victor Semenov as the Grasshopper, Elena Lukom as the Butterfly, and Vladimir Ponomareyev as the Phoenix Moth in the Imperial Ballet's production of the Petipa/Krotkov The Whims of the Butterfly, St. Petersburg, 1919 |
This period also saw Petipa present masterfully staged original ballets - on May 14, 1896 the new Emperor and Empress,
Tsar Nicholas II and the
Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna were coronated at the Moscow
Kremlin. For the celebrations held in Moscow at the
Bolshoi Theatre three days later Petipa presented his ballet
The Pearl to Drigo's music, and the ballet was the greatest success on the bill. On January 7, 1898 Petipa presented what would amount to be one of the now eighty year old Petipa's greatest masterworks -
Raymonda, set in
Hungary during the
middle ages to the music of
Alexander Glazunov, premiered to great success. Petipa's
Grand Pas Hongrois (AKA
Raymonda Pas de Dix) from the last act of the ballet would go on to be one of his most celebrated and enduring excerpts, with the intricate choreography he lavished onto Legnani (who danced the title role) becoming one of the ultimate tests of the Classical Ballerina. Petipa presented what would be his last great ballet on February 10, 1900 at the
Hermitage Theatre -
Harlequin's Millions (known today as
Harlequinade) to Drigo's beutifully melodious score (that boasted two pieces that would become staples of the
violinists repertory - the
Serenade and
Valse Bluette) was the last flash of Petipa's choreographic genius.
In spite of his vast accomplishments, Petipa's last remaining years with the Imperial Ballet were anything but easy, as the strict Classical Ballet formulas he had established seemed to become his undoing. The new director of the Imperial Theatres,
Vladimir Telyakovsky made no effort in disguising his dislike of Petipa. With new innovations in the world of dance beginning to show themselves Telyakovsky felt that the ballet would become, as it was showing signs of doing, stagnant under Petipa, who even at the age of eightythree showed no signs of slowing down, much less changing his ways.
One of Telyakovsky's first efforts in his attempt to "de-throne" Petipa came in 1903 when he allowed
Alexander Gorsky, a former student of Petipa's and once
Premiere Danseur to the Imperial Ballet, to stage his own version of Petipa's 1869 ballet
Don Quixote, which he had staged in 1900 for the
Ballet of the Bolshoi Theatre, where he was engaged as Balletmaster. Petipa was of course furious when he learned this new version would completely replace his own, not to mention that no one had asked his permission for the replacement. While watching a rehearsal of the new version of his ballet he yelled out "Will someone tell that young man that I am not yet dead?!?". Soon after Telyakovsky took the bold step of announcing to the St. Peterbsurg Gazette that Gorsky would in fact succeed Petipa as
Maître de Ballet to the Imperial Ballet, but the outcry from the company was to great, and it never came to pass. To add fuel to the fire Telyakovsky was allowing the Imperial Ballet's newly appointed regisseur
Nicholas Sergeyev to travel throughout the Russian Empire and abroad mounting many of Petipa's works for various companies for which the regisseur was paid large sums with no regard given to the original creator of these works - Petipa (Sergeyev had spent much of the turn of the late 19th century and early 20th century with his team notating many of Petipa's ballets as well as his dances from various operas in the method of
Stepanov Choreographic Notation. Sergeyev would later smuggle these documents out of Russia not long after the
Russian Revolution of 1917 and use them to stage such ballets as
The Sleeping Beauty, as well Petipa's versions of
Coppelia,
Swan Lake, and
Giselle for the first time in the west. These documents, known as the
Sergeyev Collection are today housed in the
Harvard University Library).
|
| Students of the Pacific Northwest Ballet School in a reconstruction of Petipa's original choreography for the scene Le Jardin Animé from Le Corsaire, Seattle, 2004 |
Petipa made a poor attempt at being "innovative" with his 1902 one-act ballet
The Heart of the Marquis, which, aside from having the usual string of
divertessments and various
Pas and variations, boasted spoken passages where poetry was read by members of the Imperial French Drama Troupe. The polite audience applauded Petipa's efforts, but the work was completely mocked in the press and by many members of the Imperial Ballet. In late 1902 Petipa began work on a ballet adaptation of the tale
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs -
The Magic Mirror, to the music of
Arsenii Koreshchenko, was given on February 9, 1903 at the Mariinsky Theatre to an audience comprised of the whole Imperial Family and many members of the St. Petersburg nobility. The production, which Petipa fimly believed was purposely sabotaged by Telyakovsky, boasted an unorthadox score, along with bizarre decor and costumes that, when revealed, caused the audience to brake out into laughter, hisses, and whistles. From accounts of some of the dancers involved Petipa's choreography was of great quality, but was unfortunately completely lost in the debacle of the poor production. In the end, the catastrophic failure of the ballet was viewed by many to be sign of Petipa's old fashioned formulas, as not even his dances could save the ballet.
Telyakovsky knew that he could not legally end Petipa's employment, as he was still contracted as
Maître de Ballet, so he began a cruel campaign where he was determined to drive him from the Imperial Ballet. In 1902 Telyakovsky set up a committee made up of influetial members of the Imperial Ballet that would in essence take away Petipa's powers with regard to casting, repertory, and the appoinment of dancers, though much to Telyakovsky's chagrin the members of the commitee appointed Petipa chairman. Soon after Telyakovsky began purposely not sending carriages to collect Petipa for a particular rehearsal, or not sending him lists of casting for various ballets, even not informing Petipa of various rehearsals taking place, which Petipa was legally required by contract to known about. But at the age of eightyfour, suffering from a severe case of the skin disease
eczema and in constant pain, Petipa seemed to not have much energy to fight with a cruel theatre director.
|
| Petipa's grave in the Alexander Nevsky Monestery, St. Petersburg, Russia |
Regardless of the situation with Telyakovsky Petipa was constantly sought out by the Ballerinas of the Imperial Ballet for coaching, new variations, and the like - for example the great
Anna Pavlova, one of Petipa's favorite Ballerinas, asked him to revive the dances for
Giselle especially for her, also choreographing new dances for her début in
Paquita, including a variation to Drigo's music that is still danced in that ballet's
Grand Pas Classique by the lead Ballerina. A man of Petipa's accomplishment and experience in the art of Ballet was indeed, by his eighties, a true master. Aware of this the aged Petipa spent nearly every minute he could during his last years with the Imperial Ballet reworking dances for various ballets, and composing masterful variations and ensemble numbers regardless of the poor condition of his health. He even set to work on what would prove to be his final ballet -
The Romance of the Rosebud and the Butterfly to the music of Drigo was, according to Petipa's diaries, "a little masterpiece". The work was sheduled to be presented on January 23, 1904 for a performance at
Peterhof, but Telyakovsky abruptly cancelled the performance only two weeks prior to the premiere, giving no explanation as to why. For Petipa, it was the final straw, and soon after he annoucned his retirement. Petipa was soon after given a lavish benefit performance at the Mariinsky Theatre, with the audience screaming at the end "Bravo Petipa! Bravo!".
In his diaries Petipa noted his final composition - a variation for the Ballerina
Olga Preobrajenskaya from his revival of Paul Taglioni's 1849
The Traveling Dancer to the music of Pugni. He remained in St. Petersburg until 1907, when he left to the resort
Gurzuf in the
Crimea. He died there on July 14, 1910 at the age of ninety-two, and was laid to rest in the
Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg.
NOTE - The following chronology details both Petipa's original works mounted in Russia as well as his revivals of ballets originally produced by other choreographers. Except where noted, all of these works were choreographed/revived by him alone.
NOTE - Except where noted, all premieres of ballets produced prior to 1886 were given at the
St. Petersburg Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, principle theatre of the Imperial Ballet untill 1886. As well, except where noted, all premieres of ballets produced after 1886 were given at the
Mariinsky Theatre.
*
Paquita (Revival) - Ballet in 2 Acts-3 Scenes. Choreography staged with
Frédéric Malevergne after
Joseph Mazilier. Music by
Eduard Deldevez, orchestrated by
Konstantin Liadov. Original premiere - April 1, 1846 by the
Ballet of the Paris Opera. Revivals - September 26, 1847; December 27, 1881 with additional music by
Léon Minkus. NOTE - for his 1881 revival Petipa added the famous
Grand Pas Classique (AKA
Paquita Grand Pas), the
Children's Polonaise and Mazurka, and the
Pas de Trois (AKA
Minkus Pas de Trois) all to the music of Minkus.
*
Le Diable Amoureux (Revival, presented as
Satenilla) - Pantomime Ballet in 3 Acts-7 Scenes. Choreography staged with
Jean Petipa after
Joseph Mazilier). Music by
Napoléon Henri Reber &
Francois Benoist, orchestrated by
Konstantin Liadov. Original premiere - September 21, 1840 by the
Ballet of the Paris Opera. Revival - February 10, 1848.
*
Leda, the Swiss Milkmaid - Demi-Caractère Ballet in 2 Acts-2 Scenes. Music by
Adalbert Gyrowetz. Premiere - December 4, 1849. NOTE - It is not known for certain if this ballet was completely Petipa's own original work. A published review by A. Wolf of the Imperial Ballet and Opera's 1849-1850 season credits the work as "
Jules Perrot's new production", while in the book
Our Ballet by the ballet historian
Alexander Pleshcheyev the work is attributed to Petipa's father
Jean Petipa, with Perrot having contributed one one of the ballet's dances. In the biography
Jules Perrot: Master of the Romantic Ballet by the ballet historian
Ivor Guest, the ballet's choreography is ascribed to Jean Petipa, except for the
Scène Dansante and a
Pas de Trois, which are credited to Perrot. In his memoirs, Petipa refers to the work as "a new ballet of my own".
*
Giselle (Revival) - Fantastic Ballet in 2 Acts. Choreography after
Jean Coralli &
Jules Perrot. Music by
Adolphe Adam with additions by
Friedrich Burgmüller (the
Peasent. Original premiere - June 28, 1841 by the Ballet of the Paris Opera. Revivals - January 26, 1850 based on Perrot's sketches in which Petipa expanded the Pas de Wilis
into the Grand Pas de Wilis''; February 5, 1884 with additional music and orchestrations by
Léon Minkusw/ additions & re-orchestrations/revisions by
Léon Minkus (additions: for Act I: Giselle's famous
Pas Seul variation, & a
pas de deux for Giselle & Albrecht / for Act II: a variation for Giselle, 1884, 1887)
*
The Star of Granada - 1855. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
The Rose, the Violet, and the Butterfly - 1857. Music by
Prince Peter Von Oldenbourg (AKA
Grand Duke of Oldenbourg /
Prince Oldenbourg)
*
The Regency Marriage or
A Marriage During the Regency - 1858. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
Venitian Carnival Grand Pas de Deux - 1859. Music by
Cesare Pugni on a theme by
Nicolò Paganini*
The Parisian Market - 1859. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
The Blue Dahlia - 1860. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
Terpsichore - 1861. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
The Pharaoh's Daughter - 1862, revised: 1885, & 1898. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
Le Corsaire (revival, after
Joseph Mazilier 1856) - 1863. Revised: 1868, 1885, 1899. Music by
Adolphe Adam (original
Paris staging, 1856),
Léo Delibes (for the
Paris revival of 1863 he composed the scene
Le Jardin Animé - added by Petipa for the
Russian revival, 1868),
Cesare Pugni (1858, 1868.
Pungi revised the
Trio des Odalisques using
Adolphe Adam's original music, by adding the 1st & 2nd variations and coda, to Adam's orginal
Entree and 3rd variation, 1858),
Prince Peter Von Oldenbourg (the
Pas d'Esclave, 1858),
Léon Minkus (additional variations, 1885), &
Riccardo Drigo (the famous
Pas de Deux a Trois or
Le Corsaire Pas de Deux, 1899)
*
The Beauty of Lebanon or
The Mountain Spirit - 1853. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
The Traveling Dancer - 1865. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
La Esmeralda (revival, after
Jules Perrot) - 1866. Revised: 1870, 1872, 1886, 1887, 1898. Music by
Cesare Pugni (original
Paris staging, 1844), w/ additions by
Yuli Gerber (1870, 1872), & w/ additions by
Riccardo Drigo (
Pas de Six, 1898)
*
Florida - 1866, Music by
Cesare Pugni*
Tatiana - 1866. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
Faust - 1867. Music by
Giacomo Panizza &
Cesare Pugni*
The Benevolent Cupid - 1868. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
The Slave Girl - 1898. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
Tsar Candavl or
Le Roi Candaule - 1868. Revised: 1891, & 1903. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
Don Quixote - 1869. Revised: 1871 (Petipa's staging was revised by
Alexander Gorsky, 1900, & 1903). Music by
Léon Minkus (1869 & 1871), w/ additions by
Riccardo Drigo ('Dulcinea's variation' for the 'Dream scene', 'Variation of Kitri with the fan' for the
Grand Pas de Deux, 1903), & w/ additions by
Anton Simon (for
Alexander Gorsky's revival) ('Spanish dance for Mercedes', variation of the 'Queen of the Dryads', & 'Waltz of the Dryad's Mistresses', 1900)
*
Trilby - 1870. Music by
Yuli Gerber*
Caterina (revival) - 1870 (Petipa's staging was revised by
Enrico Cecchetti, 1888). Music by
Cesare Pugni (original
London staging 1846),
Riccardo Drigo (1888)
*
The Two Stars or
The Stars or
The Two Little Stars - 1871. Revised: 1878. Music by
Cesare Pugni*
Camargo - 1872 (Petipa's staging was revised by
Lev Ivanov, 1901). Music by
Léon Minkus*
Le Papillon or
The Butterfly (revival, after
Marie Taglioni 1861) - 1874. Music by
Léon Minkus, w/ elements from the original 1861 score of
Jacques Offenbach, & w/ themes by
Luigi Venzano*
Ondine or
The Naiad and the Fisherman (revival, after
Jules Perrot 1843) - 1871. Revised: 1874, 1892 (Petipa's staging was revised by
Alexander Shiriyev, 1903). Music by
Cesare Pugni (original
London staging 1843)
*
The Bandits or
La Gitanilla - 1875. Music by
Léon Minkus*
The Adventure of Peleus or
The Wedding of Thetis and Peleus - 1876. Revised: 1897 as
Thetis and Peleus. Music by
Léon Minkus, w/ additions by
Léo Delibes*
A Midsummer Night's Dream - 1876. Music by
Felix Mendelssohn, w/ additions by
Léon Minkus*
La Bayadère - 1877. Revised: 1884, 1900. Music by
Léon Minkus*
Roxana, the Beauty of Montenegro - 1878. Music by
Léon Minkus*
The Daughter of the Snows - 1879. Music by
Léon Minkus*
Frizak the Barber or
The Double Wedding - 1879. Music arranged by
Léon Minkus from various Italian Operas.
*
Mlada - 1879. Revised: 1896. Music by
Léon Minkus*
La Fille du Danube or
The Daughter of the Danube (revival, after
Filippo Taglioni 1836) - 1880. Music by
Adolphe Adam (original
Paris staging, 1836)
*
Zoraiya, The Moorish Girl in Spain or
Zoraiya - 1881. Music by
Léon Minkus*
La Vivandière or
Markitenka (revival, after
Arthur St. Leon 1844) - 1881. Music by
Cesare Pugni (original
Paris staging, 1844 & Russian revival, 1855)
*
Paquerette (revival, after
Arthur St. Leon 1851) - 1882. Music by
Francois Benoist (original
Paris staging, 1851), w/ additions by
Cesare Pugni (Russian revival, 1860), & w/ additions by
Léon Minkus (1882).
*
Night and Day - 1883. Music by
Léon Minkus*
The Cyprus Statue or
Pygmilion - 1883. Music by Prince Nikita Trubestkoi
* Coppelia (revival, after Arthur St. Leon 1870) - 1884. (Petipa's staging was revised by Enrico Cecchetti, 1894). Music Léo Delibes (original Paris staging, 1870)
* La Diable à Quatre or The Willful Wife
(revival, after Joseph Mazilier & Jules Perrot 1845) - 1885. Music by Adolphe Adam (original Paris staging, 1845 & Russian revival, 1851), w/ additions by Léon Minkus
* La Fille Mal Gardée or Vain Precautions (w/ Lev Ivanov) (revival, after Jean Dauberval 1791, Jean Aumer 1828, & Paolo Taglioni 1864) - 1885. Music by Peter Ludwig Hertel (original Berlin staging, 1864), w/ additions by Louis Joseph Ferdinand Herold (revised Bordeaux staging, 1828), w/ additions & re-orchestrations by Léon Minkus (1885)
* The Magic Pills - 1886. Music by Léon Minkus
* The King's Command - 1886. Revised: 1887. Music by Albert Vinzentini
* The Sacrifices of Cupid - 1886. Music by Léon Minkus
* The Haarlem Tulip (w/ Lev Ivanov) - 1887. Revised: 1902, 1903. Music by Boris Fitinghoff-Schell
* Fiametta or The Flame of Love
(revival, after Arthur St. Leon) - 1887. Music by Léon Minkus (original Moscow staging, 1863 & Moscow revival, 1864)
* The Vestal or Le Vestale
- 1888. Music by Mikhail Ivanov
* The Talisman - 1889. Music by Riccardo Drigo
* The Whims of the Butterfly Les Caprices du Papillon - 1889. Revised: 1895. Music by Nikolai Krotkov
* The Sleeping Beauty - 1890. Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, w/ revisions by Riccardo Drigo
* The Water Lily or The Lily - 1890. Music by Nikolai Krotkov
* Kalkabrino - 1891. Music by Léon Minkus
* A Magic Tale - 1891. Music by (?) Ritcher
* La Sylphide (revival, after Filippo Taglioni 1832) - 1892. Music by Jean Schnietzhoeffer (original Paris staging, 1832), w/ additions and revisions by Riccardo Drigo
* The Nutcracker (staged by Lev Ivanov from Petipa's sketches) - 1892. Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
* Cinderella (choreography by Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti supervised by Petipa) - 1893. Music by Boris Fitinghoff-Schell
* The Awakening of Flora or Le Réveil de Floré
- 1894. Music by Riccardo Drigo
* Swan Lake (w/ Lev Ivanov) (revival, after Julius Reisinger) - 1895. Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (original Moscow staging, 1877), w/ revisions by Riccardo Drigo (1895)
* The Little Humpbacked Horse or The Tsar Maiden
(revival, after Arthur St. Leon 1864) - 1895. Music by Cesare Pugni (original St. Petersburg staging, 1864)
* The Calvary Halt or Halte de Cavalerie - 1896. Music by Johann Armsheimer
* The Pearl - 1898. Music by Riccardo Drigo
* Bluebeard - 1896 (Petipa's staging was revised by Nikolai Legat, 1910). Music by Peter Schenck
* Raymonda - 1898. Music by Alexander Glazunov
* Les Ruses d'Amour or The Trial of Damis
or Lady Soubrette
- 1900. Music by Alexander Glazunov
* The Seasons - 1900. Music by Alexander Glazunov
* Harlequin's Millions or Harlequinade
or Les Millions d'Arlequin
- 1900. Music by Riccardo Drigo
* The Pupils of Dupré or Les Eléves de Dupré - 1900. Music by Albert Vizentini, Léo Delibes, & others
* The Heart of the Marquis or Le Coeur de la Marquise'' - 1902. Music by G. Giraud
*
The Magic Mirror - 1903. Music by
Arsenii Koreshchenko*
The Romance of the Rosebud and the Butterfly (never premiered) 1904. Music by
Riccardo Drigo*
Biography
