Sergeyev Collection
Encyclopedia
Mariinsky Ballet
The Mariinsky Ballet is a classical ballet company based at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet is one of the world's leading ballet companies...
of St. Petersburg, Russia at the turn of the 20th century (the company is known today as the Kirov or Mariinsky Ballet). The majority of the choreographic notations document with varying degrees of detail the original works and revivals of the renowned choreographer Marius Petipa
Marius Petipa
Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived....
. Notation and scores of the ballets by Petipa's assistant Lev Ivanov
Lev Ivanov
Lev Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer and later, Second Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet....
are also included, as well as the dances from various operas by both Petipa and Ivanov, respectively.
The Sergeyev Collection is named after Nicholas Sergeyev, the of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres from 1903 to 1918, who brought the collection out of Russia after the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
. Today, the Sergeyev Collection is housed in the Harvard University Library Theatre Collection
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where it has been since 1969.
The origins of the collection
The project of documenting the repertory of the Imperial Ballet began in 1893, with Vladimir StepanovVladimir Ivanovich Stepanov
Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov , dancer at the Imperial Ballet in Saint Petersburg. In 1892 he published a dance notation with the title L'Alphabet des Mouvements du Corps Humain. This Alphabet of Movements of the Human Body is a notation that encodes dance movements with musical notes and not with...
notating the one-act ballet La Flûte magique, a work originally produced by Lev Ivanov
Lev Ivanov
Lev Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer and later, Second Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet....
(Deuxieme Maître de Ballet of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres) and the composer Riccardo Drigo
Riccardo Drigo
Riccardo Eugenio Drigo , a.k.a. Richard Drigo was an Italian composer of ballet music and Italian Opera, a theatrical conductor, and a pianist....
(principal conductor and director of music for the Imperial Ballet) for the Imperial Ballet School. This notation project was done as a series of "certifications" executed for a committee of the Imperial Theatres to show the effectiveness of Stepanov's newly devised method of dance notation. This committee, which made decisions on the appointment of dancers, repertory, etc., consisted of Marius Petipa—Premier Maître de ballet of the Imperial Theatres; Lev Ivanov; Ekaterina Vazem
Ekaterina Vazem
Ekaterina Vazem was a Russian prima ballerina. She was made famous for first dancing the role of Nikiya in 1877 Marius Petipa's ballet, La Bayadère...
—former Prima ballerina of the Imperial Theatres and an influential teacher at the Imperial Ballet School; Pavel Gerdt
Pavel Gerdt
Pavel Andreyevich Gerdt, also known as Paul Gerdt , was the Premier Danseur Noble of the Imperial Ballet, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, and the Mariinsky Theatre for 56 years, making his debut in 1860, and retiring in 1916...
—Premier danseur of the Imperial Theatres; and Christian Johansson
Christian Johansson
Christian Johansson was a teacher, choreographer and coaching balletmaster for the Russian Imperial Ballet. Born Pehr Christian Johansson in Stockholm, Sweden, he moved to Russia as a dancer and stayed on as one of the most important teachers in Russian history...
—former Premier danseur of the Imperial Theatres and influential teacher of the male students at the Imperial Ballet School.
Later in 1893, a second demonstration was presented in which Stepanov staged a reconstruction of an 1848 revival of the Ballet Master Jules Perrot
Jules Perrot
Jules-Joseph Perrot was a dancer and choreographer who later became Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia...
and composer Cesare Pugni
Cesare Pugni
Cesare Pugni was an Italian composer of ballet music, a pianist and a violinist. In his early career he composed operas, symphonies, and various other forms of orchestral music. Pugni is most noted for the ballets he composed while serving as Composer of the Ballet Music to Her Majesty's Theatre...
's ballet Le Rêve du peintre, a work which originally premiered in London at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
in 1843 as Le Délire d'un peintre, and was later staged by Perrot in St. Petersburg in 1848. The notations were created by Stepanov after consulting Christian Johansson, who participated in the 1848 production and many performances thereafter. The reconstructed ballet was performed by students of the Imperial Ballet School on .
Based on these successes, Stepanov began notating the repertory of the Imperial Ballet. Soon the 1894 Petipa/Drigo ballet Le Réveil de Flore was notated, followed by Petipa's choreography for the scene Le jardin animé from his revival of Joseph Mazilier
Joseph Mazilier
Joseph Mazilier was a 19th-century French dancer, balletmaster and choreographer. He was most noted for his ballets Paquita and Le Corsaire...
's ballet Le Corsaire
Le Corsaire
Le Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Adolphe Adam, it was first presented by the ballet of...
.
After Stepanov's death in 1896, the dancer Alexander Gorsky took over the notation project and perfected Stepanov's system. After Gorsky departed St. Petersburg in 1900 to take up the post of Ballet Master to the Bolshoi Theatre
Bolshoi Theatre
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
of Moscow, the former dancer of the Imperial Theatres Nicholas Sergeyev took over the project as supervisor. By 1903 Sergeyev was appointed régisseur of the Imperial Ballet. It was Sergeyev's two assistants who created the majority of the notation—Alexander Chekrygin (ru: Чекрыгин, Александр Иванович, who joined the project in 1903) and Victor Rakhmanov (who joined the project in 1904), Nikolay Kremnev (ru: Николай Кремнев), S. Ponomaryev (ru: С. Пономарев) etc.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, Nicholas Sergeyev left Russia with a great number of the notated choreographies. In 1920 he was invited by Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev , usually referred to outside of Russia as Serge, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise.-Early life and career:...
to stage the Petipa/Tchaikovsky The Sleeping Beauty
The Sleeping Beauty Ballet
The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet in a prologue and three acts, first performed in 1890. The music was by Pyotr Tchaikovsky . The score was completed in 1889, and is the second of his three ballets. The original scenario was conceived by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, and is based on Charles Perrault's La...
from the notations for the Ballets Russes
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company from Russia which performed between 1909 and 1929 in many countries. Directed by Sergei Diaghilev, it is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg...
in Paris, but Diaghilev's insistence on altering passages of Petipa's choreography apparently caused Sergeyev to withdraw his services.
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, and during his appointment with the company he added a substantial amount of the music belonging to the notated ballets—orchestral parts for such ballets as Paquita
Paquita
Paquita is a ballet in two acts and three scenes, with libretto by Joseph Mazilier and Paul Foucher. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Edouard Deldevez. First presented by at the Salle Le Peletier by the Paris Opera Ballet on 1 April 1846...
by Eduard Deldevez, The Little Humpbacked Horse
The Little Humpbacked Horse (ballet)
The Little Humpbacked Horse, or The Tsar Maiden is a ballet in four Acts and eight scenes with apotheosis. The original choreography was by Arthur Saint-Léon, and was set to music by Cesare Pugni...
by Cesare Pugni, as well as Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Charles Adam was a French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas and ballets, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle and Le corsaire , his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau , Le toréador and Si j'étais roi , and his Christmas...
's scores for Giselle
Giselle
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
and Le Corsaire
Le Corsaire
Le Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Adolphe Adam, it was first presented by the ballet of...
were added to the collection.
In 1924, Sergeyev utilized the notation to mount Petipa's definitive version of Giselle for the Paris Opera Ballet
Paris Opera Ballet
The Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest national ballet company in the world, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it...
, with the Ballerina Olga Spessivtseva in the title role and Anton Dolin
Anton Dolin
Sir Anton Dolin was an English ballet dancer and choreographer.Dolin was born in Slinfold in Sussex as Sydney Francis Patrick Chippendall Healey-Kay but was generally known as Patrick Kay. He joined Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1921, was a principal there from 1924, and was a principal...
as Albrecht. This was not only the first time the Parisian ballet had danced Giselle since the 1860s, but also the first western production of Petipa's version, which is the traditional choreographic text that most ballet companies have always used as a basis for their own productions.
With the aid of the notations, Sergeyev made what is perhaps his most substantial contribution to the art of ballet: at the invitation of Dame Ninette de Valois, Sergeyev staged Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, the Petipa/Cecchetti
Enrico Cecchetti
Enrico Cecchetti was an Italian ballet dancer, mime, and founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers from Civitanova Marche, he was born in the costuming room of the Teatro Tordinona in Rome. After an illustrious career as a dancer in Europe, he went to dance for the Imperial Ballet in...
Coppélia
Coppélia
Coppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann , and Die Puppe...
, and The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
for the Vic-Wells Ballet of London, the precurssor of the Royal Ballet
Royal Ballet, London
The Royal Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the four major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in 1931 by Dame Ninette de Valois, it became the resident ballet...
, who still perform these ballets. Sergeyev's revivals of these ballets in London formed the nucleus of what is now known as the "Classical Ballet Repertory", and as a result these works went on to be staged all over the world.
After Sergeyev died in Nice, France on 23 June 1951 the notations passed on for a brief time to a Russian associate of his, in whose possession they remained until Mona Inglesby, director of the International Ballet (an English company which disbanded in 1953), purchased the collection from him. Inglesby passed the collection onto C. and I.K. Fletcher, who sold the collection to Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1969. Today the collection is known as Nikolai Sergeev Dance Notations and Music Scores for Ballets (or The Sergeyev Collection, for short). For some time the notations were useless, as no one in the world had any knowledge of how to read Stepanov's notating method. It was not until Stepanov's original primer was found in the archives of the Mariinsky Theatre
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. The...
that the notations were able to be deciphered.
Not all of the notations are complete, with some being rather vague in sections, leading some historians who have studied the collection to theorize that they were probably made to function simply as "reminders" for the Ballet Master or régisseur already familiar with these works. Aside from the choreographic notations, the collection includes photos, set and costume designs, and music for many of the ballets in their performance editions (mostly in piano and/or violin reduction), many of which include a substantial number of dances, variations, etc. interpolated from other works. One example of this is the music and notations for the ballet Le Corsaire, which contain additions from some of Marius Petipa's original works and revivals, some of which were no longer in the active repertory at the time the notations were prepared—La Vestale
The Vestal
The Vestal - Grand ballet in 3 Acts-4 Scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Mikhail Ivanov.The ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on February 17/29, 1888 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia...
(1888), Satanella (1848), Les Aventures de Pélée
Les Aventures de Pélée
Les Aventures de Pélée is a ballet in three acts and five scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Ludwig Minkus, with additional music adapted from the airs of works by Léo Delibes...
(1876), Pygmalion, ou La statue de Chypre (1883), Trilby
Trilby (ballet)
Trilby is a ballet in 2 acts and 3 scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Yuli Gerber. Libretto by Marius Petipa, based on the 1822 novel Trilby, ou le lutin d'Argail by Charles Nodier, first presented by the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre on January 25/February 6 ,...
(1870), and Cinderella
Cinderella (Fitinhof-Schell)
Cinderella - ballet-féerie in 3 Acts, with choreography by Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov , with the production being supervised under the counsel and instruction of Marius Petipa. Music by Baron Boris Vietinghoff-Scheel...
(1893).
Noted use of the collection
Few ballet companies have utilized the collection in modern times. In 1984 the historians Peter Wright and the musicologist/professor Roland John Wiley staged an adaptation of the original 1892 choreography for The Nutcracker for the Royal Ballet.In 1999, Sergei Vikharev, former dancers with the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet and noted historian used the notations to stage a reconstruction of Petipa's original 1890 production of The Sleeping Beauty (while still retaining elements of the choreography as revised in Soviet times). In 2001 Vikharev also mounted an almost totally complete reconstruction of Petipa's 1900 revival of La Bayadère
La Bayadère
La Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
, again for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet.
In 2000, the Balletmaster/choreographer Pierre Lacotte created a new version of the Petipa/Pugni ballet The Pharaoh's Daughter
The Pharaoh's Daughter
The Pharaoh's Daughter , is a ballet choreographed by Marius Petipa, to the music of Cesare Pugni, with libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges from Théophile Gautier's Le Roman de la Momie...
for the Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Ballet
The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies, however it only achieved worldwide acclaim by the early 20th century, when Moscow became the...
, which was last performed in 1928. Lacotte called upon the Stepanov notation expert Douglas Fullington to reconstruct the so-called "River Variations" from the ballet's celebrated under-water scene and a few other pieces. Fullington was only able to reconstruct five out of the original six variations from the notation, none of which Lacotte used. In the end, Lacotte re-choreographed nearly all of the ballet himself "in the style of the epoch", and retained only a few pieces Fullington reconstructed from the ballet's second act, and two variation that Lacotte learned from former dancers.
In 2004, with the assistance of Manard Stewart, Fullington mounted a reconstruction of Petipa's original choreography for the scene Le jardin animé from the ballet Le Corsaire
Le Corsaire
Le Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Adolphe Adam, it was first presented by the ballet of...
for the Pacific Northwest Ballet School's annual recital at the Seattle Opera House. Unfortunately the reconstruction had to be edited—a recording of Delibes' original music was utilized for the reconstruction, and the notated choreography included expanded passages in the music which the recording did not include.
In 2006 Fullington reconstructed twenty-five of Petipa's dances from the ballet Le Corsaire for the Bavarian State Ballet's new production.
The Bolshoi Ballet's director Alexei Ratmansky
Alexei Ratmansky
Alexei Osipovich Ratmansky is a choreographer and former ballet dancer. He is artist in residence at the American Ballet Theatre and the former director of the Bolshoi Ballet. Ratmansky trained under Pyotr Pestov and Anna Markeyeva at the Bolshoi Ballet School...
and the historian Yuri Burlaka also made use of the notations for Le Corsaire for their revival of the ballet, which premiered in 2007 to great acclaim. Rather than staging the ballet completely from the collection, Burlaka chose to expand on the notated choreographies.
In 2007 the Pacific Northwest Ballet School presented another performance which made use of the Sergeyev Collection. Douglas Fullington reconstructed various dances from the notations which were performed with examples of George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
's choreography in order to show the evolution of classical ballet technique. A variation from the Petipa/Glazunov Raymonda
Raymonda
Raymonda is a ballet in three acts, four scenes with an apotheosis, choreographed by Marius Petipa, with music by Alexander Glazunov, his opus 57. First presented by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre on in St. Petersburg, Russia...
and the Galop générale from the Petipa/Drigo Le Réveil de Flore were among the pieces revived for the performance.
In 2008 the Bolshoi Ballet utilized the notation to stage Petipa's Grand Pas classique, Pas de trois and Mazurka des enfants from Paquita
Paquita
Paquita is a ballet in two acts and three scenes, with libretto by Joseph Mazilier and Paul Foucher. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Edouard Deldevez. First presented by at the Salle Le Peletier by the Paris Opera Ballet on 1 April 1846...
, as well as the Petipa/Cecchetti Coppélia
Coppélia
Coppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann , and Die Puppe...
.
In 2009, Yuri Burlaka utilized the collection again for the Bolshoi Ballet's revival of Petipa's version of the Perrot
Jules Perrot
Jules-Joseph Perrot was a dancer and choreographer who later became Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia...
/Pugni ballet La Esmeralda
La Esmeralda (ballet)
La Esmeralda is a ballet in 3 acts, 5 scenes, inspired by Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot; with music by Cesare Pugni and design by William Grieve , D. Sloman , Mme...
.
For their 2011-2012 season, the Ballet of the Teatro alla Scala presented a complete reconstruction of the 1898 production of the Petipa/Glazunov Raymonda, using the notation.
Works documented in the collection
- PaquitaPaquitaPaquita is a ballet in two acts and three scenes, with libretto by Joseph Mazilier and Paul Foucher. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Edouard Deldevez. First presented by at the Salle Le Peletier by the Paris Opera Ballet on 1 April 1846...
Petipa, after Mazilier (music: Deldevez) – 3 acts - GiselleGiselleGiselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
Petipa, after Coralli and Perrot (music: Adam) – 2 acts - The Sleeping BeautyThe Sleeping Beauty BalletThe Sleeping Beauty is a ballet in a prologue and three acts, first performed in 1890. The music was by Pyotr Tchaikovsky . The score was completed in 1889, and is the second of his three ballets. The original scenario was conceived by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, and is based on Charles Perrault's La...
Petipa (music: Tchaikovsky) – Prologue and 3 acts - The NutcrackerThe NutcrackerThe Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
Ivanov?; Petipa? (music: Tchaikovsky) – 2 acts/3 tableaux - Le Réveil de Flore Petipa (music: Drigo) – 1 act
- La Fille mal gardéeLa Fille Mal GardéeLa Fille mal gardée is a comic ballet presented in two acts, inspired by Pierre-Antoine Baudouin's 1789 painting, La réprimande/Une jeune fille querellée par sa mère...
Petipa and Ivanov, after Taglioni (music: Hertel) – 3 acts/4 tableaux - Swan LakeSwan LakeSwan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
Petipa & Ivanov, after Reisinger (music: Tchaikovsky; rev. Drigo) – 3 acts/4 tableaux - CoppéliaCoppéliaCoppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann , and Die Puppe...
Petipa & Cecchetti(?), after Saint-Léon (music: Delibes) – 2 acts - Les Caprices du Papillon Petipa (music: Krotkov; rev. Drigo) – 1 Act
- The Little Humpbacked HorseThe Little Humpbacked Horse (ballet)The Little Humpbacked Horse, or The Tsar Maiden is a ballet in four Acts and eight scenes with apotheosis. The original choreography was by Arthur Saint-Léon, and was set to music by Cesare Pugni...
Petipa & Gorsky, after Saint-Léon (music: Pugni, Drigo) – 4 acts/10 tableaux - Le Halte de Cavalerie Petipa (music: Armshiemer) – 1 Act
- RaymondaRaymondaRaymonda is a ballet in three acts, four scenes with an apotheosis, choreographed by Marius Petipa, with music by Alexander Glazunov, his opus 57. First presented by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre on in St. Petersburg, Russia...
Petipa (music: Glazunov) – 3 acts/4 tableaux - La EsmeraldaLa Esmeralda (ballet)La Esmeralda is a ballet in 3 acts, 5 scenes, inspired by Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot; with music by Cesare Pugni and design by William Grieve , D. Sloman , Mme...
Petipa, after Perrot (music: Pugni; rev. Drigo) – 3 acts/5 tableaux - The Pharaoh's DaughterThe Pharaoh's DaughterThe Pharaoh's Daughter , is a ballet choreographed by Marius Petipa, to the music of Cesare Pugni, with libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges from Théophile Gautier's Le Roman de la Momie...
Petipa (music: Pugni) – 4 acts/7 tableaux - Le CorsaireLe CorsaireLe Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Adolphe Adam, it was first presented by the ballet of...
Petipa, after Mazilier (music: Adam, etc.) – 3 acts/5 tableaux - Les Millions d'ArlequinLes Millions d'ArlequinLes millions d'Arlequin is a ballet in two acts with libretto and choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Riccardo Drigo. First presented at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage by the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia on Friday,...
(a.k.a. Harlequinade) Petipa (music: Drigo) – 2 acts - Les Ruses d'Amour Petipa (music: Glazunov) – 1 act
- The Pupils of DupréThe King's Command or The Pupils of DupréThe King's Command - ballet in 4 Acts-6 Scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa, and music composed and adapted by Albert Vizentini in a pastiche of airs taken from various works by Johann Strauss II, Léo Delibes, Daniel Auber, Jules Massenet, and Anton Rubinstein.First presented by the...
Petipa (music: Vizentini) – 2 acts (this is an abridgement of Petipa's 1886 ballet L'Ordre du Roi) - La BayadèreLa BayadèreLa Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
Petipa (music: Minkus) – 4 acts - Le Roi Candaule (a.k.a. Tsar Candavl) Petipa (music: Pugni; rev. Drigo) – 4 acts/6 tableaux
- La Forêt enchantée Ivanov and Petipa (music: Drigo) – 1 act
- Small Balletic Pieces - numerous items from various ballets.
- Ballet sections from 24 Operas
Ballets documented in the collection by other choreographers
- La Flûte magiqueThe Magic Flute (ballet)The Magic Flute is a Ballet comique in one act, originally choreographed by Lev Ivanov to the music of Riccardo Drigo. First presented by students of the Imperial Ballet School at the school's theatre on...
Ivanov (music: Drigo) – 1 act - The Fairy Doll the brothers Nikolai and Sergei Legat (music: Bayer, etc.) – 1 act/2 tableaux
- Songe du Rajah (1930 - Nicholas Sergeyev's revised version of the scene The Kingdom of the Shades from Petipa's La Bayadère)