La Bayadère
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La Bayadère (The Temple Dancer) (Russian Баядерка - Bayaderka) is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven scenes, choreographed by the balletmaster Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. It's premiere was done by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on January 23/February 5 (Julian/Gregorian calendar), 1877. A scene from the ballet, The Kingdom of the Shades, is one of the most celebrated pieces in all of classical ballet, and it is often extracted from the full-length work to be performed independently.
La Bayadère has been restaged and revived many times throughout its long performance history, most notably by Marius Petipa (1900), Alexander Gorsky and Vasily Tikhomirov (1904), Agrippina Vaganova (1932), Vakhtang Chabukiani and Vladimir Ponomarev (1941), Rudolf Nureyev (the scene The Kingdom of the Shades) (1963), Natalia Makarova (the scene The Kingdom of the Shades) (1974), Natalia Makarova (1980), Rudolf Nureyev (1992), and Sergei Vikharev (in a reconstruction of Petipa's last revival of 1900) (2001). Today, La Bayadère is presented primarily in one of two different versions - those productions derived from Vakhtang Chabukiani and Vladimir Ponomarev's 1941 revival for Kirov Ballet, and those productions derived from Natalia Makarova's 1980 version for American Ballet Theatre.
[edit] Origins
La Bayadère was the creation of the choreographer Marius Petipa, the great Maître de Ballet en Chef of the Imperial Ballet (today the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet) and the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres. The music was written by the Austrian/Czech composer Ludwig Minkus, Petipa's chief collaborator and First Imperial Ballet Composer of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres at the time. La Bayadère is a typical production of the period in which it was produced - extravagant tableaux interspersed with episodes on an active, melodramatic scenario which takes place in an exotic and ancient locale - the perfect vehicle for spectacular dances and mime scenes, all set in an atmosphere consisting of lavish décor and sumptuous costumes. During the 1860s until the mid-1880s Petipa favored the subjects of his ballets to be of the romantic ballet tradition - ballets which were typically melo-dramas involving a love triangle of some sort, and usually consisting of supernatural female creature who would embody the ideal in femininity. The rather tragic scenario of La Bayadère is certainly work that conforms to these elements.
The true origins of La Bayadère are rather obscured, and whomever was responsible for creating the ballet's scenario is open to debate. Typically before a new work was to have its premiere in Tsarist St. Petersburg, the libretto and a list of dances were published in the newspaper along with an article discussing the creation of the work. In the case of La Bayadère no author was credited when the libretto was first published in late 1876. When Petipa revived the ballet in 1900 the St. Petersburg Gazette again published the libretto, this time naming the writer/dramatist Sergei Khudekov as author. Petipa soon wrote a letter of correction to the newspaper's editor stating that he alone authored the libretto, while Khudekov only contributed eight lines of stage direction in the margin (this was not the first time Petipa wrote such a letter to a newspaper - for example, in 1894 the Balletmaster wrote to the editor of the St. Petersburg Gazette when an article was published claiming his The Awakening of Flora was choreographed by both him and Lev Ivanov. In his letter Petipa stated that he alone was responsible for the choreography, with Ivanov merely serving as an assistant in staging his dances). The newspaper then published an apology to the Balletmaster, and named him as the sole author. There is no evidence to dispute Petipa's claim of authorship for the libretto of La Bayadère, either by Khudekov or anyone other known contemporary account.
In 1839 a touring company of authentic Indian Bayadères visited Paris, and the celebrated dramatist Théophile Gautier wrote some of his most inspired pages in describing the troupe's principal dancer Amani. Years later in 1855 Gautier recorded the tragic fact that the dancer had hung herself in a fit of depression in fog-bound London while longing for her beloved India, and as an homage to her he wrote the libretto for the ballet Sacountala, derived in part from a play by the Indian poet Kalidasa. The work was first presented in Paris on July 14, 1858 by the Ballet du Académie Royale de Musique (today known as the Paris Opera Ballet) to the music of Ernest Reyer, and was choreographed by Petipa's brother Lucien Petipa. This is the work that many ballet historians have sited as the true inspiration for Petipa's La Bayadère.
Another work with similar themes of exotic India that may have inspired Petipa was Filippo Taglioni's two-Act opera-ballet Le Dieu et la Bayadère au La bonne de la Cachemire (The God and the Temple Dancer or The Maid of Kashmir), set to the music of Daniel Auber, also presented in Paris by the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique. This ballet was first presented at the Paris Opera on October 13, 1830, and was attended by a young Marius Petipa. The action of this work was taken from Johann Goeth's Der Gott und die Bajadere with the libretto fashioned by Eugene Scribe. The work was an enormous success, and included the vocal talents of the celebrated tenor Adolphe Nourrit, with the legendary Ballerina Marie Taglioni in the principle role of the Bayadère (the only part of this work to be presented today is the popular repertory/competition Pas de Deux known as Grand Pas Classique, typically presented today in Victor Gsovsky's choreography to Auber's music).
[edit] Plot outline
La Bayadère (meaning The Temple Dancer or The Temple Maiden) tells the story of the Bayadère Nikiya and the warrior Solor, who have sworn eternal fidelity to one another. The High Brahmin, however, is also in love with Nikiya and learns of her relationship with Solor. Moreover the Rajah Dugmanta of Golconda has selected Solor to be the fiancé of his daughter Gamzatti (or Hamsatti as she as known in the original production), and Nikiya, unaware of the arrangement, agrees to dance at the couple's betrothal celebrations.
The jealous High Brahmin, in an effort to have Solor killed and have Nikiya for himself, tells the Rajah that the warrior has already vowed love to the Bayadère over a sacred fire. But the High Brahmin's plan backfires when, rather than becoming angry with Solor, the Rajah vows that Nikiya should be the one who must die. Gamzatti, who has been eavesdropping on this exchange, summons Nikiya, and attempts to bribe the Bayadère with jewelry into giving up Solor. As their rivalry ensues, Nikiya, in a fit of rage, picks up a dagger and attempts to kill Gamzatti, only to be stopped in the nick of time by a servant. Nikiya then flees, horrified at what she had almost done. As did her father, Gamzatti also vows that Nikiya must die.
At the betrothal celebrations Nikiya performs a somber dance while playing her veena. She is then given a basket of flowers which she believes are from Solor, and so begins a frenzied and joyous dance. Little does she know that the basket is from the Rajah and Gamzatti, who have concealed beneath the flowers a poisonous snake. The Bayadère then holds the basket too close, and the serpent charges forth and bites her in the neck. The High Brahmin offers Nikiya an antidote to the poison, but she chooses death rather than life without her beloved.
In the next scene the depressed Solor smokes opium, and in his dream-like euphoria has a vision of Nikiya's shade (or spirit) in a nirvana among the star-lit mountain peaks of the Himalayas called The Kingdom of the Shades, where the lovers reconcile among the supreme opulence and order of the shades of other Bayadères (in the original production of 1877 this scene took place in an illuminated enchanted castle). When Solor awakes, preparations are underway for his wedding to Gamzatti.
In the temple where the wedding is to take place the shade of Nikiya haunts Solor during his dances with Gamzatti. When the High Brahmin joins the couple's hands in marriage, the Gods take revenge for Nikiya's murder by destroying the temple and all of its occupants. In an apotheosis the shades of both Nikiya and Solor are reunited and spirited off toward the Himalayas.
[edit] Original production
La Bayadère was created especially for the benefit performance of Ekaterina Vazem, Prima Ballerina of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres. Ballet in Russia during the mid to late 19th century was dominated by foreign artists, however during the late 1860s and 1870s the theatre administration encouraged the promotion of native talent, and the Russian Vazem, a terre-à-terre virtuosa had climbed the ranks of the Imperial Ballet to become one of the company's most celebrated dancers.
The role of Solor was created by Lev Ivanov, Premiere Danseur of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, who would go on to become Marius Petipa's Second Balletmaster, as well as régisseur of the Imperial Ballet, and choreographer (among his works - the first production of The Nutcracker, although this is open to some debate - and the so-called "Lakeside scenes" of the important 1895 revival of Swan Lake). It is significant to note that the 1877 premiere of Swan Lake was being prepared in Moscow the same year as La Bayadère in St. Petersburg.
Petipa toiled on the production for an incredible six months, mounting his work in the midst of difficult circumstances. The Director of the Imperial Theatres, the aristocrat Baron Karl Karlovich Kister, had very little sympathy for the ballet, and enforced stringent budget limitations whenever possible. At that time in Tsarist St. Petersburg the Imperial Italian Opera was in fashion far more than ballet, and as a result of enjoying the favor of the public, the troupe monopolized on rehearsal space and performance time on the stage of the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre (principle theatre of the Imperial Ballet and Opera until 1886, when the companies were transferred to the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre). This left the ballet company only two days a week in which to perform, while the Italian Opera performed six, and even seven times per week. Because of this, Petipa was given only one dress rehearsal for La Bayadère, being the first and only time before the premiere that all of the scenes and dances were brought together on stage. During this rehearsal, Petipa clashed with the Prima Ballerina Vazem over the matter of her entrance in the ballet's final Grand Pas d'action, and also experienced many problems with the set designers who constructed the ballet's elaborate stage effects. To make matters worse the Balletmaster was fearful his new work would play to an empty house, as the Director Kister increased the ticket prices to be higher than that of the Italian Opera, which at that time were rather expensive.
[edit] Petipa's work on La Bayadère
Petipa opened La Bayadère with the scene The Festival of Fire (Act I-Scene 1) - a scene in which the delicate dances of the Bayadères alternated with wild and frenzied dancing from the fakirs, who while in a state of religious intoxication jumped through a sacred fire and taunted their bodies with daggers and knives. The Betrothal Celebrations of the second Act opened with the Grand Procession in honor of the Idol Badrinata - a Grand Marché reminiscent of a scene from Verdi's Aida (for which Petipa also choreographed the dances). The procession consisted of thirty six entrances for an incredible 216 participants, which included the hero Solor making his entrance atop a fifteen foot high bejewelled prop elephant. This was followed by the Grand Divertissement that consisted of dances for the slaves and the corps de ballet, as well as character dances - the celebrated Danse Manu (where a Ballerina attempts to balance a waterjug on her head, while trying to keep its contents from two thirsty little girls), and the rousing Pas Indien (Indian Dance) (which one critic found to be "more of the American-Indians than of the Indians of India"). After a Coda Générale, there followed the celebrated Danse de Nikiya - Nikiya's so-called "death dance", where in the original production she began her somber performance with a prop veena to Minkus' mournful cello solo. This was followed by the rousing coda, the Dance Panier, where Nikiya continues her performance in a frenzied dance to Minkus' pseudo-Indian music with a basket of flowers that conceal a poisonous snake.
Typically a ballet of the period had one principle piece de résistance in the course of an evening-length production, but for La Bayadère Petipa gave his audience two - the appearance of Nikiya's shade at the wedding of Solor and Gamzatti in the final act, and the ballet blanc (or vision scene) known as The Kingdom of the Shades. Petipa staged the appearance of Nikiya's shade at the wedding of Act IV in the context of a Grand Pas d'action reminiscent of the Grand Pas de Trois from Filippo Taglioni's original 1832 La Sylphide: Nikiya is only visible to the haunted Solor.
But the most celebrated and enduring part of La Bayadère was Petipa's vision scene The Kingdom of the Shades. Petipa staged this scene as a Grand Pas Classique in the strictest sense of the word, completely devoid of any dramatic action, and his simple yet still masterfully executed choreography proved to be among his greatest compositions, with the Entrée known as the Entrance of the Shades becoming perhaps his most celebrated composition of all - inspired by Doré's illustrations for Dante's Paradiso from The Divine Comedy, each dancer of the thirty two strong Corps de Ballet were clad in white tutus with veils stretched about their arms. Each of the dancers made her entrance, one by one, down a long winding ramp from upstage right, with a simple Arabesque Cambré, followed by an arching of the torso with arm in fifth position, followed by two steps forward. With the last two steps she made room for her sister shade, and the combination would continue thus until the entire Corps de Ballet had filled the stage in eight rows of four. Then followed simple movements en adage to the end, where the Ballerinas split into two rows and lined opposite sides of the stage in preparation for the following dances. Petipa left the Entrance of the Shades free of technical complexity - the unison of the whole and the effect of the descending Ballerinas was the challenge, as a mistake from one dancer would spoil the effect. It is interesting to note that when Petipa first staged The Kingdom of the Shades it was danced in an enchanted castle on a fully-lighted stage.
Despite the ballet's setting in ancient India, Léon Minkus' music and Petipa's choreography, even in the character numbers, made barely any gesture to traditional forms of Indian dance and music - the ballet was essentially a vision of the southern orient through European eyes, particularly since the work was produced during the heyday of the The British Raj, with Queen Victoria having been crowned Empress of India that same year, opening the door for Indian art and culture to find its way more easily to Europe, swiftly becoming the rage of the continent. Although in some sections Ludwig Minkus' score contained melodies that were somewhat reminiscent of the southern orient, his score was a definitive example of the Musique Dansante in vogue at that time, and did not stray at all from the usual string of lightly orchestrated polkas, adagios, Viennese-style waltzes, and the like.
In that same regard Petipa's choreography contained various elements that reminded the spectator of the ballet's setting, but never once did the Balletmaster stray from the classical ballet canon - Petipa was not at all interested in ethnographic accuracy in any part of the ballet, save perhaps the décor. This was after all the custom of the , for whether a ballet was set in China, India, or the Middle East, the Balletmaster rarely, if ever, considered including traditional native dance forms.
The well-traveled and learned ballet historian Konstantin Skalkovsky commented in his review of the 1877 premiere La Bayadère on the work's ethnographic inaccuracies - "Petipa borrowed from India...only some external features, because the dances of the opening scene, 'The Festival of Fire', are little similar to the dances of real Bayadères, which consist, as is well known, of some oscillations of the body and measured movements of the arms to the most doleful music. But if the dances of the Bayadères are ethnographically inaccurate, the idea of having the daughter of a Rajah to dance is in still greater disagreement with reality. According to Indian notions only courtesans can sing and dance, and every woman who would break this sacred decree would quickly be punished by contempt or caste."
The cast consisted of many of the Imperial Ballet's most esteemed artists - aside from Vazem and Ivanov in the roles of Nikiya and Solor, the celebrated Ballerina Mariia Gorshenkova performed Gamzatti, the High Brahmin by Nikolai Golts, and Dugmanta, the Rajah of Gulconda was performed by Christian Johansson. The lavish décor was designed by Mikhail Bocharov - Act I-scene 1; Matvei Shishkov - Act I-scene 2 and Act II; Ivan Andreyev - Act III-scene 1 and Act IV-scene 1; Heinrich Wagner - Act III-scene 2 The Kingdom of the Shades; and Piotr Lambin - Act IV-scene 2 Apotheosis.
[edit] Critical response
The premiere of La Bayadère on January 23, 1877, played to a full house at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, and was a resounding success. At the end of the performance the choreographer Petipa, the Ballerina Vazem, and the composer Minkus were called for several times. Not since Petipa had mounted his last oriental extravaganza, Tsar Kandavl (or Le Roi Candaule) in 1868 had there been such unanimous praise from the critics and balletomanes.
Of course the audiences of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres adored melodramatic ballets, and the plot of La Bayadère ensured a number of powerful encounters - the scene of jealousy between Nikiya and Gamzatti, as well as Nikiya's rejection of the High Brahmin's declaration of love, were all praised by critics. A critic from the St. Petersburg newspaper The Theatre Echo commented that "Looking at the new ballet one can only be astonished at the inexhaustible imagination that our Balletmaster (Petipa) possesses. All of the dances are distinguished by their originality and color; novelties in groupings, a wealth of invention, the intelligence of the story, and its correlation with the locale of the action - these are the principle merits of 'La Bayadère'." Another critic hailed the work humorously as "Giselle, east of the Suez", and went on to comment on the few mistakes made by the stage hands when presenting the "special effects" of the ballet, which apparently worked affectively only when they were timed correctly - "...a mimed dialogue where the shade of Nikiya shows Solor a castle in the sky was not timed correctly with Vazem's gesture, and the castle, which was seen through a window, did not appear until the Danseuse had already turned away...the final scene which included the destruction of the temple in Roller's design went quite wretchedly - the structure did not begin to collapse until long moments after the musical cue, which led to a few uneasy moments with the performers running frantically about the stage for no apparent reason."
Ekaterina Vazem's portrayal of the Bayadère Nikiya was the rage of St. Petersburg, as she was considered by the balletomanes and critics to be the supreme Ballerina of her generation. After the performance the Ballerina received a diamond studded ruby brooch, along with large bouquets of flowers, one of which was from Adelina Patti, the celebrated Primadonna who at that time was guest artist with the St. Petersburg Imperial Italian Opera . A critic from The Voice hailed Vazem's performance in the Danse du Voile (or the "Scarf Duet") from the scene The Kingdom of the Shades and the Danse de Nikiya from Act II as "miracles of the choreographic art. It is difficult to evaluate that perfection with which the benefit artist, Mme. Vazem, performed all of the new dances in her new role, both classical and character. Her incomparable talent has no peer at the present time in all Europe. She has attained such a degree of perfection that it would seem impossible to go further."
The ballet historian Vera Krosovskaya would later give an accurate assessment of Petipa's original production of La Bayadère - "the cheered premiere was a point of intersection of the St. Petersburg ballet's traditions and generations of dancers...marking the transition of the Romantic ballet transforming into Classical."
[edit] Petipa's revivals
Between the premiere and Ekaterina Vazem's farewell retirement benefit performance on January 17, 1884, La Bayadère was performed seventy times, quite astounding considering that the Imperial Ballet only performed twice a week at that time. The ballet was not performed again until December 14, 1884 when it was given a minor revival by Petipa for the Ballerina Anna Johansson. Petipa left much of the ballet as it was staged originally, limiting his alterations to only the Ballerina's dances.
When Anna Johansson retired in 1886, she chose the Act II Betrothal Celebrations for her farewell benefit performance. This was the last time any part of La Bayadère was performed before it was taken out of the Imperial Ballet's repertory.
In late 1899, the Imperial Ballet's Jeune Premiere Pavel Gerdt was about to celebrate his fortieth year of artistic activity on the St. Petersburg ballet stage. In honor of this milestone arrangements were made by the theatre director Ivan Vsevolozhsky and the minister of the Imperial court Baron Fredericks for Gerdt to be given a lavish benefit performance, though the Danseur was quite undecided which ballet he would choose for the occasion. Meanwhile the Imperial Ballet's newly appointed Prima Ballerina Assoluta Mathilde Kschessinskaya showed interest in having Petipa revive for her La Bayadère, which had been absent from the stage for some years. It was soon agreed that La Bayadère would be a perfect vehicle for both Gerdt and Kschessinskaya, and soon Petipa began mounting a complete revival of the work for the 1900-1901 season.
Among Petipa's most striking changes was the use of students in the scene The Kingdom of the Shades, who took part in the Waltz of the Shades, the Grand Adagio, and the Grand Coda Générale. He changed the setting of the scene from an enchanted castle in the sky on a fully lighted stage to a dark rocky landscape on peaks of the Himalayas. Petipa swelled the number of the Shades from thirytwo to fortyeight, making the illusion of descending spirits all the more effective. He lavished difficult choreography for the Ballerina's variations. Kschessinskaya would later recall how "Petipa's dances for Nikiya (in the 1900 revival) were simple while still very challenging, and I had to make certain that I was in excellent form in order to properly execute his steps."
Another important change was the interpolation of "new" variations into the final Grand Pas d'action for the principle characters. As was the custom at the time, Minkus did not compose variations for the Grand Pas d'action, which were always performed ad libitum, i.e. at the dancers choice, which were almost always taken from other works (after the central Adagio Minkus wrote in the margin of his original score "followed by Solor and Gamzatti's variations").
Since the fiftysix year old Pavel Gerdt was unable to dance Solor's variations, the Danseur Nikolai Legat was chosen to perform them. For his variation in the Grand Pas d'action Legat chose the Variation of Prince Djalma, added by Minkus to Petipa's 1874 revival of the Taglioni/Offenbach Le Papillon. In 1941 Vakhtang Chabukiani re-choreographed this variation for himself, which is still performed today by all Danseurs who perform Solor in La Bayadère.
The Prima Ballerina Olga Preobrajenskaya danced Gamzatti in Petipa's 1900 revival of La Bayadère, and no record exsists of what variation she danced during the final Grand pas d'action. By the time La Bayadère was revived by Vakhtang Chabukiani and Vladimir Ponomarev at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1941, the variation being danced by Gamzatti in the Grand pas d'action was the Variation of Queen Nisia to music by Cesare Pugni, taken from the celebrated Pas de Venus of Petipa's 1868 Tsar Kandavl. In 1947 the Balletmaster Pyotr Gusev revised Petipa's choreography for this variation, which is still performed today.
In the original production of La Bayadère Nikiya did not dance a variation during the ballet's final Grand Pas d'action. However, Kschessinskaya commissioned the composer Riccardo Drigo to score a new variation for her performance. As was her preference, Drigo orchestrated the music for solo harp and pizzicatti, and this "custom-made" variation became the Ballerina's legal property, as was the custom of the time, and was never performed by anyone else.
Petipa's second revival of La Bayadère was presented on December 3, 1900 at the Mariinsky Theatre, receiving a surprisingly mixed reaction from the balletomanes and critics, many of whom had considered the ballet such a masterwork twentythree years before. One critic of the St. Petersburg Gazette stated that Petipa's choreography was ""...perhaps more boring than long and uninteresting...". Regardless, the ballet soon became one of the great vehicles for the Ballerinas of Tsarist St. Petersburg, and earned a permanent place on the Imperial stage, as it was considered one of the supreme challenges for the Danseuse to demonstrate both her technical and dramatic skills - Olga Preobrajenskaya, Vera Trefilova, Anna Pavlova (who made her last appearance with the Imperial Ballet as Nikiya in 1914), Ekaterina Geltzer, Lubov Egorova, and Olga Spessivtseva to name but a distinguished few, all triumphed in the role of Nikiya. The Kingdom of the Shades became one of the ultimate tests for the corps de ballet, and many young Ballerinas made their débuts in the variations from this scene.
In March of 1903 The Kingdom of the Shades was performed independently for the first time during a gala performance at Peterhof in honor of a state visit from Kaiser Wilhelm II, and soon this became tradition, with the scene being extracted often for various galas and celebrations.
Petipa's 1900 production was changed very little over the course of its performance history. One of the major changes made to the work came in 1914 when Nikolai Legat extended the Pas de Deux of Solor and Nikiya from Act I-scene 1, adding in more athletic lifts and difficult partnering elements. Legat's version of this Pas is still performed today, and has widely been accepted as Petipa's choreography.
[edit] The notation of Petipa's 1900 production
As with many of the works in the repertory of the Imperial Ballet at the turn of the 20th century, Petipa's choreography for the 1900 revival of La Bayadère was documented in the method of Stepanov Choreographic Notation at some point between 1900 and 1903 by the Imperial Ballet's régisseur Nicholas Sergeyev and his team of notators. Aside from La Bayadère, the ballets which were notated include Petipa's original The Sleeping Beauty, Raymonda, and Giselle, as well as the 1895 Petipa/Ivanov Swan Lake, and the Petipa/Ivanov/Cecchetti Coppelia.
It was with these notations that such works as The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Swan Lake, and Coppelia were staged for the first time in the west by Sergeyev. Today these notations - which include many of Petipa's ballets which are no longer performed - are preserved in a collection known as the Sergeyev Collection, which is today contained in the Harvard University Library Theatre Collection.
[edit] Early "After Petipa" productions
The first "after Petipa" production of La Bayadère was staged for the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre by the Danseur Vasily Tikhomirov and the Balletmaster Alexander Gorsky, premiering January 19, 1904, with the Ballerina Adelaide Giuri as Nikiya, Tikhomirov as Solor, and Ekaterina Geltzer as Gamzatti. For this production Gorsky chose to include more ethnographically accurate costumes and choreographic elements, though he did not deviate all that severely from Petipa's original choreographic scheme. This seemed to work in every part of the ballet except for The Kingdom of the Shades, as Gorsky had clad the Ballerinas in Indian dress, rather than the traditional white tutus with veils for the arms. In spite of the mixed reception Gorsky's revival received, the production remained in the Bolshoi's repertory until July of 1919, being the last time the full-length La Bayadère would be seen on the stage of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre until Yuri Grigorovich staged his version for the company in 1991.
[edit] Lophukov's production and the loss of Act IV
With the hardships brought upon the Russian Ballet by the revolution, many of the works from the Petipa repertory left the stage forever, and those that survived were in time rather severely altered. La Bayadère was performed for the last time in Petipa's 1900 production in August of 1917. The ballet was revived in 1920 at the former Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in a production staged by Fedor Lophukov especially for the Ballerina Olga Spessivtseva, with Minkus' score adapted by Boris Afanasiev.
Although the reasons have since become lost to history, Lophukov's 1920 production was the first to omit the ballet's last act (Act IV - known in the original libretto as the The God's Wrath). Historians have cited many possible reasons for this omission - when Petrograd was flooded in 1924 many of the sets and costumes of the works performed at the Mariinsky Theatre were destroyed, among them, the décor for Act IV of La Bayadère, and it is likely that the post-revolution St. Petersburg/Petrograd ballet did not have the funding to produce new décor. Another explanation is that the Mariinsky Theatre lacked the technical staff needed in order to produce the effect of the temple's destruction. A third explanation sites the fact that the Soviet regime would not have allowed the performance of a theatrical presentation that included themes of Hindu gods destroying a temple. It may very well be that all of this factored into the loss of Act IV, which would not be performed again in Petipa's design for another seventy-four years.
With the loss of Act IV, the ballet's scenario had to be modified, and so Lophukov fashioned a short epilogue with which to end the ballet, with Solor waking from his dream and being reunited with Nikiya (Yuri Grigorovich would later include a version of Lophukov's scene in his 1991 production for the Bolshoi Ballet). Although Act IV was now omitted, Lophukov still retained its final Grand Pas d'action, which he interpolated into the Act II Betrothal Celebrations. Since it was now taken out of its original context, Lophukov revised Petipa's choreography and edited Minkus' music in order for it to fit with the new scenario. Unfortunately Petipa's Dance of the Lotus Blossoms, a Pas de Guirlandes from the last act for twenty-four female students, was completely omitted.
[edit] Vaganova's revival
On December 13, 1932 the great pedagogue of the Soviet Ballet Agrippina Vaganova presented her version of La Bayadère for the Kirov Ballet (the former Imperial Ballet). Owing much of her production to Lophukov's 1920 redaction (including his "new" ending), and never straying to far from Petipa's original design for the dances, Vaganova nevertheless revived the Ballerina's dances for her star pupil Marina Semenova, who danced Nikiya. This included triple pirouettes sur le pointe (on the toes), fast pique turns en dehors, and difficult balances in the dance with the basket in the Danse de Nikiya of the Act II Betrothal Celebrations. Although Vaganova's revival did not find a permanent in the ballet repertory (it was performed for the last time in 1937), her revisions to the Ballerina's dances would become the standard.
[edit] The Kirov Ballet's revival of 1941
In 1940 the Kirov Ballet once again made plans to revive La Bayadère, this time in a staging by the Balletmaster Vladimir Ponomarev and the Premiere Danseur Vakhtang Chabukiani. This version would be the definitive staging of La Bayadère from which nearly every subsequent production would be based.
Ponomarev and Chabukiani edited much of the ballet's incidental scenes in order to speed up the action, and either trimmed or completely omitted Petipa's original mime sequences, which by the mid 20th century were considered old fashioned by the Soviet ballet. Most of the changes were to be found in the Act II Betrothal Celebrations - Ponomarev and Chabukiani revised the choreography completely for the original Grand Pas d'action from the last act, which was transferred by Lopukhov to Act II, transforming the piece into a Grand Pas Classique for Solor, Gamzatti, four Ballerinas, and two Suitors. The Grand Divertissement of Act II went through changes as well - the Danse of the Slaves was omitted, and the two part Pas de Quatre known as the Variations for Four Bayadères was modified so that the second part could be performed after the central Adagio of the Grand Pas Classique. Another important change was made to Nikiya's final dance at the end of Act II, which Petipa had originally choreographed to be performed with a prop veena. Although the choreography was retained without change the prop veena was taken out.
Originally before the Pas de Deux of Solor and Nikiya of Act I, an elaborate harp candenza would herald the beginning of a scene in which Solor watched Nikiya from afar while she played a veena in a high window of the temple. For the 1941 production this number was re-choreographed so that Nikiya would instead perform a solo to the same music while holding a water pitcher on her shoulder, a change which is still retained in productions today. Ponomarev and Chabukiani then omitted an entire sequence which took place after the High Brahmin spies on the exchange of vows between Nikiya and Solor. In this scene Bayadères return from the temple to gather water, followed by an extended scene of Nikiya and Solor saying goodbye to one another before the High Brahmin returns to swears vengeance over the sacred fire. Ponomarev and Chabukiani chose to include the 1900 décor for the scenes used in their production, which were restored by Mikhail Shishliannikov. However an entirely new set was created for the scene The Kingdom of the Shades in Shishliannikov's design. Minkus' original music was also restored from his original hand-written manuscript, though it was properly edited and re-ordered in accordance with the new scenario and order of dances. Unlike Fyodor Lophukov's revival of 1920 that included a short scene in which to end the ballet, Ponomarev and Chabukiani chose to end La Bayadère with The Kingdom of the Shades. Minkus' original ending for the final Grand Coda Générale of the scene The Kingdom of the Shades had to be altered, with the composer Pavel Feldt adding a short epilogue in which to bring the ballet to a close.
The Ponomarev/Chabukiani version of Petipa's La Bayadère premiered February 10, 1941 to a resounding success at the Mariinsky Theatre (or the Kirov Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet as it was known then) with Natalia Dudinskaya as Nikiya, Alla Shelest as Gamzatti, and Vakhtang Chabukiani as Solor.
The choreography for the dances of Nikiya went through yet another renaissance in the hands of the great virtuosa Dudinskaya, whose revisions to the choreography are today the standard. Although her interpretation of the tragic Nikiya was looked on as unsuitable for the stellar Ballerina, she nevertheless excelled in The Kingdom of the Shades, where Petipa's strict academic patterns prevailed. In the Danse du Voile she studded the choreography with multiple tours en arabesque, and included, for the first time, airy splits in her Grand jetés during the Entrance of Nikiya, all the while adding fast piqué turns in the Grand Coda Générale. The choreography for Solor went through a renaissance as well with the great Premiere Danseur Chabukiani in the role. Although the dances for the role of Solor had become far more prominent since the days of Imperial Russia, Chabukiani's choreography would become the standard - for the 1941 revival he rechoreographed Nikolai Legat's variation for Solor from the original Grand Pas d'action (to Minkus' music from Le Papillon), and also added added another variation - he arranged for Minkus' music for the second part of the Grand Coda Générale in The Kingdom of the Shades to be repeated for as a solo for Solor, a tradition which is still preserved today.
In 1977, the Kirov Ballet's Ponomarev/Chabukiani 1941 production of La Bayadère was filmed later released onto DVD/video with Gabriella Komleva as Nikiya, Tatiana Terekhova as Gamzatti, and Rejen Abdeyev as Solor.
[edit] Additional dances
[edit] The Golden Idol
In 1948 the Kirov Ballet Danseur Nikolai Zubkovsky added an exotic character variation to the Grand Divertissement of Act II of La Bayadère known in Russia as Bazhok, or as it would later be called in the west, The Dance of the Golden Idol (in Natalia Makarova's production the role is known as The Bronze Idol). Zubkovsky created an athletic male variation in which the dancer represents a golden statue, or idol, reminiscent of the Hindu god Nataraja, thereby requiring the Danseur to be completely covered from head to toe in brazen makeup of either a bronze or gold color, with the hands at all times held in the "lotus blossom" position from traditional Indian dancing.
The music used by Zubkovsky for this variation was fashioned by the composer Pavel Feldt from the Persian March composed by Ludwig Minkus for Petipa's 1874 revival of the Taglioni/Offenbach ballet Le Papillon, perhaps being the only surviving composition of Minkus in the 5/4 time signature. Today this variation is preserved almost unchanged both choreographically and musically in Zubkovsky's original 1948 design, and is among the most popular passages of La Bayadère with audiences.
[edit] Pas de Deux of Nikiya and the Slave
In 1954 the Premiere Danseur of the Kirov Ballet (and soon to be director of the troupe) Konstantin Sergeyev interpolated a new Pas de Deux into Act I-scene 2 of La Bayadère especially for his wife, Natalia Dudinskaya. The Pas was choreographed by Sergeyev as an exotic duet for the Bayadère Nikiya and a slave partner, with spectacular lifts and elaborate partnering, beginning with Nikiya making her entrance wrapped in a long veil. The Pas was essentially created to function in the story of the ballet as a sort of "blessing" by the Bayadère, ending with her being held up high by her slave partner and dropping flowers on the floor. The music used by Sergeyev for this Pas de Deux is by Cesare Pugni, being the Grand Adagio taken from the Act II Pas Classique from the 1844 ballet La Esmeralda.
[edit] Early productions in the West
Anna Pavlova had intended to include an abridged version of The Kingdom of the Shades for her touring company in the 1910s, for which an adaptation of Minkus' music was prepared (whoever was responsible for this has become lost to history). But for reasons unknown the production never came to fruition (the conductor Richard Bonynge included this version of Minkus' music on his 1962 recording The Art of the Prima Ballerina, as well as on his 1994 recording of John Lanchbery's adaptation of Minkus' score for Natalia Makarova's production of La Bayadère).
Nicholas Sergeyev, the former régisseur of the Imperial Ballet, staged his own version of Petipa's The Kingdom of the Shades, under the title Songe du Rajah, for the Riga Opera Ballet of Riga, Latvia, premiering September 24, 1923. He also staged Songe du Rajah for the short-lived Russian Ballet Company in London, which premiered to great success at the Bournemouth Pavilion on March 5, 1934. Sergeyev had made plans to stage Songe du Rajah for Serge Diaghilev's original Ballets Russes in Paris for the 1929-1930 season, but the production was never realized (possibly due to Diaghilev's death in August of 1929). In spite of Sergeyev's many stagings of Songe du Rajah for various European companies the work never found a permanent place in the ballet repertory, and by the 1940s was no longer performed. Today choreographic documentaion of Songe du Rajah is included among the notations in the famous Sergeyev Collection.
Although La Bayadère was considered a classic in Russia, the work was almost completely unknown in the west. The first real glimpse that western audiences had of the work was when the Kirov Ballet performed The Kingdom of the Shades at the Palais Garnier in Paris on July 4, 1961, and soon this almost totally unknown piece from the Imperial Petipa repertory became the talk of the western ballet world. Two years later, Rudolf Nureyev staged the scene for the Royal Ballet, with Margot Fonteyn as Nikiya. Since the original Minkus orchestral parts were only available at that time in Soviet Russia, Nureyev called upon the Royal Opera House composer/conductor John Lanchbery to orchestrate the music from a piano reduction. The premiere was a resounding success, and is considered to be among the most important moments in the history of ballet.
The dance critic Arlene Croce commented on Petipa's The Kingdom of the Shades in her review of Nureyev's staging of the scene in The New Yorker - "Motor impulse is basic to Petipa’s exposition of movement flowing clean from its source. It flows from the simple to the complex, but we are always aware of its source, deep in the dancer’s back, and of its vibration as it carries in widening arcs around the auditorium. This is dancing to be felt as well as seen, and Petipa gives it a long time to creep under our skins. Like a patient drillmaster, he opens the piece with a single, two-phrase theme in adagio tempo (arabesque cambré port de bras), repeated over and over until all the dancers have filed onto the stage. Then, at the same tempo, with the dancers facing us in columns, he produces a set of mild variations, expanding the profile of the opening image from two dimensions to three. Positions are developed naturally through the body’s leverage - weight, counterweight. Diagonals are firmly expressed....The choreography is considered to be the first expression of grand scale symphonism in dance, predating by seventeen years Ivanov’s masterly designs for the definitive 'Swan Lake'....The subject of 'The Kingdom of the Shades' is not really death, although everybody in it except the hero is dead. It's Elysian bliss, and its setting is eternity. The long slow repeated-arabesque sequence creates the impression of a grand crescendo that seems to annihilate all time. No reason it could not go on forever......Ballets passed down the generations like legends, acquire patina of ritualism, but 'La Bayadère' is a ritual, a poem about dancing and memory and time. Each dance seems to add something new to the previous one, like a language being learned. The ballet grows heavy with this knowledge, which at the beginning had been only a primordial utterance, and in the coda it fairly bursts with articulate splendor."
Nureyev's version of The Kingdom of the Shades was also staged by Eugen Valukin for the National Ballet of Canada, premiering on March 27, 1967. The first full-length production of La Bayadère was staged by the Balletmistress Natalie Conus for the Iranian National Ballet Company in 1972, in a production based almost entirely on the 1941 Ponomarev/Chabukiani production for the Kirov Ballet. For this production Minkus' score was orchestrated from a piano reduction by Robin Barker.
[edit] Natalia Makarova's production
In 1974 Natalia Makarova mounted The Kingdom of the Shades for American Ballet Theatre in New York City, being the first staging of any part of La Bayadère in the United States. In 1980 Makarova staged her own version of the full-length work for the company, based largely on the Ponomarev/Chabukiani version she danced during her career with the Kirov Ballet. Since only about half of Minkus' original, full-length score was available outside of Soviet Russia, John Lanchbery was called upon to compose the missing sections himself, all the while re-scoring the entire score.
Makarova made many changes in her version of La Bayadère. Aside from the musical changes made to the first two scenes, Makarova did not deviate at all from the traditional choreography, though she did omit Konstantin Sergeyev's Pas de Deux for Nikiya and the Slave and used the Pugni music for a dance for the Corps de Ballet in the last act. She shortened Act II by omitting the Grand Divertissement and one of the dances for the Corps de Ballet (possibly because the music was not available in the west at that time). In light of the now shortened Act II she renamed the scene Act I-scene 3. However she did retain Zubkovsky's 1948 Dance of the Golden Idol, which she renamed The Bronze Idol and transferred to opening of the last act.
Due to the smaller stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in relation to that of the Mariinsky Theatre, Makarova was forced to reduce the number of the Corps de Ballet in the scene The Kingdom of the Shades from thirty two to twenty four. She was also obliged to modify the poses' made by the Ballerinas while they stood on the sides of the stage due to the difference in physique of western Ballerinas to that of Russian ones (Makarova changed the original position of tendu derrière effacé - for which Russian Ballerinas are famous, with their arched back, torqued hyper-extended supporting legs, and severely arched feet - to tendu derrière croisé).
Makarova's biggest change however was her staging of the long lost last act, which she set to new music by John Lanchbery. She in no way tried to re-create Petipa's original design, and instead completed the original scenario with choreography of her own. Following Makarova's example, many subsequent stagings of La Bayadère would include a version of the lost last act, among them, Pyotr Gusev's version staged for the Sverdlovsk Ballet in 1984.
Makarova's production premiered on May 21, 1980 at the Metropolitan Opera House, and was even shown live on PBS during the Live from Lincoln Center broadcast. Makarova herself danced Nikiya, though she injured herself during Act I and was replaced by the Ballerina Marianna Tcherkassky, with Ivan Nagy as Solor, Cynthia Harvey as Gamzatti, Alexander Minz as the High Brahmin, and Victor Barbee as the Rajah. The décor and costumes were designed by Pier Luigi Samaritani, with costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge. Though the reaction to her choreography for the last act was rather mixed, the premiere was a colossal triumph for American Ballet Theatre, who still retain the staging in their repertory today, and have recently lavished it with new sets and costumes.
In 1989, Makarova staged her version of La Bayadère for the Royal Ballet in an almost totally un-changed production, even having the Samaritani-designed sets copied, with costumes by Yolanda Sonnabend. In 1990 her production was filmed and shown on PBS in 1994 (and later released onto DVD/Video), with Altynai Asylmuratova as Nikiya, Darci Bussell as Gamzatti, and Irek Mukhamedov as Solor.
In recent times Lanchbery's adaptation of Minkus' music for La Bayadère (as well as his version of Minkus' Don Quixote and Paquita) has become rather controversial, with many in the world of ballet preferring to hear the score in its original form. The noted ballet critic and historian Clement Crisp commented in 1989 that Lanchbery's orchestrations for La Bayadère were "horrific gratuitous burblings".
In 1994 the conductor Richard Bonynge recorded Lanchbery's version of Minkus' score for La Bayadère, which also included the arrangement of the scene The Kingdom of the Shades which was to be used by Anna Pavlova's company in the 1910s. The recording was released on the label Decca Records.
[edit] Rudolf Nureyev's production
In late 1991, Rudolf Nureyev, artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet, began making plans for a revival of the full-length La Bayadère, to be derived from the traditional Ponomarev/Chabukiani version he danced during his career with the Kirov Ballet. Nureyev enlisted the assistance of his friend and colleague Ninel Kurgapkina, former Prima Ballerina of the Kirov Ballet, to assist in staging the work.
The administration of the Paris Opera knew that this production of La Bayadère would be Nureyev's last offering to the world, as his health was deteriorating more and more from advanced HIV disease. Because of this, the cultural administration of the Paris Opéra gave the production an enormous budget, with even more funding coming from various private donations.
Nureyev wanted to use Minkus' score in its original orchestration, which was only available at that time in Russia. In spite of his poor health Nureyev made a speedy trip to St. Petersburg to make photocopies at the Kirov/Mariinsky Library of the original orchestral parts for La Bayadère, though in his haste he accidentally copied only the bottom half of each page, which fortunately included the page numbers. He did not realize his mistake until he returned to Paris, and with the help of John Lanchbery, the score was reassembled and orchestrated as close to the original as possible. Because certain sections were not copied at all, Lanchbery was forced to compose a few transitional passages, but in the end, nearly all of the music was scored by Lanchbery in Minkus' style.
Nureyev called upon the Italian film designer Enzio Frigerio to create the décor, and broadway designer Franca Squarciapino to create the ballet's costumes. Frigerio took inspiration from the Taj Mahal and the architecture of the Ottoman Empire, as well as drawings of the original décor used for Petipa's 1877 production - Frigerio called his designs "a dream of the Orient through Eastern-European Eyes". Squarciapino's costume designs were inspired by ancient Persian and Indian paintings, with elaborate head-dresses and hats, colorful shimmering fabrics, and traditional Indian garb, with much of the materials coming from Parisian boutiques that imported directly from India.
Regarding the choreography, Nureyev left nearly all of the traditional Ponomarev/Chabukiani revisions intact, all the while retaining Zubkovsky's Dance of the Golden Idol in the Act II Grand Divertessement and Sergeyev's Pas de Deux for Nikiya and the Slave in Act I-Scene 2. Among Nureyev's revisions was a passage for the male corps de ballet in the opening of Act I-scene 2, as well as another passage in the Waltz with Fans from Act II. He re-ordered the variations of the Shades in Act III, putting the final variation first, and revised the choreography of the Danse de Voile (AKA the Scarf Duet) so that Solor also performs Nikiya's movements, a change he had originally included in his 1962 staging of the The Kingdom of the Shades for the Royal Ballet. In the documentary "Dancer's Dream: La Bayadere" it is said that Nureyev considered recreating the lost fourth act, á la Makarova's production, but ultimately decided to follow the Soviet tradition and end the ballet with the scene The Kingdom of the Shades, saying that he preferred the "gentler" ending compared to the original ballet's rather violent conclusion.
Nureyev's production of La Bayadère was presented for the first time at the Palais Garnier (or the Paris Opéra) on October 8, 1992 with Isabelle Guérin as Nikiya, Laurent Hilaire as Solor, and Élisabeth Platel as Gamzatti (and was later filmed in 1994 and released onto DVD/video with the same cast). The theatre was filled with many of the most prominent people of the ballet world, along with throngs of newspaper and television reporters from around the world. The production was a resounding success, with Nureyev being honored with the prestigious Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Minister of Culture. The premiere of Nureyev's production was a special occasion for many in the world of ballet, as only three months later he died.
Laurent Hilaire later commented that "the premiere of 'La Bayadère' was more than a ballet for Rudolf and everybody around...this is the idea that I love about 'La Bayadère' - that you have someone approaching death, who is dying, and instead of his death he gives us this wonderful ballet."
[edit] The 1900 reconstruction
The performance history of La Bayadère came full circle when in 2000 the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet began mounting a reconstruction of Petipa's 1900 revival of La Bayadère.
In order to restore Petipa's original choreography, Sergei Vikharev, the Balletmaster of the company in charge of staging the production, made use of the Stepanov Choreographic Notation from the Sergeyev Collection. The most anticipated passage of the work to be restored was the long deleted last act. This scene included the lost Dance of the Lotus Blossoms and Petipa's original Grand Pas d'action, which up to that point had been performed during Act II in the revised Ponomarev/Chabukiani choreography.
Among other restored passages were the Dance of the Slaves from Act II, all of the original mime sequences, and Petipa's original choreography for the Dance of the Priestesses from Act I-Scene 1. Although Konstantin Sergeyev's 1954 Pas de Deux for Nikiya and the Slave was deleted, Vikharev chose to retain Nikolai Zubkovsky's 1948 Dance of the Golden Idol, and though it was only included for the premiere, it was later put back in by popular demand.
For the majority of the 20th century Minkus' original score for La Bayadère was thought to have been lost. Unbeknownst to many, the Mariinsky Theatre Music Library had in their possession two volumes of Minkus' complete, hand-written score of 1877, as well as three manuscript rehearsal répétiteurs in arrangement for two violins, which included many notes for Balletmasters and performers. Sergei Vikharev commented that "this is a return to the source. The true, original Minkus was preserved in the theatre's archives. It was difficult to restore the score as the music had been split up. We basically had to check each hand-written page to determine the correct order, because the music had been moved around in the library so many times that if it had been reorganized once more it would have been impossible to find anything. We were fortunate in being able to restore Minkus' full score for this ballet."
The Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's traditional 1941 Ponomareyev/Chabukiani production of La Bayadère utilized the 1900 set designs for Act I, Act II, and Act III-scene 1, designed by Orest Allegri, Adolf Kvapp and Konstantin Ivanov. However the 1941 production did not utilize the 1900 designs for The Kingdom of the Shades by Pyotr Lambin, and instead used a design by Mikhail Shishliannikov. For the reconstruction the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet restored Lambin's designs for the scene The Kingdom of the Shades, as well as his designs for the last act from miniature models which had been preserved in the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music. The scene of the destruction of the temple was restored using assemblage blueprints kept in the Russian State History Archives.
The 1900 costumes designed by Yevgeny Ponomarev were restored from the original sketches, which were kept in the St. Petersburg State Theatre Library. Technical descriptions of the costumes of La Bayadère, housed in the Russian State History Archives, were used in the reconstruction of the costumes from the 1900 production. Where possible when selecting fabrics, the costume restoration team used those described in the archive documents. Since some of these fabrics are no longer produced today the Mariinsky Theatre's costume technicians, supervised by Tatiana Noginova, used similar materials, and strictly observed the principle of sewing by hand.
The Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet opened the 10th International Stars of the White Nights Festival with their reconstruction of La Bayadère at the Mariinsky Theatre on May 30, 2001, with Daria Pavlenko as Nikiya, Elvira Tarasova as Gamzatti, and Igor Kolb as Solor. The reconstruction received a rather mixed reaction from the St. Petersburg audience, which was largely comprised with the most prominent persons of the Russian ballet. The celebrated Ballerina of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet Altynai Asylmuratova was seen weeping after the performance, allegedly because of her shock at seeing the ballet presented in its original form. When the company included the production on their 2003 tour, it caused a sensation around the world, particularly in New York and London. To date the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet only perform the reconstruction on special occasions.
[edit] Ekaterina Vazem on the first production of 'La Bayadère'
Here follows an account by Ekaterina Vazem, soloist of His Imperial Majesty and Prima Ballerina of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, on the first production of La Bayadère.
"...my next new part was that of the Bayadère Nikiya in La Bayadère, produced by Petipa for my benefit performance at the beginning of 1877. Of all the ballets which I had the occasion to create, this was my favorite. I liked its beautiful, very theatrical scenario, its interesting, very lively dances in the most varied genres, and finally Minkus' music, which the composer managed especially well as regards melody and its coordination with the character of the scenes and dances. I associate with La Bayadère the recollection of a clash with Petipa at rehearsal...We came to rehearsals for the last act. In it Solor is celebrating his wedding to the Princess Hamsatti, but their union is disrupted by the shade of the Bayadère Nikiya, murdered at the bride's wish so that she could not prevent them from marrying. Nikiya's intervention is expressed in the context of a Grand Pas d'action with Solor, Hamsatti, and soloists, among whom the Bayadère's shade suddenly appears, though visible only to her beloved Solor.
Petipa began to produce something absurd for my entrance as the shade, consisting of some delicate, busy little steps. Without a second thought I rejected the choreography, which was not with the music, nor did it match the general concept of the dance - for the entrance of Nikya's shade who is appearing amidst a wedding celebration, something more imposing was required than these minimally effective trifles which Petipa had thought up. Petipa was exasperated - in general the last act was not going well for him, and he wanted to finish the production of the ballet that day no matter what. He produced something else for me in haste, still less successful. Again I calmly told him that I would not dance it. At this he lost his head completely in a fit of temper: "I don' unnerstan what you need to danse?! Yew can't danse one, yew can' danse other! What kin' of talent are yew if yew can' danse noseeg?!" Without saying a word, I took my things and left rehearsal, which had to be cut short as a result.
"The next day, as if nothing had happened, I again took up with Petipa the matter of my entrance in the last act. It was clear that his creative imagination had quite run dry. Hurrying with the completion of the production, he announced to me: "If yew can' danse sometheeg else, then do wha' Madame Gorshenkova does." Gorshenkova, who danced the princess Hamsatti, was distinguished by her extraordinary lightness, and her entrance consisted of a series of high grand jetés from the back of the stage to the footlights. By proposing that I dance her steps Petipa wanted to "needle" me: I was an "earthly" Ballerina, a specialist in complex, virtuoso dances, and in general did not possess the ability to "fly". But I did not back down. "Fine" I answered, "but for sake of variety I will do the same steps not from the last wing but from the first wing". This was much more difficult because it was impossible to take advantage of the incline of the stage (which was raked) to increase the effect of the jumps. Petipa responded "As yew weesh Madame, as yew weesh." I must add that at preparatory rehearsals I never danced, limiting myself to approximations of my dances (or "marking") even without being dressed in ballet slippers. Such was now the case - during this rehearsal I simply walked about the stage among the dancers.
"The day came with the first rehearsal with the orchestra in the theatre. Here of course I had to dance. Petipa, as if wishing to relieve himself of any responsibility for my steps, said to the artists over and over again: "I don' know wha' Madame Vazem will danse, she never danse at reheasals." Waiting to make my entrance, I stood in the first wing, where a voice within me spurred me on to great deeds - I wanted to teach this conceited Frenchman a lesson and demonstrate to him clearly, right before his eyes what a Talent I truly was. My entrance came, and at the first sounds of Minkus' music I strained every muscle, while my nerves tripled my strength - I literally flew across the stage, vaulting pass the heads of the other dancers who were kneeling there in groups, crossing the stage with just three jumps and stopping firmly as if rooted to the ground. The entire company, both on stage and in the audience, broke out into a storm of applause. Petipa, who was on stage, immediately satisfied himself that his treatment of me was unjust. He came up to me and said "Madame, forgive me, I am a fool."
"That day word circulated about my "stunt". Everyone working in the theatre tried to get into the rehearsal of La Bayadère to see my jump. Of the premiere itself, nothing needs to be said. The reception given me from the public was magnificent. Besides the last act, we were all applauded for the scene The Kingdom of the Shades, which Petipa handled very well. Here the grouping and dances were infused with true poetry. The Balletmaster borrowed drawings and groupings from Gustave Doré's illustrations from Dante's The Divine Comedy. I had great success in this scene in the Danse du Voile to Minkus' violin solo played by Leopold Auer. The roster of principals in La Bayadère was in all respects successful: Lev Ivanov as the warrior Solor, Nikolai Golts as the High Brahmin, Christian Johansson as the Rajah Dugmanta of Golconda, Maria Gorshenkova as his daughter Hamsatti, and Pavel Gerdt in the classical dances - all contributed much to the success of La Bayadère, as did the consideralbe efforts of the artists Wagner, Andreyev, Shishkov, Bocharov, and escpecially Roller (who designed the décor), with Roller distinguishing himself as the machinist of the masterful destruction of the temple at the end of the ballet."
[edit] Gallery of the 1900 reconstruction
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[edit] Sources
- American Ballet Theatre. Program for Natalia Makarova's production of La Bayadère. Metropolitan Opera House, 2000.
- Beaumont, Cyril. Complete Book Of Ballets.
- Greskovic, Robert. Ballet 101.
- Guest, Ivor. CD Liner Notes. Léon Minkus, arr. John Lanchbery. La Bayadère. Richard Bonynge Cond. English Chamber Orchestra. Decca 436 917-2.
- Hall, Coryne. Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs.
- Kschessinskaya, Mathilde Felixovna (Princess Romanovsky-Krassinsky). Dancing in St. Petersburg - The Memoirs of Kschessinska. Trans. Arnold Haskell.
- Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet. Souvenir program for the reconstruction of Petipa's 1900 revival of La Bayadère. Mariinsky Theatre, 2001.
- Petipa, Marius. The Diaries of Marius Petipa. Trans. and Ed. Lynn Garafola. Published in Studies in Dance History. 3.1 (Spring 1992).
- Petipa, Marius. Memuary Mariusa Petipa solista ego imperatorskogo velichestva i baletmeistera imperatorskikh teatrov (The Memoirs of Marius Petipa, Soloist of His Imperial Majesty and Ballet Master of the Imperial Theatres).
- Royal Ballet. Program for Natalia Makarova's production of La Bayadère. Royal Opera House, 1990.
- Stegemann, Michael. CD Liner notes. Trans. Lionel Salter. Léon Minkus. Paquita & La Bayadère. Boris Spassov Cond. Sofia National Opera Orchestra. Capriccio 10 544.
- Vazem, Ekaterina Ottovna. Ekaterina Ottovna Vazem - Memoirs of a Ballerina of the St. Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, 1867-1884. Trans. Roland John Wiley.
- Wiley, Roland John. Dances from Russia: An Introduction to the Sergeyev Collection Published in The Harvard Library Bulletin, 24.1 January 1976.
- Wiley, Roland John, ed. and translator. A Century of Russian Ballet: Documents and Eyewitness Accounts 1810-1910.
- Wiley, Roland John. Tchaikovsky's Ballets.
