Le Corsaire

Le Corsaire
Quick Facts:
Composer: Adolphe Adam
Choreographer: Joseph Mazilier
Author: Jules Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges / Joseph Mazilier
Premiere: January 23rd, 1856, Paris Opera, Paris
synopsis:
Medora, a young Greek girl, is sold to Pasha by a slave dealer. The pirate Conrad seizes Medora and declares his love for her. Conrad's right-hand-man, who is jealous of Conrad, sends Medora back to the slave dealer who again sells her to Pasha. Conrad and his men show up to take Medora away again but he is recognized through his disguise, captured, and sentenced to death. To save his life, Medora, who is in love with Conrad, plots with a slave girl, Gulnare, to escape. Medora agrees to marry Pasha but during the ceremony Gulnare takes Medora's place, having the ring placed on her finger. That evening Medora dances for Pasha, having convinced him to lay down his weapons, and Conrad enters to take her away. Gulnare produces the ring and declares herself Pasha's lawful wife. The ship on which Medora and Conrad escape sinks in a terrible storm but the two lovers are saved when they wash up on a rocky island.
of note:
Le Corsaire was made famous by the Russian revivals of it by Jules Perrot in 1858 and Marius Petipa in 1868. The Petipa version had musical additions by Cesare Pugni and Léo Delibes. Petipa revived the ballet again in 1899 and added a pas de deux to music by Richardo Drigo. This traditional pas de deux will be performed by most dancers at some point in their career.

Don Quixote

Don Quixote
Quick Facts:
Composer: Ludwig Minkus
Choreographer: Marius Petipa
Author: Marius Petipa
Premiere: December 14th, 1869, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
synopsis:
Prologue: Don Quixote, who is obsessed with stories of medieval chivalry, tells his servant Sancho Panza that he has decided to become a knight errant and improvises a suit of armor. Act I: In a marketplace in Barcelona Kitri is forced by her father, an innkeeper, to accept the offer of marriage of the rich Gamache and turn away Basil, the man she loves. Then Don Quixote arrives at the inn on Rosinante, his horse. He believes he recognizes in Kitri his "loved and idealized" lady Dulcinea. Act II: Don Quixote challenges Gamache to a duel but is mocked and chased away. Back in Barcelona Basil fakes suicide and asks Kitri's father with his "dying breath" for Kitri's hand in marriage. Thinking Basil is dying Kitri's father agrees, at which point Basil stops pretending to die and is happily united with Kitri. Meanwhile, out among the windmills, Don Quixote pays homage to the Gypsy King and joins in dances organized to mock him. Afterwards he attacks the marionettes of a traveling puppet show as if they were enemy soldiers, and taking the windmills to be hostile giants, charges at them. Act III: after being wounded in "combat," Don Quixote retires to the woods to rest, where he falls asleep with Sancho. While asleep, Don Quixote dreams that he is in Dulcinea's garden, which is inhabited by fantastic beings. While there he fights and conquers a giant spider and sees his lady. But then the dream fades away. Now, Don Quixote marches with the Duke and is invited to the Duke's castle. Act IV: At the castle festivities are held in Don Quixote's honour. He is challenged to a duel and horribly defeated by the "Knight of the Silver Moon" who is really just Don Quixote's old friend Carrasco, who makes Don Quixote promise to "sheathe his sword for at least a year." Don Quixote is disappointed but faithful to his word and returns home.
of note:
Although Petipa's creation was not the first ballet to be made from the Don Quixote story, it is by far the most successful and well remembered through several revivals. This is possibly because it was created at the height of Petipa's choreographic career. The grand pas de deux is often performed as a separate piece, but the version most often performed today is Anatole Oboukhov's revived version.

Giselle

Giselle
Quick Facts:
Composer: Adolphe Adam
Choreographer: Jean Coralli / Jules Perrot
Author: Jules Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges / Théophile Gautier
Premiere: June 14th, 1841, Paris Opera, Paris
synopsis:
Act I: in a medieval village in Rhineland the gamekeeper Hilarion is deeply in love with Giselle and just as jealous of Loys, who is really the Duke Albrecht disguised as a peasant. Loys comes to meet Giselle after hiding his sword and sending his equerry away. When Giselle comes out of her house she is courted by Loys. Giselle then plucks the petals from a flower and gets a "he loves me not" answer, but Loys promises eternal love to her. Then Hilarion enters the scene and swears his love for Giselle. He, however, is scorned by Giselle and chased away by Loys and leaves promising revenge. The village people come out and there is music and dancing. Giselle joins in the dancing despite her mother's fears against it because many girls have died after dancing on their wedding night and become wilis, white phantoms who haunt the woods by moonlight. At this point in the party the Prince of Kurland and his daughter Bathilde, who are returning from the hunt, stop in the village. Giselle and the Princess Bathilde dance, and the princess gives Giselle a necklace before leaving. Meanwhile, Albrecht/Loys has been conveniently away. When Albrecht/Loys returns Hilarion unmasks Albrecht, breaking his disguise by showing Albrecht's sword, which he has found. He then sounds his horn to recall the nobles. When they arrive, Albrecht takes the princess,' (to whom he is betrothed), arm, ignores the presence of Giselle, and says that he was simply diverting himself in the country dances. Giselle, crushed by this, goes mad and in her frenzy grabs Albrecht's sword and kills herself with it, falling dead into her mother's arms in front of an astonished and despairing Albrecht. Act II: It is midnight by Giselle's grave in the woods. Hilarion wanders by, mortally afraid. Myrtha, the Queen of the Wilis appears and scatters the petals of every white flower in the woods with a twig, thus calling the rest of the wilis, who arrive to welcome their new companion, Giselle. The wilis hear human footsteps approaching and quickly vanish in the woods, leaving Giselle hovering above her grave. It is Albrecht, who is mourning Giselle, whom he learned to love too late. He places some lilies on her grave, then suddenly sees the hovering Giselle, whom he follows into the woods. The wilis return and Hilarion wanders back on stage. He is immediately surrounded by the wilis who force him to dance until he drops dead of exhaustion. Then Albrecht returns and is condemned to the same fate as Hilarion and all of those who encounter the wilis. Giselle, however, protects him and begs the Queen for mercy, in vain. Albrecht dances, sustained by Giselle's love until the first light of dawn chases the wilis into the woods, and survives.
of note:
One of the most popular ballets of all time this ballet is being performed somewhere by someone almost all the time, and has boasted all of the best dancers in its leading roles since its creation. It is in Giselle that Petipa, (who did some work on the original choreography), created the ballet-blanc, or corps of women, in white, that has become a symbol of classical ballet.

Swan Lake

Swan Lake
Quick Facts:
Composer: Piotr Illich Tchaikovsky
Choreographer: Marius Petipa /Lev Ivanovich Ivanov
Author: Vladimir Beghitchev / Vasili Geletzer
Premiere: January 15th, 1895, Maryinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
synopsis:
Act I: At his castle, Prince Siegfried is celebrating his twenty-first birthday with his friends. His motherarrives and reminds him that he must choose a bride from among the ladies invited to the ball the following day. When Siegfried's mother leaves the party continues, but Siegfried stands apart overcome by a vague melancholy. He sees some white swans fly overhead and decides to leave his friends and go hunt them. Act II: At the banks of a moonlit lake near the castle, a group of swan-maidens appears. The prince has already aimed his bow when the Swan Queen presents herself and tells Siegfried that she is the Princess Odette changed into a swan, like her companions, by the sorcerer Rothbart, a spell from which she can only be freed by one who will swear eternal love to her. Now deeply in love, Siegfried swears he loves Odette and invites her to the ball, then dawn breaks and the swan-maidens are all turned back into swans. Act III: At the ball the prince dances with six young ladies who are presented to him. Then a stranger arrives, Baron Rothbart and his daughter Odile, the evil double of Odette. After looking at her for a while Siegfried decides that she is Odette, his beloved, dances with her, and publicly declares her his bride. Rothbart and his daughter leave in triumph. Then Siegfried sees the white spirit of Odette momentarily at the window and rushes to the lake. Act IV: At the lake, the swans dance sadly as they wait for Odette. When she arrives in tears she falls to the ground among her companions. Siegfried finds her and lifts her tenderly; she is dying. He takes her tiara and throws it into the lake, which rises to submerge both him and Odette. Their spirits fly upwards towards the sky above the lake, which is calm once again.
of note:
The earliest of the Russian "Big Three," Swan Lake is an important part of the repertoire of all of the major classical ballet companies in the world. First staged in 1877 by Wenzel Reisinger, the Petipa version is the one that survives today.

Ballets

ballet...o arta superba si poate cea mai complexa..