"Ондин или Наяда: История балета"

the ballet by Jules Perrot and Cesare Pugni

Ondine, ou La naïade is a ballet in three acts and six scenes with choreography by Jules Perrot, music by Cesare Pugni, and a libretto inspired by the novel Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. Pugni dedicated his score to Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge, a long time balletomane and patron of the arts in London. Whilst the original London production used the title Ondine, ou La naïade, Perrot staged a revival of the ballet under the title, La naïade et le pêcheur, a title which was used for all subsequent productions of the ballet.

The ballet was first presented by the ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre, London on 22 June 1843. Fanny Cerrito danced the title rôle, while Perrot himself played her mortal beloved, the fisherman Mattéo. The original scenery was designed by William Grieve. A contemporary review described it as " one of the most beautiful productions that any stage ever boasted of." and praised Cerrito as a " step revealing goddess." Cesare Pugni's score was hailed as a masterwork of ballet music. The Times, a London newspaper, described Pugni's score as

In 1863, Henri Justamant notated the staging of the ballet in Brussels. A very detailed description of this version is extant, currently held in the Schloss Wahn archive. The number of scenes was reduced from six (as in the 1843 London production) to four. Notably, the opening crowd scene was deleted, and other aspects were changed. Ondine's lighter than air jump off a rock in her first scene with Matteo (London production), for example, was downsized to a flight into one of the wings. In some places, Justamant's notated version seems to agree with descriptions of Perrot's original version for London, and it could likely be that Justamant had access to a detailed description of the Perrot original.

During his engagement as Premier Maître de Ballet of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres in Russia, Jules Perrot presented an elaborately expanded production of Ondine, ou La Naïade under the title La Naïade et le pêcheur (The Naiad and the Fisherman) at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre on 11 February 1851 [O. S. January 30 1851]. For the production, Cesare Pugni, who had accompanied Perrot to Russia, extensively revised and expanded his original score of 1843. The production premiered to great success. On 23 July 1851 [O. S. 11 July 1851], Perrot presented his production for a performance at Peterhof Palace staged especially for the celebrations held in honor of the name day of the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, daughter of Emperor Nicholas I. For the performance, a stage was erected above the water of the lake of the Ozerky Pavilion. Marius Petipa revived Perrot's La Naïade et le pêcheur for the Imperial Ballet on several occasions throughout his career as Premier Maître de Ballet during the latter half of the 19th century. In 1867 he revised much of the choreography for the performance of Ekaterina Vazem, with Pugni composing two new variations especially for her performance. Petipa later staged his own complete revivals of the full length work:
7 November 1874 [O. S. 27 October 1874] for the prima ballerina Eugenia Sokolova, with musical revisions by Ludwig Minkus. 2 October 1892 [O. S. 20 September 1892] for the prima ballerina Anna Johansson, with musical revisions by Riccardo Drigo. Cesare Pugni's grandson, Second Maître de Ballet of the Imperial Theatres and former premier danseur Alexander Shiryaev, mounted a revival of La Naïade et le pêcheur especially for the prima ballerina Anna Pavlova. The revival premiered on 20 December 1903 [O. S. 7 December 1903], and was the last revival of Perrot's ballet staged in Imperial Russia, though the full length ballet continued being performed by the Leningrad ballet until 1931. The Ballet Master Pierre Lacotte staged a revival of Perrot's ballet under the title Ondine for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet, a production that opened on 16 March 2006 at the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg, Russia, with a new version of Cesare Pugni's score assembled from his original composition of 1843 and his revised edition of 1851. Sir Frederick Ashton paid tribute to Perrot in his own choreography for Hans Werner Henze's music for Ondine by incorporating his own version of the Shadow Dance into the first act.