La Esmeralda (ballet)

Ballet by Cesare Pugni and Jules Perrot

La Esmeralda is a ballet in three acts and five scenes, inspired by the 1831 novel Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot to music by Cesare Pugni, with sets by William Grieve and costumes by Mme. Copère. It was first presented by the Ballet of her Majesty's Theatre, London on 9 March 1844, with Carlotta Grisi as Esmeralda, Jules Perrot as Gringoire, Arthur Saint Leon as Phoebus, Adelaide Frassi as Fleur de Lys, and Antoine Louis Coulon as Quasimodo. Today the complete ballet is performed only in Russia, Eastern Europe, and by two ballet companies in the United States. The New Jersey Ballet introduced the full length version for the first time in the United States in 2004, and the Russian Ballet Orlando performed La Esmeralda for the first time in 2021. Most Western ballet companies only perform two Esmeralda related pieces—La Esmeralda pas de deux and La Esmeralda pas de six—and the Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux, which is actually not excerpted from the ballet, but often mistakenly credited as having been added by Marius Petipa to his 1886 revival of La Esmeralda. Variations from the ballet are still commonly performed by students at ballet competitions.

Jules Perrot for the Imperial Ballet. Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, St. Petersburg, 2 January 1849. Revived especially for the ballerina Fanny Elssler. Cesare Pugni revised his original score for the production. Marius Petipa for the Imperial Ballet in four acts and five scenes. Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, 17 December 1886. Revived especially for the ballerina Virginia Zucchi. Musical revision and additional pas by Riccardo Drigo (including a Pas de six for Virginia Zucchi). Petipa added additional numbers in 1866 (a Pas de deux for the ballerina Claudina Cucchi that became known as the Pas Cucchi to the music of Pugni), 1871 (a Pas de dix for the Ballerina Eugenia Sokolova to the music of Yuli Gerber), and 1872 (a Pas de cinq for the ballerina Adèle Grantzow to music by an unknown composer). Marius Petipa for the Imperial Ballet in four acts and five scenes. Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, 21 November 1899. Revived especially for the Prima Ballerina Assoluta Mathilde Kschessinskaya. Agrippina Vaganova for the Kirov Ballet in three acts. Kirov Theatre of Opera and Ballet, Leningrad, 3 April 1935. Revived especially for the ballerina Tatiana Vecheslova. Vaganova added a "new" Pas d'action as a showpiece for the dancers Galina Ulanova and Vakhtang Chabukiani, which she arranged from the Pas de Diane from Petipa's 1868 ballet Tsar Kandavl or Le Roi Candaule to music by Pugni and Drigo, which is known today as the Diane and Actéon pas de deux. Pyotr Gusev for the Kirov Ballet in three acts. Kirov Theatre of Opera and Ballet, Leningrad, 1949. For the Bolshoi Ballet in 2009, Yuri Burlaka and Vasily Medvedev staged a revival based on Petipa's final 1899 revival of La Esmeralda.