Marius Petipa: how a Frenchman made Russian ballet the best in the world. Biography of choreographer Marius Petipa M Petipa biography
TASS-DOSIER. March 11, 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Russian choreographer French descent, ballet dancer, teacher Marius Petipa.
Marius Petipa was born on March 11, 1818 in the French city of Marseille in the family of choreographer Jean-Antoine Petipa and dramatic actress Quiz Morel-Grasso. At birth, he received the name Alphonse Victor Marius Petipa. At the age of four, he moved with his family to Brussels, where his father was invited to work at the Opera and Ballet Theatre.
Initially, he studied music in the violin class. At the age of seven, he began to study choreography with his father, although, according to his own recollections, "did not feel the slightest attraction to this branch of art in childhood." In 1831, he first appeared on stage in a production of Jean-Antoine Petipa's "Dancemania". The talent of the young dancer was appreciated by the public, and at the age of 16 he received a job as a choreographer and soloist at the Nantes Theater.
In 1839 he worked with his father in New York (USA). Returning to France, he studied at the school of the Paris Opera, but was not accepted into the troupe and left for Bordeaux. Then he moved to Madrid, where from 1842 to 1846 he studied ballet, in particular, he was a dancer at the Teatro del Sirco.
In 1847, he accepted the invitation of the director of the Imperial Theaters, Alexander Gedeonov, and moved to St. Petersburg, where he worked almost until the end of his life. According to one version, Marius Petipa left Madrid because of the scandal caused by his escape with the daughter of a Spanish aristocrat. Later, the choreographer himself wrote that he was dissatisfied with the European ballet school, where "they constantly evade real serious art, turning into some kind of clown exercises in dancing."
In Russia, he received the name Marius Ivanovich Petipa. The debut took place on the stage of the St. Petersburg Bolshoi (Stone) Theater in October 1847. Petipa played the role of Lucien in the ballet Paquita by Joseph Mazilier (music by Eduard Deldevez), which he brought to Russia from Paris. A year later, he showed his production at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater. Subsequently, "Paquita" Petipa was on different stages. In its last edition (1896), Matilda Kshesinskaya became the performer of the main part.
In 1848, the dancer, together with his father, staged Mazilier's pantomime ballet "Satanilla" ("The Demon in Love").
In 1855 he began teaching women's classical dance at the St. Petersburg Theater School.
The very first appearance on the stage brought Petipa success with the public, although critics received him coolly. He established himself as a mime artist and character dancer. He performed leading roles in the ballets Esmeralda, Faust, Le Corsaire, staged by the chief choreographer of the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater Jules-Joseph Perrault. In 1849, together with Perrault, he presented his version of Philippe Taglioni's ballet Lida, the Swiss Milkmaid, performing the title men's party Oswald. In 1855 he created the divertissement "The Star of Grenada", then the ballets "Marriage during the Regency", "Paris Market", in which his wife, Maria Surovshchikova, danced.
In 1859 he became assistant to the new choreographer of the Imperial Theaters, Arthur Saint-Leon.
the first major self-staging Petipa was a ballet in three acts "The Pharaoh's Daughter" (composer - Caesar Pugni), based on Theophile Gauthier's novel "Romance of the Mummy". Marius Petipa also wrote the libretto. The ballet premiered in January 1862.
In the same year, Petipa was appointed full-time choreographer of the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theatre. At the same time, until 1869, he continued to perform on stage as a dancer (Albert, Giselle; Count, The Wayward Wife, etc.).
From 1869 to 1903 he served as chief choreographer of the St. Petersburg ballet troupe.
In 1869, Petipa staged the ballet Don Quixote to the music of Ludwig Minkus in Moscow (in 1871, the performance was staged in St. Petersburg in a new version), in which, for the first time, Spanish folk dances were widely used along with classical dance. In 1877 Minkus' La Bayadère premiered at the Bolshoi Theater in St. Petersburg. Ekaterina Vazem performed in the main part, and in 1902 Anna Pavlova. Marius Petipa's production was based on his ballet sibling Lucien "Sakuntala", but the Russian version received its own choreographic incarnation. final picture ballet - "Shadows" - is still considered a model of mass classical dance comparable to the scenes of "Swan Lake".
Marius Petipa was the author of about 60 original performances and 20 new editions already famous productions, dances in operas, divertissements. Their best work choreographer carried out in collaboration with Ivan Vsevolzhsky, director of the Imperial Theaters in 1881-1899.
The choreographer's performances were included in the fund of Russian and world classics, among them "Sleeping Beauty", " Swan Lake"and The Nutcracker" by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, "Raymonda" by Alexander Glazunov. According to critics, the second half of the 19th century in the history of Russian ballet is rightfully considered the "Petipa era".
In 1894, the choreographer received Russian citizenship.
In 1907, at the insistence of doctors, Marius Petipa left for the Crimea, in Gurzuf. He died on July 14, 1910 at the age of 92. After his death, the choreographer's body was transported to St. Petersburg to the Volkovskoye Lutheran cemetery. In 1948, his ashes were transferred to the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Officially, Petipa was married twice, and both times to ballerinas. The first wife of the choreographer was Maria Sergeevna Surovshchikova (1836-1882). Their marriage was registered in 1854, broke up 15 years later. The second wife of Petipa was the ballet dancer of the Imperial Theaters Lyubov Leonidovna Savitskaya. The couple lived together for about 30 years, but officially registered the marriage only after the death of Maria Surovshchikova in 1882. From two wives, Marius Petipa had eight children: sons Ivan (born in 1859), Victor (born in 1879) and Maria (born in 1884), as well as daughters Maria (born in 1857), Nadezhda (born in 1874 year), Eugene (born in 1877), Lyubov (born in 1880) and Vera (born in 1885). Also he had illegitimate daughter and a son, Marius (born 1850). Almost all the children of the choreographer associated themselves with theatrical art- drama and ballet.
A dancer, choreographer and teacher with a name that sounds like an element of classical dance. Marius Petipa is a Frenchman who devoted his life to Russian ballet.
The Brussels theater became the first stage for the native of Marseille Marius Petipa. The first teacher and choreographer was Father Jean Antoine Petipa. In his own production in 1831, Marius first appeared on stage in "Dancemania". The young dancer himself was not enthusiastic about the ballet.
“At the age of seven I began to study and dance art in the class of my father, who broke more than one bow on my hands to acquaint me with the secrets of choreography. The need for such a pedagogical technique stemmed, among other things, from the fact that in my childhood I did not feel the slightest attraction to this branch of art, ”recalled Marius Petipa.
It took Marius only nine years to go from machine tool to classroom to the place of the premiere and even the choreographer at the Nantes theater. As soon as he received his first independent engagement, Petipa began composing dance numbers for operas, one-act ballets and divertissements. Working with his father, he expanded his horizons, touring throughout France, America, Spain. Not being part of the troupe of the Paris Opera, the dancer went to study Spanish dances in order to apply all his knowledge to new service- in Russia.
For plastic surgery - to Russia
The work attracted not only a lucrative contract. The young and already well-known choreographer was not yet thirty, he was quite successful, but Petipa's European ballet itself lacked plasticity and beauty. A hereditary dancer at home saw instead high art"clown exercises"
“Ballet is a serious art, in which plasticity and beauty should prevail, and not all kinds of jumps, senseless whirling and raising the legs above the head ... This is how ballet falls, of course, falls.”
Marius Petipa
The Russian premiere of Marius Petipa took place on the stage of St. Petersburg's Bolshoi (Stone) Theatre. Almost simultaneously as a soloist and director - assistant to the chief choreographer of the theater Jules Perrot. The mentor, before entrusting his young colleague with his own production, sent his student to museums and for books - to gain knowledge in ethnography and history. Only eight years later, Marius Petipa staged his own divertissement based on Spanish motives, The Star of Grenada.
Successful debuts
Scene from the ballet Pharaoh's Daughter. Choreographer Marius Petipa, composer Cesare Pugni. 1862
Maria Petipa and Sergei Legat in the ballet The Pharaoh's Daughter. Choreographer Marius Petipa. 1862
First big ballet Directed by Petipa, The Pharaoh's Daughter was staged in 1862. In this performance, critics noted the skillful mastery of the art of working with soloists and the corps de ballet, but at the expense of the plot. Petersburg received the performance favorably, which cannot be said about the Moscow audience.
Scene from the ballet La Bayadère. 1900
Scene of "Shadows" from the ballet "La Bayadère". Photo from the personal archive of Fyodor Lopukhov. 1900
The first great success of Petipa the choreographer was "La Bayadère" to the music of Ludwig Minkus. At the premiere, Ekaterina Vazem performed in the main role, and in 1902, the then-beginner Anna Pavlova. The performance is based on the French ballet "Sakuntala", staged by Marius' brother, Lucien Petipa, two decades before the St. Petersburg premiere. Nevertheless, critics noted that the Russian "La Bayadère" received its own choreographic embodiment, and the final scene of the play "Shadows" became one of the most striking examples of classical dance.
"The Age of Petipa"
Maria Petipa as the Lilac Fairy. 1900 Photo from the archive of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Marius Petipa
Carlotta Brianza as Aurora and Pavel Gerdt as Desiree. 1890 Photo from the archive of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Marius Petipa became a trendsetter in the world of ballet, defining the development of this art form for many decades to come. The choreographer performed his best performances with light hand Director of the Imperial Theaters Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky. The ballet extravaganza was his old dream. Based on Charles Perrault's fairy tale "The Sleeping Beauty", a script was written. Vsevolozhsky suggested writing music to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The composer demanded detailed plan ballet with the special wishes of the director. The choreographer cut out figures of artists from cardboard and, moving them, sketched the composition of the future performance. Hearing finished work, the director changed the dance pattern, for example, for the Lilac fairy. The result of such co-creation was a ballet that has not left the stage for the second century in the now classical production Marius Petipa. Only during the life of the choreographer, the ballet was performed 200 times.
The Sleeping Beauty is one of the outstanding phenomena in the history of world choreography in the 19th century. This work, the most perfect in Petipa's work, sums up the difficult, not always successful, but persistent searches of the choreographer in the field of ballet symphonism. To a certain extent, it sums up the whole path of choreographic Art XIX century."
Ballet teacher Vera Krasovskaya
At the age of 76, the French choreographer received Russian citizenship, and a year later, together with his student choreographer Lev Ivanov, he staged
Marius Petipa ... a Frenchman whose name turned out to be inextricably linked with the history of the Russian classical ballet. The influence of this man on ballet art was so great that late XIX century is often called the "era of Marius Petipa".
Future great choreographer was born in Marseille in 1818 into an artistic family: his mother was a dramatic actress, and his father, Jean-Antoine Petipa, was a choreographer. We can say that for Marius, and for his older brother Lucien and sister Quiz stage destiny was a foregone conclusion whether they wanted it or not. Seven-year-old Marius did not burn with such a desire at all - as he later recalled, his father "broke more than one bow on his back." Fortunately, Petipa Sr. was quite strict and persistent, and at the age of 13, Marius performed his first role in the ballet "Dancemania" staged by his father - a boy from Savoy, and three years later, a 16-year-old young man began working at the Nantes Theater as the first dancer and even ... a choreographer. Although the troupe was small, the young choreographer had many responsibilities: creating ballet numbers for divertissement, staging dance scenes in operas and one-act ballets.
In subsequent years, Marius Petipa constantly improved his art: touring in America with his father, studying at the school of the Paris Opera, three years of work in Spain, thanks to which he was able to learn Spanish dances ... And now Marius Petipa, who is not even thirty, is very famous in his own country, a choreographer who has bright prospects ... But a career in itself does not interest him - he wants to create, reaching the heights in ballet, which he perceives as "a serious art in which plasticity and beauty should dominate", and European ballet instead This focuses on techniques that Petipa contemptuously calls "clown exercises." Having received an invitation from the Russian authorities, he went to St. Petersburg without hesitation, hoping to meet a different attitude to ballet in Russia and find scope for his creative quest.
Arriving in Petreburg in 1847, Petipa won the recognition of the public, performing on the stage of the Bolshoi Petersburg Theater - and became a student and assistant to Jules-Joseph Perrot, the chief choreographer. He is in no hurry to let the student work independently and orders ... to study ethnography and history, reading books and visiting museums - after all, creativity is impossible without versatile knowledge.
And finally, in 1855, Marius Petipa staged his own divertissement called "Stars of Grenada" - that's when the impressions and knowledge gained in Spain came in handy! Perrault gradually begins to trust him with the production of one-act ballets - "The Parisian Market", "Marriage during the Regency".
In 1860, Marius Petipa staged his first ballet in two acts, The Blue Dahlia. This production did not become his success, but the failure did not make him give up - he thinks about a new ballet, monumental. His attention was drawn to the popular novel at the time. French writer Theophile Gauthier "The Mummy's Romance". Thus was born the ballet "The Pharaoh's Daughter", staged in 1862.
In 1869, Petipa again turned to his Spanish experience - he came in handy when creating the ballet "", largely built on Spanish folk dances- only the part of Dulcinea belonged entirely to the field of classical ballet. In 1871, for a production in Moscow, Petipa nevertheless reworked the ballet, strengthening the role of classical dance in it and reducing the comedic scenes.
For some time, Petipa worked mainly on ballets of an entertaining nature, critics reproached him for "the shamelessness of style, borrowed from the grotesque Italians." But in 1877 he showed the public a true masterpiece - the ballet "", in which the unity of music, dramatic action and dance reached the limit. Both the solo and the mass dance were distinguished not only by grace, but also by logic, giving amazing harmony to the ballet as a whole.
Petipa never looked like a creator, isolating himself from the world "in an ivory tower" - on the contrary, with his work he responded to everything that happened in public life. started Russo-Turkish War- he staged the ballet "Roxana, Beauty of Montenegro", the expedition of Adolf Nordenskiöld went to the North Pole - created "Daughter of the Snows", the intelligentsia of that time were interested in Slavic culture- the ballet "Mlada" appeared. Petipa was especially successful in solo female variations, which were not a sequence of virtuoso techniques, but were a through development of the image.
Meanwhile, the popularity of ballet in Russia is beginning to decline. The way out of the crisis is seen in increasing the role of music in ballet - music that will be written by professional composers. Perhaps the first success in this field would have been "" if it had been staged by Marius Petipa - but this did not happen. More fortunate was the student of Pyotr Ilyich, M. Ivanov - his ballet "Vestalka" staged by Petipa turned out to be successful.
After the failure of Swan Lake, it was not easy to persuade Tchaikovsky to create a new ballet - but nevertheless he took on the plot that the director of the imperial theaters offered him. It was the story of the Sleeping Beauty. Collaboration with Tchaikovsky was difficult for Marius Petipa, but extremely fruitful. The premiere took place in 1890. Criticism fell on the new work, arguing that "they don't go to ballet to listen to symphonies" - but it was accepted by the public. Petipa also staged the next ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, also comparable to the symphony - "".
During the 17 years that Vsevolzhsky headed the imperial theaters, Marius Petipa staged many excellent ballets. Along with Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, these were "", "Flora Awakening" and many others. With the advent of the new director - Telyakovsky - the position of the choreographer in the theater did not change in better side. Perhaps Telyakovsky would have got rid of Marius Petipa altogether if the emperor had not favored the great choreographer, but - not being able to fire him - the director constantly interfered with his work.
IN last years life - despite his advanced age and declining health - Marius Petipa regularly visited the theater, willingly gave advice to artists.
The great choreographer passed away in 1910. He is buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Music Seasons
“I consider St. Petersburg ballet the first in the world precisely because it has preserved that serious art that was lost abroad.”
M. Petipa
The outstanding ballet dancer and choreographer Marius Petipa cannot be divided between Russia and France. Both of them consider him theirs. Both France and Russia have every reason for this. He was such a powerful figure in Russian ballet that the second half of the 19th century is called the “Petipa era” in ballet. Thanks to him
Russian ballet was considered the best in the world.
Petipa Marius Ivanovich (as he was called in Russia, his real name is Alphonse Victor Marius Petipa), a Frenchman by birth, was born in Marseille on February 27 (March 11), 1818 in a family of ballet dancers. His father was the famous dancer Jean-Antoine Petipa (1787-1855), and his mother, Victorine Grasso, was famous as the performer of the first roles in tragedies. “Serving art then passed from generation to generation,” recalled Marius Petipa, “and history French theater has many theatrical families.” The Petipa family, like most of her kind, led a nomadic lifestyle.
In 1822, Petipa, his father, received an invitation to Brussels, where he moved with his entire family. Marius Petipa received his general education at the Brussels Gymnasium, while attending the Fetis Conservatory, where he studied solfeggio and learned to play the violin. From the age of seven, Marius and his older brother Lucien began to study choreography in the class of their father, who opposed the playing of children on the violin. “A few years ago I began to study dance in the class of my father, who broke more than one bow on my hands to acquaint me with the secrets of choreography. The need for such a pedagogical method arose, among other things, from the fact that in my childhood I did not feel the slightest attraction to this branch of art. But, despite all the stubbornness, little Marius had to accept, yielding to the perseverance of his father and the persuasion of his mother. At the age of nine, Marius first appeared before the public in the ballet "Dancemania" (La Dansomani), which was composed and staged by his father (based on the choreography of Pierre Gardel), and played the part of the son of a nobleman from Savoy.
Marius Petipa studied dancing and violin until August 1830, when a revolution broke out in Brussels, which began right at the time of theatrical performance from the opera Fenella, or the Mute from Portici. Local theaters then stopped their activities for fifteen months, which affected the work of the Petipa family. My father began to give lessons in secular dances in Brussels boarding houses, and Lucien and Marius, so that their relatives would not starve, earned by correspondence of notes. Then, after a long hesitation, Antoine Petipa decided to rent a theater in Antwerp and give several ballet performances in this theater, and the entire troupe consisted only of members of his family.
This continued until 1834, when, after a 12-year stay in Belgium, Petipa's father received an invitation to take the place of choreographer in Bordeaux (France). There, Marius already seriously studied dancing and studied the theory of “pa” with Auguste Vestris. The boys' choreography classes not only continued, but became more and more serious and in-depth. Marius was 16 years old when he received his first independent engagement. It seems incredible, but in 1838 the nineteen-year-old Petipa not only received the role of the first dancer in the Nantes theater, but also became a choreographer. True, the ballet troupe was small, and the young choreographer “had only to compose dances for operas, stage one-act ballets of his own composition and invent ballet numbers for divertissements.”
Marius composed and staged three ballets: "The Rights of the Seigneur", "The Little Gypsy" and "The Wedding in Nantes". The novice artist received little, but, nevertheless, remained in Nantes for the second season. True, he soon got injured on stage - while dancing, he broke his lower leg and lay in bed for six weeks. Contrary to the contract, he was left without a salary. After recovery, Marius recovers with his father in New York. The father was invited as the choreographer, Marius as the first dancer and they performed five days after their arrival in New York. They were full of the brightest hopes, which their impresario strengthened in them. Unfortunately, this trip turned out to be extremely unsuccessful, and the father and son "fell into the hands of an international swindler." Having received almost no money for the several performances that had taken place, they returned to France.
Marius' older brother, Lucien, had already been accepted into the Bolshoi Ballet Company by that time. Paris Opera. Marius continued to take choreography lessons for some time, and then was honored to participate in the benefit performance of the famous French actress Rachel, where he danced with such a big star as Carlotta Grisi. Participation in this event theater life was so successful that a few days later Marius Petipa was invited to Bordeaux as the first dancer in the local theater, which was then considered one of the best in France. In Bordeaux, Marius spent only eleven months, but his name had already become known, and he began to receive invitations to various theaters in Europe as a dancer and choreographer. In 1842 he was invited to Spain, Royal Theater in Madrid, where he was a huge success. Here Petipa first met Spanish dance. Later, on the occasion of the marriage of Queen Isabella, he creates one-act ballet"Carmen and her Toreador". In Madrid, he staged several more of his ballets: “The Pearl of Seville”, “The Adventures of a Daughter of Madrid”, “Flowers of Gredana” and “Departure for a Bullfight”, composed a polka, which then went around the world.
In 1846, however, Petipa was forced to return to France. He himself in his memoirs claims that the reason was a romantic love story with the wife of the Marquis de Chateaubriand, because of which the choreographer almost had to fight a duel. Be that as it may, he returned to Paris. And there, literally on the stage of the Paris Opera, where Marius Petipa, together with his brother Lucien, participated in Teresa Elsler's farewell benefit performance, he was invited from Russia. The chief choreographer of the St. Petersburg troupe and ballet inspector A.Tityus offered him the place of the first dancer. Marius Petipa accepted him without hesitation, and on May 29, 1847, he arrived in St. Petersburg by steamer from Le Havre.
In the first contract with the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters, Petipa undertook the obligation “to fulfill the position as the first dancer and mimic. In this position, I undertake to dedicate all my talents and abilities to the good and benefit of the directorate, and to play the roles given to me on days and hours according to the appointment of the directorate, both at the highest court, and in city theaters, where it will be ordered, even in two theaters on the same day. if this turns out to be necessary and in general to obey all those distributions, which only the directorate pleases to make; ... without demanding for that, except for the ordinary, any other remuneration. The talented choreographer, who was not yet thirty years old, left his homeland not only because he was offered a profitable place in Russia. In France his name became famous and he could make brilliant career without going to a foreign country. But the attitude to ballet in Europe did not suit him. He considered Russia the only country where this art flourished and stood on the right track. Of European ballet, he later said that they “constantly evade real serious art, turning into some kind of clown exercises in dances. Ballet is a serious art in which plasticity and beauty should dominate, and not all kinds of jumps, senseless whirling and raising the legs above the head ... ”Petipa defined in this statement the basic principles that he always guided in his work - plasticity, grace and beauty.
As Nikolai Legat recalled about him (Petipa was a friend of his father), “young, handsome, cheerful, gifted, he immediately gained popularity among artists.” Petipa was not a brilliant dancer, and his success in this field was due to hard work and personal charm. Many noted that as a classical dancer he was much weaker than as a character dancer. His artistry and excellent mimic abilities were noted. In all likelihood, if Marius Petipa had not become a dancer and choreographer, then the dramatic scene would have acquired a magnificent actor. According to the famous ballerina and teacher Ekaterina Ottovna Vazem, “dark burning eyes, a face expressing a whole gamut of emotions and moods, a wide, understandable, convincing gesture and a deep insight into the role and character of the depicted person put Petipa on a height that very few of his brothers reached. on art. His game could in the most serious sense of the word excite and shock the audience.
However, the main field of his activity was the work of the choreographer, in which he was an unsurpassed master. For half a century, he was actually the head of the Mariinsky Theater - one of the best ballet theaters peace. As a result, Petipa became a trendsetter in the world of ballet, not only for the Russian stage, but also for the world. A certain difficulty for the choreographer was his poor knowledge of the Russian language, which he practically never mastered for long years stay in Russia. True, ballet terminology is mainly based on French. In addition, the choreographer, even in old age, preferred not to explain, but to show the dancers exactly what they needed to do, using words only to a minimal extent. According to Legat, “the most interesting moments came when Petipa was composing mimic scenes. Showing each individual his role, he was so carried away that we all sat with bated breath, afraid to miss even the slightest movement of this outstanding mime. When the scene ended, thunderous applause was heard, but Petipa did not pay attention to them ... Then the whole scene was repeated anew, and Petipa brought the final polish, making comments to individual performers.
Marius came to St. Petersburg to replace the first dancer Gredler, who was leaving for Paris, three weeks before the opening of the season. The first performance staged by Marius Petipa on the St. Petersburg stage was the ballet "Paquita", the author of which was the French choreographer J. Mazilier. Petipa was supposed to make his debut in it and perform with Andreyanova. This artist was no longer young and did not use special success the public, despite the fact that she was very talented. The premiere of "Paquita" on the stage of the St. Petersburg Bolshoi (Stone) Theater in October 1847 earned the favorable approval of Nicholas I, and shortly after the first performance, the emperor sent the choreographer a precious ring in recognition of his talent. The ballet Paquita has been staged by Marius Petipa for more than 70 years, and some fragments from it are still performed today. In the future, Petipa continued to dance quite a lot in ballet performances, but more and more time began to occupy his work as a choreographer. That season, Marius performed many more times in Paquita, in the ballet Giselle with Andreyanova, in the ballet Peri with Smirnova. Also, Petipa's father was invited to St. Petersburg as a dance professor in the male classes of the Imperial Theater School.
Towards the end of the season, Marius Petipa's benefit performance was given, and on this occasion he staged new ballet“The Devil in Love” (“Satanilla”), to the music of N. Reber and F. Benois, in which Andreyanova played the first role. Participated in this ballet and his father, who performed the part of the tutor, in which he had great success. On next year Petipa was sent to Moscow to stage both ballets there: Paquita and Satanilla. While Petipa was in Moscow, an invitation came to St. famous star Fanny Elsler. And the rehearsals of the ballet "Esmeralda" (music by C. Pugni) began, in which she performed main party, and Petipa performed the part of Phoebus. Subsequently, Petipa performed leading roles in the ballets Faust (music by Pugni and G. Panizza), Le Corsaire (music by A. Adam), as well as in his own productions. Having composed a number of one-act performances at the turn of the 1850s and 1860s, in 1862 he became famous for his production of The Pharaoh's Daughter (music by Puni), which struck with spectacle and dance richness.
Maria Sergeevna Surovshchikova-Petipa in the ballet "The Pharaoh's Daughter"
In 1862, he was officially appointed choreographer of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theaters (since 1869 - chief choreographer) and held this position until 1903. On stage, he also found a wife by marrying a dancer: “In 1854, I married the girl Maria Surovshchikova, the most graceful person who could be compared with Venus herself.” Having received a vacation in St. Petersburg, the Petipa family went on a three-month tour of Europe. In Paris and Berlin, Surovshchikova-Petipa's performances were a great success. However, the dancer, who possessed the “grace of Venus”, in family life was far from perfect wife: “In domestic life, we could not get along with her in peace and harmony for long. The dissimilarity of characters, and perhaps the false pride of both soon made life together impossible." The couple had to leave.
For the second time, Marius Petipa married the daughter of the famous artist Leonidov in those years, actress Lyubov Leonidovna Savitskaya ( stage name). Since then, according to Petipa himself, he “learned for the first time what it means family happiness, a pleasant home.” The difference in age (Marius Petipa was 55 years old, Lyubov - 19), characters, temperament of the spouses was very large, however, as their youngest daughter Vera wrote in her memoirs, this did not prevent them from living together for many years and love each other very much.
The artistic family was large, and all the children of Petipa connected their fate with the theater. Four of his sons became dramatic actors, four of his daughters danced on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. True, none of them reached the heights of fame, although they all perfectly mastered the choreographic technique. With the most talented of Petipa's daughters, Evgenia, family grief is connected. At a very young age, this promising dancer fell ill with sarcoma. Her leg had to be amputated, but this did not help, and the girl died. Marius Petipa paid great attention to his studies with his daughters, but in the family circle he showed much less patience than in the theater. His daughters complained that he was too demanding of them and reproached them for not having the data of famous dancers of their time. In the theater, Marius Ivanovich, as they began to call him in Russia, remembering his temper, preferred to speak out only if he liked the work of the artist. If he was dissatisfied, he simply tried not to notice him, and expressed his comments later.
The list of ballets staged by Marius Ivanovich Petipa on the Russian stage is very large - there are about 70 of them, and 46 original productions, not counting dances for operas and divertissements. Among his most famous ballets, which have become models classical choreography– “Paquita” (1847), “King Candaulus” (1868), “Don Quixote” (1869), “Camargo” (1872), “Butterfly” (1874), “The Adventures of Peleus” (1876), “La Bayadère” (1877), “Cyprus Statue” (1883), “Coppelia” (1884), “Vain Precaution” (1885), “Talisman” (1889), “Sleeping Beauty” (1890), “Sylphide” (1892), “ The Nutcracker (1892), Cinderella (1893), Swan Lake (1895), The Humpbacked Horse (1895), Bluebeard (1896), Raymonda (1898), Magic Mirror ( 1903) and many others. Almost all of them were a resounding success.
Petipa's ballets favorably differed from those created in those years on the French and Italian stage. They were by no means a collection of dance numbers cemented by corps de ballet performances. In each ballet of Marius Petipa there was a clear plot, to which all the action was subordinate. It was the plot that connected the solo parts, pantomime and corps de ballet dances into a single whole. Therefore, all these choreographic techniques in Petipa's ballets do not look like separate numbers, but are organically connected with each other. True, later the young choreographers reproached Petipa for being too great importance attached to pantomime, which he most often used as a link, but such was the trend of his time.
Petipa considered his best work to be the ballet Sleeping Beauty, in which he was able to embody the desire for symphony in ballet to the greatest extent. And the very structure of the ballet was built on the symphonic principle of a clear organization of all parts and their correspondence to each other, interaction and interpenetration. Collaboration with Tchaikovsky helped this a lot. The composer himself claimed: “After all, the ballet is the same symphony.” And the fairy-tale plot gave the choreographer the opportunity to put on the stage a wide, enchanting beautiful action magical and solemn at the same time.
Scene from the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" Mariinskii Opera House, reconstruction of the play by Marius Petipa
The success and stage longevity of Petipa's ballets was due to his approach to staging them. He believed that technique is of great importance for ballet, but is not the main goal of the artist. The virtuosity of the performance must be combined with figurativeness and artistry, the dancer's correct understanding of the essence of his role. Interestingly, personal likes and dislikes have never influenced the work of a choreographer. If he did not like any artist, however he was the best performer one or another role, Petipa without the slightest hesitation gave him the part, looked with pleasure at her performance on stage, but after the end of the performance he turned away from the performer and stepped aside. Despite such a frank demonstration of hostility, every dancer or dancer could always be sure of an objective assessment of their professional qualities.
Petipa's performances enjoyed such success not only because he was an excellent choreographer, who was fluent in all the intricacies of choreographic compositions. A Frenchman by birth, Marius Petipa managed to imbue the spirit of Russian dance, which he valued above all that was created in Europe. “I consider St. Petersburg ballet the first in the world precisely because it has preserved that serious art that was lost abroad.”
About Russian ballet, he invariably said “our ballet”. France was the country in which Marius Petipa was born. Russia became his homeland. He accepted Russian citizenship and did not want another fatherland for himself even when he was suspended from work in the theater. He considered Russian artists to be the best in the world, saying that the ability to dance among Russians is simply innate and requires only training and polishing.
It is difficult to speak of any Petipa system. He himself did not make practically any theoretical generalizations of his work, and all his notes regarding ballet performances are quite specific in nature, regarding compositions and dances. Those who worked with him said that Petipa always tried to create a choreographic drawing based on the technical capabilities of the ballerina. Moreover, it was the ballerinas, and not the dancer, since he was less successful in staging male dances than female ones. Compiling overall plan ballet, Marius Petipa, as a rule, applied for the production of male solo dances to other choreographers - Ioganson, Ivanov, Shiryaev, while he always set the women's choreographers himself. Like any person of art, Petipa was, of course, ambitious, but false pride could not make him refuse to seek help from his colleagues at the expense of the quality of the ballet.
Marius Petipa also treated the search for young ballet masters with interest and respect. Refuting all accusations of inertia and conservatism, of rejecting everything new, he reacted very approvingly to the productions of the young Mikhail Fokin, blessing his student for further creativity. The main thing for Petipa was that Fokine observed those principles that Petipa himself sacredly adhered to - beauty and grace.
Possessing impeccable taste, vast experience and artistic flair, in the last years of his work, the old choreographer not without reason gave the parts in his ballets La Bayadere and Giselle to the very young Anna Pavlova, despite the fact that there were much more experienced applicants for these parts, famous ballerinas. In an aspiring dancer with still imperfect technique, Petipa was able to discern, perhaps even more than she herself could see at that time.
However, the last years of the great choreographer's work were overshadowed by the attitude of the new director of the Imperial Theaters Telyakovsky towards him. He could not dismiss Marius Petipa, since Emperor Nicholas II was a fan of the artist's work, who expressed a desire that Petipa remain the first choreographer until the end of his life. Indeed, despite the advanced age, Creative skills choreographers did not fade away, his mind remained alive and clear, and his energy and efficiency were amazing even for his much younger colleagues. According to Solyannikov, “Petipa kept pace with the times, followed the growing talents that allowed him to expand creative frames and enrich the palette of the performance with fresh colors”.
Unable to fire the choreographer, Telyakovsky began to put obstacles in his productions. He constantly interfered creative process, giving impracticable instructions and making incompetent remarks, which, naturally, could not leave Petipa indifferent. ballet troupe supported the old master, but conflicts with the management continued. According to the memoirs of Petipa's daughter, while working on the production of the ballet "Magic Mirror" her father "had big troubles with the directorate." Due to Telyakovsky's intervention in the premeditated design and lighting of the stage, the ballet turned out to be completely different from what it was intended to be. This took such a heavy toll on Petipa that he was stricken with partial paralysis. Subsequently, when his health improved somewhat, he visited the theater from time to time, and the artists did not forget him and constantly visited their beloved master, often turning to him for advice.
Despite the fact that the last years of his work were overshadowed by these behind-the-scenes intrigues, Marius Petipa retained an ardent love in Russian ballet and for Russia. His memoirs end with the words: “Recalling my career in Russia, I can say that it was the happiest time of my life ... God bless my second homeland, which I love with all my heart.”
Russia remained grateful to the great master. True, during the period of the overthrow of the “obsolete” Marius Petipa’s ballets were subjected to many alterations, but over time, new talented choreographers no longer set themselves the task of altering Petipa’s works, but their careful, loving restoration to their original form.
Marius Petipa actually consolidated and streamlined the foundations of classical ballet with his works, academic dance that existed before him in a fragmented form. The spectacle and symphony of Marius Petipa's ballets have become a model for all creators for many decades. ballet performances. Ballet ceased to be just a spectacle - Petipa introduced dramatic, moral content. The name of Marius Petipa will forever remain in the history of world choreography.
