La Bayadère (1877) is Marius Petipa’s (1818-1910) last tragic ballet and the first of his many masterpieces. It is the 58-year-old matre of Petersburg ballet’s colorful, slightly nostalgic farewell to the romantic illusions and melodrama that were close to his heart.

Right into his old age, Petipa was a gallant admirer of the fair sex. The symbol of ballet for him was the female ballerina. A native of the Mediterranean, with its cult of the Madonna, the Virgin Mary, Petipa, as a true Frenchman, saw in woman a being who was more refined and harmonic than was man. He was a devoted knight of the ballerina and the creator of ballets that were mainly for women. To men he allocated the modest role of gallant partners to beautiful ballerinas, and they danced comparatively little.

Such is the basis of Petipa’s ballet aesthetic and La Bayadère too was created according to its canons. Ballerina Ekaterina Vazem (1848-1937), the creator of the role of Nikia, writes about this in her memoirs. Her Solor at the ballet’s première at Petersburg’s Bolshoi Theatre (February 4, 1877) was Lev Ivanov (1834-1901) – the future choreographer of the immortal swan scenes in Swan Lake. La Bayadère was a model example of a 19^th century stylistic trend called eclecticism, which the French refer to now as the style of Napoleon III, now as neo-baroque. The age of eclecticism has left posterity marvelous works of art: the magnificent building of the Paris Opéra and the Casino at Monte Carlo by architect Charles Garnier, the paintings and prints by Gustave Doré and the canvases by Gustave Moreau. It was in fact Doré’s illustrations to Dante’s Divine Comedy which inspired Petipa when he was creating his masterpiece.

Eclecticism, this somewhat unwieldy proto-modernism, combines things that, at first glance, appear to be incompatible – and the same applies, incidentally, to La Bayadère. Here everyone will find something to their own taste: romantic exotica, traits of pure academic classicism, melodrama and much else.

In the first La Bayadère there was just about everything! A melodramatic storyline about the love of two perjurers with a tragic ending, the classical conflict between love and duty, a class conflict – the rivalry between a Rajah’s daughter and a poor bayadère, and a finale that bordered on the blasphemous for an imperial theatre: the death of the rulers, Brahmin priests and courtiers, under the ruins of the temple which collapsed, at the command of the enraged Gods, during Solor and Gamzatti’s wedding ceremony. Added to which in the ballet there was a huge number of solo, ensemble classical and character dances, grand processions and pantomime episodes, particularly popular with balletomanes was the famous “jealousy scene between the two rivals”– Nikia and Gamzatti. But La Bayadère also contained more subtle material, including mystical symbolism. Right from Scene l, the audience was haunted by the disturbing feeling that the heroes were at the mercy of “a punitive sword from the heavens”.

The Ballet Within the Ballet

Of course, many creative personalities in the positivist 19^th century were drawn to mysticism, felt a need to become acquainted with the occult sciences, whose homeland was considered to be the East. But it is hardly likely that Petipa who, in La Bayadère, had unwittingly created his own “metaphysics”, his own “nirvana” and “white man’s East”, belonged to their number. His Shades act, like Ivanov’s white swans – is ballet for all seasons. From the gorges of the Himalayas a procession of Shades appears (a shade is equivalent to soul in romantic terminology!) in white tunics and with circlets on their heads to which, as to the dancers’ arms, are attached white, ethereal veils, representing wings. (Nikia too dances a variation with a veil).

The almost meditative pace of their entrance, in which the vertical of the divine world alternates gracefully with the horizontal linear of the earth – arabesque, port de bras, pas, arabesque, port de bras, pas – is reminiscent of an unending prayer or eastern melody. This apparently simple, but essentially brilliant dance combination, is like waves in the endless ocean of being: ebb, flow, ebb, flow…

In a symbolic ‘‘snake’’, the white-winged Shades descend like mist from off the mountains, gradually covering the whole stage and forming up in a square or rectangle – a sign of the earth. The number of Shades speaks volumes too – at the first performance of the ballet at Petersburg’s Bolshoi Theatre there were 64 of them (a chess board or an ideal square!), later at the Mariinsky Theatre– there were 32. These are magic numbers in numerology and will be met with again In classical ballet– viz., the 32 swans in Swan Lake and the 64 snowflakes In Lev Ivanov’s Nutcracker… The dance of the Shades is hypnotizing: it never fails to plunge the audience into an unconsciously-ecstatic contemplation of beauty. The Shades Act, moreover, is a moment of spiritual regeneration for Solor. He begins it with a lyrical, nocturnal memory of his “beloved Shade” and completes it with an exultant (‘‘forever together”) coda.

La Bayadère’s Destiny After Petipa

Over the course of time, La Bayadère has undergone numerous changes. Petipa himself altered several of the dances and did two revivals at the Mariinsky Theatre of this ‘‘holy’’ ballet which has always been popular with audiences and loved by dancers. The last act of La Bayadère, with its earthquake and collapsing temple walls, was dropped in the post-revolutionary years when the technical means for presenting it on stage were lacking and only extremely rarely thereafter has it been revived.

In1941, the whole ballet was fundamentally re-edited with additional new dances by Vladimir Ponomaryov and Vakhtang Chabukiani. For himself and Natalia Dudinskaya (Nikia), Chabukiani created a duet-meeting between the two main characters in Act 1, and an extended wedding pas, for Solor and Gamzatti, including a male variation, in Act 2, making use here of part of the music for the discarded, final act. The ballet ended with the hero’s suicide. But this scene was subsequently to be replaced by another – Solor was left with the Shades. In 1948, Nikolai Zubkovsky mounted for himself the virtuoso Bronze Idol variation, and Konstantin Sergeyev – th eduet for Nikia and the slave girl in the Rajah’s palace, when the bayadère came to give the Rajah’s daughter her blessing.

La Bayadère at the Bolshoi Theatre

At the Bolshoi Theatre, where it appeared very belatedly, this Marius Petipa masterpiece was to have a different performance history. It was transferred here, in a version “based on Petipa”, by choreographer Alexander Gorsky (1871-1924). Among the first Moscow Nikias were Lyubov Roslavleva and the famous Ekaterina Geltzer. While the role of Solor was danced both by the temperamental Muscovite, Mikhail Mordkin, and by the orthodox classical dancer, Vasily Tikhomirov. Gorsky was subsequently to mount several revivals of the ballet. And, in 1917, he even created his own version which was designed in “Indian style” by Konstantin Korovin. Under the influence of his acquaintance with Siamese ballet and with Indian works of art, particularly its embossed metal-work, innovator-Gorsky rejected Petipa’s of the corps de ballet, who danced the Shades, in different colored costumes, resembling saris. The climax of Gorsky’s La Bayadère was not the Shades act, but rather the wedding feast, which abounded in fantastical, in terms of their line and pattern, groups.

In 1923, the classical ballet enthusiast, Vasily Tikhomirov, revived the Shades Act in Petipa’s choreography, with the addition of girl ballet school pupils, deployed on ledges and cliffs, who repeated the movements of the corps de ballet. It was in this version of the ballet, which remained in the repertory from 1917-1936 and was given 126 performances, that Marina Semyonova, one of the best Nikias of her time, made her Moscow debut. During the war, La Bayadère was revived at the Bolshoi Theatre Small Stage, and the lead role was danced by Sophia Golovkina.

And it was only 1991, that Yuri Grigorovich returned to the Bolshoi Marius Petipa’s full-length ballet preserving, in so far as was possible, the original Mariinsky Theatre version, but also adding many dances of his own.

Violeta Mainiece
(text from La Bayadère booklet, abriged)

Ballet "La Bayadere" History

The fires of the French revolution had scarcely flickered out when the bright flame of the Romantic movement began to illuminate and transform the arts in Europe. The romantic movement in ballet was born in Paris on November 21, 1831. The occasion was the premiere of Mayerbeer’s opera Robert le diable which featured a ballet sequence in which white-clad ghosts of dead nuns rose from their tombs and danced a Valse infernale in eerie moonlight. Such an amazing success was this episode - it became overnight the talk of Paris - that the tenor, Adolphe Nourrit who was singing Count Robert, wrote a scenario for a new ballet with a supernatural story, La Sylphide and offered it to the choreographer of the Valse infernale, Filippo Taglioni. Taglioni’s daughter Marie, who had led the nuns in the opera ballet, created the lead role in La Sylphide. There followed a spate of ballets with supernatural themes of which the most famous was Giselle in 1842.

Petipa built his ballet La Bayadère on a strong Romantic base using his own brand of classical aesthetic. Typical of the Romantic period is the choice of exotic locale and the incorporation of ethereal beings. Petipa based La Bayadère on the Indian classics by Kalidasa, Sakuntala and The Cart of Clay. The Kingdom of the Shades seems to have been inspired by Gustav Doré’s illustrations for Dante’s Paradiso. The Kingdom of the Shades is notable in that it extended the frontiers of classical dance, providing an opportunity for the dancers to showcase their pointe technique with classical purity in contrast to the drama that surrounded it. It is regarded as the precursor of the white acts of Swan Lake and Fokine’s famous Les Sylphides. La Bayadère also contained monumental processional scenes including a live elephant and a tiger. (In reference to the opera Aida, La Bayadère was tagged «Giselle, East of Suez.») La Bayadère was first performed at the Maryinsky Theater, St. Petersburg, February 4, 1877.

Although Petipa enjoyed authority as sole ballet master of the St. Petersburg theaters mounting a new ballet was fraught with difficulties. La Bayadère was produced in a period when official policy discouraged the invitation of foreign ballerinas to Russia. Leading Russian dancers were the equivalent technically of their foreign counterparts but did not have the ability to attract the audiences. There were also scheduling problems with the Imperial Italian Opera which monopolized rehearsal time on stage and left only two performances a week for the ballet. The opera also spent a lot of money which placed fiscal restraint on the ballet by theater director Karl Karlovich. It is reported that Petipa and his régisseur spent six months showing artists their individual sections and could only put it all together once on stage. There was only one dress rehearsal.

Despite being a benefit performance for Ekaterina Vazem, with tickets being more expensive than for the opera, the first performance of La Bayadère played to a full house. At the end of the performance the audience applauded for more than half an hour. Among Mme Vazem’s gifts was a ruby broach studded with diamonds, from the public, and flowers from the opera star Adelina Patti. Reviews were uniformly complimentary although they did register complaints of Petipa’s license in dealing with historical facts. They also dwelt on the unavoidable mishaps that befall most first performances. For example in the ‘Kingdom of the Shades’ scene the appearance of a magic palace was mistimed and delayed until after Nikiya had turned to face it.

The original production of La Bayadère did not long survive Ekaterina Vazem’s retirement. Between the premiere and Vazem’s farewell February 17, 1884, it was given approximately 70 performances. Anna Johanson took over the lead role five times in the 1884-85 season. After the second act alone was performed in 1885, La Bayadère was dropped from the repertoire.

In 1900 a revival was mounted to mark the 40th anniversary of dancer Pavel Gerdt’s artistic career. He took the role of Solor in a largely unchanged production. The entrance of the Shades was presented on a darkened stage (originally it had been lit brilliantly), and the number of dancers expanded from 32 to 48. It appears that much of the music was shortened. Although the dancers received glowing reviews, Petipa’s choreography did not fare so well at this outing «perhaps more boring than long and uninteresting.» The ballet was first seen outside Russia (performed by the Kirov Ballet) in London, July 4, 1961 excerpted as The Kingdom of the Shades. it was during this tour that Nureyev defected to the West. Two years later he staged The Kingdom of the Shades for the Royal Ballet.The full length ballet regained popularity with Nathalia Makarova’s sumptuous restaging of the work for the American Ballet Theatre in 1980.

An understanding of ballet productions of the period

It is important to understand how ballets in this period were traditionally put together. The librettist (or author) would select a story or legend that suited his fancy and transpose it into a ballet in five or six acts, regardless of weather it had sufficient dramatic content to support this length. The librettist would also have little acquaintance with either the music, choreography or design. The sole requisite for success was that everything should center on one principal character to be interpreted by the prima ballerina; the slightest incident, the feeblest action, served as excuse for bringing in a dance.

Supernatural female creatures such as sylphs, wilis, shades, water nymphs and later swans, enjoyed great popularity. They appealed to the contemporary taste for idealized, fantasized womanhood and gave an opportunity for abstract choreography for the corps de ballet.

Next a composer was instructed to write the necessary music. It was usually the maître de ballet (choreographer) who set out how many dances were needed in each act, the types of music required (usually easily recognized marches, polkas or waltzes), their length, tempo and beat. If a particular location was indicated by the story, a liberal dose of appropriate national themes or instrumentation was included. The composer was seldom familiar with the libretto, so often the music was not a suitable match for the action. Since dance rehearsals were usually accompanied on the piano, the orchestral coloration of the music was seldom known before the first orchestra rehearsal. Therefore it was not uncommon for a large ensemble piece to be danced to airs lightly scored in the strings, and ethereal moments to be accompanied by the brass.

The maître de ballet tended to hang the dances on a framework, the style and sequence of which were based on established tradition. The prima ballerina must have her pas de deux with variations and coda, and there had to be at least one «pas d’action» for the dancer to display her abilities in mime. The premier danseur also was due his variation, and the corps de ballet had their «ballabiles» to give the principal characters a chance to rest and change costumes. It was also usual to introduce a number of «pas de caractère» for the soloists. It was also an important element to include processions for crowds who countermarched like soldiers, in geometric formations. The scenery and costume designers also worked in a vacuum. Although knowledgeable in historic ornamentation and styles of architecture, the scenic designer’s chief concern was to provide a sense of richness and spaciousness no matter what the subject matter. In almost every ballet there was a lake-side scene, from which convention the members of the corps de ballet in the last row became known as «les ballerines près de l’eau». Convention also demanded that however historically correct the majority of the costumes were, the dancers had to wear a ballet skirt, pink maillot and rose colored ballet shoes. The dancers’ hairstyles always followed the prevailing fashion of the day, often decorated with a diamond tiara. The public saw nothing wrong in a dancer interpreting a humble peasant wearing jeweled bracelets or pearls.

Finally if the leading dancers liked the choreography, all was well and good. If not, the dance could be cut regardless of concern for musical flow, or a dance from another ballet could be inserted.

These notes compiled by Gerard Charles,

BalletMet Columbus, February 1998

Ludwig Minkus "La Bayadere" (ballet in 3 acts)
on the playbill

28 November

19:00

29 November

19:00

30 November

12:00

30 November

19:00

1 December

12:00

Main Stage 1 Teatralnaya ploschad (1 Theatre Square), Moscow, Russia

New Stage Bol'shaya Dmitrovka Street, 4/2, Moscow, Russia