"Motor impulse is basic to Petipa’s
exposition of movement flowing clean from its source. It flows
from the simple to the complex, but we are always aware of its
source, deep in the dancer’s back, and of its vibration
as it carries in widening arcs around the auditorium. This is
dancing to be felt as well as seen, and Petipa gives it a long
time to creep under our skins. Like a patient drillmaster, he
opens the piece with a single, two-phrase theme in adagio tempo
(arabesque cambré port de bras), repeated over and over
until all the dancers have filed onto the stage. Then, at the
same tempo, with the dancers facing us in columns, he produces
a set of mild variations, expanding the profile of the opening
image from two dimensions to three. Positions are developed naturally
through the body’s leverage - weight, counterweight. Diagonals
are firmly expressed....The choreography is considered to be
the first expression of grand scale symphonism in dance, predating
by seventeen years Ivanov’s masterly designs for the definitive
Swan Lake....The subject of ‘The Kingdom of the Shades’
is not really death, although everybody in it except the hero
is dead. It's Elysian bliss, and its setting is eternity. The
long slow repeated-arabesque sequence creates the impression
of a grand crescendo that seems to annihilate all time. No reason
it could not go on forever......Ballets passed down the generations
like legends, acquire patina of ritualism, but La Bayadère
is a ritual, a poem about dancing and memory and time. Each dance
seems to add something new to the previous one, like a language
being learned. The ballet grows heavy with this knowledge, which
at the beginning had been only a primordial utterance, and in
the coda it fairly bursts with articulate splendor."
Arlene Croce
The New Yorker
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Ballet 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.
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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.
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The Story of the Complete
Ballet
The ballet is set in legendary
India. Nikiya, a bayadère or temple dancer, is in love
with Solor, a noble warrior. However, the Rajah decides to marry
his daughter Gamzatti to Solor; overwhelmed by her beauty, Solor
forgets his vows of love to Nikiya. When the Rajah learns of
Nikiya and Solor’s love from the High Brahmin (who is also
in love with Nikiya), he decides to have the bayadère
killed. Gamzatti tries to persuade Nikiya to give up Solor, but
she refuses and attacks the princess who then also decides to
have the bayadère killed.
Nikiya dances at the betrothal celebrations of Gamzatti and
Solor. She is fatefully bitten by a poisonous snake hidden in
a basket of flowers sent by the Rajah and Gamzatti.
Solor has an hallucinatory vision of Nikiya in the "Kingdom
of the Shades". He tries to grasp her but she disappears.
Later, at his wedding ceremony he is again haunted by the vision
of Nikiya which he alone can see. The gods, infuriated by the
killing of Nikiya, destroy the temple, killing everyone in it.
The spirits of Nikiya and Solor are reunited in eternal love.
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Selected World Events Surrounding
the Creation of La Bayadère
1876
- Colorado becomes a state
- Born: Jack London, Pablo Casals & Manuel de Falla
- Opening of Bayreuth Festspielhaus with Wagner’s Ring
des Nibelungen
- Delibes’ Ballet Sylvia premieres
- Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone
- Johns Hopkins University opens in Baltimore
- First tennis tournament in U.S.
- U.S. National Baseball League founded
- World Exhibition at Philadelphia
1877
- Rutherford B. Hayes president of U.S.
- Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India
- Francesca da Rimini, Tchaikovsky
- Samson et Delila, Saint-Saëns
- Edison invents the phonograph
- First All-England Tennis championship played at Wimbledon
- First public telephones in U.S.
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A select listing of various
productions of La Bayadère
Forerunners of La Bayadère
Le dieu et la bayadère (Also known as
The Maid of Cashmere)
Choreography: Filippo Taglioni
Music: Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber
First performance: The Paris Opéra, Oct 13, 1830. This
ballet-opera was based on Goethe’s ballad Der Gott und
die Bajadere. The scenario was by Eugene Scribe. Danced by
Marie Taglioni, it was considered one of her greatest triumphs.
Also featured was tenor Adolphe Nourrit.
Sacountala
Choreography: Lucien Petipa
Music: Ernest Reyer
Libretto: Théophile Gautièr
First performance: Théâtre Impérial de l’Opéra,
Paris,July 14, 1858
A Pantomimic ballet based on Kalidasa’s play of the same
name. A source for Marius Petipa’s La Bayadère.
Selected versions of La
Bayadère
La Bayadère (Baiaderka)
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus
Design: Piotr Lambkin, Konstantin Ivanov, Orest Allegri &
Adolf Kwapp
First performance: Maryinsky Theater, St. Petersburg, February
4, 1877 with Ekaterina Vazem as Nikiya, Maria Gorshenkova as
Gamzatti and Lev Ivanov as Solor(mime) and Pavel Gerdt (pas de
deux).
La Bayadère (Baiaderka)
Choreography: Aleksandr Gorski & Vasilii Tikhomirov
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus
Scenery Design: Konstantin Korovin
First performance: Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow, January 31, 1904.
La Bayadère (Baiaderka)
Choreography: Agrippina Vaganova after Petipa
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus
Design: Piotr Lambkin, Konstantin Ivanov, Orest Allegri &
Adolf Kwapp
First performance: Kirov Ballet, December 13, 1932.
Bayadère with a Yellow Mask (la
bajadera dalla mashera gialla)
Choreography: Cia Fonaroli
Music: Francesco Santoliquido
First performance: Compagnia dei Balletti de San Remo, February
27, 1933.
La Bayadère
Choreography: Vakhtang Chabukiani & Vladimir Ponomaryov after
Petipa
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus
Scenery Design: Piotr Lambkin, Konstantin Ivanov, Orest Allegri
& Adolf Kvapp
First performance: Kirov Ballet, Leningrad, February 10, 1941
with Nathalia Dudinskaya as Nikia and Chabukiani as Solor.
La Bayadère
Choreography: Natalie Conus
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus arr. Robin Barker
Scenery: Theo Lau
Costumes: Homa Partovi
First performance: Iranian National Ballet Company, 1972-73 season.
La Bayadère
Choreography: Andrew de Groat
Music: Alan Lloyd
First performance: Compagnie Andy De Groat, Vaulx-en-Velin, 1988.
La Bayadère
Choreography: Natalia Makarova after Petipa
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus orchestrated by John Lanchbery
Scenery: Pier Luigi Samaritani
Costumes: Theoni V. Aldredge
First performance: American Ballet Theatre, New York, May 21,
1980. Restaged for The Royal Ballet with costumes by Yolanda
Sonnabend, May 18, 1989.
La Bayadère
Choreography: Oleg Vinogradov after Petipa
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus
First performance: Kirov Ballet, Teatro di Verdura, Palermo,
July 1990.
La Bayadère
Choreography: Yuri Grigorovich after Petipa
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus
First performance: Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow, November 17, 1991.
La Bayadère
Choreography: Rudolf Nureyev after Petipa
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus
Scenery: Ezio Frigerio
Costumes: Franca Squarciapino
First performance: Paris Opera Ballet, Paris, October 8, 1992.
Excerpts
La Bayadère Act IV (Bajaderu enas)
Choreography: Sergeyev after Petipa
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus
First performance: Riga Opera Ballet, Riga, Latvia. 1923.
Le Reve du Radjah
Choreography: Nicolai Sergeyev
Costumes: Konstantin Korovine
First performance: Russian Ballet, Bournemouth Pavilion, England,
March 5, 1934.
La Bayadère Act IV
Choreography: Rudolf Nureyev after Petipa
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus
First performance: Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, November 27,
1963 with Fonteyn and Nureyev.
La Bayadère Act IV (Bayaderka)
Choreography: Eugen Valukin after Petipa
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus
First performance: National Ballet of Canada, Toronto, March
27, 1967.
La Bayadère Act IV
Choreography: Natalia Makarova after Petipa
Music: Ludwig (Léon) Minkus
Costumes: Marcos Paredes
First performance: American Ballet Theatre, New York, July 3,
1974
"The Kingdom of the Shades" was also incorporated
into The Corsair choreographed by Wazlaw Orlikowsy for
the Zagreb Ballet, 1975. Given the ease with which the Russian
ballet used various bits of music, selections from La Bayadère
have shown up in a variety of Russian ballets including Don
Quixote.
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