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Marius Petipa: The Emperor's Ballet Master
One of the most important ballet choreographers of all time, Marius Petipa (1818 - 1910) created works that are now mainstays of the ballet repertoire. Every day, in cities around the world, performances of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty draw large audiences to theatres and inspire new generations of dancers, as does The Nutcracker during the winter holidays. These are his best-known works, but others - Don Quixote, La Bayadère - have also become popular, even canonical components of the classical repertoire, and together they have shaped the defining style of twentieth-century ballet. The first biography in English of this monumental figure of ballet history, Marius The Emperor's Ballet Master covers the choreographer's life and work in full within the context of remarkable historical and political surroundings.
Over the course of ten well-researched chapters, Nadine Meisner explores Marius Petipa's life and the artist's arrival in Russia from his native France, the socio-political tensions and revolution he experienced, his popularity on the Russian imperial stage, his collaborations with other choreographers and composers (most famously Tchaikovsky), and the conditions under which he worked, in close proximity to the imperial court. Meisner presents a thrilling and exhaustive narrative not only of Petipa's life but of the cultural development of ballet across the 19th and early 20th centuries. The book also extends beyond Petipa's narrative with insightful analyses of the evolution of ballet technique, theatre genres, and the rise of male dancers.
Richly illustrated with archival photographs, this book unearths original material from Petipa's 63 years in Russia, much of it never published in English before. As Meisner demonstrates, the choreographer laid the foundations for Soviet ballet and for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the expatriate company which exercised such an enormous influence on ballet in the West, including the Royal Ballet and Balanchine's New York City Ballet. After Petipa, Western ballet would never be the same.
Over the course of ten well-researched chapters, Nadine Meisner explores Marius Petipa's life and the artist's arrival in Russia from his native France, the socio-political tensions and revolution he experienced, his popularity on the Russian imperial stage, his collaborations with other choreographers and composers (most famously Tchaikovsky), and the conditions under which he worked, in close proximity to the imperial court. Meisner presents a thrilling and exhaustive narrative not only of Petipa's life but of the cultural development of ballet across the 19th and early 20th centuries. The book also extends beyond Petipa's narrative with insightful analyses of the evolution of ballet technique, theatre genres, and the rise of male dancers.
Richly illustrated with archival photographs, this book unearths original material from Petipa's 63 years in Russia, much of it never published in English before. As Meisner demonstrates, the choreographer laid the foundations for Soviet ballet and for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the expatriate company which exercised such an enormous influence on ballet in the West, including the Royal Ballet and Balanchine's New York City Ballet. After Petipa, Western ballet would never be the same.
512 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 16, 2021
An exhaustively researched biography of Marius Petipa (1818-1910) that is also a history of Russian ballet. Petipa was the astonishingly energetic Frenchman who arrived in St Petersburg in 1847, signed a one-year contract as premier danseur and mime--then lived and worked in Russia for the rest of his long life.
The main text of Meisner's book consists of 295 densely written pages. These are followed by appendices noting members of Petipa's family; a full list of every work Petipa choreographed in Russia, from Paquita in 1847 through the classics of the ballet repertoire Don Quixote (1869), La Bayedère (1877), The Sleeping Beauty (1890), The Nutcracker (1892), and Swan Lake (1895); a list of his dances for thirty-seven different operas; 120 pages of notes, many in Russian; a bibliography and 36 pages of index. For the non-specialist reader, the level of detail occasionally overwhelms; the author's commitment to dig out and understand the facts cannot be in doubt.
Among the other figures whose lives intersect Petipa's, I was especially interested to learn about the Italian dancer, teacher, and ballet master Enrico Cecchetti (1850-1928), "the last foreigner to exercise a pivotal influence on Russian ballet" (p.244). Such ballet training as I received was in the so-called Cecchetti method, later adopted by the Royal Ballet School.
There is also fascinating detail about the ballets themselves--for example the discussion (pp.247-50) of Raymonda (1898) and its ensemble variation for four men, in Meisner's view "the start of Russian ballet's famously strong male dancing, unequalled anywhere in the twentieth century." (p.249)
Petipa's "apotheosis," as Meisner describes it in the final pages of her book, was in the impact Russian ballet had on ballet everywhere, via Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russe (1909-1929): almost all of his choreographers and dancers came from St Petersburg, and George Balanchine (1904-1983), "Diaghilev's last choreographer, whose plotless classical style was most closely indebted to Petipa, founded in 1935 what would become the New York City Ballet" (p.294).
As Meisner notes (pp.6-7), ballet is an ephemeral art, uniquely reliant on the human body, and as a result "we will never truly, completely know how Petipa's ballets looked." Still, of the fifty ballets he created over the course of his career, some twenty-one were "notated using a new system developed by...Vladimir Stepanov...and written down by the régisseur Nicolai Sergeyev," who took them with him when he left Russia in 1918. These have apparently become valuable resources for recent reconstructions by Alexei Ratmansky. It would be wonderful to see a reconstructed version of a Petipa ballet one of these days.
The main text of Meisner's book consists of 295 densely written pages. These are followed by appendices noting members of Petipa's family; a full list of every work Petipa choreographed in Russia, from Paquita in 1847 through the classics of the ballet repertoire Don Quixote (1869), La Bayedère (1877), The Sleeping Beauty (1890), The Nutcracker (1892), and Swan Lake (1895); a list of his dances for thirty-seven different operas; 120 pages of notes, many in Russian; a bibliography and 36 pages of index. For the non-specialist reader, the level of detail occasionally overwhelms; the author's commitment to dig out and understand the facts cannot be in doubt.
Among the other figures whose lives intersect Petipa's, I was especially interested to learn about the Italian dancer, teacher, and ballet master Enrico Cecchetti (1850-1928), "the last foreigner to exercise a pivotal influence on Russian ballet" (p.244). Such ballet training as I received was in the so-called Cecchetti method, later adopted by the Royal Ballet School.
There is also fascinating detail about the ballets themselves--for example the discussion (pp.247-50) of Raymonda (1898) and its ensemble variation for four men, in Meisner's view "the start of Russian ballet's famously strong male dancing, unequalled anywhere in the twentieth century." (p.249)
Petipa's "apotheosis," as Meisner describes it in the final pages of her book, was in the impact Russian ballet had on ballet everywhere, via Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russe (1909-1929): almost all of his choreographers and dancers came from St Petersburg, and George Balanchine (1904-1983), "Diaghilev's last choreographer, whose plotless classical style was most closely indebted to Petipa, founded in 1935 what would become the New York City Ballet" (p.294).
As Meisner notes (pp.6-7), ballet is an ephemeral art, uniquely reliant on the human body, and as a result "we will never truly, completely know how Petipa's ballets looked." Still, of the fifty ballets he created over the course of his career, some twenty-one were "notated using a new system developed by...Vladimir Stepanov...and written down by the régisseur Nicolai Sergeyev," who took them with him when he left Russia in 1918. These have apparently become valuable resources for recent reconstructions by Alexei Ratmansky. It would be wonderful to see a reconstructed version of a Petipa ballet one of these days.
July 15, 2022
Read more like a collection of essays than a memoir. Although it wasn’t a page turner, it turned my superficial knowledge of the beginnings of ballet upside down. For instance, the origin of ballet started before Ballet Russe. The beginnings in France, Italy, and Russia were big productions with a lot of emphasis of mime. Petipa was a transplanted Frenchman in Russia and was part of a well known ballet family. His brother Lucien was quite accomplished although Marius achievement during his performing years was with mime. Many ballets were restated many times and Swan Lake was first performed outside Russia in 1834.
Petipa’s long life was quite a mix of personal heartache and many accomplishments. Financial and political intrigue was quite interesting in the Russian imperial court. He loved to choreograph for his muses and eventually married 2. He loved his children and brought them into the business. Sad to learn his most promising daughter died early.
Petipa’s long life was quite a mix of personal heartache and many accomplishments. Financial and political intrigue was quite interesting in the Russian imperial court. He loved to choreograph for his muses and eventually married 2. He loved his children and brought them into the business. Sad to learn his most promising daughter died early.
October 23, 2019
This is a must-read for any ballet super fan who wants to know more about the background of Russian ballet in the 1800s/early 1900s. I was inspired to read this book before attending a Mariinsky Ballet performance of Paquita. I enjoyed learning about Petipa's early dancing history (I had no idea he was French!) as well as his ballets that still survive in some form such as The Seasons, Don Quixote and Raymonda. My favorite part of this book was about how he structured big ballets (groups, character dance, variations, etc) that still remain as a format used by today's choreographers. My one challenge of reading the book is that I felt it wandered off at times into backgrounds of other major Russian dance figures that it became hard to follow at times. I'd love a follow-up book about how the 1905 revolution affected the ballet.
September 3, 2022
Very heavy read. Has the feel of a dissertation. I enjoyed it because I love ballet but definitely not a read for the faint of heart. Takes time and mental focus.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews