Ballet "Corsair": content, video, interesting facts

A. Adan ballet "Corsair"

The ballet "Corsair" is the third masterpiece in this genre of the creator of the legendary "Giselle" - Charles Adolf Adan. This performance was his swan song. It is based on the libretto of J. Saint-Georges on the work of Lord Byron.

The plot of the ballet is quite confusing, here are pirates, a romantic captain, mutinies, robberies, a beautiful love story, numerous escapes of captive prisoners, poisoned flowers, and all this with the "sauce" of wonderful French romantic music.

Summary of the ballet Adana "Corsair" and a lot of interesting facts about this work read on our page.

Summary

The action takes place on the slave market in Adrianople, where the corsairs are staying along with Captain Conrad. Young Medora is waiting for him there. But Pasha Seid falls in love with her at first sight - the ruler of Adrianople, who buys her from slave trader Lankedem, her father as her substitute. The brave captain steals his beloved at night, and with it concubines and greedy Lanquedem. But the happiness of the lovers did not last long, a traitor appeared in the camp of Conrad, in the person of his first mate, who put the captain to sleep, and together with Lankedem stole Medora.

Pasha Seid, delighted with the girl’s return, orders everyone to prepare for the wedding ceremony. Under the threat of Conrad’s death, Medora has no choice but to agree to a wedding and decide on a desperate act - to kill yourself on your wedding night. But suddenly a concubine from the harem Gulnara comes to the aid of Medor, who offers to replace her by exchanging robes. As a result, lovers again run away and return to their shelter. But even here fate is preparing another test for them, the cunning assistant tries to shoot the captain, but the gun misfires and the traitor is thrown off into the sea. A terrible storm smashes the ship against the rocks, but despite everything, the lovers Conrad and Medora find themselves on land, surviving thanks to the wreckage, on which they sailed to the shore.

A photo:

Interesting Facts

• At the premiere, held in 1856 in Paris, had to buy tickets for more than 1.5 months. The success of the production was deafening, and the stage effects were recognized as the best in the history of theatrical productions. Since the time of his production, the ballet "Corsair" has not lost its popularity.
• In the score of the performance you can find fragments of music by L. Minkus, C. Puni, P. Oldenburgsky, R. Drigo, A. Zabel, J. Gerber. Then anyone will have a logical question, who is the ballet composer? The composer, naturally Adan, and all the additions by the composer of ballet music Ludwig Minkus under the direction of Marius Petipa. In general, in theatrical works, during the productions, the ballet or opera score can often undergo some changes.

• Choreographer M. Petipa always cared about the ballerina’s winning performance, so she sometimes reshaped the performance, changed scenes in places, or added variations. These inserts could even be from another, but “her favorite” piece. So, in the ballet "Corsair" you can still find variations on the main character Medora in the scene "A lively garden" from L. Minkus' ballet "The Adventures of Peleus".
• The most expensive production of the play took place on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater in 2007. The cost of producing the version of Yuri Burlak is estimated at 1.5 million US dollars.
• While working on each of the four ballet productions, director M. Petipa constantly added new pas and other dance elements.
• Between 1899 and 1928, the Corsair was performed 224 times on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater.
• The most famous at the moment is considered to be the performance of 1999 at the American Ballet Theater.

History of creation

Charles Adolf Adan is known to lovers of classical music from an earlier work - ballet "Gisele". He created his most famous performance fifteen years after the resounding success of the work dedicated to the vengeful Willis. It is noteworthy that with these two performances he opened a new page for the romantic ballet. This is not the first time that this work attracted composers to create a ballet. For example, Giovanni Galzerani in 1826 presented to the audience in La Scala his version of the play in Milan. Another version of the interpretation of poems It was staged in Paris in 1835. The libretto was owned by Adolph Nurri, choreographer was made by Louis Henry, and in this version the music was taken from other well-known works of great classics and a kind of potpourri was created. , to the music of composer Herbert Gdrich in Berlin in 1838. It is worth mentioning that the famous composer D. Verdi wrote the opera of the same name in 1848.

Libretto for the new ballet Adana was entrusted to A. Saint-Georges, who had collaborated with the composer not for the first time. Henri Venois de Saint-Georges was at that time the director of the Opera-Comique theater in the French capital and created a libretto for theater works. He wrote over 70 different librettos, and he also successfully composed plays for the drama theater.

During the whole of 1855, the composer worked on a new masterpiece, and the initiator of this ballet, J. Mazilier, who was to stage this performance in the Grand Opera, took direct part in the work.

Productions

The long-awaited premiere of the new ballet took place in January 1856. It is noteworthy that the stage effects used, as well as the scenery, were recognized as the best at that time. The installation of the flooding of the vessel, which was masterfully designed by the driver Victor Sacre, was even perpetuated by the work of the artist Gustave Dore. The imperial family, especially the Empress Eugenia, highly appreciated the performance. The music itself critics noted for its melodiousness and pleasant orchestration.

In St. Petersburg, "Corsair" was presented at the Bolshoi Theater in January 1858. Now the French choreographer J. Perrot, who was working in Russia at that time, worked on the performance. In his work he relied on the choreography of Mazilier. The incomparable K. Rosati performed the party of Medora. In addition to the beautiful music, the last picture with the ship flooded left an indelible impression on the audience, critics of that time note. That's just Perrault audience met quite cold, despite the fact that the ballet was performed as part of his benefit performance. An interesting article was preserved about the pasha costume, which was notable for its luxury on stage. The fact is that it was originally not made for a performance, but for Emperor Nicholas I and was intended for a masquerade for the court, who himself ordered to transfer this garment to a theatrical wardrobe, from which the costume later fell into the production of "Corsair".

On the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, the ballet was staged in 1863 thanks to the efforts of Marius Petipa. The Medora party was successfully performed by MS Petipa (Surovshchikova). Fans highly appreciated the talent of the ballerina and even presented her with chic gifts (worth four thousand rubles).

After this production, the fate of the performance was ambiguous - it was successfully staged many times, but each time they made some changes, adding all sorts of inserted numbers and music by other composers. Therefore, many viewers sometimes have a logical question: who owns the work. Naturally Adana, this question should not cause doubts.

Among the modern versions, the ballet performance at the Bolshoi Theater in the summer of 2007 should be noted. The performance was used by choreography by M. Petipa and Pyotr Gusev, as well as many inserted numbers with music by L. Delib, Ts. Pugni, R. Drigo and other composers.

In 2009, a new version was staged at the Mikhailovsky Theater by Farukh Ruzimatov. The art director was Valery Leventhal. Moreover, in this version on the stage there was also a pirate theme and the atmosphere of Greece of the Ottoman period. Bright oriental bazaars and harems gave a special piquancy.

Among the unusual versions, it is worth mentioning the premiere at the Rostov Musical Theater, which took place in 2011 at the closing of the season. In the ballet, based on all the classic Petipa numbers, the libretto was changed. So the Rostov audience saw another plot and final. The choreographer himself, Alexei Fadeechev, even before the show, suggested that viewers would necessarily have associations with Pirates of the Caribbean.

It is noteworthy that today "Corsair" exists on the stages mainly in two different productions. So in Russia and some European companies apply the version, which was due to the revival of the ballet in 1955 by Peter Guzov. Other countries (North America) are based on the formulation carried out by the efforts of Konstantin Sergeyev.

The music of the ballet "Corsair" is remembered by the listeners for its extraordinary grace and bright visuality. Although music critics admit that it is a bit weaker than in Giselle, having in mind the individual characteristics of the heroes, the viewers are still amazed by the deepest talent of the composer. The author was able to masterfully embody such an unusual plot, reveal it and saturate him with extraordinary dancing. We invite you to get acquainted with another masterpiece of Adana, looking at the legendary ballet "Corsair" right now!

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