Adolphe Adam, Master of the Romantic Ballet, 1830-1856
Adolphe Adam, Master of the Romantic Ballet, 1830-1856

Author: Robert Ignatius Letellier

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2023-01-26

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 1527593223

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The composer Adolphe-Charles Adam (1803-1856) is particularly famous for the Christmas anthem ‘Minuit chrétiens’ (‘O Holy Night’). He was renowned as a composer for the lyric stage. With Boïeldieu, Hérold and Auber, Adam forms one of the quartet of masters that represent the second school of that profoundly French genre of opéra-comique, producing the charming Le Chalet (1834) and the adorable and enduringly popular Le Postillon de Lonjumeau (1836). However, Adam’s greatest originality and most substantial achievement lay in the field of ballet. Giselle (1841) is the quintessence of mystical Romanticism and one of the most enduring works of the dance repertoire. His series of ballets, principally for the Paris Opéra, but also for London, St Petersburg and Berlin, helped to establish this genre as a serious and integral musical form. His last work Le Corsaire (1856) attains sublime heights. This book concentrates on the dance aspect of Adam’s art, examining his 14 works in this genre in the context of the emergence and efflorescence of the Romantic ballet within the vibrant musical scene in Paris from 1830-1860.

Ballet 101
Ballet 101

Author: Robert Greskovic

Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 660

ISBN-13: 9780879103255

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Presents a look at the world of dance; an analysis of ballet movement, music, and history; a close-up look at popular ballets; and a host of performance tips.

Marius Petipa
Marius Petipa

Author: Nadine Meisner

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-05-01

Total Pages: 553

ISBN-13: 0190659300

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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 Petipa: 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 legacy: 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.

Five Ballets from Paris and St. Petersburg
Five Ballets from Paris and St. Petersburg

Author: Doug Fullington

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024-03-26

Total Pages: 889

ISBN-13: 0190944501

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This book offers something entirely new: detailed scene-by-scene descriptions of the action and dancing of Giselle, Paquita, Le Corsaire, La Bayadère, and Raymonda, bringing the reader far closer to what the audience saw when the curtain went up on these five classic story ballets than has heretofore been possible. Drawing on archival documents, the authors show that these ballets were like today's pop entertainment: funnier, more violent, more spectacular, and with female characters far stronger than one might expect. This rigorously researched book fills huge gaps in dance history and is bound to be of interest to practitioners, scholars, and devotees of ballet and the arts.

Apollo's Angels
Apollo's Angels

Author: Jennifer Homans

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2010-11-02

Total Pages: 640

ISBN-13: 0679603905

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, LOS ANGELES TIMES, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY For more than four hundred years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully told, Apollo’s Angels—the first cultural history of ballet ever written—is a groundbreaking work. From ballet’s origins in the Renaissance and the codification of its basic steps and positions under France’s Louis XIV (himself an avid dancer), the art form wound its way through the courts of Europe, from Paris and Milan to Vienna and St. Petersburg. In the twentieth century, émigré dancers taught their art to a generation in the United States and in Western Europe, setting off a new and radical transformation of dance. Jennifer Homans, a historian, critic, and former professional ballerina, wields a knowledge of dance born of dedicated practice. Her admiration and love for the ballet, as Entertainment Weekly notes, brings “a dancer’s grace and sure-footed agility to the page.”

St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg

Author: Arthur George

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2024-11-14

Total Pages: 1059

ISBN-13: 0750996250

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From its 1703 foundation by Peter the Great in a swampy war zone to its leading role in overthrowing Soviet power and bringing Russia into the twenty-first century, St Petersburg has undergone several transformations. Virtually commanded into existence by Peter the Great, the inherent artifice of St Petersburg has made it one of the world's most storied cities – the stage for political and artistic dreamers. As such, it had a leading role in nineteenth-century cultural life, but with the Russian Revolution of 1917 its glorious history descended into violence and bloodshed. During the Second World War, Leningrad suffered further atrocities in the form of a horrific Nazi siege. Yet it has remained rich in cultural, intellectual and architectural history. It has been home to greats such as Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky and Nijinsky – figures who were gifted with great creativity and passion, and who were often dissatisfied with Russian traditions. These characters are explored by the author, together with the beguiling physical appearance of the city – canals, bridges, promenades and palaces – but the most lively writing hones in on the interplay between power and intellect, reaction and reform. Arthur George brings to life a St Petersburg steeped in a tumult of war, revolution and aesthetics, and shows it rising from the ashes to help lead Russia on the path to modernisation.