Marius Petipa
Ballet is the art of theatrical dance, which is the national pride of our country. Despite the fact that we owe his appearance to the Italians and the French, in different countries they believe that Russia is the birthplace of classical ballet. Many famous figures made an invaluable contribution to the development of this type of art. Nevertheless, the founder and father of Russian ballet is deservedly called the outstanding choreographer of French origin Marius Petipa, who lived in Russia and loved her so much that he considered his second homeland.
short biography
In 1818, on March 11, the leading dancer and choreographer of the Bolshoi Opera Theater of the French city of Marseille, Jean Antoine Petipa, was told good news: his wife, a talented dramatic actress, who was known to top theater-goers as Quiz Morel-Grasso, presented him with her third child, a boy. The child was named Victor Marius Alphonse.
The family soon had to move to Belgium (then the Kingdom of the Netherlands), as the ballet troupe was disbanded in the Marseille theater, and Jean Antoine was luckily invited at that time to serve in the Royal La Monnais theater of the city of Brussels, where he later became the head of the ballet troupe. After some time at the theater, he organized a school of dance and, undoubtedly, identified his sons there for classes: Lucien and Marius. The father, as he wanted to see his successors in the heirs, considered it necessary to give them a musical education, therefore, in addition to the college where children studied general education, they also studied at the conservatory of the outstanding Belgian Francois Fethys, Marius learned the art of playing music there. the violin. All that his father forced his younger son to do, the boy really didn’t like it, because he thought the public indifference in various graceful poses unworthy for yourself. Nevertheless, the perseverance and demandingness of the older Petipa, and besides, the suggestions of his mother, who Marius infinitely loved, did their job, and two years later, Marius’s name appeared on the playbill in the performance "Trancemania". The revolution that took place in Belgium in 1830 disrupted Jean Petip’s entire way of life and plans for the future. The theater was closed, and for this reason the family was in a distressful financial situation for several years. The father was forced to give private lessons, and the boys, in order to help their parents to earn at least a little money, had to deal with the correspondence of musical texts. As a result, the family again had to return to France, to the city of Bordeaux, where the older Petipa was offered a seat as a choreographer.
Youth and the beginning of a creative career
Marius' choreography continued, but now the young man treated them more seriously. Performing complex ballet movements with ease, the young man began to realize that choreography was probably the business of his entire future life. The audience appreciated the talent of the young dancer, and at the age of 16 he was invited to the theater of Nantes as a soloist and choreographer. Marius liked this work very much, as he not only danced the first parts, but also composed various choreographic numbers, one-act ballets, and also dances for operas. However, all this did not last long: having worked one season, at the beginning of the next, he broke his leg, and the impresario broke off a contract with him. Having corrected his health, Marius and his father went overseas to show their choreographic skills in New York. Unfortunately, the US tour was short-lived, since the impresario, who invited Petipa, turned out to be a dishonest person. At first, he delayed with payments for performances and eventually deceived with a fee. After returning to Paris, Marius, having no theatrical invitations, took lessons for two months from the outstanding choreographer Jean-Auguste Vestris. After a fruitful internship at the talented maestro Petipa Jr., he was fortunate enough to take part in a grand performance with the famous Carlotta Grisi, and then in 1838 to get engaged in the best theater of Bordeaux. After some time, Marius successfully performed in the Royal Theater of Madrid, but the love affairs that nearly ended in a duel forced the young man to leave Spain and return to Paris, where he and his brother began to conquer the stage of the Paris Opera. This continued until Marius received a message from the capital of Russia from Mr. Ttius, who asked to replace the dancer Emil Gredl in St. Petersburg.
Russia
In May 1847, a new important period began in the life of Marius Petipa, which is closely connected with Russia. The director of the imperial theaters, Mr. Gedeonov, met the French dancer very affably: he paid an advance and gave some time so that the foreigner could get used to the unfamiliar city. The debut ballet "Paquita" to the music of E. Deldevez, who Marius danced in October on the stage of the Petersburg Theater, was so successful for him that Emperor Nicholas I, who was present at the play, appreciated the talent of the French dancer, and gave him a valuable gift.
At the end of the first season, Marius performed the lead role in the ballet "Devil in Love", which he performed as a choreographer with his father, who arrived in St. Petersburg as a dance teacher. In the following seasons, Petipa’s repertoire grew rapidly. He shone in such performances as "Gisele"," Peri ","Esmeralda"," Katharina - the robber's daughter "," The artist's dream "," The willful wife "," Faust ","Corsair"staged by French choreographer Jules Perrot. In Russia, Marius loved and the Frenchman even had a desire to associate his life with this country. In 1854, Petipa married the ballerina Maria Surovshchikova, and the following year, in addition to dancing in the theater, he became to share his skills with students of dance classes at the St. Petersburg Theater School. Some time later, Marius began to actively write choreography for one-act performances in which the main parts danced him wife, and in 1862, the director of the theater turned to Petipa with a request to compose a choreography for a large performance in a short time. In a creative collaboration with the composer Caesar Pugni, Marius managed to prepare the production for a precisely appointed date. The ballet, called “Pharaoh’s Daughter”, was a stunning success and provided Petipa with an official appointment as a choreographer. At that time, Petipa combined two positions: he not only actively worked on composing choreography for new performances, but also performed leading roles in them. This continued until 1869, while Marius Ivanovich, as he was now called, was appointed chief ballet master of the theater. The special flourishing of Petipa’s creativity began with the appointment of Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky to the post of director of the imperial theaters. It was during this period, for a period of 18 years, that his most outstanding ballet masterpieces were created by the choreographer.
The love of Russia and the faithful service of Russian art as a result led to the fact that in 1894, when the French choreographer turned 76 years old, he received Russian citizenship. However, since 1901 hard times began for Marius Ivanovich. The director of the imperial theaters, Mr. Telyakovsky, who took the place, in spite of all the creative achievements of the chief choreographer, began to hinder his work in every way. Petit’s dismissal was out of the question, since Emperor Nicholas II himself patronized him, but the choreographer was very good at repairing various kinds of troubles. It came to the point that Marius Ivanovich had a stroke because of nerves. Doctors recommended him to retire and seriously deal with their health. In 1907, Petipa moved with his family to the Crimean Gurzuf, where he lived for three years and died from life in 1910 on July 14.
Interesting Facts
- In childhood, little Marius had a very hard time. According to the memoirs of the great maestro, his father, against the will of the boy, forcing his son into choreography, broke a lot of bows about him.
- During the Belgian revolution of 1830, when all the Petipa Sr. theaters in the port of Antwerp were closed in the country, they rented a premise to give several performances for the residents of the city. In the ballet, which was called “The Millers”, he managed to involve all members of his family: not only the father with his two sons Lucien and Marius danced on the stage, but also his mother and daughter Victorina.
- During a tour in Madrid, at one of the performances, Marius, as conceived by the author of the choreographic composition, was to kiss his partner. Despite the fact that Spain is called the land of love, it was absolutely not allowed to perform something similar on the theater stage there. However, following the story, the young dancer violated the ban, while he heard from the audience enthusiastic approval of the public. After the performance, behind the scenes, Petipa was waited by a police commissioner, who hurried to notify him of his arrest for inappropriate actions. Fortunately, the theater director intervened for the French artist, and the conflict was resolved. After this incident, as soon as the name of Marius appeared on the poster, the theater hall was full, as everyone wanted to look at the brave man, who for the sake of art was not afraid of anything.
- According to some data, Petipa arrived in Russia using fake documents, because of this, it was long assumed that an outstanding choreographer was born in 1822, and even his century was celebrated in the young Soviet state, focusing on this date. It was only in the seventies of the last century in France that the metric was discovered, by which the exact date of its birth was established. In addition, it was rumored that Marius used the name of his brother Lucien when he entered the stage of the Petersburg theater.
- Father Marius, without hesitation for a long time, in 1848, following his youngest son, also went to St. Petersburg and took the place of a teacher in the Imperial Ballet School. Having worked there until his death, Jean-Antoine died in 1855.
- In Russia, it is customary to apply to respected people by name and patronymic. At first, Petipa with respect was called Marius Zhanovich, but then involuntarily the middle name was replaced with Ivanovich.
- Marius Ivanovich lived in Russia for more than 60 years and did not learn to speak Russian well. He was rescued only by the fact that the terminology used in ballet art, for the most part, is based on French.
- There is a legend that Petipa composed his ballets with the help of dolls, and this was indeed the case. He arranged the cardboard figures on the table, moved them according to his intended plan, and then the composition and all the transitions depicted on a sheet of paper.
- It happened in 1903, when Marius Petipa was already 85 years old. During one of the rehearsals of the ballet "The Magic Mirror" a nuisance occurred, which left a bad deposit on the audience: a large mirror cracked on the stage. This incident was a bad harbinger: Marius Ivanovich, director of the theater Telyakovsky, despite the patronizing attitude towards Petip the Russian tsar, still managed to dismiss the chief choreographer from his post.
- In recognition of his achievements, Marius Petipa was many times awarded state awards of the Russian Empire, including five medals "For Diligence" and three orders of saints: "Vladimir", "Anna" and "Stanislav". In addition, the famous choreographer was awarded the Order: French - "Academic Palms", Spanish - "Isabella Catholic", Romanian - "Crown", Persian - "Leo and the Sun".
- After the death of Marius Petipa, he was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovsky cemetery, but in 1948 his remains were transferred to the Necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.
- A memorial plaque in memory of the outstanding choreographer is installed on the building of one of the world's oldest ballet schools. Vaganova.
- In 2018, not only in Russia, but throughout the world, they celebrated their jubilee date: the 200th anniversary of the birth of Marius Petipa. In honor of such an event, the Bank of Russia issued a silver coin with a nominal value of 2 rubles.
Creation
Marius Petipa is still an unsurpassed choreographer, whose contribution to the development of not only Russian, but also the entire world classical ballet art cannot be overestimated. Possessing exceptional taste, talent and industriousness, he became a lawmaker who established rules in the field of ballet, which even today find an active application in the art of modern theatrical dance.
Today it is very difficult to list all the ballets that Petipa has set for his many years of activity. His performances, filled with moral content, were distinguished not only by bright spectacle, but also by a deep disclosure of the artistic idea of the work, which he realized with the help of purposeful and consistent development. The ballet performances of Marius Ivanovich always had a clear storyline to which the action taking place in the performance was subordinated: skillfully designed solo and ensemble parts, as well as massive corps de ballet numbers. Everything was skillfully connected and organically combined into a single composition with a choreographic narration, in which music was certainly one of the main characters. Petipa preferred, if there was such an opportunity, to work on the play in close cooperation with composers, so he reached the top of his work in ballets, the music for which was written by his outstanding contemporaries, such as P.I. Chaikovsky and A.K. Glazunov. In addition to all this, an outstanding choreographer put plasticity, grace and beauty into the basis of his work, since he considered ballet to be a serious art, in which he regarded meaningless jumps, whirling and too high jerking of legs completely unacceptable.
His career as a choreographer Petipa began in French Nantes. Here he first composed choreography for three performances and pleased the audience: "Little Gypsy", "Signor Rights", and "The Wedding in Nantes". Further, after a tour in the United States and then forced internships in Paris, Marius briefly settled in Bordeaux, staged a number of ballets with his choreography, which he considered more or less successful, among them The Language of Flowers, Bordeaux Grizetka, Vintage, "love affairs". The Madrid period in the work of Petipa is marked by such performances as "The Adventures of the Daughter of Madrid", "The Pearl of Seville", "Departure for a Bullfight" and "The Color of Grenada".
But this can only be considered the beginning of the fruitful creative activity of the brilliant choreographer, most of whom took place in Russia. Marius Ivanovich devoted half a century of his life to the Mariinsky, one of the world's leading musical theaters. On his stage, he brought magnificent ballets, a list of which includes more than 60 items. For the most part, they can be called real masterpieces with overwhelming success.
The most famous ballets of Petipa, which are considered examples of choreographic art include "Paquita", "King Kandavl", "Don Quixote", "Bayadere"," Cyprus Statue "," Coppelia "," Futile Precaution "," Talisman ","sleeping Beauty"," Sylph ","Nutcracker"," Cinderella ","Swan Lake"," Little Humpbacked Horse "," Bluebeard ","Raymonda"," Magic Mirror ".
Personal life
In his youth, Marius Petipa had a lot of romantic stories and various rumors about him went about. For example, they told one scandalous story about how a dancer started a love affair with the wife of Marquis Chateaubriand, a staff member of the French embassy in Spain. The diplomat summoned Marius to a duel, but the seducer, frightened, quickly left the country. According to another version of Petipa in 1846, he left Spain with the daughter of the Spanish marquise Vilagarsia, to whose house he was invited as a dance teacher. The love passion between young people made them run away to France. The fugitives sought both Spanish and French police. Fearing various consequences, including court proceedings, Marius immediately had to retire to Russia under a false name in fake documents.
In Petersburg, the amorous Frenchman continued his love affairs. In 1849 he had a short affair with actress Teresa Burden, who presented him with a son, also named Marius. Then Petipa had a long relationship with one of the theater workers, who also gave birth to a child’s French dancer, but this time a daughter. The choreographer married for the first time only in 36 years. His favorite was ballerina Maria Surovshchikova. Despite the fact that Marius had two more children during this marriage: her daughter Maria and son Ivan, the choreographer failed to have a happy family life with Surovshchikova. Оба супруга обладали несговорчивым характером, их совместная жизнь стала невозможной, и в результате они разъехались, но не разводились, так как в те времена это было весьма проблематично.
Второй женой Петипа стала тоже балерина, которую зрители знали под псевдонимом Любовь Савицкая. She was the daughter of a ballet master's friend, at that time the famous dramatic artist L. Leonidov. The meeting of the future spouses took place in 1873, when Marius Ivanovich was already 55 years old, and his bride is only nineteen, nevertheless, despite the great difference in age, the union this time was very happy. At first it was a civil marriage and only in 1882 after the death of the first wife, Marius Ivanovich and Lyuba were able to get married. At that time, the couple Petipa already had four children - three daughters: Nadezhda, Evgenia, Lyubov and son Viktor. Subsequently, the family added more: in 1884, the son of Mari was born, and in 1885 the youngest daughter, Vera. According to family traditions, Marius Ivanovich also forced his children to engage in choreography, and they resented their father for the excessive demands that he presented to them. Petipa pinned his greatest hopes on Eugene, whom he considered the most capable. However, a misfortune happened - Eugene was struck by sarcoma, the consequence of which was amputation of the leg, and then death. For the family, it was an inordinate grief. Being well-trained and having mastered the technique of choreographic art, four daughters of Marius Ivanovich linked their fate with the Mariinsky Theater, and the four sons of the choreographer devoted their lives to the drama scene.
Marius Petipa is a brilliant personality, whose name entered the history of not only Russian, but also world choreography. An outstanding choreographer who made a greater contribution to the development of academic dance, in the 19th century staged performances, which are now carefully preserved as the best examples of choreographic art and put on the stages of the world's largest theaters. Petip's heritage is great: thanks to his tireless creative work, the Russian ballet was recognized as the best in the world, and the Mariinsky Theater is still called “the house of Petipa”.
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