March at the Mariinsky is going to be very eventful: having started with the opera premiere of Nabucco, it continues with the ballet. The long-awaited Pharaoh's Daughter is to premiere very soon. The new production will be presented on the new stage on March 24, 25 and twice on March 26.
The reconstruction of the first full-length ballet by Marius Petipa, staged in St Petersburg a little over 160 years ago, was carried through by the Italian dancer and choreographer Toni Candeloro. He is known as a researcher of the Russian ballet heritage, a reconstructor and the owner of an extensive collection of costumes, prints, photographs and other archival materials related to dance history. By transcribing Nikolai Sergeev's notations made according to the system of Vladimir Stepanov, by studying the memoirs of the Diaghilev's Russian Seasons artists, the ones who actually saw The Pharaoh's Daughter or used to dance in it, Candeloro brought to the stage a grandiose production with an abundance of virtuoso classical dances, corps de ballet scenes, characteristic dances and graceful pantomime. The settings were made by the artist Robert Perdziola who relied on the old sketches for several versions of The Pharaoh's Daughter.
“The Pharaoh’s Daughter is a rich and incredibly beautiful ballet: there are four acts, 500 costumes, and magnificent settings. It will be a true feast for the eyes. In this ballet, the genius of Marius Petipa is already on display, and because his choreographic text has been recorded, today we can restore the production almost as it was intended by the authors. It is very important that the theatre decided to revive the production that started the great history of Petipa and Russian ballet. It gave so much to the whole world, and I am very glad to be a part of this project,” said Toni Candeloro.
The Pharaoh's Daughter to a libretto by Jules Saint-Georges, who turned Theophile Gautier's popular novel The Mummy's Romance into a fantastic love story between an Englishman Lord Wilson and the Pharaoh's daughter, was first staged in 1862 at the Bolshoi Stone Theater in St Petersburg (now the Mariinsky Theater). One of the largest ballet performances of its time became golden for the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters: the surviving financial documents of the 1860s show the overwhelming investments in the production. The performance also became golden for its author, choreographer Marius Petipa. The Pharaoh's Daughter’s success brought him, then a dancer of the company, not only recognition but also the position of choreographer of the imperial theatres.
This ballet was golden and dear to the heart for the dancers as well. Over the course of 66 years of its stage life, the performance remained a favorite for many dancers; many would chose The Pharaoh's Daughter for their benefit performances. For many years the main female role of Aspicia was performed by Caroline Rosati (it was for her benefit that Petipa staged this ballet), Maria Surovshchikova-Petipa, the choreographer’s wife and one of the unsurpassed Aspicias of all time, but also Matilda Kshesinskaya, Olga Preobrazhenskaya, Anna Pavlova, Olga Spesivtseva, Marina Semenova and other brilliant ballerinas of the past.
These days, the roles are also being prepared by the brilliant soloists of the Mariinsky ballet: Victoria Tereshkina, Ekaterina Kondaurova, Nadezhda Batoeva, Kimin Kim, Vladimir Shklyarov, Maria Ilyushkina, Maria Khoreva, Renata Shakirova, Philip Stepin, Elena Evseeva, Maria Shirinkina, Nikita Korneev and others.
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