Paquita is a ballet to music by composer Edouard Deldevez with subsequent musical additions by composer Ludwig Minkus.
Libretto by Paul Foucher and Joseph Mazilier. The literary basis was the short story by Miguel Cervantes "Gypsy Girl".
The first performance took place in Paris, on the stage of the Grand Opera, on April 1, 1846, staged by choreographer Joseph Mazilier to music by Ernest Deldevez
Characters:
Lucien d'Hervilly
Inigo, head of the gypsy camp
Don Lopez de Mendoza, provincial governor in Spain
Comte d'Hervilli, French general, father of Lucien
Sculptor
Paquita
Doña Serafina, Don Lopez's sister
Countess, mother of the Count d'Hervilli
Young gypsy.
Summary:
In Spain, the beautiful Paquita lives in a gypsy camp. But she is not a gypsy. Her appearance in the camp is connected with some terrible crime of 1795 and is shrouded in mystery. Paquita carefully keeps a miniature portrait of her father, but who he is and why he was killed is unknown to her. She was very young and only remembers how someone took her away.
But here in the valley in the vicinity of Saragossa, where the gypsy camp lives, the Comte d'Hervilly, a French general, arrives. He demands to erect a monument to his brother Karl, who was once killed with his wife and daughter in this very place.
Meanwhile, the governor of the Spanish province, Lopez de Mendoza, is plotting how to marry his sister Serafina to Lucien d'Hervilli. And Inigo, the head of the gypsy camp, weaves his own intrigues - he wants to achieve the love of the beautiful Paquita. However, he notices that tender feelings flare up between Lucien and Paquita. Inigo comes to the governor, Don Lopez de Mendoza, and they develop a plan to destroy Lucien: make him drink wine mixed with sleeping pills, and then specially hired assassins will come.
But their plans are not destined to come true - Paquita heard their conversation and saves Lucien by changing bottles of wine and giving Inigo a sleeping pill. The hired killers, having received an order to kill the one who is in the house, instead of Lucien kill Inigo himself by mistake.
And the main characters, Paquita and Lucien d'Hervilli, together, alive and unharmed after all the troubles, come to the place where a big ball is being prepared and where a portrait of the murdered hero Charles d'Hervilli is fashioned.
Paquita tells about the betrayal of the governor, and he is arrested. And in the portrait of the deceased hero, by comparing it with the image in her medallion, she recognizes her own father.
The history of the creation of the ballet.
The premiere of the two-act performance took place on April 1, 1846 in Paris, at the Grand Opera.
In the main roles: Paquita - Carlotta Grisi, Lucien - Lucien Petipa; as Inigo - Pearson.
At the Paris Opera, the ballet went on until 1851, while the performer of the main part, Carlotta Grisi, worked there (then she went to her common-law spouse, choreographer Jules Perrot, in Russia, where she received a contract for two seasons and where Paquita was among the performed parts).
But real success awaited this ballet a year and a half later in Russia, where it received the name "Paquita" and was repeatedly staged and continues its stage life to this day.
The production in Russia was the next after the Paris premiere, it turned from a two-act into a three-act and took place in the St. Petersburg imperial troupe on the stage of the Bolshoy Kamenny Theater on September 26, 1847 with Deldevez's music, instrumented by K. N. Lyadov and with the addition of new gallop music.
Marius Petipa repeated the same production at the Moscow Imperial Troupe, at the Bolshoi Theater, on November 23, 1848, performing the main roles together with his partner E. Andreyanova.
On December 27, 1881, the St. Petersburg Imperial Troupe on the stage of the Bolshoi Stone Theater showed a new version of the ballet by the choreographer Marius Petipa, where the music of Deldevez was supplemented by the music of Minkus, for which M. Petipa specially invented several dance scenes.
Marius Petipa's version of the ballet did not disappear. It was preserved by N. G. Sergeev, who at the beginning of the 20th century recorded the ballet repertoire of the St. Petersburg imperial troupe according to the system of choreographic recording of his teacher V. I. Stepanov. Having left for emigration, N. G. Sergeev took all the recordings with him and used them himself repeatedly, staging ballet performances on various stages where life threw him. Now his collection is stored in the USA, in the library of Harvard University, and is available to all ballet figures.
In 2000, Marius Petipa's version of these recordings was restored by Pierre Lacotte for the Paris Grand Opera. The ballet thus returned - however, not in its original form, but in the version of Marius Petipa - to the stage from which its history began.
The solemn procession of ballet companies dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of our ballet "everything" Marius Petipa continues. Paquita at the Ural Opera Ballet (Yekaterinburg) joined the festive ranks of demonstrators led by Don Quixote at the Leonid Yakobson Theater. I attended the premiere on February 22 and 23 bloha_v_svitere . This "Paquita" is doomed to become a hit and the brightest phenomenon of the current ballet season, although its appearance was preceded by the tragic and sudden death of the director Sergei Vikharev at the beginning of the rehearsal process. Premiere performances received a memorial status, Yekaterinburg - the most unusual, fascinating and absolutely unpredictable Paquita, choreographer Vyacheslav Samodurov - an unplanned ballet that he had to complete and release into free swimming. A brilliant stylist and reenactor of classical choreography Sergey Vikharev, in collaboration with Pavel Gershenzon, composed a completely provocative performance, without changing a single plot line of the 1846 libretto by Paul Fouche and Joseph Mazilier and carefully packing all the more or less preserved choreography by Petipa into a traveling bag. In the Yekaterinburg "Paquita" there is not a single formal change in the script and choreography familiar at the level of instincts. Still kidnapped in childhood, a French aristocrat considers herself a Spanish gypsy, rejects the claims of the head of the camp Inigo, falls in love with a brilliant officer and saves his life, destroying a complex plot with poisoned wine, four murderers and a secret passage in the fireplace; identifies the murdered parents by family portraits and marries the rescued handsome man. The soloists of Pas de trois sing the same, the ballet chorus-bundle that has set the teeth on edge, “glissade - zhete, glideslope - zhete”, they still prance in the wedding Grand pas “fours” and “twos” in the textbook “Spanish” chant “pa galya - pa Galya - cabriole - pose. But this is perceived by archaeological artifacts found during the construction of, say, a bridge, and built into it as evidence of the existence of civilization in this particular place.
Yes, Yekaterinburg's Paquita is a bridge that boldly connected the unconnected: the island of a ballet legend of the 19th century with the materialistic reality of the 21st century, leaning on the choreographic rationalism of the 20th century. Its chief designers Vikharev and Gershenzon confidently hammered the piles of fantasy into the shaky ground of non-obvious ballet documentaries, established the pillars of iron logic, despite the powerful counter current of historical anecdotes and incidents, and streamlined the movement in both directions - from historicism to modernity and back. Paquita of the 19th century, sitting in a gypsy wagon, arrived in the third millennium at the wheel of her own racing car, not at all surprised by the transformations that had taken place.
The authors of the performance placed three acts of "Paquita" in three different eras with an approximate step of 80 years. The first act, with a leisurely exposition, with the introduction of the main characters, with the beginning of the conflict (neither the Spanish governor nor the director of the gypsy camp like officer Lucien, who decide to kill him for this), lulls the audience with a high-quality reconstruction of one of the iconic performances of the heyday of ballet romanticism . It has everything you expect from "Paquita" and Mr. Vikharev, a brilliant connoisseur of archival choreography: naivety of stage positions, inventive and bewitching dances, detailed pantomime dialogues, ideal heroes, lovely costumes from Elena Zaitseva, in which the dancers bathe in the lush foam of frills and ruffle.
A touched and lost vigilance viewer in the second act expects a shocking awakening. It seems that the authors of the performance were only waiting for the moment to tear off all this false romantic veil, shamefully stretched over a different physical entity. The most melodramatic almost half-hour pantomime scene, extremely loved by balletomanes for its virtuoso acting, even in the case of the most meticulous stylization of the techniques of the ballet theater of the mid-19th century, would look ridiculous, at best, archaic. The stage director, like Bulgakov's Woland, conducts a session of magic with its subsequent exposure, transferring a vulgar (generally) scene to an ideally appropriate aesthetic environment for it: to the silent cinema of the early twentieth century. The puzzle pieces fit perfectly! The hairy-eyed handsome Lucien and the femme fatale Paquita, goggle-eyed with long eyelashes, are actively giving cues that are projected onto the screen; sinister scumbags brandishing sharp knives with terrifying grimaces; the ideal scoundrel (Gleb Sageev and Maxim Klekovkin), demonically laughing, does his vile deed and falls victim to his own cunning, writhing picturesquely in death agony. The action is rapidly rushing to the denouement, the brilliant pianist-demiurge German Markhasin (and, as you know, young Dmitry Shostakovich worked as a pianist in cinemas) ruthlessly crushes romantic illusions, which in the third act, drunk with coffee from a coffee machine, are resurrected to sum up and sing of those the eternal values contained in Petipov's Grand pas.
But before the Grand pas, you still have to make your way through the dense layer of people having a rest during the intermission of the performance in the theatrical buffet of artists. In the new reality, Lucien and Paquita become the premieres of the ballet troupe, Lucien's dad becomes the director of the theater, the Spanish governor, who plotted the murder of the main character, becomes the general sponsor of the troupe. Vyacheslav Samodurov, Nostradamus of our time, already two days before the final predicted the victory of Russian hockey players at the Olympics, putting a TV broadcast of the match on the stage of his theater. Dramatic reality, sports and theatrical, are intertwined: against the backdrop of sweet hockey victories, the nameless orphan Pakhita is acquired, theatrical corruption is exposed, and arrests and holidays are combined, crowned with a wedding Grand pas.
The grand pas is danced almost perfectly: a well-trained troupe cuts through the space of the stage quite synchronously, flashing cabriols and seducing with cancan ambuate. In the Grand pas, the heads of the dancers are decorated not with "Spanish" crests protruding victoriously from the kits, but with charming French hats from the Moulin Rouge, and on their feet - black leotards and black pointe shoes, which, coupled with charming smiles, give Petipa's most bronzed academic choreography a purely Parisian flair, playfulness and frivolity, completely etched in the last century. Miki Nishiguchi and Ekaterina Sapogova perform the main part with sweet French swagger and careless indifference, they do not look for industrial records in the choreography and do not “fry” fouettes with an air of ultimate truth, but all their dance statements are impeccably accurate and brilliantly articulated. Alexey Seliverstov and Alexander Merkushev, who took turns playing the role of Lucien, appreciated the plastic variability proposed by the directors - the ideal gentleman-darling in the first act, the reflective neurotic hero in the second, and the aristocrat-premier, flawless in everything, in the third.
But Paquita became such thanks to the composer Yuri Krasavin, the author of the “free transcription” of the score by Eduard Deldevez and Ludwig Minkus. He created a musical breakthrough, reincarnating unpretentious tunes and chants into a powerful polyphonic sound of an incredibly solid and captivating work. These transformations and the musical charades conceived by Mr. Krasavin plunge one into a frenzy of delight. The accordion and xylophone introduced into the orchestra and the enhanced role of percussion, sometimes carefully delicate, sometimes chopping from the shoulder and preparing an “applause” pas, gave the score of “Paquita” by Krasavin even more plasticity and “Frenchness”. However, the blows of the whip in the most energetically intense moments do not allow you to lull yourself into the charm of a deceptively old ballet.
The ballet season at the Bolshoi Theater was opened by the French. It was the second part of the return tour of the Paris Opera Ballet Company. Or, rather, the return of a forgotten debt, which Brigitte Lefebvre remembered before her departure from the post of head of the Paris Opera Ballet.
She had long wanted to bring the Parisian Paquita by Pierre Lacotte to the historical stage of the Bolshoi, but the tour visit of the Opera Ballet (February 2011) coincided with the height of the renovation, and the Parisians showed small-format ballets on the New Stage: Suite in White by Serge Lifar, Arlesian » Roland Petit and «Park» by Angelin Preljocaj.
Neither Rudolf Nureyev nor Pierre Lacotte - the authors of large staged performances, the so-called Parisian exclusive from the category of classics - did not get into the company of the "brought" choreographers.
Two years ago, the Bolshoi Theater introduced a convenient practice - to open the season with a tour of some serious European theater.
In 2011, the Real Madrid Theater came with Kurt Weill's opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, in 2012 - La Scala showed its new Don Juan. The tour of the Paris Opera Ballet with Paquita fit perfectly into the scheme. And the bar of the artistic level of visitors is kept high.
However, these are all explanatory formalities. The message of the Paris tour is different.
Those who follow the events in France know that the Paris Opera Ballet is on the verge of change.
In 2014, the troupe will be headed by a new artistic director - choreographer from Bordeaux, husband of Natalie Portman, ex-premier of New York City Ballet, Benjamin Millepied.
Yes, of course, Brigitte Lefebvre, the long-term leader of the famous company, was not the guardian of the classical heritage, on the contrary, she promoted modern dance to the repertoire with all her might. But she also baked about the local treasure - the ballets of Nureyev and Lacotte. As well as the fact that choreographers or dancers who want to reincarnate as choreographers of French origin should have priority for new productions in the theater.
Again, this does not mean that racism was promoted. Lefebvre invited both Israeli and Algerian choreographers to the productions, and any others who were “in discourse”. Millepied was twice among such promising invited Frenchmen - with very average works "Amoveo" and "Triad", which were pulled to the proper level by the brilliant feet of Parisian dancers and the design of fashion designers.
However, xenophobia has historically taken place at the Paris Opera School.
Various capable children are accepted to the school, but after graduation, only holders of a French passport can get into the corps de ballet of the main ballet theater of the country. It's cruel, but generally fair. Each theater has its own characteristics, and the institution of French ballet, as the oldest in the world, has the right to its own eccentricities, the result of which has always been a high level of skill and, most importantly, stylistic unity.
Wherever the ballet dancer of the Paris Opera comes, he always carries the French style in himself - this is the manner of performance, the technique and a special stage culture.
The same can be said about the ballerinas of the Mariinsky Theatre, partly about the artists of the Bolshoi Theater, and about the soloists of the Royal Danish Ballet, that is, about the representatives of the oldest national companies.
And that's all - just these three or four theaters.
Is this elitism good or bad in the era of globalization?
From the point of view of a balletomane, it is undoubtedly good. Because around these pillar theaters there are other wonderful theaters where a mixture of styles, techniques and nationalities is in honor. These are the American Ballet Theater (ABT), La Scala Ballet, New York City Ballet, Covent Garden Ballet, English National Ballet, Berlin State Ballet, Vienna Opera Ballet and a few more. In addition, there are author's theaters, such as the Hamburg Ballet (Neumeier's repertoire) or the Stuttgart Ballet (Cranko).
Time makes adjustments. Both in Denmark and in Paris, at the same time, there was a problem of a shortage of talented students with the “correct” passport to the theater. There are two ways out of this situation - either change the charter and take foreigners from among the best graduates, or take all the French in a row.
Denmark is already taking everyone in a row, since the country is small, and the problem does not begin at graduation, but right at the reception - there is a shortage of Danish children.
And now a girl of any origin with the appropriate data can enter the School of the Royal Danish Ballet, and boys are taken even without data, as long as they go. But the Danes didn’t have xenophobia even before, it’s just that Danish children were enough to fill the ballet classes.
France is still at the level of a school, because there, as in Russia, where, in addition to the Moscow State Academy of Arts and the ARB (Vaganovka), there are a dozen ballet schools that can feed two metropolitan schools, not one school, but several. And all the same, the personnel problem for the French is not far off, and it will have to be solved somehow, and, most likely, at the expense of "non-French".
Meanwhile, the future artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet, Benjamin Millepied, sees no threat in the fact that strangers will enter the theater.
Moreover. He has already managed to arouse the indignation of the etoiles with his statements in the press. His enlightened Americanized look of a refined company lacks African Americans with their extraordinary plasticity and techniques. A normal statement from a man who has never danced at the Paris Opera and never even went to a famous school.
Moreover, it will not be difficult for him to recruit plastic non-Europeans into the troupe at the beginning of the next season. Four étoiles are retiring at once - Nureyev's "chickens" Nicolas Lerish (he says goodbye in the summer of 2014 in Notre Dame Cathedral by Roland Petit) and Agnes Letestu (her farewell performance - "Lady of the Camellias" by John Neumeier will take place on October 10 this year), as well as Aurelie Dupont (in the ballet "Manon" in autumn 2014) and Isabelle Ciaravola in March 2014 as Tatiana in "Onegin" by J. Cranko.
By law, a Paris Opera Ballet dancer retires at forty-two and a half years old!
But in the group of the first dancers, from where, in theory, they should nominate future stars for vacant positions, there are no suitable candidates in such a quantity. It is clear that in a year you can manage to promote someone from the lower ranks to the first dancers, but these people will then have to “pull” the most difficult parts in classical ballets. Therefore, Millepied's idea of "diluting" the troupe with professionals from the outside, no matter how mediocre and tasteless it may seem, is likely to be realized. And everything, everything will change.
But while Brigitte Lefebvre is at the helm, there are no vacancies in her troupe, on the contrary, there are excellent dancers with whom she fought side by side for 20 years for the purity and identity of the French style.
She was and remains a friend of the Bolshoi Theater - she invited Moscow artists to one-time performances: Nikolai Tsiskaridze danced La Bayadère and The Nutcracker, Maria Alexandrova danced Raymonda, Svetlana Lunkina danced The Nutcracker and Vain Precaution, Natalya Opipov - "The Nutcracker". And secondly, thanks to the agreements between Lefebvre and Iksanov, the Bolshoi Ballet Company began touring regularly in Paris.
Brought to Moscow, "Paquita" is a farewell shot of the Paris Opera Ballet of the era of Brigitte Lefevre.
A beautiful gesture of the avant-garde queen, who wants to be remembered in Russia not only as a propagandist of existential wallowing.
This version of Paquita premiered in 2001. The French then became a little worried that the Bolshoi Theater, where the premiere of Pierre Lacotte's ballet "The Pharaoh's Daughter" based on Petipa, had taken place with resounding success the year before, would intercept its main connoisseur and reenactor of romantic antiquity from the Paris Opera. By this time, the theater's repertoire included his regularly renewed La Sylphide and the rare Marco Spada.
Lacotte's revision of Paquita dates back to the premiere performance of 1846, with choreography by Joseph Mazilier that has not survived.
The choreographer relied on unique documents that he discovered in Germany, which are a complete description of the mise-en-scenes, the first edition of the pantomime and two variations of Mazilier, marked and written by the choreographer's hand, plus a description of the performance design.
All this was needed to turn into a full-fledged performance "The Big Classical Pas" - a masterpiece excerpt from "Paquita" by Marius Petipa, which survived the time. These are the well-known children's mazurka, pas de trois, virtuoso female variations, pathetic pas de de deux Paquita and Lucien and the common entre, which have successfully existed for a hundred years in a plotless mode.
The first French "Paquita" of 1846 arose in the wake of the passion of the then choreographers for the legends of the Iberian Peninsula.
Spain, on the one hand, was seen as a country in which incredible stories could take place with the abduction of children by gypsies and robbery raids - such stories actively nourished French romantic ballet. On the other hand, Spain was famous as the birthplace of all kinds of folk-characteristic dances - gypsy, bolero, kachuchi. Tambourines, tambourines, castanets, cloaks - these accessories became an integral part of the ballets of that time.
The literary basis of "Paquita" was the short story "Gypsy Girl" by M. Cervantes.
Late 30s - 40s. the century before last, in general, passed under the sign of ballet gypsies. In St. Petersburg in 1838, Philippe Taglioni staged the ballet La Gitana for Maria Taglioni. Joseph Mazilier staged La Gipsy for Fanny Elsler before Paquita. The first performer of Paquita was the no less eminent French ballerina Carlotta Grisi. At the same time, the premiere of Jules Perrot's ballet Esmeralda, the main gypsy ballet hit of the 19th century, took place in London.
But the gypsy theme in "Paquita" is revealed somewhat differently than in "Esmeralda".
The word "gypsies" in romantic ballet was understood in a sense as an epithet for "theatrical robbers". So the libretto of "Paquita" tells about the extraordinary fate of a girl who lives in a gypsy camp according to its laws - dancing, she earns her living. However, her origin is shrouded in mystery - the girl has a medallion depicting a French aristocrat, hinting at her noble parent.
And in "Esmeralda" the word "gypsy" means - "beggar", "persecuted", "homeless", and gypsy life in the ballet is not shrouded in any romance. In this sense, the first Parisian "Paquita" is closer to "Catarina, the robber's daughter" by J. Perrot. "Paquita" is a late romantic ballet, the plot of which is based on a melodrama beloved by visitors to theaters on the Grands Boulevards.
As a result, Lacotte, whom we know as a first-class director of dances in the style of the Romantic era, restores in his Paquita - from notes, engravings, sketches, reviews and articles by poets and literary critics of the level of Théophile Gautier - all pantomime mise-en-scenes.
In the play there is a whole picture of the “Camp of Gypsies”, which practically does not contain dances, but is full of dramatic pantomime, from which Gauthier was once delighted.
It is difficult to compare the acting abilities of the first performer Paquita Carlotta Grisi and today's ballerinas Ludmila Pagliero and Alice Renavan, but this picture itself, which is a revived engraving, looks harmonious, partly reminiscent of a dramatic intermission.
Paquita, in love with the French officer Lucien d'Ervilly, overhears the conversation between the gypsy Inigo and the Spanish governor, who are going to give him sleeping pills and then kill Lucien - the first out of jealousy, and the second - because of hatred for the French and unwillingness to marry his daughter Serafina to the son of the hated general. Paquita warns Lucien of the danger, swaps Lucien's and Inigo's glasses, he falls asleep before he can commit the crime, and the couple escapes safely through a secret door in the fireplace.
In the previous picture, the content was told mainly through dance. This is the Spanish dance with tambourines, and the gypsy dance of Paquita, and variations of Lucien and the notorious Dance with cloaks (Danse de capes), which was once performed by travesty dancers, given to men by Lacotte, and the pas de trois, transcribed in a different in Petipa's manner.
Therefore, the “pedestrian” picture serves as a transition to the next dance act in its entirety - a ball at General d’Hervilli,
to which Paquita and Lucien, out of breath from the chase, run in belatedly. The girl exposes the insidious governor and along the way discovers on the wall a portrait of a man with features familiar from her medallion. This is her father, the brother of the general, who was killed many years ago. Paquita immediately accepts Lucien's offer, which she had previously delicately rejected, considering herself an unworthy commoner, puts on a beautiful wedding tutu, and the ball continues in the mode of that very favorite by balletomanes of all times and peoples "gran pas" to the music of Minkus, complicated by Lacotte in the French manner.
In an interview, Lacotte repeatedly said that "the Paquita technique requires more liveliness than lyricism."
And "ballerinas need to match the old allegro technique, which is gradually disappearing." Paquita exits are a chain of small steps, jumps, "skids" and pas de sha. The variation of the soloist in the pas de trois and the variations of Lucien are almost continuous flight without landings.
The composition of the soloists that the Parisians brought to Paquita are unequal, if only because
Matthias Eimann - Lucien's performer - exists in the world in a single copy.
All the other Luciens are good, but they fall short of Matthias. He made his debut in Paquita in December 2007 in all games at once. While his senior colleagues worked out their star status in the role of the premier, Eyman, who had just been elevated to the rank of the first dancer, jumped into the pas de trois and saluted in the Spanish dance, paralleling Lucien's flights in the repzal.
And when he came out in the lead role as a replacement - a boy with a pronounced Arabic note in his features and an absolutely incredible effortless jump - the name of the future etalia was unequivocally determined (then, however, there was no vacancy for a long time, and the appointment had to wait at least a year).
Eiman instituted a completely different manner of dancing and manner of behavior on stage - intrepid, a little bit unceremonious, a little bit insensitive, but extremely interesting and innovative.
Today, this is a venerable prime minister, whose performances are watched by Paris, and whom Muscovites passionately fell in love with. He was not shown on the last tour, referring to the artist's employment in the current repertoire of the opera, thereby exacerbating the shock of the opening. Florian Magnenet, the second Lucien, is not inferior to Eyman in gallant manners, but the Lacotte variations are not yet up to him.
On the first evening, Paquita was danced by Lyudmila Pagliero, the main virtuoso of the Paris Opera.
Etoile is beautiful, enduring, with a good jump, brilliant spin and an extraordinary sense of adagio.
Like any hostage of technology, Lyudmila has a certain dramatic stamping, but not critical.
Another Paquita - Alice Renavan. She is also hardy, also with a jump, but for classical ballet she is too exotic. Renavan has stagnated in supporting roles, which she often performs brighter than other prima title roles, but the mentality of a good adjutant prevents her from becoming a general.
However, the beauty Alice has every chance to soon become an etiquette for achievements in modern dance - in this area she is unrivaled.
In addition to the delights of the étoile dance, the French gave the joy of neat fifth positions, restrained manners and the elegance of each artist individually.
Photo by D. Yusupov
Act one
Scene 1
Valley near Zaragossa. On the hills in the distance, large stone bulls of rough sculpture are visible. Huge rocks with a natural staircase rise to the right. There is also a gypsy tent.
The sculptor carves the inscription on the marble board. Spanish peasants lie and stand in groups. A French general appears, accompanied by the governor of the Spanish province and his sister Serafina. Lucien supports his grandmother. The general orders to show the inscription, which was cut by the sculptor. It has the following content:
"In memory of my brother Charles d" Hervilli, who was killed with his wife and daughter on May 25, 1795.
Examining the inscription, he recalls in a mimic story this sad event that happened on his last trip to Spain. As a Frenchman and a conqueror in this country, having, therefore, the right to command, he demands that this inscription be carved on a rock in the very place where his brother died from the dagger of robbers. Lucien shares his grief with his grandmother. The governor, wanting to somehow dispel the gloomy mood, announces to them about a big village holiday, which is appointed right there and on the same day, and after the holiday he promises to fulfill the will of his brother regarding the monument. Don Lopez takes care of visiting guests, especially since he has in mind to unite with them in a family way.
The general is not against this union and, taking Serafina's hand, connects it with Lucien's hand, with the consent of the first. It is noticeable that although outwardly the governor agrees to this alliance, forced by political circumstances and the superiority of the victors, but inwardly he is far from it. The governor, as a Spaniard, harbors in his heart a hatred for the French - a hatred that was the cause of so many murders in the last Spanish war.
Meanwhile, the grandmother quietly asks her grandson if he loves the bride. “No,” the grandson answers, “and my heart is still free.” – “Succeed! You will have time to fall in love, time has not passed, ”the old woman says, and all three, at the invitation of Don Lopez, go for a walk and admire the picturesque surroundings of Zaragossa.
Lively and cheerful music heralds the arrival of the gypsy camp. They come down from the mountains. Kibitkas, stretchers with belongings and other belongings slowly drag along the plain. Everyone is having fun in anticipation of the upcoming holiday, but Inigo, the head of the camp, looking around him, notices that there is no Paquita, his first, most beautiful and most skillful dancer.
By his order, some return to the road for her, but at this time she appears on the mountain. Without taking her sad eyes off the bouquet in her hands, Paquita slowly descends. Approaching her friends, she gives them the flowers she picked along the way. Inigo is angry and comes out irritating himself because she was late. It is difficult to hold him. He gives various orders regarding the feast, and everyone enters the tent.
Left alone with Paquita, Inigo tells her about his feelings, about what is in her hands to make him her most obedient slave from a proud and indomitable master. Paquita is burdened by his slavery, but still prefers his love to Inigo. She bounces off him, runs, dances in a kind of oblivion, as if trying to drown out both Inigo's proposals and the sad feelings that they evoked. Inigo thinks in vain to stop her: Paquita with one look, in which sheer indignation shows through, restrains him. Embarrassed, Inigo leaves.
Left alone, Paquita takes out a portrait hidden on her chest, with which she has not parted since childhood. It does not show either the family or the homeland of the one he depicts. But Paquita imagines that it depicts the sweet features of the one to whom she owes her life - the one with whom all the joys and pleasures of quiet family happiness are connected. As she was about to go to her friends and glancing at the adjacent surroundings, she suddenly stops, with horror recognizing the place where a bloody event took place before her eyes, of which only a vague memory remained. Here, in this very place, the officer who carried her in his arms fell dead, then she was seized, carried away by strangers, then ... But the noise and the gathering crowds of spectators and participants interfere with Paquita's memories and remind her of the sad reality. She goes to the gypsies' tent.
The stage is filling up. The general, his mother, Serafina, the governor return and take the places prepared for them. Gypsies in elegant costumes come out of the tent. Dancing. After them, Inigo, relying on the beauty of Paquita, orders her to go around the audience and collect money from them. Paquita obeys, but shyly, sadly, reluctantly. Passing by Lucien, she makes a strong impression on him. The collection is over. But despite the generosity of the young officer, the greedy Inigo is dissatisfied. He wants to replenish the collected amount and, counting on Paquita again, orders her to start dancing. Before that, is Paquite? Less than ever she is inclined to dance, she is sad, she is bored, she refuses. Inigo loses his temper and wants to force her, but Lucien stands up for the unfortunate. Reassuring Paquita, he peers at her carefully. The tenderness of her face, whiteness, nobility amaze him. Everything suggests that she is not a gypsy, that there is some kind of fatal secret that hides both her life and origin. Lucien brings Paquita to his grandmother, who is equally struck by the beauty of the girl and expresses his concern to her. Lucien asks Inigo who this girl is. Inigo replies that he is related. Lucien does not believe and turns to Paquita herself with a question. Paquita says that she has one thing that can explain who she is and where she comes from - this is a portrait, and begins to look for it, but alas ... The portrait has disappeared. Inigo, seeing the turn this explanation was taking, fearful of its implications, surreptitiously stole the medallion from her pocket. In sorrow and despair, Paquita blames Inigo. Lucien orders him to be detained, but the governor steps in and releases the gypsy. Lucien insists that Paquita not be forced to dance. Jealous Inigo is far from persisting otherwise. But Paquita, wanting to somehow express her gratitude for the participation and intercession of the young man, involuntarily responding to him with feelings and driven by an irresistible instinct of the most innocent and natural coquetry, she herself wanted to dance. Now this is prevented by Inigo. Here the governor intervenes and orders not to interfere with Paquita to do what she pleases.
Encouraged by Llyusen's presence, she dances. His love inflames more and more, and Mendoza, having conceived some kind of evil, happily watches the nascent passion. He invites the general and his family to dinner, which is announced by the servants who have entered. The guests leave, but the governor stays for a while longer, under the pretense of having to be present at the end of the festivities.
Left alone with Inigo, the governor asks him if he is angry with Lucien. "Still would!" Inigo answers. “And if I promise not to follow you, will you kill him?” - "His? Your future son-in-law? - "Yes, the future son-in-law ... But I do not want him to be my son-in-law and therefore I incite you to kill him..." - "But aren't you helping him get closer to Paquita?" “And it’s not without purpose,” Mendoza replies. “Let Paquita be the unwitting instrument of our revenge with you.”
Paquita is back. Mendoza goes to his guests. Inigo tells Paquita that he wants to go, and retires to the tent to raise his entire camp immediately for the campaign.
Paquita is alone, but in less than a moment Lucien comes running. Young people fell passionately in love at first sight. Lucien, still mistaking her for a simple and, therefore, corrupt gypsy, offers her money, but the offended Paquita refuses them with dignity. Lucien promises her otherwise to arrange her fate, vows to free her from the bondage in which she is, and asks her to follow him, but Pa-hita, seeing the difference in their positions - Lucien's nobility and the insignificance of her own origin - does not agree to this. Lucien begs her to at least allow him to see her sometimes, and as a pledge of this permission he asks for a bouquet of flowers, which she has in her hands, but Paquita refuses him this too. Disappointed, Lucien retires. Paquita feels sorry for him, she repents of her cruelty and rushes after him... And then Paquita meets Inigo's mocking and jealous gaze. He was here, he saw everything, he heard the last words of their explanation. Paquita stops; foreseeing that Lucien is in danger of death, and not wanting to be her instrument, she rejoices in her intransigence in the previous scene.
Inigo comes to the governor and tells him about the meeting of young people and about the bouquet that Paquita did not agree to give to Lucien. The governor immediately comes up with a sure plan for the death of Lucien. Meanwhile, the departure of the French general is announced. As if preoccupied only with the wires, the governor makes various orders on this occasion and among other things orders all the peasants to collect flowers and bouquets and bring them to his guests as a sign of special respect for such worthy allies of Spain. Paquita's bouquet, however, he does not put in a common basket, but quietly passes it to one young gypsy, after having taught her what to do and how to do it.
The general arrives, the old countess, accompanied by Lucien and Serafina. During the offering of bouquets, a young gypsy approaches Lucien and secretly hands him the bouquet. Lucien is delighted to recognize Paquita's bouquet. He questions the gypsy, who confirms his guess and, showing where Paquita lives, adding that Lucien can see her at any time. Without delay, Lucien immediately wants to go to the city alone on horseback and announces this to his relatives. The general and the old countess do not restrain him, but only ask that he not be late for the upcoming ball, at which his marriage to Serafina is to be celebrated. Lucien hurries, puts on his travel coat, says goodbye and leaves. Peasant women surround the guests of the governor, while the gypsy camp, led by Inigo and Paquita, also sets off on a campaign. Lucien follows them from a distance.
Scene 2
The interior of a small gypsy dwelling.
Enter Paquita, sad and thoughtful. She dreams of Lucien. Will she ever see him?... Suddenly a noise is heard. Paquita opens the shutters, and a masked stranger walks towards the house and up the stairs. Paquita, suspecting something unkind, hides behind the closet.
The disguised Governor and Inigo enter. The governor arranges for the death of their intended victim, who will not be late to appear in a few minutes. Inigo does not need advice or incitement: he has already stocked up on a drug that he will mix in the expected traveler's drink, and then inevitable death is prepared for Lucien. Inigo hides the drink in the cupboard, locks it up, unaware that Paquita is watching his every move. The Governor leaves, handing Inigo a purse for his future service. After that, Inigo calls four comrades through the window, who should be his assistants in the bloody plan, and gives them a part of the payment he received. At midnight the crime must be committed. Inigo, meanwhile, hides two of his accomplices behind the fireplace wall, which moves and spins on its own, facing the other side of the door. Suddenly, at this very time, Paquita, wanting to leave and warn the unfortunate victim, touches a chair and thereby involuntarily reveals herself. Inigo turns around, sees Paquita and grabs her by the hand - death to her if she overheard the secret ... But Paquita assures that she has just entered, and reassured Inigo leaves her. At this moment there is a knock on the door. There is no longer any hope of salvation - Lucien enters.
Lucien's joy at meeting Paquita - and the horror of Paquita, who realized that the person who is threatened with death is Lucien ...
Inigo thanked him with feigned obsequiousness for the honour. A completely different thing is noticeable in all movements, in all signs of Paquita - she seems to be asking: “Why are you here? Why are you going to die?" In response, Lucien shows her a bouquet that she supposedly sent. Paquita denies - but in vain: Lucien does not believe and does not understand her. Inigo orders Paquita to wait on the guest. Lucien gives Inigo the saber and Paquita the cloak. Paquita, as if by accident, throws it over Inigo's head and explains to Lucien what danger threatens him, but Lucien does not believe her: he looks at her and thinks only of her, alien to any fears. Meanwhile, Inigo offers dinner to Lucien and, leaving, orders about it, then takes Paquita with him, who, leaving, does not stop making signs to Lucien to be careful and ready for danger.
Lucien is left alone and notices that there really is something strange and suspicious both in the dwelling itself and in its owner; he goes to the window - it is locked, to the doors - the same thing. Here he recalls that they took his saber; he is looking for her, but she is hidden. While he is thinking about protective equipment, the room is re-entered.
Paquita enters first with cutlery and plates. Behind her is Inigo. Cover dinner. Inigo wants to leave, Paquita signals Lucien to hold him back and not lose sight of him for a minute. Lucien forces Inigo to stay and have dinner with him. After a long ceremony, Inigo agrees. Inigo pours a glass of wine for Lucien, Paquita makes a sign that he can drink - Lucien obeys. Meanwhile, Paquita, while serving, manages to steal pistols from Inigo and pour gunpowder from the shelves. Inigo, not noticing this and seeing nothing but caresses and obliging treatment of Paquita, invites her to dance with Lucien. While he goes for castanets, the young people have time to give each other a few warning signs. Returning, Inigo pours the rest of the bottle into Lucien's glass, while it is still full, and, as if remembering something, hits his forehead, goes to the cupboard and takes out a poisoned bottle of supposedly the best wine, which he wants to treat the young officer . Paquita signals to Lucien that the bottle is poisoned. Inigo, pouring, invites to drink, Lucien refuses. At this time, Paquita drops the plates. Inigo turns around and angrily goes to see what is broken, while Paquita manages to move the glasses. Everything is calming down, but the roles are changing. Now Lucien invites Inigo to drink with him, in one gulp. Inigo, suspecting nothing, agrees. After that, in full confidence that his plan was a success as well as possible, he invites Paquita to dance and dances a gypsy dance with her. During the dance, Paquita manages to let Lucien know both the number of murderers and the hour set for the murder. Moreover, she orders him to pretend that he is falling asleep. Lucien obeys, and Inigo triumphs, believing that the opponent is in his hands, but suddenly he himself stops, yawns and involuntarily closes his eyes. In vain he tries to resist the action of the sleeping potion - he unbuttons his dress and drops the medallion, which Paquita immediately picks up. Inigo staggers to the table, falls into a chair and falls asleep. Then Paquita lets Lucien know that there is not a minute to lose, and explains the situation to him in detail. Lucien grabs his pistols, but - alas - there is no gunpowder on the shelves. Lucien searches for his saber, finds it, but what can he do against four assassins armed with pistols! Meanwhile, midnight strikes, and the fireplace door begins to turn. Paquita grabs Lucien by the arm and runs with him to the door; they lean against it and with its turn disappear from the room - they are saved. Meanwhile, assassins appear and, mistaking Inigo for Lucien, kill him.
Action two
A magnificent hall in the house of the French commandant of Saragossa. The architecture is Moorish, with decorations from the era of the emperorship. A large portrait with a full-length figure in an officer's uniform in the foreground of the hall. Ball in the traditions of that time. Soldiers of all ranks and years, courtiers of all classes and both sexes, in the most brilliant uniforms and costumes of the era of the emperorship. In addition to the French, several Spaniards in national dress are also visible.
Count d "Hervilli goes out with his future daughter-in-law and her father, the governor. The old countess is surprised at the absence of Lucien. The count reassures her and persuades her not to worry. At his request, the quadrille begins. The old woman is worried, and this time the count shares her fears. But suddenly the crowd Lucien enters, leading Paquita by the hand. Lucien's story of the danger he has escaped, arouses not only general astonishment and joy, but also the horror of the governor. Meanwhile, Lucien announces to whom he owes his salvation and what feelings they are full of for each other. Lucien asks not to interfere with their connection, but Paquita herself does not want this, understanding the difference in their position in society. She is already glad that she managed to save Lucien and wants to leave. Lucien holds her back, but in case of objection, he himself is ready to follow her everywhere. The count and the old countess are trying to persuade Lucien, especially since the governor is here and is already ready to demand the fulfillment of their word to marry Lucien to his sister Serafina. But horror! Paquita peers at the governor and clearly recognizes him as a stranger who persuaded Inigo to kill. The embarrassment of the governor further convinces everyone of this, he is arrested and taken away. Serafina follows him. Paquita still does not agree to the happiness offered to her, but, wanting to leave again, she notices a portrait on the wall, peers at it, takes out her medallion, compares it with the portrait, and - oh joy! - this portrait is a portrait of her father, the brother of Count d "Ervily, and she herself is the same child who was saved during the terrible crime of 1795 and raised in the Inigo gypsy camp. The general kisses Paquita. The old woman takes her away. Paquita changes clothes. General gives a sign, and the ball continues.
Without a doubt, the test of our time, so prone to all sorts of melodramas, "Paquita" would stand with honor. The heroine - a young lady of aristocratic origin, kidnapped in childhood by robbers - roams with a gypsy camp through Spanish cities and towns, experiences various adventures and, in the end, finds parents and a noble groom. But Time as such made its own selection, leaving out the plot and its pantomime development and sparing only the dance.
This was the first production of the young Marius Petipa on the Russian stage (1847, St. Petersburg), which followed a year after the premiere at the Paris Opera, where Paquita saw the light of the stage through the efforts of the composer E.M. Deldevez and choreographer J. Mazilier. Soon - again a year later - the ballet was reproduced on the stage of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater.
In 1881, at the Mariinsky Theater, Paquita was given as a benefit performance to one of Petipa's most beloved ballerinas, Ekaterina Vazem. The maestro not only significantly revised the ballet, but also added the final Grand Pas (and a children's mazurka) to the music of Minkus. This Grand Classical Pas, timed to coincide with the wedding of the main characters - together with the pas de trois from the first act and the already mentioned mazurka - survived in the 20th century from the entire large, full-length performance. Of course, it is no coincidence, since, of course, it belongs to the top achievements of Marius Petipa. The Grand Pas is an example of an extensive classical dance ensemble, remarkably built, giving the opportunity to show off their virtuosity - and compete passionately - for almost all the leading soloists, among whom the one who performs the part of Paquita herself is supposed to demonstrate a completely unattainable level of skill and ballerina charisma. This choreographic picture is often called the ceremonial portrait of the troupe, which really must have a whole scattering of sparkling talents in order to qualify for its performance.
Yuri Burlaka got acquainted with Paquita in his early youth - the Pas de trois from Paquita became his debut at the Russian Ballet Theater, where he came immediately after graduating from the choreographic school. Later, when he was already actively engaged in research in the field of ancient choreography and ballet music, he took part in the publication of the clavier of the surviving musical numbers of the Paquita ballet and the recording of Petipa's choreographic text. So the Bolshoi receives Petipa's masterpiece from the hands of his great connoisseur. And it is not surprising that the future artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet decided to start a new stage in his career with this production.
The grand classical pas from the Paquita ballet at the Bolshoi regained the Spanish flavor lost in the 20th century, but did not lose the masculine variation acquired - thanks to the choreographer Leonid Lavrovsky (the 20th century no longer perceived the dancer as a simple support for the ballerina). The director's goal was to recreate the imperial image of the Grand Pas, restore as much as possible Petipa's original composition and make the most of the variations ever performed in this ballet. Of the eleven "active" female variations, seven are performed in one evening. The Paquita dancers were offered variations to choose from, so that each danced the one she liked the most (of course, in addition to the big adagio with the gentleman, which is already included in the “obligatory program” of the role). Among the other soloists, the variations were distributed by the director himself. Thus, every time the Paquita Grand Pas has a special set of variations, that is, different performances differ from each other. What gives additional intrigue to this performance in the eyes of a real balletomaniac.
