FIRST ACT
PROLOGUE
Workshop of Coppelius
Professor Coppelius completed his inspired work on the great masterpiece - the mechanical doll Coppélia...
FIRST PICTURE
Fairground
The lovely Swanilda conquered the soul of Franz. The young man swears his love to her and offers his hand and heart. But suddenly a strange girl appears on the square. The stranger moves unnaturally, as if mechanically. Coppelius catches up with the fugitive and takes her back to the house. And then a charming young lady appeared on the balcony of the house with a book in her hands. Franz and all the young men are fascinated by the beauty of the stranger.
SECOND PICTURE
Workshop of Coppelius
Svanilda is in despair. Together with her friends, she secretly sneaks into the Professor's house. Oh happiness! Coppelia is just a mechanical doll! The professor drives the darlings out of the house. But Swanilda stays and confesses to the Master that her heart is broken. Coppelius triumphs - Franz recognized his "work" as a living girl. And here is Franz. Swanilda plays a prank on him, portraying Coppelia. Franz swears his love to the revived doll. Swanilda rips off Coppelia's wig. Franz begs Swanilda to forgive him. The lovers are happy again!
SECOND ACT
PROLOGUE
Workshop of Coppelius
The professor is in seventh heaven with happiness - his doll was mistaken for a living girl! But in the house of Coppelius again uninvited guests - the mayor and his wife. They came to pick up their order - a Coppelia doll! The master rushes after them.
THIRD PICTURE
Hall in the Town Hall
Wedding of Swanilda and Franz. The guests taste a delicious wedding cake. Coppelia herself is hidden under the colored icing of the cake. The doll starts to dance. Suddenly, Coppelius appears at the wedding. The Professor throws a bag of ducats into the hands of the Mayor and takes away his pet. The fun continues. Girlfriends give Svanilda the Dance of the Hours and the Four Times of the Day, with the wish of a long life in marriage. Everyone is happy! But the incredible adventure with the automaton puppet angered the calm in the city. The professor continued to arrange his pranks with Coppelia.
Act I
Public square in a small town on the borders of Galicia. Among the houses painted with bright colors, there is one house with bars on the windows and a tightly locked door. This is the home of Coppelius.
Swanilda approaches the house of Coppelius and looks at the windows, behind which a girl is seen sitting motionless; she holds a book in her hand and seems to be immersed in reading. This is Coppelia, the daughter of old Coppelius. Every morning you can see her in the same place - then she disappears. She never left the mysterious dwelling. She is very beautiful, and many young people in the city spent long hours under her window, begging her for one look.
Swanilda suspects that her fiancé Franz is also partial to Coppelia's beauty. She tries to get her attention, but nothing helps: Coppelia does not take her eyes off the book, in which she does not even turn the pages.
Swanilda starts to get angry. She is about to knock on the door when Franz suddenly appears and Swanilda stays hidden to watch what happens.
Franz heads towards Swanhilda's house, but hesitates. Coppelia sits by the window. He bows to her. At that moment she turns her head, stands up and answers Franz's bow. Franz had barely had time to send a kiss to Coppelia when old Coppelius opened the window and was watching him mockingly.
Swanilda burns with anger against both Coppelius and Franz, but pretends not to notice anything. She runs after a butterfly. Franz runs with her. He catches the insect and solemnly pins it to the collar of his dress. Swanilda reproaches him: "What did that poor butterfly do to you?" From reproach to reproach, the girl expresses to him that she knows everything. He deceives her; he loves Coppelia. Franz tries in vain to justify himself.
The burgomaster announces that a big holiday is planned for tomorrow: the owner presented the city with a bell. Everyone crowds around the burgomaster. A noise is heard in the house of Coppelius. Reddish light shines through the glass. Several girls fearfully move away from this accursed house. But this is nothing: the noise comes from the blows of the hammer, the light is the reflection of the fire burning in the forge. Coppelius is an old madman who works all the time. What for? No one knows; Yes, and who cares? Let him work if he likes it!..
The burgomaster is approaching Svanilda. He tells her that tomorrow their owner should award a dowry and marry several couples. She is Franz's fiancee, doesn't she want her wedding to be tomorrow? "Oh, it's not decided yet!" - and the young girl, glancing slyly at Franz, tells the burgomaster that she will tell him a story. This is the story of the straw that reveals all secrets.
Ballad of the Ear
Swanilda takes an ear from a sheaf, puts it to her ear and pretends to listen. Then he hands it to Franz - does the spikelet tell him that he no longer loves Swanilda, but has fallen in love with another? Franz replies that he does not hear anything. Swanilda then resumes her trials with one of Franz's friends; smiling, he says that he clearly hears the words of the ear. Franz wants to object, but Swanilda, breaking the straw before his eyes, says that everything is over between them. Franz leaves in annoyance, Swanilda dances among her friends. The tables have already been prepared, and everyone is drinking to the health of the ruler and the burgomaster.
Czardas
Coppelius leaves his house and locks the door with a double turn of the key. He is surrounded by young people: some want to take him along, others make him dance. The angry old man finally breaks free from them and walks away cursing. Svanilda says goodbye to her friends; one of them notices on the ground the key that Coppelius dropped. The girls invite Svanilda to visit his mysterious house. Swanilda hesitates, but meanwhile she would like to see her rival. “Well, what? Let's go in!" she says. The girls break into Coppelius' house.
Franz appears, carrying a ladder with him. Rejected by Svanilda, he wants to try his luck with Coppelia. Opportunity favors... Coppelius is far away...
But no, because at the moment when Franz leans the ladder against the balcony, Coppelius appears. He noticed the loss of the key and immediately returned to look for it. He notices Franz, who has already climbed the first steps, and he runs away.
Act II
A vast room filled with all sorts of tools. Many automata are placed on stands - an old man in a Persian costume, a negro in a threatening pose, a little Moor playing cymbals, a Chinese who holds a harp in front of him.
The girls cautiously emerge from the depths. Who are these motionless figures sitting in the shadows?.. They are examining the strange figures that frightened them so at first. Swanilda raises the curtains at the window and notices Coppelia, sitting with a book in her hands. She bows to the stranger, who remains motionless. She speaks to her - she does not answer. She takes her hand and steps back in fright. Is it a living being? She puts her hand on her heart - it doesn't beat. This girl is nothing but an automaton. This is a work of Coppelius! "Ah, Franz! - Swanilda laughs, - That's the beauty he sends kisses to! She has been avenged in abundance!.. The girls are carelessly running around the workshop.
One of them, passing near the player on the harp, accidentally touches the spring - the machine plays a bizarre melody. Embarrassed at first, the girls calm down and start dancing. They look for the spring that sets the little Moor in motion; he plays the cymbals.
Suddenly, an enraged Coppelius appears. He lowers the curtains hiding Coppelia and rushes off to chase the girls. They slip between his hands and disappear down the stairs. Svanilda hid behind the curtains. That's how I got it! But no, when Coppélius lifts the curtain, he's only looking at Coppélia - that's all right. He breathes a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, some noise is still heard ... In the window one can see a ladder attached, Franz appears on it. Coppelius does not appear to him. Franz is heading towards the place where Coppelia is sitting, when suddenly two strong hands grab him. A frightened Franz apologizes to Coppelius and wants to run away, but the old man blocks his way.
"Why did you sneak up on me?" - Franz admits that he is in love - “I'm not as angry as they say about me. Sit down, have a drink and talk!" Coppelius brings an old bottle and two goblets. He clinks glasses with Franz, then stealthily pours out his wine. Franz finds that the wine has a strange taste, but continues to drink, and Coppelius talks to him with feigned good nature.
Franz wants to go to the window where he saw Coppelia. But his legs give way, he falls into a chair and falls asleep.
Coppelius takes the magic book and studies spells. Then he rolls up the pedestal with Coppelia to the sleeping Franz, puts his hands to the forehead and chest of the young man and, it seems, wants to steal his soul in order to revive the girl. Coppelia rises, makes the same movements, then descends from the first step of the pedestal, then from the second. She walks, she lives!.. Coppelius went mad with happiness. His creation surpasses anything the human hand has ever created! Here she begins to dance, slowly at first, then so quickly that Coppelius can hardly follow her. She smiles at life, she blossoms...
Waltz of the automaton
She notices the goblet and raises it to her lips. Coppelius barely manages to snatch it from her hands. She notices a magical book and asks what is written in it. "It's an impenetrable mystery," he replies, and slams the book shut. She looks at the machine guns. “I made them,” Coppelius says. She stops in front of Franz. "And this one?" - "This is also an automatic." She sees a sword and tries the point on the end of her finger, then she amuses herself by piercing the little Moor. Coppelius laughs out loud... but she approaches Franz and wants to stab him. The old man stops her. Then she turns against him and starts chasing him. Finally, he disarms her. He wants to excite her coquetry and puts on her mantilla. This seems to have awakened a whole world of new thoughts in the young girl. She is dancing a Spanish dance.
Magnola
Then she finds a Scottish scarf, grabs it and dances a jig.
jig
She jumps, runs anywhere, throws to the ground and breaks everything that comes to her hand. Definitely, she's too animated! What to do?..
Franz has woken up in the midst of all this noise and is trying to collect his thoughts. Coppelius finally grabs the girl and hides her behind the curtains. Then he goes to Franz and drives him away: “Go, go,” he says to him, “You are no longer good for anything!”
Suddenly he hears a melody that usually accompanies the movement of his machine gun. He looks at Coppelia, repeating her jerky movements, while Swanilda disappears behind the curtain. It sets in motion two other automata. "How? - Thinks Coppelius, - They also revived by themselves? At the same moment, he notices Swanilda in the depths, who runs away with Franz. He realizes that he has become the victim of a joke, and falls exhausted in the midst of his automata, which continue their movements, as if to laugh at the sorrow of his master.
Act III
Meadow in front of the owner's castle. A bell is hung in the depths, a gift from the owner. An allegorical chariot stops in front of the bell, on which stands a group of people participating in the celebration.
The priests blessed the bell. The first couples to be endowed with a dowry and joined on this festive day come up to greet the owner.
Franz and Swanilda complete their reconciliation. Franz, who has come to his senses, no longer thinks about Coppelia, he knows what a deception he was a victim of. Svanilda forgives him and, giving his hand, goes with him to the owner.
There is movement in the crowd: old Coppelius has come to complain and ask for justice. They mocked him: they smashed everything in his dwelling; works of art created with such difficulty are destroyed... Who will cover the loss? Swanilda, who has just received her dowry, voluntarily offers it to Coppelius. But the ruler stops Svanilda: let her keep her dowry. He throws a purse to Coppelius, and while he is leaving with his money, he gives a sign for the beginning of the holiday.
bell festival
The ringer is the first to leave the chariot. He calls the hours of the morning.
Waltz of the clock
The morning hours are; behind them is Aurora.
The bell rings. This is the hour of prayer. Aurora disappears, chased away by the hours of the day. These are the hours of work: spinners and reapers are taken to their work. The bell rings again. He announces the wedding.
Final divertissement
According to the Ballet Program of the Imperial St. Petersburg. theaters, 1894"
(From the collection of St. Petersburg State Museum of Theater and Musical Art)
For Natalia Kasat-ki-noy and Vlady-mi-ra Vasileva, the ballet "Coppe-lia" by Leo Delibes is the third performance based on the production of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann .
They were carried away by Hoffmann at the very beginning of their creative work. The ballet invented by them - “Little Tsakhes” or “Magic Camisole” to the music of Nikolai Karet-ni-ko-va, has been waiting for its hour for 17 years. He was banned from posting, not even so much because of avant-garde music, but because of the plot about Little Tsakhes - a vile kar-li-ke , endowed by a fairy with the magical power to take on other people's merits. “And who do you mean?!” - the question sounded and left-nav-whether the shaft was real-li-for-tion spec-so-la for many years.
Their next meeting with Hoffmann is “The Nutcracker” by P.I. Tchaikovsky. In an effort to get as close as possible to the author’s plan, they put into action Queen Mousel-du, her seven-headed son - the Prince of Mice and the transformation of the Nutcracker-Prince-chi-ka into the young Drosselmeyer.
As for the “Coppelia”, this time they took as the basis the fab-lu lib-ret-to, which is the archi-va-ri-us of the Grand Opera Charles Nuitter and the choreo -Count Arthur Saint Leon wrote on the "night story" of E.T. A. Hoffman-on "The Sandman" is a "creepy and through and through poetic" short story in the spirit of a novel-ty-che-th tril-le-ra. At first, they called the performance "Automata", but, according to commercial reports, it has its own-and-whether another, poet- the ty-che-name - “Coppe-lia or the Girl with blue-eyes-for-mi” - in the spirit of the 19th-century romance. In the ballet, the young “stu-di-o-zus” Franz rejects his fiancee Swanil-du and falls in love with the scon-string-and-ro-van Maste -rom Koppe-li-usom auto-mat-kuk-lu Koppe-liu. However, the ending, unlike Hoffmann's short story, is happy. Saint-Leon considered it his duty to entertain the spectator-te-la, and not to teach him.
Often compare-no-va-yut the obvious complexity of the mysticism of the tech-hundred Hoffmann in the short story and the un-tei-li-vuy history of the ballet-no-go lib-ret-to . But these are different genres, and Alexandre Benois, who has the blah-go-da-ry "Coppe-lii" -miril, as he put it, Hoffmann’s “great seriousness” and Delibes’ “amusing joke”: - “I am convinced that if Hoffmann heard the music, ku Delibes, he would be the first to come to the oh-so-roch-ny delight. It turned out, in any case, not an ugly misrepresentation, but something self-attractive in its convincing charm.
"Coppe-lia" is a ballet of the French com-po-zi-to-ra Delibes, who wrote the music with Hungarian-ski-mi into-na-chi-ya -mi on the German history of Hoffmann, and in which the traditions of French, Italian and Russian choreography "coexist" . The life of people and auto-ma-ta-robo-ta, their vza-and-mo-from-no-she-niya - even in a romance-ti-che-ski-opo-e-ti-zi-ro-van -nom story-in-a-nii of the ballet genre, first staged on May 25 in 1870 in Paris, is still on the crest of the wave we are of spectator interest.
Kasat-ki-na and Vasilev preserved in the spec-so-le atmosphere of the gof-man-nov-sky mysteriousness, however, without a hint of gloominess original source.
The version of “Coppelia” of the theater of the class-si-che-sko-th ballet is ready for the spectators a lot of surprises: the process of creating a perfect -shen-no-go auto-ma-ta - movable Dolls, split-double-e-Coppelia; “live”: armchair, wardrobe, music-cal-box, fan-ta-sti-che-fur-bottom-we, inventive deco-ra-tions and ros-kosh -nye costumes-we Eliza-ve-you Dvorki-noy. The new image of the ballet is given by its own bright choreography and the talent of adapting old dance-tse-val-fragments, performed choreo-gra-fa-mi-posta-nov-schi-ka-mi by Natalie-ey Kasat-kin-noy and Vladi-mir Vasilev.
“Coppelia, or the Girl with Blue Eyes” is a pantomime ballet to the music of Leo Delibes in two acts, three scenes. Screenwriters Ch. Nuitter, A. Saint-Leon (after E. Hoffmann), choreographer A. Saint-Leon, artists Ch. Cambon, E. Desplechin, A. Lavastre, A. Albert.
Characters:
- Coppelius
- Coppelia
- Swanilda
- Franz
- Burgomaster
- Svanilda's friends, girls and boys, townspeople, automata dolls
The action takes place in a small town on the border of Galicia in the era of Hoffmann (the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries).
History of creation
On the ballet "Coppelia", which became a milestone in the work of Delibes, the composer began to work in 1869, after he showed his talent and ingenuity by writing divertissement music for Adam's ballet "Le Corsaire" and creating "Sylvia", which Tchaikovsky later admired. The ballet was written according to a libretto by Charles Louis Etienne Nuiter (Truinet's real name, 1828-1899), a famous French librettist and writer, longtime archivist of the Grand Opera, author of the texts of many operas and operettas, in particular Offenbach's operettas. The initiator of the creation of the ballet, choreographer Arthur Saint-Leon (real name and surname - Charles Victor Arthur Michel, 1821-1870) also took part in the work on the libretto of "Coppelia".
Saint-Leon was a multi-talented man. He made his debut almost simultaneously as a violinist (in 1834 in Stuttgart) and as a dancer (in 1835 in Munich), and then for more than ten years he performed as a leading dancer on the stages of many European cities. In 1847, Saint-Leon began work as a choreographer at the Paris Academy of Music (later the Grand Opera), in 1848 he performed his first ballet production in Rome, and from 1849 he began working in St. Petersburg, where he staged 16 ballets in 11 years. It is noteworthy that he began to attract newcomers to this genre, in particular Minkus and Delibes, to writing ballet music. An excellent musician with an amazing memory, Saint-Leon also staged ballets to his own music (“The Devil's Violin”, “Saltarello”), in which he himself performed violin solos, alternating violin playing with dance. By the time Saint-Leon, together with Delibes and Nuiter, began to create the Coppelia, he was already a prominent maestro who enjoyed well-deserved authority.
The plot of "Coppelia" is based on the short story "The Sandman" (1817) by the famous romantic writer and musician E.T.A. Unlike Hoffmann's short story with its inherent features of mysticism, this side was practically discarded in the ballet. The librettists turned out to be an entertaining comedy based on a fleeting quarrel and reconciliation of lovers. "Coppelia" became the swan song of Saint-Leon - he died two months after the premiere.
The premiere of "Coppelia" in the choreography of A. Saint-Leon took place on May 25, 1870 on the stage of the Parisian theater Grand Opera. The great success that befell "Coppelia" at the premiere accompanies this ballet to this day - it goes on many stages of the world, being a classic of the genre. In Russia, it was first staged on January 24, 1882 at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater by J. Hansen, who followed the choreography of Saint-Leon. Almost three years later, on November 25, 1884, the premiere of "Coppelia" took place in the capital's Mariinsky Theater in the choreography of the famous M. Petipa (1818-1910). There is also a version by A. Gorsky (1871-1924), performed at the Bolshoi Theater in 1905.
Plot
The area of the German town. In the window of one of the houses one can see the figure of a girl sitting with a book. This girl never goes out, but her extraordinary beauty attracts everyone. Many young men, who consider her the daughter of Master Coppelius, not only look at her, but sometimes try to get into the house, the doors of which are always locked. Swanilda, Franz's fiancée, suspects that her fiancé is also infatuated with Coppelia. She comes to Coppelius's house at the very moment when Franz appears on the square. Swanilda hides. Franz is trying to attract the attention of a mysterious girl. He bows to her, she bows back. Coppelius from another window mockingly observes what is happening. Swanilda, trying to seem carefree, runs out of her hiding place after a flying butterfly. Franz, seeing the bride, catches a butterfly and pins it to his jacket. Svanilda is outraged by his cruelty. Franz tries to justify himself, but Swanilda refuses to listen.
The square is filled with people. The burgomaster announces that tomorrow there will be a holiday in honor of raising the big bell to the city bell tower. Going up to Svanilda, the Burogmaster asks if she would like her wedding to Franz to take place tomorrow. The girl replies that everything is over between them. Annoyed, Franz leaves the square. Gradually disperse and townspeople. The night is coming. Coppelius goes to a nearby tavern. Swanilda can't say goodbye to her friends. One of them notices the key dropped by Coppelius. As a girl, Svanilda is offered to enter a mysterious dwelling. Overwhelmed by curiosity and jealousy, she agrees. And now the door is open, a flock of girls disappears behind it. Franz appears on the deserted square. Rejected by the bride, he wants to try another happiness. Perhaps Coppelia would agree to run away with him? Franz brings a ladder and puts it on the balcony. At this moment, Coppelius returns, having discovered the loss of the key. Franz barely manages to escape.
In the workshop of Coppelius the girls are examining numerous books, weapons, machine guns made by the master. Behind the curtain, they notice Coppelia sitting with a book in her hand. Swanilda approaches her, takes her hand and discovers that it is a doll. Cheered girls press the springs of automatic dolls - an old man, a negro, a Chinese, a Moor. They start moving. Swanilda hides behind a curtain: she has decided to change into Coppelia's dress. Coppelius enters and chases away the pranksters. Franz appears at the window. Coppelius grabs him. Franz confesses that he is in love with a girl whom he considers to be the daughter of Coppelius. The old man invites Franz to have a drink with him. The young man drinks wine, which is mixed with sleeping pills, and falls asleep. Coppelius wants to transfer Franz's life to the doll. He opens the magic book and casts spells. Coppelia rises from her seat and takes her first hesitant steps. Coppelius is delighted with the imaginary doll. Her gait becomes lighter, she begins to dance, slowly at first, then faster and faster. A Spanish dance with a mantilla follows, followed by an incendiary jig with a Scottish scarf. Coppelius wants to stop the naughty doll, but she eludes him. After waking Franz, Coppelius sends him out. Franz does not understand what happened to him. His surprise increases even more when Swanilda comes out from behind the curtain and drags him down the stairs. Coppelius rushes behind the curtain and sees a naked doll lying on the floor. How he was deceived! He sobs among the automata, which continue to make bizarre movements.
On the square among the festive crowd reconciled Franz and Swanilda. Coppelius turns to the burgomaster for justice: his house is destroyed, toys-automatic machines are broken. He wants to cover his losses. Swanilda offers Coppelius her dowry, but the burgomaster throws a purse to the old man and gives the signal to start the feast. The bell rings, heralding the dawn. Aurora appears surrounded by wildflowers. New bell strikes call to prayer. Aurora disappears. Again the bells - the wedding ringing. Hymen and Cupid symbolize a happy marriage. Sounds of alarm are heard. This is war, strife. Arms raised, the sky blazes with the glow of fire. But the bell again sounds solemnly: peace has been returned.
Music
Ballet music is poetic, emotionally expressive, figurative and plastic. It contains elements of symphonization, and clearly contrasts the world of living human feelings and the world of soulless puppet mechanisms. In foreign studies, it is Delibes, and not Tchaikovsky, who is considered the reformer of ballet music. The composer skillfully uses leitmotifs that characterize the main characters, which also contributes to dramatic unity.
The dances of the ballet are permeated with elements of pantomime, which holds the action together, creating a line of unified musical and dramatic development. In individual dances (Polish mazurka, Hungarian czardas, Scottish jig, etc.), the composer uses the features of national folklore. The words of Academician Asafiev about Delibes are most relevant to Coppélia: “As a person gifted with taste, flair and richness of melodic, harmonic and instrumental invention, he created ballets that are absolutely amazing in terms of grace and elegance of style, brilliance and at the same time clarity of expression. in which the complete perfection of a precise and strict thematic pattern is combined with a flexibly developed dance rhythm and a wealth of invention in the sphere of instrumental coloring.
The image of Svanilda, capricious, playful, thoughtful, tender, is most vividly depicted by the composer. The Swanilda Waltz from Act I is the most famous ballet number, often performed on the concert stage in a vocal version.
L. Mikheeva
Coppelia is one of the most popular classical ballets in the world. Almost every ballet company from Copenhagen to Melbourne has or had this merry, festive performance in their repertoire. Coppelia owes its popularity primarily to the music of Leo Delibes (1836-1891), the author of a number of ballets and operas, including the famous Lakme. It is known that P. Tchaikovsky and A. Glazunov admired Delibes' music.
Academician Boris Asafiev testified: “Coppelia, and six years later Silvia, decisively led ballet music to a new path. Delibes created ballets that are absolutely amazing in terms of grace and elegance of style, brilliance and at the same time clarity of expression, in which the complete perfection of an accurate and strictly thematic drawing is combined with a flexibly developed dance rhythm and a wealth of invention in the sphere of instrumental color. The music of "Coppelia" has long been living its own life, sometimes not connected with the theatrical stage. Excerpts from it are heard on the radio, played in concerts and recorded on discs.
The script of the ballet belongs to the writer Charles Nuiter and the choreographer Arthur Saint-Leon. Using the motifs of a number of short stories by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (“Sandman”, “Automata” and others), the authors skillfully transformed the gloomy fantasies of the famous German romantic into a not too intricate plot in which numerous comedic situations are set off by light and irony and a smile. The main character of the ballet was not the eccentric master of mechanical puppets Coppelius, but the energetic and resourceful girl Swanilda, who with her own hands and, as is customary in ballet, with her feet, achieves her personal happiness. It should be noted that during various productions of "Coppelia" the main milestones of the plot remained, as a rule, unchanged, which does not happen so often in the ballet theater.
The original choreography was composed by Saint-Leon, one of the greatest choreographers of the nineteenth century and at the same time a professional violinist, author of a number of musical compositions. His whole short life (he died in September 1870) was spent on the road. He staged ballets in London and Rome, Berlin and Madrid, Vienna and Lisbon. Since 1859, he spent 11 years in Russia, staging on the St. Petersburg stage, among other things, the ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse. The choreographer enriched the classical and characteristic dance with new expressive means, was a master of composing the most diverse variations. First of all, women's, since at that time in Europe male dance was not honored so much that at the premiere the role of Franz was played by Mademoiselle E. Fiocre. Maybe that's why the original choreography of "Coppelia" has not been preserved.
But subsequent performances fell like a cornucopia. The Belgian choreographer Josef Hansen already in 1871 staged "Coppelia" (after Saint-Leon) in Brussels, and in 1882 in Moscow. In 1884 in St. Petersburg, Marius Petipa, preserving the original script in detail, composed new dances for the “girl with blue eyes”. Criticism noted Varvara Nikitina, who created "a very sweet, poetic and affectionate image of Svanilda." She was also matched by partners - Pavel Gerdt (Franz) and Timofey Stukolkin (Coppelius). Ten years later, Petipa's production for Pierina Legnani was updated by Enrique Cecchetti. The performance ran until 1926, and only one of the ballerinas did not dance Svanilda - Matilda Kshesinskaya, Olga Preobrazhenskaya, Anna Pavlova, Vera Trefilova, Elena Smirnova and Elena Lukom. Alexander Gorsky staged his Coppélia in Moscow in 1905. A famous family shone in the main roles: Ekaterina Geltser (Svanilda), her husband Vasily Tikhomirov (Franz) and father Vasily Geltser (Koppelius). In the same place, at the Bolshoi Theater, this production was updated in 1924 and 1948, and in 1977 for the MCU.
Since the mid-1920s, not only Coppelia has disappeared from the stage of the former Mariinsky Theater - there was no place for other "frivolous" performances in the theater actively patronized by the local authorities. They were sheltered by the less semi-official stage of the Maly Opera House. Here "Coppelia" was staged several times: in 1934 (choreographer Fyodor Lopukhov), in 1959 (choreographer Nina Anisimova) and in 1973 (choreographer Oleg Vinogradov).
The last of them was interesting for a number of reasons, not without reason it was shown to the audience 167 times. With it, for the first time in the century-old history of Delibes' ballet, a mechanical puppet danced. As conceived by the choreographer, her virtuoso plasticity in her own way should contrast with the dance of living heroes. Coppelius is not a sinister madman and not a funny and pitiful old man. He is a master of his craft. Coppelius made his best creation - the “girl with blue eyes” - to test his talent (does no one guess that this is just a dancing mannequin?) And to test the truth of human feelings. The last picture of the festival of urban artisans was unfolded in the form of a grandiose choreographic suite. Here, following the precepts of Saint-Leon and Petipa, the characteristic dance set off and enriched the classical dance. This is a kind of hymn to creative creative work, which clearly expresses the pride of urban craftsmen, the dignity of the unsurpassed master Coppelius and, at the same time, the joy of performers who honorably overcome the difficulties of their difficult but wonderful profession.
A. Degen, I. Stupnikov
From the performance of the Moscow Academic Choreographic School on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. Choreography by A. Gorsky, revival by A. Radunsky, S. Golovkin.
The action takes place in a small town in Galicia. A young girl, Swanilda, is jealous of her fiancé for a mysterious stranger who appears every morning in the window of the opposite house. She secretly enters the workshop of old Coppelius with her friends and, discovering that her rival is just a clockwork doll, dresses in her dress and exposes Franz in imaginary infidelity. The ballet ends with the reconciliation of the lovers and a general holiday.
In 1959, Bolshoi ballet dancer Sofia Golovkina left the stage and devoted herself to teaching. A year later, she headed the Moscow State Choreographic School. And in 1977, together with Mikhail Martirosyan and Alexander Radunsky, she staged the ballet Coppelia for students of the Moscow Academic Choreographic School. This production was based on the choreographic version by Alexander Gorsky, which had previously (since 1905) existed at the Bolshoi Theatre.
This is a rare video recording, in which, before the start of the ballet, there is a short interview with Sofya Golovkina, which is taken by the ballerina Natalia Kasatkina. The role of Svanilda in Coppelia was played by 21-year-old Galina Stepanenko, a student of Golovkina, who graduated from the Moscow Art School in 1984. At that time she was a soloist of the Moscow State Ballet Theater of the USSR (now the Theater of Classical Ballet under the direction of N. Kasatkina and V. Vasilev), and in 1990 she was accepted into the ballet troupe of the Bolshoi Theater. Her partner Alexander Malykhin also graduated from MAHU and was admitted to the Bolshoi Theater.
The history of the creation of the ballet
On the ballet "Coppelia", which became a milestone in the work of Leo Delibes, the composer began to work in 1869, after he showed his talent and ingenuity by writing music for the ballet "Le Corsaire" by Adam and creating "Sylvia", which Tchaikovsky later admired. The ballet was written according to the libretto by Charles Louis Etienne Nuiter, a famous French writer, librettist, archivist of the Grand Opera, author of the texts of many operas and operettas.
The initiator of the creation of the ballet, choreographer Arthur Saint-Leon, also took part in the work on the libretto of "Coppelia". A multi-talented man, he made his debut almost simultaneously as a violinist (in 1834 in Stuttgart) and as a dancer (in 1835 in Munich), and then for more than ten years he performed as a leading dancer on the stages of many European cities. In 1847, Saint-Leon began work as a choreographer at the Paris Academy of Music (later the Grand Opera), in 1848 he performed his first ballet production in Rome, and from 1849 he began working in St. Petersburg, where he staged 16 ballets in 11 years. To write music for ballets, he often attracted newcomers to this genre, in particular Ludwig Minkus and Leo Delibes. An excellent musician with an amazing memory, Saint-Leon also staged ballets to his own music (“The Devil's Violin”, “Saltarello”), in which he himself performed violin solos, alternating violin playing with dance. By the time Saint-Leon, together with Delibes and Nuiter, began to create the Coppelia, he was already a prominent maestro who enjoyed well-deserved authority.
The plot of "Coppelia" is based on the short story "The Sandman" (1817) by the famous romantic writer and musician E. T. A. Hoffmann, which tells about a young man who fell in love with a mechanical doll made by a skilled craftsman Coppelius. Unlike Hoffmann's short story with its inherent features of mysticism, this side was practically discarded in the ballet. The librettists turned out to be an entertaining comedy based on a fleeting quarrel and reconciliation of lovers.
The historical name is "Coppelia, or the Girl with Blue Eyes". The premiere of the performance took place at the Paris Grand Opera on May 25, 1870 in the presence of Emperor Napoleon III and his wife, Empress Eugenie. The great success that befell the ballet at the premiere accompanies it to this day.
In Russia, it was first staged on January 24, 1882 at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater by Josef Hansen, who followed the choreography of Saint-Leon. On November 25, 1884, the premiere of Coppelia took place at the Moscow Mariinsky Theater in the choreography of the famous Marius Petipa. There is also a version by A. Gorsky (1871–1924), performed at the Bolshoi Theater in 1905.
