This Week on Intermezzo: In Honour of Ballet in the Park, Music from the Ballets of Marius Petipa

This week marks another rite of summer in Winnipeg---Ballet in the Park. (July 26 - July 28). This free family event returns to Assiniboine Park for three outdoor performances on the Lyric Theatre stage at 7:30 pm nightly. We thought it would be nice to feature ballet music from the ballets of one of the most influential ballet master and choreographers in ballet history. Tune in every day at 1 PM for a different ballet. Only on Intermezzo!

Born Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa in March of 1818, Petipa was a French and Russian ballet dancer, pedagogue and choreographer. He is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer in ballet history.

Marius Petipa is noted for his long career as Premier maître de ballet (First Ballet Master) of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, making him Ballet Master and principal choreographer of the Imperial Ballet (precursor of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet), a position he held from 1871 until 1903.

Petipa created over fifty ballets, some of which have survived in versions either faithful to, inspired by, or reconstructed from the original. Among these works, he is most noted for The Pharaoh's Daughter (1862); Don Quixote (1869);

La Bayadère (1877) which you'll hear Monday @ 1PM on Intermezzo;

Le Talisman (1889); The Sleeping Beauty (1890)--which you'll hear on Intermezzo Friday @ 1PM;

The Nutcracker (likely choreographed by Lev Ivanov, perhaps with Petipa's counsel and instruction) (1892);

Le Réveil de Flore (1894); La Halte de cavalerie (1896); Raymonda (1898)--which you'll hear on Thursday @ 1PM on Intermezzo; Les Saisons (1900), and Les Millions d’Arlequin (a.k.a. Harlequinade) (1900).

Petipa revived a substantial number of works created by other choreographers. Many of these revivals would go on to become the definitive editions on which all subsequent productions would be based. The most famous of these revivals were Le Corsaire, Giselle - which you'll hear Tuesday @ 1PM on Intermezzo, La Esmeralda, Coppélia - which you'll hear Wednesday @ 1PM on Intermezzo, La Fille Mal Gardée (with Lev Ivanov), The Little Humpbacked Horse and Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov).

Many pieces have survived in an independent form from Petipa's original works and revivals in spite of the fact that the full-length ballets that spawned them had disappeared from the Imperial Ballet's repertoire. Many of these pieces have endured in versions either based on the original or choreographed anew by others – the Grand Pas classique, Pas de trois and Mazurka des enfants from Paquita; Le Carnaval de Venise Pas de deux from Satanella; The Talisman Pas de deux; La Esmeralda Pas de deux; the Diane and Actéon Pas de deux; La Halte de Cavalerie Pas de deux; the Don Quixote Pas de deux; La Fille Mal Gardée Pas de deux; and the Harlequinade Pas de deux.

All of the full-length works and individual pieces which have survived in active performance are considered to be cornerstones of the ballet repertory.

Hey, do you know how the art of ballet came to be? It's pretty fascinating!