Ondine - Mariinsky Ballet - 1/13

Please excuse the annoying little pauses that occur in these "Ondine" clips - I've tried re-uploading but to no avail (its a Youtube thing).

1/13 of Premiere of Pierre Lacotte's revival of the choreographer Jules Perrot & composer Cesare Pugni's romantic masterwork "Ondine, ou La Naïade". March 16, 2006 at the VII International Ballet Festival at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.

**Cast for this clip:
--Mattéo, and Italian fisherman: Leonid Sarafanov
--Giannina, Mattéo's betrothed: Yana Serebriakova

"Ondine, ou La Naïade" was originally staged by the great Balletmaster Jules Perrot for the Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre in London during the heyday of the Romantic Ballet, premiering on June 22, 1843. The ballet featured Fanny Cerrito in the role of the naiad Ondine and Perrot himself as the fisherman Mattéo. The music was composed by Perrot's favorite collaborator, the prolific Cesare Pugni. When the London music publisher Ollivier brought out Pugni's full-length score for "Ondine, ou La Naïade" in piano reduction, the composer dedicated his score to The Duchess of Cambridge Princess Augusta, grandmother of Queen Mary of the United Kingdom.

Perrot utilized Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's 1811 "Undine" as the basis for thier subject. Frederick Ashton would later create his own ballet adapatation in 1858 for the Royal Ballet, & utilize Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's "Undine" as well.

During his engagement as Balletmaster to the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg, Russia, Perrot staged "Ondine, ou La Naïade" for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg. Together, Perrot & Pugni (who had accompanied Perrot to Russia) revised the work in an elaborately expanded edition under the title "La Naïade et le pêcheur" ("The Naiad & the Fisherman"), which premiered on February 11/January 30, 1851 with Cerrito appearing in her role of the naiade Ondine. From then on, Perrot's "La Naïade et le pêcheur" would remain in the repertory of the Imperial Ballet at regular intervals via several revivals mounted years later by Marius Petipa. True to form, Petipa's revivals always included new numbers and revisions of the score by various composers.

The last notable revival of the ballet was staged by Cesare Pugni's grandson, the legendary character dancer & Balletmaster Alexander Shiryaev for the great Anna Pavlova (a photo of Pavlova in the role of Ondine was used by Lacotte to advertise the 2006 production, & is included at the start of my upload). This revival premiered on December 7/20, 1903 & included some additional music by Riccardo Drigo.

Lacotte's revival is entirely new with regard to the choreography (the Imperial-era text is - as far as I know - almost lost, though some of it was revived by Pyotr Gusev in 1989 - see Ketinoa's upload of it).

With regard to the music, Lacotte has utilized both Cesare Pugni's 1843 & 1851 editions of the score to create his own version. I am not sure, however, if the orchestration is authentic, but I highly doubt it.

Lacotte's treatment of the story is relatively faithful to the original libretto. For some reason he has inserted some random guy in a black suit who serves as the fisherman Mattéo's "Jiminy Cricket" of sorts & annoyingly re-appears throughout the ballet.

Lacotte's choreography is very Bournonville-esque, & is perfect for the period in which represents. His work on the "Grand pas des Naïades" of the third tableau (see clips 5/13-6/13) is an absolute masterpiece, & the Tarantella of the fifth tableau is very well done.

Well, enough of my usual nit-picking & historical reflection,
--ENJOY!!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Mariinsky
• Kirov
• Ballet
• Ondine
• Naiad
• Fisherman
• Obratsova
• Tereshkina
• Yana
• Serebriakova
• Sarafanov
• Pierre
• Lacotte
• Cesare
• Pugni
• Romantic

[palubob]

Thank you! I enjoyed it tremendously, but I can't resist drawing attention to one trivial technical point. Ondine is not a Naiad but is a Nereid - a water nymph that inhabits the Mediterranean. In ballet we have Nereids in Napoli, Little Humpbacked Horse and probably elsewhere. The nymphs most commonly encountered in ballet are Dryads (Sylphs = Sylvan Nymphs). Naiads are encountered less commonly, but I believe that the nymphs Pharaoh's Daughter are probably Naiads.

[mrlopez2681]

isnt that funny? 19th century ballet is ripe with such inaccuracies - for example, Petipa originally called the Prince in "The Nutcracker" Prince Coqueluche, which means "Prince whooping cough" - merely a bad translation of German!

[mrlopez2681]

oh yes, BTW - that technical point is certainly NOT trivial!!

[Lucylives08]

does this ondine have any relation to fredrick ashton's ondine?

[mrlopez2681]

no - this is a revival of the absolute original "Ondine" staged by Perrot in 1843 in London - read the notes on the left my friend! :)

[mrlopez2681]

whoops - on the right

[Lucylives08]

thank you so much for taking the time to reply--- haha sorry i know that the two have different music and the only similarity is the ondine- i was just wondering if ashton had been inspired by this version or if it arose completely independant

[EricMontreal22]

It's great to see this--this production seems to have had a bizarre history at the Mariinsky--I heard it was almost not peformed? And it seems like it hasn't been performed much since its premier? This version has no connection to any of Petipa's later versions, does it?

[annalavrova]

Do you know where I can get a video or DVD of this version of "Ondine"? I've been trying to find it online but so far no luck. Thanks

[everythingforballet]

mrlopez2681

Maybe you can tell me the story, because i dont know here.

[banchasu]

Thank you for the upload and the information!

[leslie982]

Hi Lopez - do u have all the ondine video you could share since those at YouTube are choppy and has frequency pause?

[wizardsyay]

Thanks for uploading all these ballets!!! God Bless~

[BalletBabyBoy]

Find the GOLDEN FISHES! I am dying to hear that music.

[palubob]

Do you have a preference -Obraztsova or Osmolkina - in the title role?

[balletnut]

I prefer Ashton's 'Ondine'. Admittedly, I've never seen this one live (& I was lucky enough to see Fonteyn, (for whom it was created) in Ashton's live.

I suppose if I saw this one live, I might like both. Otherwise, in spite of them being completely separate ballets, except in name, Ashton's still reigns supreme.