Ballet "Sylph":: interesting facts, video, content, history

J.M. Schneitzhoffer ballet "Sylphide"

The fate of the ballet "La Sylphide" is quaint, just like the legend told in it. Like its main character - the elusive air Maiden, the ballet for 185 years has disappeared, then returned to the stage. But in the history of the theater "Sylph", which is called the "elder sister of Giselle," will always stand apart. She made a real revolution in ballet. An unheard of sylphs on the ballet stage fluttered the era of romanticism, displacing old ideas about dance art and forming the canons of classical ballet, as we know it today.

A summary of Schneitzhoffer’s “Sylphide” ballet and many interesting facts about this piece can be found on our page.

Summary

Young Scottish farmer James finishes preparations for his wedding. Tired of the pre-wedding troubles, he sits down to rest, and then the front appears a beautiful vision - the spirit of the air of Sylphid. The beauty, tenderness and grace of the girl enchant James. He seeks to touch her, to hold her, but all her attempts are in vain - the Sylphide disappears. James dreams of a stranger, his thoughts are completely absorbed in her, and even the appearance of Effie, his bride, is not able to bring the young farmer out of deep thought. Around it is full of fun and festive bustle, in the midst of which appears forest witch Madge. She predicts that the expected wedding will not take place, and Effie will marry the peasant Gurn. Frustrated, James puts the witch out the door and hurries to reassure the bride. But before him the gentle, alluring behind itself Sylphides reappears and, unable to resist her fragile charm, James rushes after her. In the forest, he almost overtakes the girl, but as soon as it seems to him that he caught her, she again eludes him. Desperate James appeals for help to the witch. She, holding in her heart anger at the young man, pretends that she wants to help him and gives him a magic scarf, which he should put on her lover’s shoulders, then she will always stay with him. James follows the advice of a sorceress, but as soon as the scarf touches the sylph's shoulders, she dies. James can hear the sound of bells announcing the marriage of Effie and Gourne, and he begins to realize that he has lost real happiness in the pursuit of a ghostly dream.

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Interesting Facts:

• It is to Sylphide that modern ballet dancers owe the appearance of pointe shoes. Maria Taloni, who performed the main part in this ballet, for the first time in the history of dance art, rose to the half-fingers to give weightlessness and airiness to the image of the main character. In addition, for the dancer was invented a costume, not previously used - with open shoulders and bodice and a multi-layered fluffy gas skirt, which in the ballet began to be called a pack.
• In 1965, a postage stamp was issued in Denmark with the image of the Danish ballerina Margrethe Shanne as Sylphs.
• The word "sylph" was used in antiquity. But in French it became known only at the dawn of the 17th century thanks to the famous Swiss medic and mystic philosopher Paracelsus, who mentioned it in his manuscripts.
• In St. Petersburg, Maria Taloni after her performances in "Sylph" became a real idol of the public. After the dancer's departure, her ballet shoes were bought for 200 rubles, raffled off, cut and eaten with sauce by fans.
• Among the admirers of the talent of Maria Taloni were many of her famous contemporaries - Belinsky, Gogol, Herzen, Ogarev.
• The Sylphide became the first ballet in which the dance pattern of the corps de ballet in some fragments was completely repeated on the ballerina. Such a "multiple" effect reinforced the impression of a soloist's dance.
• The role of James was one of the most favorite roles of the dancer Rudolf Nureyev.
• In 1860, Maria Taloni became involved with the young soloist of the Grand Opera, Emma Livry, who was predicted for her fame as the new sylphs. However, after less than three years, the tragic event ended the life of a ballerina. The flame of the gas horn, which was used in the performance, spread to the pack of Sylphs. Emma died from severe burns:
• The first Russian sylph was ballerina Catherine Sankovskaya. Her Sylphide differed from Taloniev's more emotional expressiveness, and it is no coincidence: in her youth a ballerina took acting lessons from the famous actor Mikhail Schepkin.
• The composer Levenskold, who wrote the second version of the sylphs score, was only 21 years old at the time of the creation of the future masterpiece of the classical ballet scene.
• In 1984, the film “The La Sylphide” was shot on Lentefilme. The lead roles were performed by the soloists of the Leningrad Theater of Opera and Ballet named after SI Kirov (now Mariinsky) Irina Kolpakova and Sergey Berezhnoy. In 2004, the French TV version of the ballet "La sylphide".
• The writer Vladimir Odoyevsky has a fantastic story, The Sylph. It is believed that her plan was inspired by the resounding success of the ballet and the inspired manner of Maria Tagloni.
• In Russian, the word "sylph" acquired a figurative meaning. So began to call women with special grace, thin and light figure.

History of creation

The literary prototype of "Sylphs" was the novel by French writer Charles Nodier "Trilby, or Spirit of Argeli", which tells how the fisherman's wife fell in love with a fantastic creature - an elf. This romantic story inspired the famous Italian choreographer Filippo Taloni to create a ballet. He wrote the libretto in collaboration with the opera singer Adolfo Nurri. True, in their version of the original plot of the novel was set out exactly the opposite - the hero falls in love with a ghostly girl. Such a transformation was quite explicable, given that both librettists had their own motives to make the heroine a creature from the other world. Taloni decided to stage the ballet specifically for his daughter Maria, a technical ballet dancer, but without an acting talent, so the image of Sylphes could not be more consistent with her nature. The opera soloist Nurri worked with Maria in the theater and genuinely admired the talent of the dancer. For music, the ballet Tallyoni turned to the composer Zh.M. Schneitzhofer.

Rehearsals were difficult. Wanting to achieve the effect of illusiveness, the ephemeral nature of the reigning action on the stage, Taloni not only came up with a very special dance language and design, but also filled the performance with technical effects, which created additional difficulties for the dancers and almost caused the injury to Mary herself. But the result exceeded all expectations.

Productions

The premiere of "The Sylphs" was held on March 12, 1832 on the stage of the Grand Opera in Paris and was a great success. The idea of ​​the impossibility of the coexistence of the world of dreams and real life, embodied in the fantastically aerial dance of Maria Taglion, found an enthusiastic response from the audience. The performance with triumph bypassed the scene of the largest theaters in Europe.

In 1937, Filippo and Maria Taloni arrived on tour in Russia. For their acquaintance with the St. Petersburg public, they took "Sylphide". On September 6, 1837, the ballerina stepped on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in her crown, and from that moment on, the era of Talony began in Russia. They talked about her, imitated her, they admired her. In the same year, the premiere of "Sylphs" in the Bolshoi Theater. The main role in it was performed by the young Moscow ballerina Ekaterina Sankovskaya.

In the second half of the XIX century, the ballet gradually disappeared from the repertoire, and only in 1892 Marius Petipa returned him to the Petersburg stage, setting Barbara Nikitina for the dancer.

In 1925, the Bolshoi Theater saw the second act of Sylphs staged by Vasily Tikhomirov. The sylphidas were danced by the favorite of the Moscow public, Yekaterina Geltser, but the performance itself was absolutely alien to the ideology of young Soviet Russia and again sunk into oblivion for a long half-century.

A similar fate awaited “Sylphide” on foreign theater stages. One can only guess if one of the oldest classical ballets would live to this day, if it were not for the loyal fan of Sylphs, a contemporary of Taglioni is a Danish dancer and choreographer August Bournonville. When he first saw the ballet in Paris, he set about trying to put "Sylphide" on the stage of the Copenhagen Royal Theater. Initially, his intention was to show “Sylphide” to the Danish audience in the original version of Taglion. But the price for Schneitzhoffer’s score was prohibitively high, and Bournonville went the other way. He ordered a new music for "Sylfide" to his compatriot - composer Hermann Levenskold. The young composer approached the matter creatively. Having learned that the ancient Scottish legends formed the basis for the ballet, he organically introduced Scottish folk melodies into the score, thus giving the ballet a vivid national flavor. The premiere of the Danish "Sylphs" took place in 1836, and since then the ballet has been carefully passed down by Danish artists from generation to generation. This explains the fact that Bournonville’s Sylphide, in contrast to the play of Taglioni, has not disappeared, but has safely survived all the upheavals of the 20th century and today adorns the repertoires of many theaters.

In Russia, "Sylph" was seen again in 1975. Elsa-Mariann von Rosen, a ballet master from Denmark, who is considered to be an exceptional connoisseur of Bournonville’s choreographic style, staged a ballet on the stage of the Leningrad Maly Opera and Ballet Theater (now the Mikhailovsky Theater).

Today in theaters you can see both versions of the ballet. In the Bolshoi Theater "Sylph" in the choreography of Bournonville put the Dane Johan Kobborg. In the Musical Theater. K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko is successfully performing a play created by F. Taloni and reconstructed by the French director Pierre Lacotte.

"Sylph"It is not without reason that it is considered a performance for gourmets of ballet art. Everything is admired and aesthetically pleasing - from sophisticated choreographic design to costumes refined in its simplicity. And an entertaining plot in which fantasy magic is closely intertwined with reality, and the main character’s experiences there is a problem of choice, they make ballet simple and understandable even for an inexperienced spectator.

We are pleased to offer ballet dancers and a symphony orchestra for the performance of numbers and excerpts from the ballet "La Sylphide" at your event.