Ballet égyptien, Op. 12 is Alexandre Luigini

Alexandre Luigini

Alexandre Clément Léon Joseph Luigini was a French composer and conductor, especially active in the opera house. As as composer, he is now remembered almost solely for his Ballet égyptien.-Life and career:...

's best-known composition, and is the only one of his works in the standard repertoire.

It was dedicated to Jules Pasdeloup. The ballet

Ballet

Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...

 consists of 8 movements, from which two different concert suite

Suite

In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...

s have been derived. The first suite is the better known.

It originally gained prominence when it was included in Act II of Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

's opera Aida

Aida

Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...

for a performance in Lyon in 1886. The fame of the piece inspired Luigini to write other pieces on exotic themes, such as Ballet russe, Marche d'émir, and symphonic poem

Symphonic poem

A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...

s Fête arabe, Op. 49 and Carnaval turc, Op. 51.

Ballet égyptien has been arranged for piano solo, 2 pianos 4-hands and 2 pianos 8-hands, as well as for brass band.

It has been recorded numerous times, by conductors such as Anatole Fistoulari

Anatole Fistoulari

Anatole Fistoulari was a noted 20th century conductor.Anatole Fistoulari was born in Kiev Ukraine into a musical family...

, John Lanchbery

John Lanchbery

John Arthur Lanchbery OBE was an English, later Australian, composer and conductor, famous for his ballet arrangements.-Life:...

, Jean Fournet

Jean Fournet

Jean Fournet was a French conductor.Fournet’s father was a flutist who gave him some instruction on the flute and music theory. Fournet was then trained at the Conservatoire de Paris in flute by Gaston Blanquart and Marcel Moyse, and conducting by Philippe Gaubert...

 and Richard Bonynge

Richard Bonynge

Richard Alan Bonynge, AO, CBE is an Australian conductor and pianist.Bonynge was born in Sydney and educated at Sydney Boys High School before studying piano at the Royal College of Music in London. He gave up his music scholarship, continuing his private piano studies, and became a coach for...

. It often appears in compilations of light music

Light music

Light music is a generic term applied to a mainly British musical style of "light" orchestral music, which originated in the 19th century and had its heyday during the early to mid part of the 20th century, although arguably it lasts to the present day....

.