Raymonda
Encyclopedia
Raymonda is a 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...

 in three acts, four scenes with an apotheosis
Apotheosis
Apotheosis is the glorification of a subject to divine level. The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre.In theology, the term apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature...

, choreographed by Marius Petipa
Marius Petipa
Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived....

, with music by Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...

, his opus
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...

 57. First presented by the Imperial Ballet
Mariinsky Ballet
The Mariinsky Ballet is a classical ballet company based at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet is one of the world's leading ballet companies...

 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre on in St. Petersburg, Russia. Among the ballet's most celebrated passages is the Pas Classique hongrois or Raymonda Pas de dix from the third act, which is often performed independently.

Composition history

Raymonda was the creation of Marius Petipa
Marius Petipa
Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived....

, the renowned Maître de Ballet to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, the composer Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...

, the director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres Ivan Vsevolozhsky
Ivan Vsevolozhsky
Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky was the Director of the Imperial Theatres in Russia from 1881 to 1898.A competent administrator, Vsevolozhsky ran the Imperial Theatres with a determination for excellence...

, and the author and columnist Countess Lidiya Pashkova.

Performance history

St. Petersburg Premiere (World Premiere)
  • Date:
  • Place: Mariinsky Theatre
    Mariinsky Theatre
    The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. The...

    , St. Petersburg
    Saint Petersburg
    Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

  • Balletmaster: Marius Petipa
    Marius Petipa
    Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived....

  • Conductor: Riccardo Drigo
    Riccardo Drigo
    Riccardo Eugenio Drigo , a.k.a. Richard Drigo was an Italian composer of ballet music and Italian Opera, a theatrical conductor, and a pianist....

  • Scene Designers: O. Allegri, K. Ivanov, Pyotr Lambin


Moscow Premiere
  • Date:
  • Place: Bolshoi Theatre
    Bolshoi Theatre
    The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...

    , Moscow
    Moscow
    Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

  • Balletmaster: Ivan Khlyustin, Aleksandr Gorsky
  • Conductor: Andrey Arends
  • Scene Designers: Karl Valts (Waltz), Lütke-Meyer, P. Isakov


Other Notable Productions
  • 1908, Moscow, Bolshoy Theatre, Balletmaster Gorsky, conductor Arends, décor by Konstantin Korovin
    Konstantin Korovin
    Konstantin Alekseyevich Korovin was a leading Russian Impressionist painter.-Biography:Konstantin was born in Moscow to a merchant family officially registered as "peasants of Vladimir Gubernia". His father, Aleksey Mikhailovich Korovin, earned a university degree and was more interested in arts...


Original Interpreters
Role St. Petersburg 1898 Moscow 1900 Moscow 1908
Raymonda Pierina Legnani
Pierina Legnani
Pierina Legnani was an Italian ballerina, a terre-à-terre virtuosa extraordinaire, considered one of the greatest ballerinas of all time.-Career:...

Adelaide Giuri Yekaterina Geltser
Jean de Brienne Sergey Legat Mikhail Mordkin
Mikhail Mordkin
Mikhail Mordkin graduated from the Bolshoi Ballet School in 1899, and in the same year was appointed ballet master.He joined Diaghilev's ballet in 1909 as a leading dancer. After the first season he remained in Paris to dance with Pavlova...

Vasiliy Tikhomirov
Henrietta Olga Preobrajenska
Olga Preobrajenska
Olga Iosifovna Preobrajenska was probably the best loved ballerina of the Russian Imperial Ballet....

Cléménce Klavdiya Kulichevskaya
Abderakhman Pavel Gerdt
Pavel Gerdt
Pavel Andreyevich Gerdt, also known as Paul Gerdt , was the Premier Danseur Noble of the Imperial Ballet, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, and the Mariinsky Theatre for 56 years, making his debut in 1860, and retiring in 1916...

Aleksey Yermolayev
Aleksey Yermolayev
Aleksey Nikolayevich Yermolayev was a Soviet baller dancer, choreographer, and teacher. He played an important role in the development of Russian ballet between 1920 and 1950, and he was considered an outstanding actor....

M. Shchipachov


The full-length Raymonda has been revived many times throughout its performance history, the most noted productions being staged by Mikhail Fokine for the Ballet Russe (1909); Anna Pavlova for her touring company (1914); George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...

 and Alexandra Danilova
Alexandra Danilova
Aleksandra Dionisyevna Danilova was a Russian-born prima ballerina who became an American citizen....

 for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was a ballet company created by members of the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo in 1938 after Léonide Massine and René Blum had a falling-out with the co-founder Wassily de Basil...

 (1946); Konstantin Sergeyev for the Kirov Ballet (1948); Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...

 for American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...

 (1975), and for the Paris Opera Ballet
Paris Opera Ballet
The Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest national ballet company in the world, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it...

 (1983); Yuri Grigorovich for the Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Ballet
The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies, however it only achieved worldwide acclaim by the early 20th century, when Moscow became the...

 (1984); Anna-Marie Holmes (in a 2-act reduction) for the Finnish National Ballet
Finnish National Ballet
Finnish National Ballet is a professional ballet company at the Finnish National Opera, in Helsinki, Finland. The company was founded in 1922 and it currently employs 73 dancers. It is the only Finnish company that regularly performs a classical ballet repertoire...

 (2004), a version which was then staged for American Ballet Theatre (2004) and the Dutch National Ballet
Dutch National Ballet
Dutch National Ballet was formed in 1961 when the Amsterdams Ballet and the Nederlands Ballet merged. The company has been directed by Sonia Gaskell , Rudi van Dantzig , Wayne Eagling and is currently directed by Ted Brandsen. It is the largest dance company in the Netherlands and attracts many...

 (2005).

There have been many productions around the world of only extracts from the full-length Raymonda, being for the most part taken from the Grand Pas Classique Hongrois from the third Act, which is considered to be among Marius Petipa's supreme masterworks. The most noted of these productions have been staged by George Balanchine for the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...

 (1955, 1961, 1973); Rudolf Nureyev for the Royal Ballet Touring Company (1964); and Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...

 for American Ballet Theatre (1980, 1987).

In 2005 the Australian Ballet Company
Australian Ballet Company
The Australian Ballet is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd. and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English ballerina Dame Peggy van Praagh as founding artistic director...

 performed a modern version of Raymonda, set in the 1950s, where Raymond is a Hollywood star and has filmed her last film before marrying a European prince. It was choreographed by Stephen Baynes and bears no resemblance to the original ballet.

Structure

Act I (scene 1) — La fête de Raymonde
  • no.01 Introduction
  • no.02 Jeux et danses
—a. La traditrice
  • no.03 Entrée de Raymonde
  • no.04 Scène
  • interpolation: Entrée d'Abdéràme
  • no.05 Entrée des vassals et des esclaves
  • no.06 Pas d'ensemble —
a. Valse provençale
b. Pizzicato – Variation de Raymonde
c. Coda
  • no.07 Départ des invitées
  • no.08 La romanesque —
a. La Romanesque
b. Une fantaisie – Variation de Raymonde
  • no.09 Clémence joue du luth
  • no.10 Entrée de la Dame Blanche
  • no.11 Entr'acte symphonique


Act I (scene 2) — Visions
  • no.12 Grand scène du rêve
  • no.13 Entrée de Jean de Brienne
  • no.14 Grand Pas d'action —
a. Grand adage
b. Valse fantastique
c. Variation I
d. Variation II
e. Variation de Raymonde (cut by Petipa from the original production)
interpolation: Variation pour Mlle. Legnani (arranged by Glazunov from the Valse of his 1894 Scènes de Ballet, op. 52)

f. Grand coda
  • no.15 Scène dramatique
  • no.16 Ronde des follets et des farfadets


Act I (scene 3) — L'aurore
  • no.17 Scène finale

Act II — Cour d'amour
  • no.18 Ouverture
  • no.19 Marche
  • no.20 Entrée d'Abdéràme
  • no.21 Pas d'action —
a. Grand adage
b. Variation
c. Variation
d. Variation de Raymonde
e. Grand coda
  • Grand divertissement —
no.22 Entrée
no.23 Pas des esclaves sarrasins
no.24 Pas des mariscos
no.25 Danse sarrasine
no.26 Pandéros
no.27 Danse orientale (transformed by Petipa into the scene Les échansons)
no.28 Coda générale / Bacchanalia
  • no.29 L'arrivée de Jean de Brienne et Roi André II
  • no.30 Le combat
  • no.31 Dénouement et final

Act III — Le festival des noces
  • no.32 Entr'acte
  • no.33 Grand cortège hongrois
  • no.35 Rapsodie
  • no.34 Palotás
  • interpolation: Mazurka (Insertion from Glazunov's 1894 Scènes de Ballet, op. 52)
  • no.36 Pas classique hongrois —
a. Entrée
b. Grand adage (a.k.a. Pas de dix)
c. Variation I
d. Variation II (cut by Petipa from the original production)
e. Variation pour quatre danseurs
f. Variation de Raymonde
interpolation: Variation (taken from the Act II Pas d'action, 1948 by Konstantin Sergeyev)
g. Grand coda
  • no.37 Galop générale
  • no.38 Apothéose – Tourney

External links

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