Ballet "Corsair": content, authors, characters

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The ballet "Le Corsaire", the content of which will be the subject of this article, was written in 1856. He still does not leave the world stage. The composer of the music for the ballet is Adolphe Adam. Later, several more composers added some scenes to the ballet.

About ballet

The libretto of this ballet was based on Byron's poem. Previously, other composers have already addressed her. But most of those productions have not even survived to this day. The famous and still popular ballet was born in 1856. The plot of the play is adventurous. The author of the ballet "Le Corsaire" - Adolphe Adam. The protagonist of the play is a corsair. He falls in love with a slave and kidnaps her. But her owner returns the girl to himself by fraudulent means, and then sells it. Corsair tries to save his beloved. He enters the palace, where she languishes in captivity. The lovers manage to escape.

Composer

The music for the legendary ballet "Le Corsaire" was written by the French composer Adolphe Adam. He was born in 1803 in Paris. Composer isone of the brightest representatives of the Romantic era. A. Adan's father was a musician.

In his youth, the future composer was not going to connect his life with music and wanted to become a scientist. But nevertheless, he entered the conservatory in the organ class, graduating brilliantly.

Adolf Adam wrote his first work in 1829. It was a one-act opera "Peter and Catherine" about the Russian emperor and his wife.

In the 1830s, the composer worked in St. Petersburg.

In addition to the famous "Le Corsaire" A. Adam created a number of ballets and operas. Among them:

• "Giralda, or New Psyche".
• Giselle.
• "Cagliostro".
• "Hut".
• Falstaff.
• King of Yveto.
• Nuremberg Doll.
• "The Postman of Longjumeau".
• Katerina and others.

Leo Delibes

Leo Delibes is a French composer who in 1856 and 1968 added several scenes to A. Adam's ballet "Corsair". He was born in 1836. The full name of the composer is Clement Philibert Leo Delibes. His father worked in the post office. Mother was the daughter of an opera singer. She became the first teacher of L. Delibes. He was also taught by his uncle, who served as an organist in the church and taught at the conservatory. After the father of the future composer died, their family moved to Paris. There Leo graduated from the conservatory. His composition teacher was Adolf Adam.

Leo Delibes wrote the following ballets and operas:

• "Sylvia".
• "Jean de Nivelle".
• Creek.
• "Lakme".
• "Source".
• "Thus said the king."
• Sandman.
• "Coppelia, or Girl with Enamel Eyes" and others.

And also L. Delibes wrote 20 romances, several choirs, a mass, etc.

Other composers who completed the ballet

The ballet "Corsair", the content of which is presented below, was repeatedly supplemented by different composers. In addition to Leo Delibes, Caesar Pugni and Ricardo Drigo added their music to it in different years. These are Italian composers who worked in Russia.

Caesar Pugni, whose name in Italian sounds like Cesare Pugni, was born in Genoa in 1802. He successfully graduated from the conservatory in Milan. From 1851 he worked in St. Petersburg. This composer wrote 10 operas, 312 ballets and 40 masses during his creative life. He is also the author of a large number of cantatas, symphonies and other works.

Ricardo Eugenio Drigo was born in Padua in 1846. He worked in Russia as a composer and conductor. In our country, he was called Richard Evgenievich.

R. Drigo started playing music at an early age. He composed his first works while still a teenager. These were w altzes and romances. Riccardo graduated from the Venice Conservatory. His teacher was the composer Antonio Buzzola, a student of the great Gaetano Donizetti. Ricardo was not only a composer, but also a conductor. In 1878 he was invited to work in St. Petersburg. Here he first served at the Italian Opera, and then moved to the Mariinsky Theater. R. Drigo often went on tour to Europe. ATthe last years of his life, Riccardo worked in his native Padua, at the Garibaldi Theater.

Libretto ballet

As mentioned above, according to the poem by Byron A. Adan wrote his ballet "Le Corsaire". The libretto for it was created by Joseph Mazilier and Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, playwrights from France. The latter wrote more than 70 librettos for operas and more than 30 plays for drama theatre. Since 1829, he served as director of the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

Libretto for ballets, operas, musical dramas written by Henri de Saint-Georges independently and in collaboration:

• "Marquise".
• "Bourgeois Reims".
• Jenny.
• "Cagliostro".
• "Louis".
• "Egyptian".
• "Bluebeard's Castle".
• "Rose of Florence".
• "Devil in Love".
• Musketeers on the Rhine.
• Giselle.
• "Elves".
• "The Pharaoh's Daughter" and many others.

Chores

The first choreographer who staged the ballet "Le Corsaire" in Russia was Jules-Joseph Perrault. This French dancer and director was born in 1810. He has been dancing since the age of 9. J. Perrot had an ideal figure for ballet. He is famous for developing his own dance style. Since 1851, J. Perrot worked in the Imperial Theater of St. Petersburg. In the ballet Le Corsaire staged by him in Russia, the part of the protagonist was performed by Marius Petipa. The legendary dancer himself became the choreographer of this performance in the future.

M. Petipa was born inFrance in 1818. His parents were artists. His father became his teacher. Marius Petipa moved to St. Petersburg in 1847. He lived the rest of his life in Russia. He was the chief choreographer of the imperial theaters.

Marius Petipa staged the following ballets:

• Carnival of Venice.
• "Paquita".
• "Satanilla".
• Coppelia.
• "Blue Dahlia".
• "Daughter of the Snows".
• Florida.
• "Cyprus Statue".
• Giselle.
• "Katarina, the robber's daughter" and many others.

Characters

Ballet Characters:

• Corsair Conrad.
• Slave trader Isaac Lanquedem.
• Birbanto is Conrad's friend.
• Medora.
• Seid Pasha.
• Eunuch.
• Gulnara and Zulma.
• Slaves.
• Corsairs.
• Guards.

Ballet "Corsair": the content of the first act

The action begins with a pirate sailing ship caught in a storm and shipwrecked. Three corsairs manage to escape. Among them, the main character is Conrad. Three girls find them on the shore, one of them is Medora. She immediately liked Conrad. The hero confesses to the girl that he is a pirate. Girlfriends shelter the corsairs from the approaching detachment of Turks, and they themselves are captured. The slave trader Isaac takes the girls away to be sold to Seyid Pasha's harem. The corsairs swear that they will save Medora and her friends.

The action moves to the slave market. Isaac introduces his captives to Seid Pasha. He buys Gulnara, and then wants to buy Medora. He likes the latter so much that he is ready to pay any money for it. Soon a merchant appears who offers an unheard-of large sum for Medora. Seyid Pasha is furious. The merchant turns out to be Conrad in disguise. He and his pirates kidnap Medora, her friends, and the slave trader.

Second and third acts

How does the ballet "Corsair" continue? We will now tell you the content of the second act. The action takes place in the grotto where the pirates are hiding. The rescued girls ask Medora to persuade Konrad to let them go home. The pirate agrees, but his crew opposes it. But Conrad fulfills Medora's request. There is a quarrel. The slave trader persuades the team to take revenge on the leader. The pirates agree to his plan. Conrad is given sleeping pills. When he wakes up, he finds that Medora has been kidnapped. Conrad goes in search of his beloved.

In the 3rd act, the action is transferred to Seyid Pasha's palace. Isaac brings Medora to him. Seid buys a girl. Conrad and his friends pretend to be pilgrims and appear at the palace. Pasha invites them to prayer. Seizing the right moment, Konrad and his pirates free the girls and take them away on a ship.