The ballet Corsair, the contents of which will be the subject of this article, was written in 1856. He still has not left the world stage. The author of the ballet music is Adolf Adan. Later, several more composers added some scenes to the ballet.
About ballet
The libretto of this ballet was created according to Byron's poem. Previously, other composers have already addressed it. But most of those productions have not even survived to the present day. The famous and still popular ballet was born in 1856. The plot of the play is adventure. The author of the ballet Corsair is Adolf Adan. The protagonist of the play is a corsair. He falls in love with a slave and kidnaps her. But her master returns the girl to her by fraud, and then sells it. The corsair is trying to save her lover. He enters the palace, where she languishes in prison. Lovers manage to escape.
Composer
The music for the legendary ballet "Corsair" was written by French composer Adolf Adan. He was born in 1803 in Paris. The composer is one of the prominent representatives of the era of romanticism. 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. Nevertheless, he entered the conservatory in the class of the organ, brilliantly graduating from it.
Adolf Adan 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 "Corsair" A. Adan created a number of ballets and operas. Among them:
- "Giralda, or New Psyche."
- Giselle.
- "Cagliostro."
- "Hut".
- Falstaff.
- "The King of Iveto."
- "Nuremberg doll."
- "Postman from Longjumeau."
- Katerina and others.
Leo Delibes
Leo Delibes is a French composer who in 1856 and in 1968. supplemented with several scenes A. Adan's ballet Corsair. He was born in 1836. The composer's full name is Clement Philibert Leo Delibes. His father served 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 compositional teacher was Adolf Adan.
Leo Delibes wrote the following ballets and operas:
- "Sylvia".
- "Jean de Nivelles."
- "Stream".
- Lakme.
- "A source".
- "So 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 supplemented the ballet
The ballet "Corsair", the contents of which are presented below, has been repeatedly supplemented by various 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. Since 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 began to study music in early childhood. He composed his first works as a teenager. These were waltzes and romances. Riccardo graduated from the Venice Conservatory. His teacher was the composer Antonio Buzzola - a pupil 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 in Europe. In the last years of his life, Riccardo worked in his native Padua, at the Garibaldi Theater.
Libretto ballet
As mentioned above, based on Byron’s poem, A. Adan wrote his ballet The Corsair. The libretto was created by Joseph Mazilier and Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, playwrights from France. The last one in his life wrote more than 70 libretto for operas and more than 30 plays for drama theater. Since 1829, he served as director of the Opera-Comic Theater in Paris.
Libretto for ballets, operas, musical dramas, written by Henri de Saint-Georges independently and in collaboration with:
- The Marquise.
- The Bourgeois Reims.
- "Jenny."
- "Cagliostro."
- "Louis."
- "Egyptian".
- "Bluebeard Castle".
- The Rose of Florence.
- "The Devil in Love".
- The Musketeers on the Rhine.
- Giselle.
- "Elves."
- “Pharaoh’s daughter” and many others.
Choreographers
The first choreographer to stage the ballet Corsair in Russia was Jules-Joseph Perrault. This French dancer and stage director was born in 1810. He has been dancing since 9 years. J. Perrot had an ideal figure for ballet. He is famous for developing his own style of dance. Since 1851, J. Perrault worked at the Imperial Theater of St. Petersburg. In the ballet Corsair, which he set in Russia, Marius Petipa performed the role of the protagonist. In the future, the legendary dancer himself became the choreographer of this performance.
M. Petipa was born in France in 1818. His parents were artists. His teacher became a father. Marius Petipa moved to St. Petersburg to 1847 year. The rest of his life he lived in Russia. He was the chief choreographer of the imperial theaters.
Marius Petipa staged the following ballets:
- "Venice Carnival".
- Paquita.
- "Satanilla."
- "Coppelia."
- The Blue Dahlia.
- "Daughter of the Snows."
- "Florida".
- "Cypriot statue."
- Giselle.
- "Katarina, the daughter of a robber" and many others.
Characters
Ballet characters:
- Corsair Conrad.
- Slaver Isaac Lankedem.
- Birbanto is a friend of Conrad.
- Medora.
- Seyid Pasha.
- Eunuch.
- Gulnara and Sulma.
- Slaves.
- Corsairs.
- The guards.
Ballet "Corsair": the content of the first act
The action begins with the fact that a pirate sailing ship gets into a storm and is 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 admits to the girl that he is a pirate. Girlfriends shelter corsairs from the approaching detachment of the Turks, and they themselves are captured. The slave trader Isaac takes the girls away to sell Seyid Pasha to the harem. The corsairs swear that they will save Medora and her friends.
The action is transferred to the slave market. Isaac presents his captives Seyid Pasha. He buys Gulnara, and then wants to buy Medora too. 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 is disguised as Conrad. He and his pirates abduct Medora, her friends and a slave trader.
Second and third acts
What continues the ballet "Corsair"? The content of the second act, we will now tell you. The action takes place in a grotto where pirates take refuge. The rescued girls ask Medora to persuade Conrad to let them go home. The pirate agrees, and his team opposes this. But Conrad fulfills the request of Medora. There is a quarrel. The slave dealer persuades the team to take revenge on the leader. Pirates agree to his plan. Konrad is sprinkled with sleeping pills. Waking up, he discovers that Medora has been abducted. Conrad goes in search of a sweetheart.
In Act 3, the action is transferred to the Seyid Pasha Palace. Isaac brings Medora to him. Seyid buys a girl. Conrad and his friends pretend to be pilgrims and appear in the palace. Pasha invites them to prayer. Having seized the right moment, Conrad and his pirates free the girls and take them away on the ship.