Sergeyev Collection

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Image:Nicholas Grigorovich Segeyev -1929.JPG

The Sergeyev Collection is a cache of choreographic notation that is today part of the Harvard University Library Theatre Collection, which documents twentyfour ballets and twentyfour dances from various operas which made up the repertory of the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet around the turn of the 20th century. The collection is named after Nicholas Sergeyev, who was régissuer of the Imperial Ballet from 1903 until 1918. With the exception of three of the ballets included in the collection, all of the notation documents the works and revivals of the great choreographer Marius Petipa, who was Maître de Ballet (First Balletmaster/Chief Choreographer) of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres from 1870 until 1903 (though he worked with the company since 1847 as Premiere Danseur and Second Balletmaster). The method of choreograpic notation that was utilized to document these ballets was devised by the former Danseur of the Imperial Ballet Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov, who began the notation project himself in the early 1890s.

[edit] The origins of the collection

The project of documenting the repertory of the Imperial Ballet (as well as dances from operas began in 1893 with a demonstration for the commitee of the Imperial Ballet - consisting of Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov (second Balletmaster to the company), Ekaterina Vazem ( former Prima Ballerina of the company and an influential teacher at the Imperial Ballet School), Pavel Gerdt (Jeune Premiere Danseur Noble to the company), and Christian Johannson (the great Danish teacher of the Imperial Ballet School) - with Stepanov himself notating the one-act 1893 ballet The Magic Flute, produced by Lev Ivanov and the composer Riccardo Drigo. Based on the success of this demonstration the project ws approved, and soon Stepanov began notating ballets (the first was the 1894 ballet The Awakening of Flora, prduced by Petipa and the compser Riccardo Drigo).

After Stepanov's death in 1896 the great Danseur Alexander Gorsky took over the project, all the while perfecting Stepanov's system. After Gorsky departed St. Petersburg in 1900 to take up the post of Balletmaster to the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre, the project was taken over by Nicholas Sergeyev, former Danseur of the Imperial Ballet, and by 1903 the company's régisseur. With two other notators - Alexander Chekrygin, who joined the project in 1903, and Victor Rakhmanov in 1904 - nearly every work in the repertory of the Imperial Ballet was notated, along with twentyfour of Petipa's dances from various operas.

After the 1917 revolution Nicholas Sergeyev left Russia and took with him all of the notations, which he had kept in three wooden crates. In 1920 he was invited by Sergei Diaghilev to stage The Sleeping Beauty from the notations for the famous Ballets Russes in Paris, but Diaghilev's insistance on altering passages of Petipa's choreography (which was considered almost sacorsanct) caused Sergeyev to withdraw his services.

Image:Bayadere -Stepanov Choreographic Notation -circa 1900.JPG

In 1921 Sergeyev took over the post of régisseur to the Latvian National Opera Ballet in Riga, and during his appointment with the company he added a substantial amount of the musical scores belonging to the notated ballets. In 1924, Sergeyev mounted Petipa's definitive version of Giselle from the notations for the Paris Opera Ballet, with the great Ballerina Olga Spessivtseva in the title role and Anton Dolin as Albrecht. This was the not only the first time the Parisian ballet had danced Giselle since the 1840s, but also the first western production of Petipa's version, whcih soon became the traditional version of the work.

In the 1930s, with the aid of the notations, Sergeyev made what is perhaps his most substantial contribution to the art of ballet - at the inviation of Dame Ninette de Valois, Sergeyev staged Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, the Ivanov/Petipa/Cecchetti Coppelia, and The Nutcracker (in the original 1892 choreography) for the Vic-Wells Ballet of London (today called the Royal Ballet), who still almost religiously perform these ballets with little changes from when they were first staged. Sergeyev's revivals of these ballets in London formed the nucleus of what is now known as the Classical Ballet Repertory, and as a result these works went on to be staged all over the world.

After Sergeyev died in Nice, France on June 23, 1951 the notations passed on for a brief time to a Russian associate of his, in whose possession they remained until Mona Inglesby, director of the International Ballet (a English company which disbanded in 1953), purchased the collection from him. In 1969 Inlegsby sold the notations to Harvard University, where they remain today as part of the Harvard University Library's theatre collection. It was around the time that the notations were purchased by Harvard that they were given the name The Sergeyev Collection. For some time the notations were useless, as no one knew how to read Stepanov's notating method. It was not until Stepanov's original primer was found in the Mariinsky Theatre library that the notations were able to be deciphered.

Image:Cesare Pugni -Pharoah's Daughter -Variation for Mlle. Rosati -1862.JPG

Not all of the notations are 100% complete, with some being rather vague in sections, leading some historians and scholars who have studied the collection to theorize that they were probably made to function simply as "reminders" for the Balletmaster or régisseur already familiar with these works. Aside from the valueable notations, the collection includes photos, set and costume designs, and music for most of the ballets in their performance score editions (mostly in piano and/or violin reduction), many of which include a substantial number of dances, variations, etc. interpolated from other works, as was the costum in 19th century ballet in Tsarist Russia.

Aside from Sergeyev's use of the notations, a surprising few number of ballet companies have utilized the collection in modern times. It was not until 1984 that the collection was in any way put to use by anyone other than Sergeyev - that ywar the historians Peter Wright and the Roland John Wiley staged an adaptation of Ivanov's original 1892 choreography for The Nutcracker for the Royal Ballet. In 1999, the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet used the notations to stage a reconstruction of Petipa's original 1890 production of The Sleeping Beauty (while still retaining elements of the choreography as revised in Soviet times). In 2001 the company also mounted an almost totally complete reconstruction of Petipa's 1900 revival of La Bayadère. In 2000, the Balletmaster/choreographer Pierre Lacotte revived Petipa's The Pharaoh's Daughter for the Bolshoi Ballet (the ballet had not been performed since 1928). Originally Lacotte had intended to reconstruct the work from the notations, though in the end he chose to choreograph nearly all of the ballet himself "in the style of the epoch". Lacotte only used the notations, along with variations shown to him by former dancers, to stage a few numbers in the ballet's Grand Pas d'action. Though he also had five of the original six "River variations" reconstructed, he opted not to use any of them, and choreographed the numbers himself.

The Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's revivals of The Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadère, along with the revived dances for Lacotte's revival of The Pharoah's Daughter were all reconstructed by Douglas Fullington, one of only a few people in the world who can read the Stepanov method of notation. In 2004, with the assistance of Manard Stewart, Fullington mounted a reconstruction of Petipa's original 1899 choreography for the scene Le Jardin Animé from the ballet Le Corsaire for the Pacific Northwest Ballet School's annual recital at the Seattle Opera House.

To date, these recopnstructions are the extent of The Sergeyev Collection having been utilized for the purposes of reviving the original choreography for performance.

[edit] Works documented in the collection

Note - Except where noted, all of the documented choreography in The Sergeyev Collection is the creation of Marius Petipa. The year listed is either when the work premiered or was given it's last official revival by the Balletmaster.

Paquita Petipa (music -Deldevez/Minkus) – 3 acts (1881)
Giselle Petipa/Coralli/Perrot (music -Adam/Burgmüller/Minkus) – 2 acts (1884)
The Sleeping Beauty Petipa (music -Tchaikovsky; with minor revisions by Drigo) – Prologue and 3 Acts (1890)
The Nutcracker Ivanov/Petipa? (music -Tchaikovsky) – 2 Acts-3 Scenes (1892)
The Awakening of Flora Petipa (music -Drigo) – 1 Act (1894)
La Fille Mal Gardée Petipa/Ivanov (music -Hertel/Pugni/Hérold/Drigo/Delibes/Rubenstein) – 3 Acts-4 Scenes (the notations document Lev Ivanov's 1894 revival based on his and Petipa's revival of 1885)
Swan Lake Petipa/Ivanov (music -Tchaikovsky, revised/edited by Drigo) – 3 Acts-4 Scenes (1895)
Coppelia Petipa/Cecchetti (music -Delibes) – 2 acts (1894 - the notations document Enrico Cecchetti's 1894 revival based on Petipa's revival of 1884)
The Whims of the Butterfly (AKA The Caprices of a Butterfly) Petipa (Music -Krotkov) – 1 Act (1895)
The Little Humpbacked Horse (AKA The Tsar Maiden) Petipa/Saint-Léon (music -Pugni; with revisions and additions by Drigo) – 4 Acts-10 Scenes (1895)
The Calvary Halt (AKA Halte de Cavalerie) Petipa (music -Armshiemer) – 1 Act (1896)
Raymonda Petipa (music -Glazunov) – 3 Acts-4 Scenes (1898)
La Esmeralda Petipa/Perrot (music -Pugni; with revisions and additions by Drigo) – 3 Acts-5 Scenes (1899)
The Pharaoh's Daughter Petipa (music -Pugni) – 4 Acts-7 Scenes (1898)
Le Corsaire Petipa/Mazilier?/Perrot? (music -Adam/Oldenburg/Pugni/Minkus/Trubetskoi/Drigo) – 3 Acts-4 Scenes (1899)
Harlequin's Millions (AKA Harlequinade or Les Millions d'Arlequin) Petipa (music -Drigo) – 2 Acts (1900)
The Trial of Damis (AKA Les Ruses d'Amour or The Pranks of Love or Lady Soubrette) Petipa (music -Glazunov) – 1 Act (1900)
The Pupils of Dupré Petipa (music -Vizentini) – 2 Acts (1900 - this is an abridgement of Petipa's 1886 ballet The King's Command, originally in 4 Acts and 6 Scenes )
La Bayadère Petipa (music -Minkus) – 4 Acts (1900)
Tsar Candavl (AKA Le Roi Candaule) Petipa (music -Pugni; with revisions and additions by Drigo) – 4 Acts-6 Scenes (1903)
The Talisman Petipa/Legat (music -Drigo) - excerpt (the notations document only the Grand Pas d'action from Nikolai Legat's revival of 1909 based on Petipa's revival of 1895)
Small Balletic Pieces - numerous items from the various ballets.
Ballet sections from 24 Operas

Ballets documented in the collection by other choreographers

The Enchanted Forest Ivanov (music -Drigo) – 1 Act (1887)
The Magic Flute Ivanov (music -Drigo) – 1 act (1893)
The Fairy Doll the brothers Nikolai and Sergei Legat (music -Bayer; with revisions and additions by Drigo) – 1 Act-2 Scenes (1903 - Sergei and Nikolai Legat)
Songe du Rajah (1930 - Nicholas Sergeyev's slightly revised version of the scene The Kingdom of the Shades from Petipa's La Bayadère)