THE GRAND BALLET OF FRANCE
Louis XIV and the ballet; the Pavane and the Courante; reforms
under Louis XV; Noverre and the _ballet d’action_; Auguste Vestris
and others; famous ballets of the period--the Revolution and the
Consulate; the French technique, the foundation of ‘choreographic
grammar’; the ‘five positions’; the ballet steps--Famous
_danseuses_: Sallé, Camargo; Madeleine Guimard; Allard.
I
Though Catherine de Medici, Henri IV, and Cardinal Richelieu are
often quoted as the first rulers who enabled and encouraged their
subjects to revive the ancient dances and thus lay the foundation of
the modern ballet, the honor really belongs to Louis XIV. His love for
dancing was so vital that he himself figured frequently on the stage,
and emphasized the fact that the theatre was not a Pagan or immoral
institution. He personally inspired Lully, Benserade and Molière to
devote their genius to the stage. He introduced Minuets, Gavottes,
Pavanes and Courantes at his court functions and they were copied by
all the other rulers and by the nobility. In 1661 the Royal Academy of
Dancing was founded. To its graduates were given the privileges that
were enjoyed only by the highest officers of the empire. It is said
that the king danced in the Masque of Cassandra when he was thirteen
years of age. The French historians write that Louis XIV danced in
twenty-seven grand ballets, not to mention the intermezzi of lyrical
tragedies and comedy-ballets. In the _Ballet du Carrousel_, given in
1662 on a large open space before the Tuileries, the king danced in the
rôle of a Roman emperor and his brother in that of a Turkish sultan.
On the occasion of the king’s marriage in 1660 the ballet ‘Hercules in
Love’ was given at the palace.
Lully’s ballet, ‘Cupid and Bacchus,’ was said to be a piece full
of imagination, dramatic, vigorous and rich in timely mood. ‘The
Triumph of Love,’ performed in 1681, being the first ballet in which
women appeared, is considered one of the best creations of this time
musically and scenically. One of the most popular comic ballets of
that era was _Impatiencem_, composed of series of disconnected scenes
of extremely humorous nature. Pecour and Le Basque were the two
celebrated dancers of those days, while Beauchamp, a talented composer
and artist of considerable imaginative power, acted as Director of the
Academy of Dancing and ballet-master in the Opéra. All his ballets
were distinguished by their extraordinary complexity of mechanical
contrivances, by imposing effects and their allegorical character.
However, towards the end of the century Dupré appeared on the stage and
soon far surpassed all his predecessors. Noverre speaks of him as the
god of dancing, whose harmony of movements was of marvellous perfection.
The principal tendency of dancing of this era was to be magnificent and
noble, but it lacked individuality and failed to stir the emotions. The
best examples of this kind of stateliness and stiffness are offered
by the Pavane and Courante, which still survive. The gentleman, with
hat in one hand, a gilded sword at his side, an imposing cloak thrown
over his arm, gravely bowed before his partner, stiff and statuesque in
her long train, and began the dance walking gravely around the room.
The Pavane was ridiculously ceremonial and conventional. The Courante
was different, somewhat resembling the Minuet. It was rather graceful,
consisting of backward and forward steps. How fond the king was of the
Courante is evident of what Regnard writes: ‘Pecour gives him lessons
in the Courante every morning.’ Littré says that the Courante began by
bows and courtseys, after which the dancer and the partner performed
a set figure, which formed a sort of elongated ellipse. This step was
in two parts: the first consisted in making _plié relevé_, at the same
time bringing the foot from behind into the fourth position in front
by a _pas glissé_; the second consisted of a _jetté_ with one foot,
and a _coupé_ with the other. The dancers performed the back stay step
twice, returning to position, and turned, beginning the movement again
by repeating the first springing step and the back stay step, so that
the partners changed places and turn. All these three figures were then
repeated, commencing with the opposite foot. Eight bars of music were
always occupied with the slow _pas de basque_ in a circle. This briefly
shows the same designs and forms in the dance of this era that we find
in the Rococco style of architecture.
But the beginning of the eighteenth century shows a marked reaction
against the statuesque solemnity, the dead stiffness and merciless
etiquette that had prevailed. An era of artificial reforms begins
with Louis XV. To this period belongs the origin of our modern
industrialism. The views and feelings of the feudal system begin to
give place to those of coming realism and individualism. But the change
is insignificant, as the art of dancing lacks in this as it did in the
other, energy, feeling and soul. The one was more impressive through
its grand outlines, the other excelled through its dainty charm, like
the fashions, decorations and other arts of that time. Long, gilded
mirrors, gay garlands of flowers, frail elliptic carvings, graceful
designs, gauzy tissues, mauve ribbons, painted faces and hands,
perfumed atmosphere, these and numerous other impressions emanate
of the art of dancing of the first part of the eighteenth century,
although to this era belong the vigorous attempts of Jean-Georges
Noverre, the greatest of all the dance authorities of the past
centuries.
Noverre, the celebrated ballet-master of France, is considered the
father of the ballet and classic dancing generally. The brothers Gardel
and Dauberval based their ideas upon the principles of Noverre. It was
he who drove the masks, paniers, and padded coat-skirts from the stage
and made it human. ‘A ballet,’ he said, ‘is a picture, or rather a
series of pictures, connected by the action which forms the subject of
the ballet. To me the stage is a canvas on which the composer paints
his ideas, notes his music and displays scenery colored by appropriate
costumes. A picture is an imitation of Nature; but a good ballet is
Nature itself, ennobled by all the charms of art. The music is to
dancing what the libretto is to the music.’ According to his theory
the action of the dancer should be an instrument for the rendering of
the written idea. Before Noverre laid the foundation to his _ballet
d’action_, dancing had existed as an auxiliary form to opera and was
lacking in any signs of life. The dancers wearing powdered hair piled
up a foot on their heads, and the men in their long-skirted coats
made the impression more of a big puppet-show than of a living dance.
This made the use of intricate and plastic movements of the body
and, moreover, of mimic expressions, absolutely impossible. This is
Noverre’s argument:
‘I wish to reduce by three-quarters the ridiculous paniers of our
danseuses. They are opposed equally to freedom, to quickness and to the
prompt and animated action of the dance. They deprive the figure of its
elegance and of the just proportions which it ought to possess. They
diminish the beauty of the arms; they bury, so to speak, the graces.
They embarrass and distract the dancer to such a degree that the
movement of her panier sometimes occupies her more seriously than that
of her limbs.’
In spite of his great reputation and influence, Noverre found it
difficult to reform the stage fundamentally. He failed to perform
his own ballets in the way he wished. Thus in the ‘Horatii’ Camilla
appeared in hooped petticoat, her hair piled up and decorated with
fantastic ribbons and flowers. However, his reforms gained ground
little by little. Much as he tried, he failed in reforming the stage
celebrities of his time. This actuated the great reformer to say, ‘what
we lack is not talent, but emulation. It almost seems, in fact, as if
this were deliberately repressed. How I should rejoice to see a great
dancer performing some noble part without plumes or wig or masks! I
should then be able to applaud his sublime talent with satisfaction to
myself; and I could then justly apply the term “great” to him, whereas
now the most I say is: “_Ah la bella gamba!_” It is evident, therefore,
that theatrical dancing demands many reforms. They cannot, of course,
all be carried out at once; but we might at least begin. Let us do away
with those gold painted masks, which deprive us of what would be one of
the most interesting features of a _pas-de-deux_, the expressions of
the performers’ faces. The disappearance of the periwig would follow of
itself, and a shepherd would no longer dance in a plumed helmet.’
It is said that the Noverre’s ballets reached the number of fifty. But
most known of them are ‘The Death of Ajax,’ ‘The Clemency of Titus,’
‘The Caprices of Galatea,’ ‘Orpheus’ Descent Into Hell,’ ‘Rinaldo and
Armida,’ ‘The Roses of Love,’ ‘The Judgment of Paris,’ etc. Several of
these he produced at the courts of Stuttgart, Vienna, St. Petersburg
and Florence. It was through his influence upon the Empress Anna of
Russia that the great Russian Imperial Ballet School was founded,
whose graduates have been electrifying the European audiences during
the present and past decades.
Noverre’s reform ideas were much perfected by the French composers
and dancers of the following generation, men whom we have previously
mentioned--Gardel, Dauberval, the Vestris brothers, and, in addition,
Duport, Blasis and Milon. Auguste Vestris was twelve years old when he
made his début in Paris, in 1772, in the ballet _La Cinquantaine_, and
aroused the wildest enthusiasm in the audience. His high leaps were so
popular that his father used to boast, ‘If Auguste does not stay up in
the air, it is because he is unwilling to humiliate his comrades.’ For
thirty-six years he was _premier danseur_ of the Opéra of Paris, and
preserved his popularity till the age of sixty-six, when he retired
to give lessons in dancing at the Academy. Of an eighteenth-century
performance Weber writes graphically:
‘On June 11, 1778, Mile. Guimard and the younger Vestris danced in the
new ballet, _Les Petits Riens_, with Dauberval and Mlle. Anglin. The
performance was a great success. The only author mentioned was Noverre,
the celebrated ballet-master. It was he who had imagined the three
scenes, which were in fact the groundwork of his ballet. The first
scene represented Love, caught in a net and put in a cage; the second,
a game of blind-man’s buff; and in the third, which was the greatest
success, Love led two shepherdesses up to a third, disguised as a
shepherd, who discovered the trick by unveiling her bosom. “Encore!”
cried the audience. Mlle. Guimard, the younger Vestris, and Noverre
were heartily applauded, but not one “bravo!” was given to the composer
of the music--who was no other than the divine Mozart. Mozart, who,
fifteen years before, had been acclaimed in Paris as an infant prodigy
and an inspired composer, was vegetating in the city in poverty and
obscurity. The success of _Les Petits Riens_ apparently made little
difference to him, for a few days after the performance we find him
leaving Paris, and seeking employment as an organist to ensure his
daily bread.’
This sad episode of the treatment of one of the greatest musical
geniuses of his time is partly proof of how little valued was the
musical side of a ballet at that time, yet it is also a graphic picture
of the mental level of audiences of any time--ours not excluded--who
judge a genius by public sentiment artificially aroused, either by
means of some press-agent or by incidental novelty.
Of the Gardel ballets the most popular were _Paul et Virginie_, _La
Dansomanie_, _Psyche_, _L’Oracle_, _Telemaque_, and _Le Déserteur_.
The writer witnessed a performance of _Psyche_ given by the Russian
Imperial Ballet with all the true atmosphere of its age, and it made
a peculiar impression, similar to that which we get in visiting
ethnographic museums of Europe. It was performed in Paris first time
on December 14, 1790, at the Théâtre des Arts and pleased the people
so immensely that it has been repeated not fewer than a thousand times
since. The _Dansomanie_, which was given during the Revolution, was
less effective and the author was apparently depressed, though he had
chosen a subject of timely character--peasants, villagers and Savoyard
farmers acting as the heroes. His ballet, _Guillaume Tell_, promised
to be more successful, as the Committee of Public Safety had ordered
its performance, but the money granted for its staging was stolen by
politicians and Gardel took back his manuscript. It was given after his
death. But his spectacular ballet _Marseillaise_ created a furore when
it was given at the Opéra. The ballet opened with a blast of trumpets,
and was executed by dancers dressed as warriors and participants in
a hungry mob. Mlle. Maillard, personifying Liberty, took her rôle so
well that the actors on the stage and the audience fell on their
knees before her, as though in prayer. The solemn hymn passage of this
part of the opera, and the slow, majestic dance of the artist were so
impressive that the audience burst into sobs.
II
Though the ballet lost its previous splendor under the Revolution, yet
it became more vigorous in its enforced simplicity. The French writers
admit that the ballets performed in connection with the _fêtes_ of the
Republic were marked by more serious tendencies and possessed certain
profound emotional qualities. Actors and dancers soon accommodated
themselves to the new ideals of social life. The Festival of the
Supreme Being, conducted by Robespierre himself, was the most important
of the itinerant ballets of that time. It was a ceremony of classic
nature, performed with slow and march-like steps. Special ceremonial
dances were also performed by the colossal statue of Wisdom to the
accompaniment of an orchestra. The members of the Convention had their
places on a specially erected platform, while choirs chanted a hymn
to the Supreme Being. The President set fire with a torch to an image
of Atheism. ‘An immense mountain,’ writes Castil-Blaze, ‘symbolized
the national altar; upon its summits rises the tree of Liberty, the
Representatives range themselves under its protective branches, fathers
with their sons assemble on the part of the mountain set aside for
them; mothers with their daughters place themselves on the other side;
their fecundity and the virtues of their husbands are their sole titles
to a place there. A profound silence reigns all around; touching
strains of harmonious melody are heard: the fathers and their sons
sing the first strophe; they swear with one accord that they will not
lay down their arms until they have annihilated the enemies of the
Republic, and all the people take up the finale.’
This short picture gives a fairly clear idea of the Revolutionary
period, which laid a new foundation to the French arts, including the
art of dancing. The historians tell us that scarcely was the Terror
at an end when twenty-three theatres and eighteen hundred dancing
salons were open every evening in Paris. The costumes worn by the
dancers under the first Republic were more or less imitations of those
of the ancient Greeks. The women arranged their hair in imitation of
the coiffures of Aspasia and Sappho, and appeared with bare arms,
bare bosoms, sandalled feet, and hair bound in plaits round their
heads. Even during the Terror people danced in every restaurant on the
boulevards, in the Champs Élysées, and along the quays. It is said the
people danced in order to forget the tragedies of the day. Milon was
a celebrated composer and ballet-master under the Consulate. The most
popular of his ballets during this period were _Les Sauvages de la Mer
du Sud_, _Lucas et Laurette_, _Héro et Leandre_, _Clary_, _Nina_, _Le
Carnaval de Venise_, etc. As in their dress and their ideals, so also
in their dancing the people showed an outspoken tendency to appear _à
la sauvage_. However, the political turmoils that shook France in these
centuries, when the art of ballet crystallized into a systematic shape,
assisted its natural development, chiefly by forcing it to swing from
one extreme to the other.
The foundation which the French grand ballet laid for the art of
dancing still prevails in all the dancing schools of Europe. The
ballet codes of all the modern nations use the same French grammar
of technique as that which was taught to Mlles. Sallé, Camargo, and
Guimard during the past centuries. To the French Academy of Dancing the
world owes the principles of the ballet-technique, the _pirouettes_,
_jetés_, _chassés_, etc. The French ballet-masters found it necessary
to divide dancing into five different positions, which formed the
foundation of all dancing; and then classified the various styles of
steps. In describing first, the positions, we begin with the right
foot, but the movements would be the same if we would choose the left
foot. First position: place the heels against each other, the knees
and toes turned well out, the legs firm and straight, the body erect
and well balanced, standing equally on the two feet. Second position:
pass the right foot to the side to the length of the foot, the weight
of the body resting on both feet, the right heel turned forward. Third
position: bring the heel of the extended foot close to the hollow of
the other instep, in the middle. Fourth position: move the right toe to
the front, the toe pointed, the heel forward. Fifth position: let the
feet be completely crossed, the heel of one foot brought to the toe of
the other.
In systematizing the dance steps the French based their technique upon
the ancient method. Here we find the _pas marché_, or the walking step,
in which the toe is pointed and is accompanied by a springy gait, for
it is often combined with a _jeté_ and a _demi coupé_, as the primary
steps of the ballet. This is followed by the _jeté_, which means,
spring forward on the pointed toe of the front foot so that the weight
is thrown on it. To perform this it is necessary first to bend the knee
and jump on the foot; second, to bring the toe of the right foot into
the above-described third position; third, advance the right foot in
small steps; fourth, bring the left foot behind into the fifth position
and raise the right.
The _pas coupé_ is a step that requires the raising of one foot to the
second position, then bringing it quickly to the other foot, which is
then raised. Literally it means a step cut short. A step to the side is
called _coupé lateral_, it is a _coupé dessous_ if the same movement
is executed in front or behind. Then there is a _demi coupé_, in
which the step is half made. The _chassé_ is a step in which the feet
appear to be chasing each other close to the ground. It requires the
advancing of the front foot, bringing the other close to it behind,
then advancing the hind foot to the front, with an _assemblé_ round the
other foot. The first movement requires a step forward with right foot,
bringing the toe of the left to the heel of the front foot. Then step
forward, bring the foot back to third position with an _assemblé_, and
let the other foot take the fifth position in front.
The _battements_ is balancing on one foot, while the other is extended
to the side, front or back, and returning to the fifth position, in
front or at the back. In the _petit battements_ the movements are made
with the toe on the ground. For theatrical dancing the leg is raised as
high as possible. The _arabesque_ is a step that requires the placing
of the foot in the third position, then a slide of the left foot to
the second position, turning the face and body in the same direction,
the left hand curved above the head. In the second movement the right
foot should be well extended behind, and the right hand stretched out
behind. Of a quite different nature is the _cabriole_, which means
striking the feet or calves of the legs together in the course of a
leap. A _demi-cabriole_ is a leap from one foot to the other, striking
the feet while aloft. It requires the feet to be in the third position,
sliding the right foot to the side, passing the left foot to the back,
springing on the right foot, and turning and leaving the left foot
still behind; the fourth movement brings the left foot forward with the
right knee to the third position. Executed by trained ballet dancers
with both feet in the air while the legs are rapidly separated and
brought together, it is an effective trick.
Well known even to social dancers, as the basis of the polka-step, is
the _pas bourrée_. This requires the dancer to stand on the front foot
while the back one is raised. In the first movement the back foot is
brought into the third position on the toes. The second movement is the
beating of the front foot, and third movement the beating of back and
front feet. To this step belongs the _pas de bourrée emboîté_, which
requires the advancing of the right foot to the fourth position, the
toe pointed and the knee straight, the bringing up of the left foot
to the fourth position with the toe pointed behind the right, and the
advancing of the right foot with the toe pointed to the fourth position
without any raising or sinking of the body; it is all performed on the
toes.
Quite acrobatic in character are the celebrated _pirouettes_--movements
composed of a _demi-coupé_ and two steps on the points of the toes. The
_pirouette_ starts by bringing one foot to the fifth position behind,
the toe touching the heel, then raising both heels and turning on the
toe, reversing the position of the feet, and revolving on the toe. A
_pirouette_ used in the old dances consists of a turn on one foot and
the raising of the heel of the other, stepping with the toe of this
foot four times and so getting around the other one. In some of the
slow _pirouettes_ the movement seems to consist of the raising of the
foot and jumping round as in some of the country dances. To this class
belongs the _fouetté_, which gives a fluid, swinging impression.
Of ancient French origin is the _pas de basque_, which starts in the
fifth position with the bringing of the right foot forward with pointed
toe, and passing in a semi-circle to the second position with the
weight on the right foot, then with a _glissade_ through the third
position into the fourth. The _glissade_ is a slide. Slide the front
foot from the third position with pointed toe slightly raised to the
right; then bring the left toe to the right heel, and _vice versa_. The
first movement is the sliding of the foot from the third to the second
position; the second, the left foot is drawn into the third position
forward and repeats.
The _fleuret_ is a movement composed of a _demi-coupé_ and two steps on
the points of the toes. Start in the fourth position without touching
the ground, bend the knees equally and pass the right foot in front in
the fourth position, and so rise on the points of the toes and walk two
steps on the toes, letting the heel be firm as you finish. This can be
done also at the back and sides. The ‘balance’ is performed by rising
and falling on the side of one foot, while the other is brought up
close. The _brisé_ and _entre-chat_ are related movements. They occur
during the spring while in the air. The feet cross and recross, and
assume various positions. The _changement de pied_ is a conventional
step. In the first movement the dancer springs upward from the third
position with the right foot forward; in the second, he throws this
foot back and the left forward, dropping down into the third position,
the situation of the feet being changed; this can be done in the same
manner starting from the fifth position. The _pas sauté_ is a jumping
step, performed by bending the knee and leaping on one foot while the
other is raised. Of more or less importance are the _assemblé_ and the
_ballotté_. The movement in the former is that of bringing the foot
from an open to a closed position, as from the second position to the
fifth. The latter is a crossing of the feet alternately before and
behind. Then there is the _pivot_, in which the dancer revolves on one
foot while the other beats time in turning around.
This is briefly the elementary grammar of the French ballet technique,
upon which the mechanical part of the art of dancing has been based.
This was thought to be of essential value for a dancer in producing
the most effective lines of the various positions and gestures of the
body. According to the views of the authorities of the French Academy,
mental application to physical effort were the chief requirements of
a dancer. The gymnastic, and particularly the acrobatic, features
occupied the foremost place in the ballet performances. Thus dancers
in a ballet were not considered human beings but rather moving figures
in a decorative design. Even the celebrated _prima ballerinas_,
Mlles. Sallé, Camargo and Guimard, who are considered as the first
accomplished women dancers on the European stage, with their ‘ravishing
figures,’ and ‘enchanting appearances’ as Voltaire praised them in
his poems, remained acrobatic puppets, as compared with our modern
terpsichorean celebrities.
III
The advent of the above-named three French ballet dancers was due to
the genial reforms of Noverre, the Shakespeare of the dance, in the
eighteenth century. We know very little of the principal qualities
of Mlle. Sallé’s art, except that she disliked rapid measures and
choreographic eccentricities. She was the principal dancer in many of
Noverre’s ballets, especially in ‘The Caprices of Galatea’ and ‘Rinaldo
and Armida,’ and in several Gardel ballets. In 1734 she appeared at
Covent Garden in London, in the ballet of ‘Pygmalion and Galatea,’ and
seemed to electrify her audiences so much that Handel wrote for her the
ballet ‘Terpsichore,’ and at the close of the ballet purses filled with
jewels were showered on the stage at her feet.
The real favorite of the eighteenth century opera habitués was Mlle.
Camargo. Her success is said to have been so sensational that the
crowds around the doors of the theatre in London fought for the mere
privilege of seeing her. She was also famous for her enchanting body
and fascinating personality. Though born in Brussels, she was the
daughter of a Spanish ballet-master, therefore she had at her command
all the impassioned art of the ancient Caditians. At the age of ten
she was sent by the Princess de Ligne to Paris and became a pupil of
Madame Prévost, the foremost dancing teacher of that time. At the age
of eleven she made her début at Rouen; but she continued her study
until she was sixteen when she appeared for the first time at the Opera
in Paris with unparalleled success. ‘Nimble, coquettish, and light as a
sylph, she sparkled with intelligence,’ writes Castil-Blaze. ‘She added
to distinction and fire of execution a bewitching gayety which was all
her own. Her figure was very favorable to her talent: hands, feet,
limbs, stature, all were perfect. But her face, though expressive, was
not remarkably beautiful. And as in the case of the famous harlequin
Dominique, her gayety was a gayety of the stage only; in private life
she was sadness itself.’
Camargo is credited with having brought about an absolute revolution
in opera by her fanciful and ingenious improvisations. In spite of
the prevailing stiffness and rigid rules in the ballet she made a
special place for herself by depicting the characters that she had to
personify on the stage. She delighted in the conquering of technical
difficulties. Stormy love affairs affected her so much that for six
years she retired from the stage. But she quitted public life in 1741
and lived in seclusion the rest of her life. She left two children with
the Duc de Richelieu and Comte de Clermont. She died at sixty years of
age and ‘was remembered as the grave, sweet woman whose last years had
been spent in loneliness and meditation.’
Madeleine Guimard, whose fame loomed up soon after the retirement
of Camargo, remained for forty years a commanding figure in the
French ballet. Born in Paris in 1743, she made her début at the age
of eighteen and was acclaimed as an artist of exquisite figure,
marvellous grace, and extremely distinguished manners. She knew how to
make money out of her rich patrons but she was also most reckless in
the expenditure of her wealth and her affections. She possessed two
elaborate villas, one at Pantin, the other in the Chaussée d’Antin,
in both of which she had built little stages on which she and her
contemporary stage celebrities gave performances to the high society
of Paris. Fleury says that ‘it was a gala day for one of our actors
when he could escape from the desert of the _Comédie Française_ and
disport himself on the boards of a theatre so perfectly arranged.’ She
entertained the guests of the court at her houses and loved to make
her arrangements to clash with those given at the court. She was said
to be pensioned by a Royal prince, a banker and a bishop, but lost
nearly everything in the revolutionary storms. Retiring from the Opéra
in 1789, she married the dancer Despreaux, who died soon after. Her
old age was verging on misery and she died neglected in a miserable
three-room apartment in the Rue Menars, at the age of seventy-three.
A great dramatic _ballerina_ after Camargo was Mlle. Allard, whose
partners were Vestris, Dauberval and Gardel. Her frenzied admirers
claimed that she far surpassed Camargo because of her added fire, her
unusual agility and the expressive beauty of her poses. At one time
she would be an ideal Sylvia, gentle and graceful to her finger-tips,
then again she was the terrible Medea; now she personified the ethereal
charms of a goddess of youth, then the voluptuous passions of a
sultana. She figured as the _prima ballerina_ in many of the ballets
written by Maximilian Gardel, Milon, Mozart and Rossini.
Of other dancers of the French school who enjoyed public favor
under the Republic and the early Napoleonic era Duport is the only
conspicuous figure. Being a special favorite with Napoleon, he
was the star in the ballets of Blasis and Blache. He composed some
ballets himself in which he played the leading rôles. But these gained
little success. Napoleon wrote to Cambaceres from Lyons that it was
inconceivable to him why Duport had been allowed to compose ballets.
‘This young man has not been in vogue a year. When one has made such
a marked success in a particular line, it is a little precipitate to
invade the specialty of other men, who have grown gray at their work.’
This clearly shows how much the great emperor was interested in the
ballet, and how well he could criticize its artistic values.
The Napoleonic era stopped temporarily the development of the ballet.
Pieces composed during this time gained production more easily on
foreign stages than at home. Thus the brilliant _Antoine et Cléopatre_,
with music by Kreutzer, lived a few performances at home, whereas it
became one of the most successful ballets abroad. The same was the
case with Blache’s ballets ‘Don Juan,’ ‘Gustave Vasa’ and ‘Malakavel,’
which became the favorites of the St. Petersburg audiences, while
they remained unknown at home. It seems as if the political events
which marked such a great step towards democratic ideas in France and
Europe became a serious stumbling-stone to the evolution of the dance.
Democratic England always relied on autocratic France, Italy, Austria
and Russia for stimulation in dancing. All the great ballet celebrities
of continental Europe found in England responsive and generous
audiences, but never any serious rivals. Who of the great French _prima
ballerinas_ or male dancers, from Mlle. Sallé till Carlotta Grisi, did
not make pilgrimages to Drury Lane?
[Illustration: Danseuses en Scène (The Ballet)
_Painting by E. Degas_]
Though to the period of the Renaissance and the European national
awakening belong all the immortal musical geniuses, like Bach, Mozart,
Gluck, Beethoven, Schubert and others, who laid the foundations
of the opera and symphony, yet these men seemed to ignore the ballet
(if we leave out of consideration their inferior or incidental works).
Gluck wrote a few pieces of this order, and so did Mozart; but they are
not the works of their inspiration. Scribe, Rossini, Auber, Weber and
Meyerbeer gave occasional expression to ballet music, particularly in
connection with their operas, but they regarded these works as inferior
to their operas. There are two reasons for this: ecclesiastical
prejudice and the revolutionary mob. Just as a fanatical clergy branded
the dance as Pagan and immoral, so the mob has always regarded the
ballet as an aristocratic luxury. Science seems to us essentially
democratic; but from the arts there breathes an air of snobbishness
and luxury. The history of civilization has not yet recorded a truly
democratic art, particularly a democratic ballet.