THE CLASSIC BALLET OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Aims and tendencies of the nineteenth century--Maria
Taglioni--Fanny Elssler--Carlotta Grisi and Fanny Cerito; decadence
of the classic ballet.
The end of the Napoleonic wars marks the beginning of a new era of
European art, particularly of the ballet. To this period belong the
great ballet masters, Taglioni, Bournoville, Didelot, and the greatest
of all, Marius Petipa; the great ballet composers, Meyerbeer, Rossini,
Adam, Delibes, Nuitter, Dubois, Hartmann, Gade, Tschaikowsky, and
Rimsky-Korsakoff; the celebrated _ballerinas_, Taglioni, Grisi,
Elssler, Genée, Teleshova, Novitzkaya, Liadova, Muravieva, Bogdanova,
Sokolova and Kshesinskaya. It seems as if the evolution of the art of
dancing is always stopped by political disturbances; during the middle
of the past century, which was marked by revolutionary movements, in
which even Wagner participated, we notice a sudden indifference to
dancing ideals on the part of the public. The history of evolution
seems to proceed in certain cosmic waves of public sentiment and
ideals. They grow, reach their climax and die.
The foundation that the French Academy, particularly Noverre, Vestris
and Gardel, had laid for the ballet, developed during the nineteenth
century into a solid and essential stage art. We find the beginning
of a rivalry among the various schools, of which those of Paris,
Milan, Vienna, Stockholm, Copenhagen and St. Petersburg stand in the
first rank. Like music and drama, the ballet strives either towards
the classic or romantic. The most conspicuous ballets of this period
are _La Sylphide_ by Léo Delibes, _Corsaire_ by Adam, _Sakuntala_ by
Gautier, _La Source_ by Delibes, _La Farandole_ by Dubois, _Sylvia_
by Delibes, _Gretna Green_ by Nuitter, _Excelsior_ and _Sieba_ by
Manxotti, _Flore et Zephire_ by Didelot, _La Esmeralda_ by Perrot
and Pugni, _Iphigenia in Aulis_ by Gluck, _Laurette_ by Galcotti,
_Ghiselle_ by Gautier and Adam, _Abdallah_ by Bournoville and Paulli,
_Arkona_ by Hartmann, _Swan Lake_, _Sleeping Beauty_ and _The Snow
Maiden_ by Tschaikowsky, _Baba Yaga_ by Balakireff, _Scheherezade_ by
Rimsky-Korsakoff, etc.
The main tendency of the nineteenth century ballet is to get rid of the
mechanical contrivances, the monstrous etiquette and majestic solemnity
and, like music, give it more coherence and better harmony with the
plot. Between 1820 and 1850 it became an inseparable accompaniment
to the opera to such an extent that the occupants of the gilded
boxes preferred the thrill of the dancing to the music. The ballet
represented at that time more than a stage filled with masses of
elegant _coryphées_ and a magnificent spectacle. The public interest
began to centre in a few great dancers whose names were as familiar to
the audiences as those of the prima donnas. The first phenomenon of
this kind was the cult of Taglioni that spread with miraculous rapidity
throughout the Occidental world.
I
Maria Taglioni was born at Stockholm in 1804 of an Italian father and
Swedish mother and made her début in Vienna in 1822, in the ballet
_Reception d’une jeune Nymphe à la Court de Terpsichore_, written by
her father, M. Taglioni, who was a ballet master in the Swedish Royal
Opera. Inspired by the ideas of Noverre, M. Taglioni laid a solid
foundation for his daughter’s training in dancing. Though she was
successful in her début in Vienna, the father did not think that she
was sufficiently ripe for public appearances in a larger style, so he
continued to instruct the girl himself and secured for her education
other celebrities of the time. Even when she appeared five years later
in _Le Sicilien_, in Paris, she did not arouse any enthusiasm. It was
only in _Les Bayaderes_ and, above all, in _La Sylphide_, that her art
attained the utmost limits of spirituality and she was hailed as one of
the most ethereal appearances that the European stage had ever seen.
Taglioni appeared in Paris in _La Vestale_, _Mars et Venus_, _Le
Carnaval de Venise_, and many other ballets, which marked the beginning
of her career. A French critic of that time writes: ‘Her talent, so
instinct with simple grace and modesty, her lightness, the suppleness
of her attitudes, at once voluptuous and refined, made a sensation at
once. She revealed a new form of dancing, a virginal and diaphanous
art, instinct with an originality all her own, in which the old
traditions and time-honored rules of choreography were merged. After
an appearance of a few days only on our boards, this charming mirage
vanished to shine in great triumph at Munich and Stuttgart. But she
came back, and an enthusiastic reception awaited her. And in the midst
of these brilliant successes, taking the hearts of the people by storm,
admitted to the intimate friendship of the Queen of Wurtemberg, she
remained sweet, simple and reserved.’
Besides her choreographic training, Taglioni was a highly educated girl
in every other respect, and was of the most charming personality and
manners. The people, and even her many rivals, loved and adored her
as a great artist and great woman. Though not pretty in any sense, as
so many other dancers were, she was fascinating through her distinct
spiritual appeal. This same note of spirituality manifested itself in
her dance. Her admirers used to say that she looked in _La Sylphide_
like some supernatural being always ready to take wing and soar up in
the air. Her steps were pure and innocent, as were all her gestures and
mimic expressions. Even in her romantic dances she failed to suggest
any symptoms of voluptuous or sensual emotions. Throughout her life she
remained as poetic as she was in her art.
In London she appeared first in 1830 in Didelot’s ballet _Flore
et Zéphire_ and made an instantaneous success. On nights when she
was announced to appear the London theatre was literally besieged.
Thackeray immortalized her in his ‘The Newcomes,’ saying, ‘you can
never see anything so graceful as Taglioni.’ She received in London
£100 a night, and insisted on handsome sums for her family, as well
as £600 for her father as ballet master, £900 to her brother and
sister-in-law, together with two benefit performances. She was so much
the fashion of the hour that women wore Taglioni hats, gowns, and
coats, and even a stage coach was called after her.
With all her charm and refinement, Taglioni was in many respects
an undeveloped girl emotionally, capricious and sentimental to her
finger-tips. It is said that one evening when Perrot, her partner,
happened to receive a greater amount of applause than she, she refused
to continue the performance, and accused her surrounding stage people
of having intrigued against her for malicious reason. She received
immense sums of money, but she spent everything just as lavishly as
it was received, not so much on herself as for her relatives, friends
and the poor. She married Comte Gilbert des Voisins in 1832, but their
married life was of short duration. There is a story that she met him
some years later at a dinner at the Comte de Morny’s, when he had the
effrontery to ask to be introduced to Maria Taglioni. She replied that
she thought she had made the gentleman’s acquaintance in 1832, the year
of her marriage. In 1837 she went to Russia and remained there for five
years as prima _ballerina_ of the Imperial Ballet.
Taglioni’s freedom and style had a great influence upon the development
of the ballet at that juncture. Her dress, a long tunic of white silk
muslin which reached almost to her ankles and fell in graceful folds
from her figure, was the first of this kind. Through this she was able
to reveal the plastic lines of her body, and thus made her movements
free from the artificial stiffness that had prevailed before her. She
was a reformer in many ways, and in this her father, as a practical
ballet-master, was of material help. It was not until Fanny Elssler
appeared in 1847 that Taglioni began to lose her hold upon the public.
Little by little her art grew old-fashioned to the novelty-loving
audiences, as the dancing of Elssler brought a new note of more
romantic nature to the stage. Actually this change was nothing but a
turn of public sentiment indicative of some new social fad. Trying
to maintain her living by giving dancing lessons in various European
capitals, she died in Marseilles in 1884, in great poverty, forsaken by
all her previous adorers and frenzied audiences.
II
Of a very different nature were the art and personality of Fanny
Elssler, the pretty Viennese girl, who in many respects followed the
example of Taglioni. Emerson, who saw her dancing in Boston, exclaimed,
‘that is poetry!’ But Margaret Fuller, who sat next to him, replied,
‘Ralph, it’s religion.’ Turgenieff was so impressed by her art that
he wrote to Balzac: ‘Her dance is the most magic novel that I have
ever read. What a mystery of beauty! Her every step and gesture is a
line of unwritten verse. Her lines are accentuated phrases, her poses
illustrations to the intoxicating text. Her art haunts me.’
Born in Vienna in 1810, Elssler received an early and thorough musical
education from her father, who was a copyist to Haydn. Her ballet
training, which she received partly in Vienna, partly in Italy, was of
the old order. It was the _Cachucha_ that made her a favorite of the
Milan and Naples audiences, but, as with Taglioni, it was _La Sylphide_
that made Elssler’s final reputation. Elssler saw _La Sylphide_ danced
by Taglioni in Munich and it electrified her so that she made it a main
aim of her ambition to surpass Taglioni, which she did.
A girl of receptive mind, good education and great talent, Elssler took
notice of all the critical views of her future rival, as expressed by
her contemporary ballet-masters, composers and dance critics. This
enabled her to embody in her art and style the features which were
less developed and most disliked by Taglioni. Taglioni was said to be
poetic, but lacking in romantic warmth and dramatic sentiment. In this
latter quality Elssler excelled. She made a special study of those
gestures, poses and steps, which express by passionate emotions, and
made appropriate use of them. The mechanical features of the dance
interested her little, though occasionally she indulged in acrobatic
tricks. Chorley, the English critic, writes of her: ‘The exquisite
management of her bust and arms set her apart from everyone whom I have
ever seen before or since. Nothing in execution was too daring for
her, nothing too pointed. If Mademoiselle Taglioni flew, she flashed.
The one floated on the stage like a nymph, the other showered every
sparkling fascination round her like a sorceress. There was more,
however, of the Circe than of the Diana in her smile.’
[Illustration: Sylphides; a Typical Classic Ballet]
A graphic description of Elssler is given by Gautier. ‘Clad in a skirt
of rose-colored satin clinging closely to the hips, adorned with deep
flounces of black lace, she came forward with a bold carriage of her
slender body, and a flashing of diamonds on her breast. Her leg, like
polished marble, gleams through the frail net of the stocking. Her
small foot is at rest, only awaiting the signal of the music to start
into motion. How charming she is with the large comb in her hair, the
rose behind her ear, her flame-like glance, and her sparkling smile! At
the extremity of her rose-dipped fingers tremble the ebony castañets.
Now she darts forward; the castañets commence their sonorous clatter;
with her hands she seems to shake down clusters of rhythm. How she
twists! how she bends! what fire! what voluptuousness of motion! what
eager zest! Her arms seem to swoon, her head droops, her body curves
backward until her white shoulders almost graze the ground. What charm
of gesture! And with that hand which sweeps over the dazzle of the
footlights would not any one say that she gathered all the desires and
all the enthusiasm of those who watch her?’
It was a pity that such a bitter rivalry was created between Elssler
and Taglioni by theatrical managers, which became a source of fierce
controversy throughout Europe. We are told by the writers of that
time that a veritable war of sentiments between the Taglionists and
Elsslerists lasted for years. Now the one, now the other party claimed
victory. Each party claimed to have the highest art in the individual
style of its idolized dancer. It was a conflict between two movements
rather than two artists: here the classic idealism, there the romantic
realism. Elssler at the end remained the winner, but not for a long
time, as the political unrest that swept Europe in the middle of the
nineteenth century distracted the public attention from the ballet.
After a successful tour in America, Elssler returned to Milan, when
the La Scala opera, which was supported by the Austrian government,
began to feel keenly the political pulse of the time. Elssler was to
appear in Perrot’s ballet _Faust_, when she beheld the members of the
ballet wearing a medal that represented the new liberal Pope, who was
strongly pro-Italian, while Elssler was an Austrian. To her it seemed a
demonstration directed against her fatherland and she refused to go on
the stage unless the demonstration stopped. The audience was informed
of the trouble behind the scenes, and from this time on Elssler’s
career was finished. Vainly trying her luck in Russia and England till
1851, she realized the sentimental opposition of all the audiences to
her art and retired forever. She spent her life in comfort, as the
American tour alone had netted her a sum of five hundred thousand
dollars. She died in 1884 in Vienna, a few months after the death of
her rival, Taglioni.
III
The star that followed Taglioni and Elssler was Carlotta Grisi, born in
a village of Istria and educated in Milan by Perrot. She was a medium
between the poetic Taglioni and romantic Elssler. Her favorite ballets
were _La Peri_ and _Ghiselle_ (the libretto of the latter by Théophile
Gautier and the music by Adolphe Adam). She was excellent in fairy
rôles, in which she showed a marvellous conception of imaginary motions
and gestures. Her fragile figure was favorable to similar rôles and in
these her mimic expressions were superb. She danced in England with
success, but somehow failed to arouse the enthusiasm that greeted her
contemporary Fanny Cerito. Grisi married her former teacher Perrot, who
composed for her many ballets.
Cerito distinguished herself in _Ondine_ and _La Vivandière_, and was
for a long time a favorite of the French audiences. A French critic
writes of her: ‘A good many of our readers will probably remember
Saint-Léon, the distinguished and popular ballet-master. Originally an
eminent violinist, it was out of love for the fairy-like Cerito, whom
he married, that he first gave himself up to the enthusiastic study of
dancing. Mme. Cerito bewitched the public with her exquisite dancing,
while Saint-Léon delighted them with his skill upon the violin and the
dignity and distinction of his compositions.’
There were several French, Italian or Austrian ballet dancers who
distinguished themselves at home, but none of them succeeded in
attracting much the English or American public’s attention. Katty
Lanner and Madame Weiss danced with some success in London, and enjoyed
a high reputation in Vienna. The characteristics of all the Vienna
dancers of this age were their decadent manners and their pretty,
plastic poses. Vienna developed more conspicuous operetta dancers than
real ballet dancers. Katty Lanner achieved a particular grace and
agility in the _Le Papillon_, by Emma Livry.
Of the French and Italian ballet dancers that appeared during the
second half of the nineteenth century most conspicuous are Leontine
Beaugrand, Mlle. Subra, Rosetta Mauri, Mlle. Bernay, Mlle. Petipa, and
Rita Sangalli. Though local critics praised one or other of these as
rivals of Taglioni and Elssler, the fact is they were all either mere
acrobatic imitators, decadent impressionists, or conventional figures.
The ballet shrinks into a secondary position, as the vogue for opera
and orchestral music occupies the foremost attention of the public.
Stage dancing degenerates into shows of insignificant meaning. With our
best will we can find nothing that would seem worthy of the attention
of the French critic who writes of Beaugrand:
‘Before long the public will learn to love this strange profile--so
like a frightened bird’s--and criticism will have to reckon with this
aspiring talent. She has not yet put forth all her strength. It was not
until she appeared in the part of _Coppélia_ that she wholly revealed
what was in her, and that the full extent of her grace and poetic
feeling was unfolded to the public.’
One season later the expected virtuoso vanishes from the public
eye and a new aspirant takes her place. Considering one after the
other, one finds little crisp and spontaneous beauty in the steps and
gestures of the _ballerinas_ of the last part of the past century. The
umbrella-like stiff dress of the classic ballet has only a momentary
semi-sensuous appeal. In the long run it becomes unæsthetic and
unpractical, since it hides the natural lines of the human body.