Ballet comique in two acts
Music by Riccardo Drigo
Libretto by Marius Petipa
Décor by Orest Allegri
Costumes by Evgenii Ponomarev

World Première
23rd February [O.S. 10th February] 1900
Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Imperial Mariinsky Theatre Première
26th February [O.S. 13th February] 1900

Original 1900 Cast
Harlequin
Georgy Kyaksht

Columbine
Matilda Kschessinskaya

Pierrot
Sergei Lukyanov

Pierrette
Olga Preobrazhenskaya

Cassandre
Enrico Cecchetti

The Good Fairy
Anna Urakhova

Plot
Columbine, the daughter of Cassandre, is in love with Harlequin, but her father has other plans. His choice of groom for Columbine is the rich, old Lèandre, but with Harlequin always close by, Cassandre and his servant Pierrot must to be on guard to keep the lovers apart. However, Pierrot’s wife Pierrette sympathises with the couple and foils her husband’s and his master’s plans. In the end, love triumphs when the Good Fairy helps Harlequin by presenting him with a magic slapstick that fulfils all his wishes.

 

History
Harlequinade (Les millions d’Arlequin or The Millions of Harlequin) was the third new ballet of the trilogy commissioned by Ivan Vsevolozhsky and created by Petipa for the 1900-1901 season at the Hermitage. Harlequinade is a two-act ballet with a libretto based on episodes featuring the stock characters from the Italian commedia dell’arte. Petipa and Vsevolozhsky’s original intentions were to commission Alexander Glazunov to compose the score for Harlequinade, while Riccardo Drigo was to compose the score for The Seasons. However, the two composers, who were close friends, soon developed an affinity for their colleague’s assigned ballet. Glazunov adamantly expressed to Petipa and Vsevolozhsky that the subject of Harlequinade was perfect in every respect for the Italian composer’s talents. In the end, Glazunov composed the score for The Seasons, while Drigo composed the score for Harlequinade.

While working on the score for Harlequinade, Drigo took daily walks through the Saint Petersburg Summer Garden and along the banks of the Neva River, all the while thinking of his native Italy. During one such walk, Drigo composed the ballet’s famous Sérénade, which included a solo mandolin, and the Berceuse: Variation pour Columbine, which was written especially for the harpist Albert Zabel.

Harlequinade was first presented at the Hermitage Theatre on the 23rd February [O.S. 10th February] 1900. The first performance was given for a private audience that consisted of the entire Imperial Russian Court, including Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Private royal theatrical performances of that time were extremely formal affairs where rigid etiquette and protocol were strictly adhered to and as such, applause or cheering were not permitted. Nevertheless, within moments of the final curtain, the typically subdued royal audience erupted into thunderous applause. Petipa and the entire cast received a tumultuous ovation as they took their bows before the curtain. However, much to the surprise of everyone present, Drigo received such a reception that he was mobbed by several princes and Grand Dukes, who tripped over one another in their enthusiasm to congratulate him for his music. Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna was also delighted with the ballet and commanded two additional court performances on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, the first being given on the 26th February [O.S. 13th February] 1900. Drigo even went as far as to dedicate his score to the Tsarina. Interestingly, this was not accepted by the Imperial Court until a lengthy investigation was completed by the government to assure that Drigo’s life and background were honourable enough to make such a dedication to a Russian Empress. Drigo was indeed found to be of good character and the dedication was graciously accepted.

Petipa staged some of his most memorable choreography for the principal ballerina roles of Columbine and Pierrette, with both roles popular with the great ballerinas of the Imperial stage, including Anna Pavlova, Olga Preobrazhenskaya, Vera Trefilova and Julia Sedova. Petipa arranged challenging virtuoso choreography for the character Harlequin, a role that would go on to become one of the most coveted parts for the male dancer in Russia, with many of the Imperial Ballet’s principal male dancers distinguishing themselves in the role, including Georgy Kyaksht and Alexander Shiryaev.

Harlequinade was notated in the Stepanov notation method at the turn of the 20th century and is part of the Sergeyev Collection.

The ballet was performed on over fifty occasions before the 1917 revolution. It was first performed in the west in 1908 and 1909 in a tour held by a troupe of dancers from the Imperial Ballet led by Nikolai Legat and Alexander Shiryaev, with Anna Pavlova as Prima Ballerina. The troupe toured across the Baltic States, Scandinavia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany. After the revolution, however, it was performed sporadically in Russia. Petipa’s production was given its final performance at the former Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in 1927. In 1933, the ballet reappeared on the Russian stage in a new production staged by Fyodor Lupukhov.

Until 2018, Harlequinade had been primarily presented in two versions.  In 1975, Pyotr Gusev staged his own version of Harlequinade in one act for the Maly/Mikhailovsky Ballet. This Harlequinade was performed many times throughout the 1990s and was even filmed on two occasions – the first was produced by the BBC in 1978 for their programme An Evening with the Russian Ballet. The second was in 1991 when the Maly/Mikhailovsky Ballet gave a rare performance of the ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre. Gusev’s Harlequinade is often performed today by various companies and schools around the world.

In 1954, George Balanchine choreographed his famous Harlequinade Pas de deux for Maria Tallchief and André Eglevsky. In 1965, in honour of the ballet’s 65th anniversary, Balanchine choreographed and staged his own version of the full-length ballet for the New York City Ballet, in which he included his 1954 pas de deux. Petipa’s Harlequinade was a ballet that Balanchine knew very well, as he had danced in it when he was a student at the Imperial Ballet School and he based his own version on his personal recollections of Petipa’s production. Balanchine’s Harlequinade had its world première on the 4th February 1965 at the New York State Theater with Edward Villella as Harlequin, Patricia McBride as Columbine, Deni Lamont as Pierrot and Suki Schorer as Pierrette. In 1971, Balanchine revived the ballet in an expanded edition with the use of the full score and added new roles for twenty-four adults and twenty-four children. Balanchine’s Harlequinade remains a prominent member of the New York City Ballet’s repertoire today.

In 2018, as part of the celebrations for Petipa’s bicentenary, Alexei Ratmansky staged a reconstruction of Harlequinade for American Ballet Theatre. Ratmansky’s reconstruction of Harlequinade had its world première on the 4th June at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, with James Whiteside as Harlequin, Isabella Boylston as Columbine, Thomas Forster as Pierrot and Gillian Murphy as Pierrette.

 

The Sérénade

The first act of Harlequinade features a scene where Columbine appears on the balcony of her house and is serenaded from the street by Harlequin with his prop mandolin, though a prop guitar was also used in subsequent performances. Since 1917, when Harlequinade was revived, it was sung by a tenor of the company. Drigo’s music for this scene became popular in its own right and was published separately in arrangements for various instruments. The Sérénade would go on to become a staple of salon music during the Edwardian era and the inter-war period and was even issued by music publishers under several alternate titles, including Valse Boston or Serenatina veneziana (Venetian Serenade). The Sérénade was among the pieces in the White Star Line songbook and was played by the musicians of the RMS Titanic.

The Sérénade was later adapted into the song Notturno d’amore by the lyricist S. Focacci in 1922. The Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli made a worldwide hit with his recording of the song in 1926. Notturno d’amore would go on to be recorded by many notable singers, while various adaptations of the Sérénade have been recorded on countless occasions.

 

“Harlequinade Pas de deux”

The most famous piece associated with Harlequinade today is the so-called Harlequinade Pas de deux. However, contrary to popular belief, this pas de deux has nothing at all to do with Petipa or his version of Harlequinade. This pas de deux is yet another Soviet-era creation that was created after Petipa’s death. It was Pyotr Gusev who created this pas de deux in the 1930s to music pieces by Drigo from various ballets. The music pieces used for this Soviet-era creation are the following:

• Adage – the Pas d’ensemble from Le rendezvous des amoureux from the first act of Harlequinade
• Male variation – Variation for Alexander Shiryaev as Harlequin, composed by Drigo in 1902
• Female variation – a supplemental coda that Drigo composed for Shiryaev’s 1903 revival of Lev Ivanov’s 1887 ballet The Haarlem Tulip or Variation for Olga Preobrazhenskaya as Pierrette, composed by Drigo ca. 1905
• Coda – the coda of the Grand Ballabile – La Rose de Bengale from The Talisman

 

Related pages

Works and Process with Doug Fullington

 

Sources

• Meisner, Nadine (2019) Marius Petipa, The Emperor’s Ballet Master. New York City, US: Oxford University Press
• Balanchine, George (1979) 101 Stories of the Great Ballets. New York: Anchor Books
• Wiley, Roland John. Memoirs of R. E. Drigo, Part I. Published in The Dancing Times – May 1982, pp. 577–578
• Wiley, Roland John. Memoirs of R. E. Drigo, Part II. Published in The Dancing Times – June 1982, pp. 661–662

Photos and images: © Dansmuseet, Stockholm © Большой театр России © Victoria and Albert Museum, London © Государственный академический Мариинский театр © CNCS/Pascal François © Bibliothèque nationale de France © Musée l’Opéra © Colette Masson/Roger-Viollet © АРБ имени А. Я. Вагановой © Михаил Логвинов © Михайловский театр, фотограф Стас Левшин. Партнёры проекта: СПбГБУК «Санкт-Петербургская государственная Театральная библиотека». ФГБОУВО «Академия русского балета имени А. Я. Вагановой» СПбГБУК «Михайловский театр». Михаил Логвинов, фотограф. Martine Kahane.