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What can be more beautiful on the stage near the sea than a ballet based on a marine theme? Le Corsaire choreographed by the head ballet master Eldar Aliev is the show to see on the Mariinsky Theatre Primorsky Stage. Since the time of its creation Le Corsaire was off to a long and successful journey. It was composed practically by the same brilliant artistic alliance that fifteen years earlier brought the immortal Giselle to the world. The librettist Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, the composer Adolphe Adam (whose music score later was added with pieces of other composers), and the choreographers Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa presented a new ballet masterpiece for musical theatre. This new ballet was just as romanticist and romantic as the sad and illusory Giselle yet it was very different.

Le Corsaire is filled with sunlight, bright colors, and hubbub of the Middle East bazaar, sensual luxury, and the delight of Turkish harem. Romanticists expressed their interest for the Middle East exotics in their total dedication to Ottoman style which used to be quite fashionable in the previous times (for example Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail). An explosive exotic mix is complimented with a pirate adventure and a shipwreck. Le Corsaire is a real Treasure Island with an incredible pirate story. Love is above all collisions and twists of the story which happily ends. Would you be surprised that this ballet was an absolute success when Marius Petipa worked on its improvement? In the original version of the ballet there was only one leading character performed by a prima ballerina. Initially the role of the corsair Conrad was limited to a simple pantomime. Petipa performing Conrad at the ballet premier in St. Petersburg decided to stand for men’s rights in the ballet and made the role of corsair a brilliant virtuosic performance. His followers continued this tradition adding latest elements of the classical male ballet dancing technique of their time. Petipa also came up with the famous Pas d’esclave and the scene of Le Jardin Anime (Animated Garden) – the scene of Asian paradise – where Islamic houris (pure beings of paradise) are presented as hovering beauties of harem.

Eldar Aliev’s choreography carefully preserves artistic elements of the legendary Petipa’s version. The renewed costumes and scenery of the show will please the most sophisticated ballet fans. The romance of the sea and the lure of the Turkish Middle East always make their way to the hearts of any audience whether they are adults or children. Le Corsaire is a proper family show.

Nadezhda Koulygina