Pre-Romantic ballets of late C18 were characterised by a fairly light-hearted treatment of their usually classical subjects.
The story of 'Zephyr et Flore' is set on Mount Olympus in Greece, where Boreas, the north wind, plots to abduct Flora, the wife of Zephyr, the west wind. Introducing a game of blind man's bluff, Boreas separates the couple and kills Zephyr with an arrow. He then takes Flora to his cave, where she faints from fright. Nine muses in mourning bring Zephyr's body to Mount Olympus, where, after his funeral procession, he comes back to life. The muses tie Flora securely to Zephyr's wrist so they will not be separated again. And Boreas is punished.
The section of the Russian production of 'Zephyr et Flore' I'm uploading here is interesting given that so few, if any, such pre-Romantic ballets survive today, save in this re-created form.
'Zephyr et Flore', in balletic form, has had a long history.
Charles-Louis Didelot (1767--1836) choreographed the theme as a one-act ballet, 'Flore et Zéphire', which premiered at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, in London in 1796. Didelot danced the role of Zephyr and his wife, Collinet, Flore. Music for the piece was by Cesare .
There are several things that make this production interesting to me.
Firstly, the ballet used practically invisible wires to enable dancers to soar above the stage, and really give the impression of being spirits of the air.
And secondly, it is believed the ballet introduced dancing en pointe. The use of wires allowed the ballerina to move from demi point to a pose on the tip of her toes, with her weight being taken up by the suspending mechanism. She was then able to take a few steps sur les pointes before rising into the air and circling the stage, often for several minutes. Rather sensibly, ballerinas demanded and received higher than usual wages to compensate for the dangers inherent in such balletic flights.
After becoming director of the Russian imperial theatres in 1799, Didelot mounted the ballet in St. Petersburg as 'Zéphire et Flore' in 1808.
A little later, Marie Taglioni made her London debut as Flore in the ballet in 1830 and the work subsequently became a star vehicle for her and Jules Perrot.
And later still, in 1925, Leonard Massine choreographed the piece as 'Zephry et Floire' for the Ballets Russes with music by Vladimir Dukelsky and sets and costumes by Georges Braque. Referred to by Diaghilev as 'the kindergarten ballet', the principal roles were taken by the youngest premier dancer in the company, Anton Dolin, and by Alicia Nikitina and Serge Lifar. The regular soloists (Alexandra Danilova, Lubov Tchernicheva, Lydia Sokolova, Felia Doubrovska) formed the corps de ballet.
This segment form the 1964 documentary 'The History of Russian Ballet' is a Russian re-creation of 'Zephyr et Flore', which while not pretending to reproduce the long-lost original, gives some sense of a Pre-Romantic Ballet might have been like.
The dancers are Yuri Soloviev, Natalia Makarova and Lyudmila Alekseeva.
Enjoy!
