Dmitry Gudanov

Pierre Lacotte's production for The Pharaoh's Daughter, initially choreographed by Marius Petipa, is here magnificently performed by the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. Choreographed by Marius Petipa after Théophile Gautier's Le Roman de la momie, The Pharaoh's Daughter encountered great success when it was first premiered in 1862, before it sank into oblivion during the 20th century, because it did not fit the criteria of the socialist realism that was in force during the Soviet Union. In 2000, Pierre Lacotte was invited to the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow to create a new rendition of the ballet, with new settings and new costumes.

Learning that Albrecht, her beloved, is in fact a nobleman engaged to be married to a princess, the naive peasant girl Giselle dies. The Queen of the Wilis—the spirits of deceased young virgins—decides that Albrecht should follow Giselle to the grave, and condemns him to dance until he dies of exhaustion. But Giselle’s spirit dances with him and saves him. With music by Adolphe Adam and a libretto by Théophile Gautier and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, the ballet touches on the great romantic themes: local colour, a pastoral love affair doomed to end in tragedy, a plunge into fantasy and redemption through the power of love.