ecstatic rather than bombastic...

La Belle Époque was charming and happily it survives in this 1977 ballet performance with its lavish décor *, sumptuous costumes, parrots, and general atmosphere of bead-curtains and Ali Baba...

La Bayadère (The Temple Dancer) is a ballet, choreographed by the balletmaster Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. It was first performed by the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg on February 4, 1877.

Despite the ballet's setting in ancient India, Ludwig Minkus's music and Petipa's choreography made barely any gesture to traditional forms of Indian dance and music, as the ballet was essentially a vision of the southern orient through 19th century European eyes, particularly since it was produced during the height of the British Raj. Ludwig Minkus's score was a definitive example of the musique dansante in vogue at that time, and did not stray at all from the usual string of lightly orchestrated melodious polkas, mazurkas, and Viennese-style waltzes... Note especially the very particular facility Minkus had at producing elegant, lilting rhythms.

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La Bayadère - Grand pas de deux - Adagio - Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet
Gamzatti: Tatiana Terekhova, Solor: Redjen Abdyev

* Orest Allegri's décor for Act II of Petipa's revival of La Bayadère, St. Petersburg, 1900.


Enjoy with Dionysian abandon!!

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