The ballet Le Corsaire is a Romantic drama in an exotic oriental setting. It was inspired by a poem by Lord Byron and first performed in 1856 at the Théâtre Impérial of the Opéra de Paris on commission from Empress Eugénie. Adolphe Adam wrote the music and Joseph Mazilier the choreography. Two years later it was seen at the court in Saint Petersburg, this time choreographed by Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa for the Imperial Ballet. Petipa himself danced in Le Corsaire on several more occasions. The version in the current repertory of the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet of Saint Petersburg stems from Pyotr Gusev's 1955 reinterpretation of the ballet's long history in the Russian classical school, which includes numerous contributions from other composers and new scenes. Gusev commissioned a new score, with arrangements by the conductor Eugene Kornblit, new musical passages, and the creation of Leitmotive for the main characters. He also rewrote the libretto to provide a simpler narrative that is subservient to the dancing.

As a remarkable fact, we should mention that the ballet will visit us with the  Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra and its conductor Aleksei Repnikov.

LE CORSAIRE

Music
Adolphe Adam, Cesare Pugni, Léo Delibes, Riccardo Drigo i Pavel Oldenburgsky

Choreography
Piotr Gusev (after Marius Petipa)

Scenography
Teymuraz Murvanidze

Costume
Galina Solovyova

Mariinski Theatre Orchestra

Conductor
Aleksei Repnikov



With the support of