No. 1/10 REVOLUTIONARY BALLET IN THE HISTORY OF DANCE: LA SYLPHIDE

Ballet is an art form that has presented many revolutionary performances, as from the past until today there have been many choreographers and composers who changed the ‘rules’ of aesthetics according to the requirements and the goal of each production.

We’ve researched and will present you with a list of the ten most revolutionary ballets, starting this week with La Sylphide.

La Sylphide is a romantic ballet in 2 acts. The original version was choreographed by Filippo Taglioni in 1832 which marked the beginning of a new era of Romanticism in ballet, and the 2^nd, which is both the best known and the one that has survived, was choreographed by August Bournonville in 1836.

Biography

Filippo Taglioni (1777-1871), was an Italian dancer and choreographer who introduced the Romantic style to ballet.

Taglioni’s father Carlo and his brother Salvatore were also important figures in the dance circle of the time. Taglioni made his debut in Pisa in 1794 and then danced in ballet in Livorno, Florence, Venice and Paris, where he studied with the Coulon family. In 1803, he was appointed principal dancer and ballet meter in Stockholm, from where he toured over the years to Kassel, Vienna, Munich, Turin, Stuttgart, Berlin, Warsaw and St. Petersburg.

Both Taglioni’s children, Paul and Marie, were dancers. Marie was one of the world’s greatest ballerinas and Taglioni created La Sylphide for her.

The version of Taglioni

Taglioni’s La Sylphide premiered on 12 March 1832 at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opera, with music by Jean-Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer.

La Sylphide was the first ballet in which dancing on pointe was aimed at aesthetics rather than the acrobatic tricks, which often involved awkward hand movements and body strain, which was the basic approach of dancers in the late 1820s. Marie became known for shortening her skirts for La Sylphide, with the aim of showing her excellent technique on the pointes. But her shorter skirts were considered scandalous. At that time ballet was not highly respected as an art form or career, nor were female ballet dancers considered modest or model citizens. Taglioni and La Sylphide changed this.

The ballet’s libretto was written by the tenor Adolphe Nourrit, the first Robert in the opera Robert Le Diable by Meyerbeer, which also featured Marie Taglioni in her dance section, ‘Ballet of the Nuns’. Nourrit’s screenplay had a loose connection to Charles Nodier’s story, Trilby, ou Le lutin d‘Argail, but changed the genders of the protagonists. Instead of a goblin and a fisherman’s wife, in La Sylphide he put a sylph and a peasant.

The witchcraft scene of Old Madge, which opens the second act of the ballet, was inspired by Le Streghe by Niccolò Paganini, which in turn was inspired by a scene of his witches Il Noce di Benevento, ‘The Walnut Tree of Benevento’, a ballet choreographed in 1812 by Salvatore Viganò to music composed by Franz Xaver Süssmayr.

The version of Bournonville

The Danish ballet maestro August Bournonville intended to present a revival of Taglioni’s original ballet in Copenhagen with the Royal Danish Ballet, but the Paris Opera demanded too much money for the rights to Schneitzhoeffer’s music. Eventually, Bournonville staged his own production of La Sylphide based on the original libretto, with music by Herman Severin Løvenskiold. The premiere took place on November 28, 1836, with Lucile Grahn and Bournonville in the lead roles.

The Royal Danish Ballet has continued to dance the Bournonville version in its original form ever since it was created. La Sylphide remains one of his most famous works.

First act

James Ruben, a young Scotsman, sleeps in a chair by the fireplace in the hall of a farmhouse. A sylph gazes tenderly at him and dances around him. She kisses him and disappears when he suddenly wakes up. James hastily wakes up his friend Gurn and asks him about the sylph. Gurn claims he has never seen such a creature and reminds him of his upcoming wedding. James leaves the event and promises to forget about it.

James’ future wife, Effie, arrives with her mother and bridesmaids. James kisses her, as he is bound to do, but is startled by a shadow in the corner. Believing that his sylph has returned, he runs towards her but instead meets a witch, Madge, perched by the fireplace for warmth. James gets angry and frustrated.

Effie and her friends beg Madge to tell them their fate, and the witch does. She happily tells Effie that James loves someone else and that she will marry Gurn instead. James is furious. He pulls the witch from the fireplace and throws her out of the house, making Effie happy that he fought for her.

Effie and her bridesmaids run upstairs to get ready for the wedding and James is left alone in the room. As he looks out the window the sylph appears, taking human form, before him and confesses her love for him. She cries at his apparent indifference. James initially resists, but, enchanted by her ethereal beauty, finally gives in and kisses her tenderly. Gurn, spying on them from the window, runs to tell Effie what happened.

After learning of the incident from Gurn, Effie upsetly enters the room with her friends and the sylph disappears. The guests assume Gurn is just jealous and make fun of him. Everyone dances. The sylph appears during the feast and tries to distract James.

As the bridal procession forms, James stands apart and looks at the ring he is about to put on Effie. The sylph grabs the ring, puts it on and runs into the forest. James chases after her. The guests are baffled by James’ sudden departure, and Effie, hurt, cries inconsolably in her mother’s arms.

Second act

In a part of the forest shrouded in mist Madge dances around a cauldron with other witches. They add all kinds of disgusting ingredients to the mix. When the contents begin to glow Madge pulls a transparent handkerchief from the cauldron. The cauldron then sinks into the earth, the witches disperse, the mist dissipates and a beautiful clearing is revealed.

James then enters with the sylph guiding him through the magical forest kingdom. She gives him berries and water to cool off but avoids his hug. She calls her ethereal sisters to cheer him up. They appear shy and dance their aerial dance. James is happy and joins the fun before everyone leaves for another part of the forest.

Meanwhile, the wedding guests search for James in the woods. They enter the clearing. Gurn finds his hat but Madge convinces him not to say anything. Effie shows up, tired from wandering the woods, and Magde urges Gurn to propose to her. He does and Effie accepts.

James enters the clearing when everyone has left. The witch meets him and throws him the magic handkerchief. She tells him that this handkerchief will bind him to the sylph forever. She explains to him that he must tie it around the sylph’s shoulders and arms to have a sure effect. James is ecstatic. When the sylph returns and sees the handkerchief, she allows James to wrap it around her trembling form.

As James passionately embraces the sylph, her wings fall down, she trembles and dies in his arms. Her sisters enter grieving and assume her dead form. Suddenly, Effie and Gurn’s merry wedding procession passes through the clearing. James is shocked. She looks up to see the sylph rising from her sisters. He collapses. Madge triumphs over his lifeless body. Triumphed.

Interesting information

The sylph is a mythological ether spirit. As far as we know, the term appears for the first time in the 16^th century, in the works of the Swiss physician, alchemist and astrologer, Paracelsus. But the word itself may be a compound of the Latin sylvestris and nympha, roughly meaning ‘wood nymph’. Paracelsus describes the sylphs as ‘invisible creatures of the ether’. The other 3 ‘atmospheric spirits’ invented by Paracelsus are the dwarves (earth), the salamanders (fire) and the Odines (water).
The story of La Sylphide is set in Scotland, as it was considered a distant exotic land in the 1800s. The ethereal Highland mists certainly fire the imagination, so Scotland is a fitting place for the supernatural themes of La Sylphide.
The story of La Sylphide is loosely based on the obsessive stories of French author Charles Nodier. He introduced a younger generation of romantics to Gothic literature, vampire stories and conte fantastique (meaning ‘fantasy stories’, a bit like science fiction). As in La Sylphide, Nodier’s plots usually involved a hapless hero relentlessly chasing a supernatural power and ending in tragedy.

In the troubled time after the revolution in France, there was a great longing for something spiritual and something unspeakable. The prevailing ‘rationalism’ meant that society was based on material wealth and had no place for spirituality and morality. For a huge number of people this didn’t work. The French Romantics seized upon this counter-enlightenment impulse and made it their own. La Sylphide touched a sweet spot in the hearts of many, just at a time when it was most needed.

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