Théophile Gautier’s “Orientalist” ballet librettos and novels as Marius Petipa’s silenced sources of inspiration

Abstract

By working on the genesis of the two ballets having an Indian plot, both composed by Marius Petipa in St. Petersburg, La Bayadère, and The Talisman, I realised how deeply the French maître de ballet drew on some novels and librettos written by Théophile Gautier, though he never mentioned him in his writings. Previously, I demonstrated how Marius Petipa conceived the female roles of the temple dancer Nikia in La Bayadère, and the apsaras Nirriti in The Talisman, by taking as examples the heroines of Gautier’s ballets Giselle, ou les Wilis and Sacountalâ. This time I will focus on the librettos for the ballets La Péri and Sacountala, which considerably influenced the plots of Petipa’s "Indian" ballets. In this contribution, I will also deal with some of Gautier’s novels which inspired Petipa for the creation of two other ballets, The Daughter of the Pharaoh and Le Roi Candaule. Finally, I will discuss the issue of whether Gautier and Petipa ever met, either in France or in Russia.