Marie Taglioni Cover Photograph by Jean Tholance, Musée Des Arts Décoratifs: Marie Taglioni’S 125 London Reporter – Clement Crisp Ballet Slippers, 1842
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Summer 2018 Ballet Review Huert oscmit on theearaisa o arieaioni * © 2018 Dance Research Foundation, Inc. 4 New York – Karen Greenspan 7 Jacob’s Pillow – Jay Rogoff 8 Bali – Karen Greenspan 13 New York – Pia Catton 14 Toronto – Gary Smith 16 New York – Karen Greenspan 18 Hamburg – Vincent Le Baron 19 Washington, D.C. – John Morrone 20 Brooklyn – Karen Greenspan 22 Chicago – Joseph Houseal 23 New York – Hubert Goldschmidt 80 24 Medellin – Dawn Lille 26 Washington, D.C. – Lisa Traiger 27 New York – Susanna Sloat Ballet Review 46.2 28 Milan – Vincent Le Baron Summer 2018 30 Berkeley – Rachel Howard Editor and Designer: 31 New York – Susanna Sloat Marvin Hoshino 33 Miami – Michael Langlois Managing Editor: 34 New York – Karen Greenspan Roberta Hellman 36 Paris – Vincent Le Baron Senior Editor: 75 Joseph Houseal Don Daniels 38 A Conversation with Ashley Wheater Associate Editors: Karen Greenspan Joel Lobenthal Larry Kaplan 46 Three Israeli Choreographers Alice Helpern Rachel Howard Webmaster: 52 A Conversation with Sasha De Sola David S. Weiss 59 Sly Words Ogre Copy Editor: Naomi Mindlin Gary Smith Photographers: 62 A Conversation with Tom Brazil 62 Adhonay Soares da Silva Costas Michael Langlois Associates: 66 A Conversation with Robert La Fosse Peter Anastos Robert Greskovic Karen Greenspan George Jackson 75 Drive East Elizabeth Kendall Paul Parish Michael Popkin Nancy Reynolds 80 A Conversation with Ashley Laracey James Sutton Joseph Houseal David Vaughan1924-2017 Edward Willinger 52 95 Neumeier’s Orphée et Eurydice Sarah C. Woodcock 98 Circus as Dance Photographs by Costas Hubert Goldschmidt 100 Marie Taglioni Cover photograph by Jean Tholance, Musée des Arts Décoratifs: Marie Taglioni’s 125 London Reporter – Clement Crisp ballet slippers, 1842. 127 Music on Disc – George Dorris The first page of Marie Taglioni’s notebook “VII Stockholm,” Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. (All Arts Décoratifs photos: Jean Tholance, Musée des Arts Décoratifs) 100 ballet review Marie Taglioni able to build up a corpus of materials cover- ing the whole history of French dance from the seventeenth century to the present, which documents the most important ballets per- formed in France, including all aspects of their Hubert Goldschmidt performances (librettos, music scores, chore- ographic notation, set and costume designs), In this report, I wish to draw attention to the as well as the great companies and dancers rediscovery in Paris of the holograph text of that performed there. Marie Taglioni’s memoirs and its subsequent The Bibliothèque-musée de l’Opéra (Opera publication, Souvenirs: Le manuscrit inédit de la Library) is undoubtedly the most important grande danseuse romantique,1 in July 2017. The French repository of dance materials and was document, lost for so many years, was “found” the primary source of materials for the French in 2015 at the Musée des Arts Décora tifs, and Project. Among its many items, one can find in Souvenirs, Bruno Ligore and Audrey Gay- unique copies of books and manuscripts of Mazuel clarify the mysteries surrounding the Feuillet notation, materials on Diaghilev and manuscript, as well as describing the muse- the Ballets Russes, costume and set designs, um’s entire Marie Taglioni Collection (Fonds and music scores for the Paris Opera. Its Ta - Marie Taglioni), thus giving us a new and di- glioni Collection documenting Marie’s career rect connection to this great ballerina. is considered one of its prized holdings and Icônes du Ballet Romantique: Marie Taglioni includes her memoirs and press clippings. In et sa famille,2 published the year before, should fact, obtaining microfilms of the Bibliothèque be considered a companion book to Ta glioni’s de l’Opéra’s Diaghilev’s notebooks and the li- own text. In fact, to fully appreciate the mem- brary’s Taglioni materials were our very first oirs, it is best to examine both books in con- priority.4 junction with the essay by Fran cesca Falcone Because of my work on the French Project, and the chronology and the genealogy of the I had for a long time been intrigued by the fact Taglioni family established by Madison Sow- that the Musée des Arts Décoratifs has its own ell and included in Icônes.3 Through the mem- extensive Taglioni collection. For many years, oirs and the work of Falcone, many myths the museum presented a fine Taglioni display, about Taglioni’s dancing, personal life, and which included statuettes showing Marie, the legacy are laid to rest and we now have a bet- painting Marie Taglioni Going aboard a Gondola ter vision of her – both as an artist and as a in Front of Her Palace in Venice [see page 115], human being. and the famous painting by Fran çois Ga briel My own interest in Taglioni began with my Guillaume Lepaulle representing Marie and work for the French Project of the Dance Col- her brother Paul in the opening pose of La Syl- lection of the New York Public Library (now phide[page 109], well-known through the lith- the Jerome Robbins Dance Division). In 1979 ographs after the canvas. Eventually I found Genevi eve Oswald, the curator of the Dance that the museum’s Ta glioni holdings are more Collection, initiated the project. She asked me extensive and far more important than the to investigate the holdings of the French li- displayed materials and that many had been braries and museums related to dance. I was donated or bequeathed by the Tagli oni fami- then to report back to her on their materials ly. However, the question remained: how did in order for the New York Public Library to this museum, whose core collections are far purchase copies (microforms or photographs) removed from the dance, come to be the repos- of the most important ones and make them itory of these artifacts? available in New York. With the support from For these reasons, when I met for the first the entire New York Public Library, we were time with Audrey Gay-Mazuel, I asked to see ©2018 Hubert Goldschmidt 101 the Musée des Arts Décoratifs’ complete Tagli - Munich in 1843,5 were both recognized by Al- oni Collection, and in November 2014, Gay- fred although they were products of extra- Mazuel, who is the museum’s curator in charge marital relationships. of the nineteenth century decorative arts, The father of Marie-Eugénie was undoubt- provided me with a dossier on the extent and edly Marie’s lover Eugène Desmares, an au- provenance of the holdings. Gay-Mazuel also thor and playwright.6 When Marie left Paris showed me all of the ballerina’s own posses- for St. Petersburg in 1837, Desmares followed sions that she had been able to locate within her only to die there in 1839. In a recently dis- the Arts Décoratifs’ archives. Viewing Marie covered letter dated 10/22 December 1839, Ta gli oni’s personal effects was indeed a mov- Marie wrote to a friend of her grief and said ing and exciting experience. that she was inconsol able.7 The father of Unfortunately, at the time, the cardboard Marie’s son Georges was probably Prince document box containing nine notebooks of Alexander Troubetzkoy.8 In 1846, Troubetzkoy Marie Ta gli oni’s memoirs listed in the inven- bought the Venetian palace Ca’ d’Oro on the tory was nowhere to be found. In fact, I had Grand Canal for her9 and later, in 1852, mar- been greatly surprised to learn of the Arts Dé- ried Marie’s daughter Marie-Eugénie. coratifs’ manuscript, because it was thought After leaving the stage in 1847, Marie lived that the original manuscript of the memoirs in Paris, in her house at Blevio on Lake Como, was at the Bibliothèque de l’Opéra, and the ex- in Venice, and in London. She also owned an- istence of a second holograph version seemed other Venetian palace on the Grand Canal: the unlikely. Palazzo Corner Spinelli, which is the one de- Gay-Mazuel immediately set about search- picted in the Arts Décoratifs’ painting [page ing for the missing items – in particular the 115]. She did not retire for long. In 1859, Marie memoirs – with the goal of establishing a com- became active again, teaching at the Paris prehensive accounting of her museum’s Ta - Opera, and staging her only ballet Les Papillons glioni Collection. In January 2015 this pursuit for her student Emma Livry. Later Marie was rewarded when the archivist of the Arts moved to London surrounded by her family Décoratifs located the seven notebooks. This and taught ballroom dancing and gave lessons discovery enabled Ligore to transcribe the for presentations at court. manuscripts and Gay-Mazuel to make a com- Her son Georges was an officer in a zouave plete inventory of the Arts Décoratifs’ Ta glioni regiment of the French army and fought in objects. the Franco-Prussian War. In 1876 in London, Before answering many of the questions he married Sozonga Ralli, the daughter of surrounding the donations of Marie Taglioni’s Stephen Augustus Ralli. At the beginning of personal possessions to the two Parisian in- the nineteenth century, the Ralli family had stitutions, we need to recall some facts con- established a successful merchant business in cerning Marie’s life and family. London; Stephen Augustus Ralli had succeed- In 1832, Marie married Comte Alfred Gilbert ed his uncle as president of the family busi- de Voisins in London, and their marriage con- ness. After leaving the army, Georges entered tract was registered in Paris in 1834. Gilbert his father-in-law’s business in Marseilles. des Voisins was an old family of parliamen- Marie rejoined him after 1880, and they lived tary nobility. Marie and Alfred separated in comfortably at the Château Ralli in Marseilles 1835; however, the couple legally separated until her death in 1884.