Filippo Taglioni
Encyclopedia
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
r and choreographer
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
and personal teacher to his own daughter, the famous Romantic ballerina
Ballerina
A ballerina is a title used to describe a principal female professional ballet dancer in a large company; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino...
Marie Taglioni
Marie Taglioni
Marie Taglioni was a famous Italian/Swedish ballerina of the Romantic ballet era, a central figure in the history of European dance.-Biography:...
. He is the son of Carlo and father of both Marie and Paul. And, although August Bournonville
August Bournonville
August Bournonville was a Danish ballet master and choreographer. August was the son of Antoine Bournonville, a dancer and choreographer trained under the French choreographer, Jean Georges Noverre, and the nephew of Julie Alix de la Fay, née Bournonville, of the Royal Swedish Ballet.August was...
's version is better known, it was Taglioni who was the original choreographer of La Sylphide
La Sylphide
La Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. There were two versions of the ballet; the version choreographed by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville is the only version known to have survived....
, in 1832.
Background
Born in MilanMilan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, he made his dancing debut at the age of seventeen in Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
performing female roles. He danced in other Italian cities before becoming a dancer (at the age of twenty-two) with the Paris Opera. With Vestris
Auguste Vestris
Marie-Jean-Augustin Vestris, known as Auguste Vestris was a French dancer.Born in Paris as the illegitimate son of Gaëtan Vestris and of Marie Allard, he was dubbed "le dieu de la danse", , a popular title bestowed on the leading male dancer of each generation...
firmly in control there, he readily accepted an invitation to be a principal dancer and ballet master
Ballet Master
Ballet Master is the term used for an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company...
for the Royal Swedish Ballet
Royal Swedish Ballet
The Royal Swedish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in Europe. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, King Gustav III founded the ballet in 1773 as a part of his national cultural project in response to the French and Italian dominance in this field; he also founded the Royal Swedish Opera and the...
in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden. There, he married the dancer Sophie Karsten
Sophie Karsten
Hedvig Sophie Karsten was a Swedish ballerina and artist .Born to opera singers Christoffer Christian Karsten and Sophie Stebnowska, she was the sister of painter Elisabeth Charlotta Karsten....
, daughter of a famous Swedish opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer Christoffer Christian Karsten
Christoffer Christian Karsten
Christoffer Christian Karsten was a Swedish opera singer, sometimes called the greatest male opera singer in Swedish history...
and the Polish actress Sophie Stebnowska
Sophie Stebnowska
Mariane Theresia Sophie Stebnowska , was a Polish opera singer, actor and harpist. She was among the great talents of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm during the reign of King Gustav III of Sweden...
, in 1803. Together, they had two children, Marie Taglioni
Marie Taglioni
Marie Taglioni was a famous Italian/Swedish ballerina of the Romantic ballet era, a central figure in the history of European dance.-Biography:...
and Paul Taglioni, both of whom became dancers themselves.
For several years the family lived in Vienna and Germany but to escape the dangers of the Napoleonic wars, Filippo moved them to Paris. He danced and choreographed throughout Europe, mostly in Italy, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. Finally, he was invited to take a more permanent position with the Theater am Kärntnertor
Theater am Kärntnertor
Theater am Kärntnertor or Kärntnertortheater was a prestigious theatre in Vienna during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries...
in Vienna. Once settled there, he sent for Marie, who had been studying ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
in Paris. Upon her arrival, Filippo was discouraged at her artistic progress and began training her himself. He had her practice ballet six hours a day for six months, using a level method of technique training. He was very strict with her, and had no sympathy for her aching and bleeding toes. He sought to make her style light and delicate, with an emphasis on jumps with ballon and pointe work
En pointe
En pointe means "on the tip" and is a part of classical ballet technique, usually practised using specially reinforced shoes called pointe shoes or toe shoes. The technique developed from the desire for dancers to appear weightless and sylph-like and has evolved to enable dancers to dance on the...
, something that was unheard of before this time. When she was ready he took her back to Paris. After her debut she became so popular that Filippo was able to negotiate a six year contract for the two of them. The triumphant première of La Sylphide
La Sylphide
La Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. There were two versions of the ballet; the version choreographed by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville is the only version known to have survived....
on March 12, 1832, made her the most acclaimed prima ballerina of the Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
period and him the most renowned choreographer of the day. It is said that the great Romantic period of dance was ushered in on that night. Because of this immense success, the two of them traveled widely together and toured both Europe and Russia.
As he grew older, he became eccentric and unpredictable and eventually lost all of Marie's carefully amassed fortune in unwise speculations. Nevertheless, he must be recognized as a pioneer in a ballet style that was to alter forever the very nature of the art.
He died in Como, Italy.
Misconceptions
The ballet-going public knows the Romantic ballet La Sylphide as being choreographed by the Danish ballet master August BournonvilleAugust Bournonville
August Bournonville was a Danish ballet master and choreographer. August was the son of Antoine Bournonville, a dancer and choreographer trained under the French choreographer, Jean Georges Noverre, and the nephew of Julie Alix de la Fay, née Bournonville, of the Royal Swedish Ballet.August was...
. That is indeed the La Sylphide audiences are most familiar with today but was not the version given in 1832.
The original production of La Sylphide was first presented by the Paris Opera Ballet
Paris Opera Ballet
The Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest national ballet company in the world, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it...
at the Salle Le Peletier in 1832, and was choreographed by Filippo Taglioni himself to the music of Jean-Madeliene Schnietzhoeffer, with libretto by Adolphe Nourrit
Adolphe Nourrit
Adolphe Nourrit was a French operatic tenor, librettist, and composer. One of the most esteemed opera singers of the 1820s and 1830s, he was particularly associated with the works of Gioachino Rossini....
after a story by Charles Nodier
Charles Nodier
Jean Charles Emmanuel Nodier , was a French author who introduced a younger generation of Romanticists to the conte fantastique, gothic literature, vampire tales, and the importance of dreams as part of literary creation, and whose career as a librarian is often underestimated by literary...
. The leading roles were danced by Marie Taglioni and Joseph Mazilier
Joseph Mazilier
Joseph Mazilier was a 19th-century French dancer, balletmaster and choreographer. He was most noted for his ballets Paquita and Le Corsaire...
.
Bournonville originally intended to stage the 1832 version in Denmark, but the Paris Opéra demanded to high a price for the orchestral parts of Schnietzhoeffer's score. In light of this, Bournonville decided to stage his own version of La Sylphide on the same scenario, with a new score by Herman Severin Løvenskiold
Herman Severin Løvenskiold
Baron Herman Severin Løvenskiold was a Norwegian composer, most noted for his score for August Bournonville's 1836 version of the ballet La Sylphide for the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen.- Life :...
. The production premiered in 1836 with the prodigy
Child prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
Lucile Grahn
Lucile Grahn
Lucile Alexia Grahn was the first internationally renowned Danish ballerina and one of the popular dancers of the Romantic ballet era....
and Bournonville in the principal roles. Due to the strong tradition of the Royal Danish Ballet this version is still being performed in Denmark to this day, and has since been staged throughout the world.
In 1972 the ballet master Pierre Lacotte revived Filippo Talgioni's original La Sylphide for the Paris Opera Ballet, with the noted ballerina Ghislaine Thesmar
Ghislaine Thesmar
Ballerina Ghislaine Thesmar was born in 1943 in Beijing, China, and studied at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1968, she married the dancer and choreographer Pierre Lacotte. Companies she danced with include Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas , Lacotte's company, then the Paris Opera Ballet from 1972 to 1985....
as the Sylph. Schnietzhoeffer's original score was reconstructed from a manuscript held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
. As Taglioni's original choreography was lost long ago, Lacotte choreographed the ballet in the style of the epoch
Epoch (reference date)
In the fields of chronology and periodization, an epoch is an instance in time chosen as the origin of a particular era. The "epoch" then serves as a reference point from which time is measured...
. The Paris Opera Ballet has since released the production onto DVD/video twice.