Hugo’s novel was transferred to the Russian ballet stage by Jules Perrault, Marius Petipa, Alexander Gorsky, Vladimir Burmeister… Today, only Vladimir Burmeister’s version exists without loss of text. It was created in the era most suitable for such a plot — the era of the drum ballet and, probably, in the most suitable theater for this — the Musical named after K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.
Burmeister, together with Vasily Tikhomirov, wrote a new version of the libretto. The music by César Pugni, orchestrated and refined by Reinhold Glière in the 1920s, was supplemented with music by Sergei Vasilenko, specially written for Burmeister’s ballet. The set design was created by Alexander Lushin, the theatre’s chief artist at the time. The outstanding ballerina Violetta Bovt danced Esmeralda at the premiere.
Ballet scholars consider Burmester’s «Esmeralda» to be among the best dramatic ballets. Such performances are said to «adorn the poster.» It is as much a hallmark of the Musical Theatre’s ballet as Chekhov’s plays are for the Moscow Art Theatre. It has been passed down from one generation to the next, «from foot to foot,» from the original performers to today’s soloists.
The dramatic story of the gypsy girl Esmeralda unfolds on the stage of the Musical Theatre, delighting those for whom ballet is not just a series of movements, but a clash of characters and a story of human destinies.
