Production of Petit's swan Roland. Master of Liberal Arts. Recognition and awards

Roland Petit. A classic and an innovator. He argued that the task of a choreographer is to “follow the music” and created a ballet that did not depend on music; “follow the music” - but whose ballets rely on the plot as the core, and do not use the plot only as an excuse for dancing. The scripts for his ballets were written by Jean Cocteau, Jean Anouilh, Georges Simenon and himself. Choreographer who staged ballets for Maya Plisetskaya and Pink Floyd. A choreographer who valued classical choreography, who studied under the direction of Serge Lifar, once the leading soloist of Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet, and a choreographer who boldly pushed the boundaries of classical dance, using everyday gestures that were surprisingly natural and necessary among conventional ballet steps.

Roland Petit was born in 1924, in Paris. At the age of 9, he entered the ballet school at the Paris Opera, graduated in 1940, and received a place in the corps de ballet of the Paris Opera. In 1943, Serge Lifar, director of the Opera, entrusted him with his first major solo performance in the ballet “Love the Enchantress”. Around the same time, Petit, together with Jeanine Charra, a future famous French ballerina and choreographer, organized several ballet evenings at the Sarah Bernhardt Theater. At one of the first evenings, Roland presented his first experience in choreography - a small concert number “Springboard Jump”.

And in 1945, Petit staged his first ballet “Comedians” at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Building on his success, Petit organized his own troupe, the Ballet of the Champs-Elysees.

A year later, Petit created the one-act ballet “Young Man and Death.” And, for more than 60 years, this ballet regularly appears in the repertoires of theaters around the world. Petit conceived a one-act ballet for his troupe's dancer, Jean Babile, and turned to Jean Cocteau, one of the most brilliant French writers of the 20th century. Its plot is simple - the original poetic libretto has only eight lines. http://www.bolshoi.ru/performances/345/libretto/ Its plot is tragic. This production is considered suitable for mature, established artists who are able to bring their own interpretation to it. The ballet was planned to be set to a popular jazz composition, but just before the premiere, Cocteau decided that classical music would be more suitable. We picked up Bach's Passacaglia. The choreography remained the same, it was not “adjusted” to the music, as a result, “Passacaglia” literally floats above the story told by the duet of dancers. There are several films based on this ballet - performed by R. Nureyev and Zizi Zhanmer “Young Man and Revolt” http://youtube.com/watch?v=mt9-GzcJvyo and performed by M. Baryshnikov in the film “White Nights” 1985)

In 1948, Petit assembled a new troupe, the Ballet of Paris, with Zizi Jeanmer taking the place of prima ballerina, and staged the ballet Carmen to the music of Bizet. The romantic story of Merimee in the hands of Petit becomes the story of a tragic confrontation between two strong personalities - Carmen and Jose (his role was performed by Petit himself). Each of them defends their love, the way they understand it, with all their might. And for both, loyalty to their love becomes the highest effort, a struggle in which to give in means to betray love and betray oneself. In his production, Petit abandons the festive flavor - the set design is deliberately simple, gestures, instead of ballet grace and convention, are sensual to the point of rudeness. The ballet has a distinct cabaret flavor - so Petit from “Somewhere in Spain” brought the story of Carmen as close as possible to his time. And the theme of love as a tragic confrontation between a man and a woman, set in the ballet “Young Man and Death”, will be traced in many of Petit’s productions,

The ballet "Carmen" was a success. It, as read by Petit, has been and, obviously, will continue to be staged by ballet companies all over the world. The bright duet Jeanmer and Petit attracted the attention of Hollywood and received an invitation to collaborate. There, several musical films are being filmed based on Petit's choreography. And in 1960, Terence Young directed the film “One, Two, Three, Four or Black Stockings” (1-2-3-4 ou Les Collants noirs), which included such productions by Petit as “Carmen”, “Cyrano de Bergerac” ", "Adventurer" and "Mourning Day". Roland Petit played the three male roles - Cyrano, Jose and the Groom.

In 1978, Roland Petit staged the ballet The Queen of Spades, especially for Mikhail Baryshnikov. Unfortunately, the performance did not last long on stage - bound by contracts, Baryshnikov was unable to maintain the required schedule, and other performers invited to play the role of Hermann did not satisfy Petit. And in 2001, Roland Petit received an invitation from the Moscow Bolshoi Theater to stage “The Queen of Spades” on its stage, but did not resume the 1978 performance. He created a completely new ballet - he used not the music of Tchaikovsky’s opera, but his Sixth Symphony. Hermann was danced by Nikolai Tsiskaridze, and the Countess by Ilze Liepa.

During his long career, Roland Petit created more than 150 ballets. Worked with the largest ballet companies in the world. Leading dancers of the 20th century were involved in his productions. He collaborated with the brightest people, whose names are inseparable from the creative heritage of France - Jean Cocteau, Picasso (Petit created a ballet based on his painting “Guernica”), Yves Saint Laurent. Roland Petit died of leukemia in 2011, and his creative legacy is still in demand today.

Interview with Roland Petit

Ballet "The Queen of Spades"

He danced leading roles in La Sylphide, Carmen, Notre Dame de Paris, staged ballets for Maya Plisetskaya, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, worked in Hollywood with Fred Astaire, knew Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich, and was friends with Rudolph Nuriyev, about whom he wrote a book of memoirs.

Petit developed a special relationship with Russia: in the 60s, his ballet based on the works of Mayakovsky was banned in the USSR, but later his productions of “The Queen of Spades” and “Notre Dame of Paris” were a resounding success in Moscow, and the first was even awarded the State Russian Federation Prize.

Roland Petit was born in 1924 on January 13 in the family of the owner of a small diner and an Italian woman, Rose Repetto, who later produced ballet shoes and clothes under her name. When the parents separated, the father began raising the future choreographer and great dancer and youngest son Claude. It was at the suggestion of Edmond Petit that nine-year-old Roland, passionate about art, entered the ballet school of the famous Paris Opera, where among his classmates were the later famous Roger Fenonjoie and Jean Babile. Subsequently, the father repeatedly sponsored the productions of his eldest son.

After his studies, young Roland was accepted into the corps de ballet of the Paris Opera, and the beginning of his creative career was marked by a joint performance with Marcelle Burgas, a very famous dancer in those years. During the Second World War, together with Jeanine Sciarra, he gave several concerts consisting of ballet miniatures, and also presented the first independent production of Ski Jump in his career. Serge Lifar, director of the Paris Opera, entrusted him with the solo role in “Enchantress of Love”, and later continued to work with him outside the Opera, which Petit left in 1944.

Together with young artists, including his future wife Renée (Zizi) Jeanmaire, Petit participated in the weekly ballet evenings of the Sarah Bernhardt Theater, and in 1945 he organized the Ballet of the Champs-Elysees troupe, whose repertoire included both Petit’s and performances by other authors. “The Sleeping Beauty”, “Swan Lake”, “Young Man and Death”, written by Jean Cocteau, were a great success.

Creative differences caused Petit to leave the Ballet des Champs-Élysées in 1947, and already in 1948 he created the Ballet of Paris, a new troupe that also included Rene Jeanmaire, who took the place of prima ballerina. The choreographer staged the famous “Carmen” for her, thanks to which Jeanmère was invited to Hollywood, and Roland went with her.

In 1960, together with director Terence Young, Petit took part in the creation of the ballet film “One, Two, Three, Four, or Black Tights”, in which you can see four productions by the choreographer (“Carmen”, “Cyrano de Bergerac”, “The Adventuress” " and "Mourning Day."), and he himself appears in three roles. After the production of Notre Dame at the Paris Opera in 1965, the choreographer received an invitation to head this theater, but did not remain in the role of director for long.

From 1972, for 26 years, the choreographer directed the Marseille Ballet, which he created, and one of his first works with the new troupe was the ballet about Mayakovsky “Light up the Stars!” And then came “The Death of the Rose” with Plisetskaya, “Proust, or Interruptions of the Heart,” “The Queen of Spades,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and many other deliveries. In general, the choreographer created more than fifty ballets and dance numbers, distinguished by the recognizable handwriting of the author, a variety of styles and techniques.

Speaking about unrecognized geniuses, Roland Petit recalled Van Gogh, who before his death had nothing to pay for electricity. He considered himself a darling of fate: having spent his whole life doing exactly what interested him most, he was appreciated by his contemporaries and was able to fully realize his creative plans.

On July 10, at the age of 88, Roland Petit, the first of the two great choreographers that France bestowed on the world in the twentieth century, died.

Tatiana Kuznetsova

If Roland Petit did not exist, he would have to be invented. After all, before him, France, a great ballet power, had not had its own world-class choreographers for 75 years, since Arthur Saint-Leon died in 1870. History decreed that Russia and France exchanged talent for almost a hundred years: in the second half of the 19th century, the Frenchman Petipa gave his genius to St. Petersburg, in the first four decades of the 20th century, Russian choreographers repaid their debt to Paris. It is not surprising that, as soon as his native talent loomed on the horizon in the guise of a restless corps de ballet youth from the Paris Opera, he was raised on the shield by all the leaders of French culture. This happened during the dark years of the fascist occupation, so national pride triumphed doubly.

The future choreographer was the son of a cook: the owner of a Parisian bistro, Edmond Petit, abandoned by his Italian wife and raising two sons alone, sent the eldest to school at the Paris Opera. From infancy, the nimble boy danced to the orchestra of his father’s bistro, and the liberal father consoled himself with the fact that his youngest son would inherit the dynastic profession of a cook. Roland graduated from his studies at the age of 16 in 1941 and successfully joined the opera corps de ballet. The troupe was then led by Serge Lifar, a prolific choreographer and ex-premier of Diaghilev’s troupe: he staged ballets in the neoclassical style on sublime mythological subjects and himself danced the main roles in them. Young Petit quickly became bored at the theater, but outside its walls he developed a vigorous activity: he took drama and jazz lessons, together with the same irrepressible and talented peers he organized leftist concerts, independently composing ballet numbers for them.

However, he was lucky to have adults as patrons and co-authors. The sociable young man became a part of the capital's intellectual elite. “The most wonderful artists were locked up in Paris. At the age of 15, I became acquainted with everyone. They helped me a lot, and by the end of the war, the craft of a choreographer was already in my hands,” Petit recalled in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper (see article " Roland Petit worked as a clown" in N170 dated September 19, 2001). Jean Cocteau, Boris Kokhno, Marie Laurencin, Natalya Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Pablo Picasso, Jean Marais took care of him: they gave sketches, found subjects, published winning reviews and high-profile announcements. "We have nothing left but ashes from the unforgettable phoenix Sergei Diaghilev, but everyone knows the myth and its meaning. The phoenix died to be resurrected... And here again is the one who gathers artists, choreographers, dancers. Around Roland Petit is the ever-moving mercury gathers into a living sparkling ball" - this is how Jean Cocteau sang in 1945 about the emergence of Roland's own dance troupe, the Ballet des Champs-Elysées. All of Petit’s father’s savings were spent on creating the first independent ballet troupe in France.

Cocteau's enthusiasm is explained by the fact that he and his friends took an active part in the life of the new troupe. Actually, the young choreographer tried to introduce into ballet what the master himself and his associates did in cinema and literature. Thanks to the courage of Petit, who boldly married everyday pantomime and acrobatics with romantic pathos and classical dance technique, modern Paris burst onto the stage. The “new French ballet,” as Parisian intellectuals dubbed this phenomenon, instantly gained overwhelming popularity. This had never been done in the theater: they fought on stage, made love, smoked, stole, cut each other’s throats, pirouetted on tables and threw away chairs that fell under their feet with arabesques. The choreographer recalled (in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, see the article “Roland Petit: you can’t tell this from the stage” in N204, October 30, 2004): “I staged Rendezvous when I was 20 years old, with Jacques Prévert - he wrote this bloody story. Then there was "Young Man and Death" - two times in a row I did ballets in which women kill a man or force him to commit suicide."

Femme fatale, fortunately not so bloodthirsty, entered the life of Petit himself. The fact that Zizi Jeanmer, whom Roland knew from school, was his destiny, he realized during the production of “Carmen”. In order to get the main role, the ballerina cut her hair like a boy. This Carmen - an arrogant, capricious, cynical, dissolute, incomprehensible Parisian gambler - was completely irresistible. 60 years later, Roland Petit recalled the time of the production as if he had just left a rehearsal: “When I took on Carmen, Zizi was still dancing at the Paris Opera - all sorts of variations and pas de deux from The Nutcracker, bye-bye, syu-syu. But she danced so that all the men in the audience... I don’t know, maybe it’s too vulgar in Russian, well, in general, everyone was in love with her. And so she says to me: “Who is Carmen dancing?" - “Oh, I don’t know.” She looks at me. “I,” she says, “dance.” The ballet was a huge success. In Canada it was even banned as pornographic - there was such a scene in the room on the bed, it was just a scandal "Zizi danced Carmen 2 thousand times, and in total the ballet was performed 5.5 thousand times."

The premiere of Carmen took place in London in February 1948 and became a sensation: the ballet ran for four months without interruption in London, two in Paris and three months in the States. 24-year-old Petit was basking in fame. But the global triumph ended in a long-term crisis: over the next 17 years, the choreographer did not stage anything worthwhile.

However, Petit himself did not consider this time a crisis. A gambler, a lover of life, he always did only what he wanted. In those years he staged a lot and indiscriminately. I didn’t remember the failures: just think, the card doesn’t work! He knew how to spin Luck (like the ballet "Wolf") to its fullest. High and low genres did not exist for him: he enjoyed the luxurious life of Hollywood, churning out dances in musicals, and when, after giving birth, his beloved Zizi’s voice emerged and she wanted to sing, he enthusiastically began to build her music hall career. With their songs and dances, the couple made a world tour and delighted Paris with more and more new revues, and the Paris Opera in vain invited the main national choreographer to lead the main national troupe. (It is characteristic that no one offered anything like this to the second great Frenchman, Maurice Bejart, who loudly declared himself just in the mid-1950s, which is why the unemployed choreographer went to hospitable Belgium, eventually becoming a Belgian-Swiss national treasure.) And Petit, meanwhile, bargained with the management of the Paris Opera about the contract and powers, either agreeing to take the post of ballet artistic director (and the Minister of Culture Andre Malraux even announced his name at press conferences), then dodging at the last moment: the wayward and proud favorite of the public was afraid of nomenklatura positions.

In 1965, he finally agreed to try. Introduced to the Paris Opera troupe as a future director, he staged there his main - and only - monumental masterpiece: the two-act Notre-Dame de Paris, with music by Maurice Jarre and costumes by Yves Saint Laurent. The couturier made the medieval crowd brainlessly flamboyant, dressing the women in his favorite mini-trapezes and the men in tights and boxy shirts. And the choreographer once again easily changed the aesthetics of the ballet theater. The 1960s burst onto the scene with its minimalism, rebellion and the issue of personal choice. Petit, abolishing the centuries-old tradition of a love triangle, created an existential triangle: from a despot monk, an aggressive mob and Quasimodo, a lone rebel opposed to the whole world, whose role he himself played at the premiere.

After the resounding success of "Cathedral", immediately recognized as a national classic, Petit fled from the Paris Opera to a variety show. He headed the Casino de Paris, which flourished under his leadership for a whole five years. At the same time as composing frivolous cancans, Petit staged ballets throughout Europe, and in 1972, succumbing to the entreaties of the mayor of Marseille, Gaston Deffer, created an impressive ballet troupe, the Ballet of Marseille, in this proletarian city.

In Marseille, Petit began famously: with a ballet about Vladimir Mayakovsky. He became interested in the poet after meeting Lilya Brik. I read a lot of translations, delved into the biography, together with a professor at the Sorbonne I composed a script and performed at the Avignon Festival the crazy ballet “Light up the Stars!” (in 13 scenes, to the music of Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Georgian folk songs), having personally danced Mayakovsky in it. At the premiere in the Papal Palace, the rays of red spotlights darted, banners fluttered, petrels soared, and the audience almost came to blows. Soviet Minister Furtseva, inviting the progressive author on tour, prudently refused the excesses of ballet revolutions, dropping the bossy: “We don’t need such stories here.” The Pink Floyd ballet, a riotous improvisation composed by Petit for the youth of the troupe, who were extremely excited by the fact that they were dancing to the “live” music of their idols, did not pass the ministerial censorship: during the performances, the entire Pink Floyd group went on a rampage on the platform above the stage.

The Ballet of Marseille came to the USSR with a well-balanced program; it happened in 1974, two years after the spectacular debut in Avignon. However, our country knew about the choreographer Petit long before the arrival of his troupe. Back in 1969, “Cathedral” was brought on tour by the Paris Opera. In 1973, Maya Plisetskaya, the main troublemaker of Soviet ballet, obtained permission to show a fragment from “The Sick Rose” on the Bolshoi stage (she danced the entire ballet in Marseille). Together with the improbably handsome Rudy Briand, she performed the duet “The Death of the Rose” - so mesmerizingly that the hearts of Soviet artists, balletomanes and even cultural officials were instilled with the confidence for a long time that there was no better choreographer in the world than Roland Petit.

However, Petya always had a special attitude towards Russians. As a child, he took lessons from emigrants - from Madame Ruzanne and Boris Knyazev (he performed the Knyazev exercise on the floor until he was 80 years old). Rudolf Nureyev was his friend for many years - Petit staged ballets for him and Margot Fonteyn back in the 1960s. Mikhail Baryshnikov danced his first – unsuccessful – version of “The Queen of Spades” in Marseille. Bolshoi prima Ekaterina Maksimova gave new life to his “Blue Angel”; Petit constantly invited Mariinsky theater performer Altynay Asylmuratova to Marseille, until in 1997 he left the troupe he created, once again falling out with the administration.

The Soviet-Russian ballet reciprocated Roland Petit. When our theaters once again reached a dead end, they called the famous master for help. His performances - plot, emotional, acting - were a moderate inoculation of the avant-garde for Soviet ballet. In 1978, “Notre Dame Cathedral” was staged at the Kirov Theater. Ten years later, the Bolshoi showed the unsuccessful Cyrano de Bergerac. At the end of the twentieth century, the Mariinsky Theater took over “Youth and Death” and “Carmen”; however, Petya’s romance with the St. Petersburg people did not work out - the choreographer strongly disliked Prime Minister Farukh Ruzimatov, whom the theater assigned to the main roles against his will.

But with the Bolshoi everything worked out perfectly: it was Petit who invented and staged that exclusive performance that allowed the main state troupe to emerge from a protracted crisis. The new “Queen of Spades” turned out to be a fateful ballet, which began as a risky adventure: the public was greatly frightened when the master fantasized about the mutual passion of the old woman and the young player; Music lovers suffered because of Tchaikovsky's mutilated Sixth Symphony. However, in the end, everything turned out just fine: Hermann became the signature role of Nikolai Tsiskaridze, the beautiful Ilze Liepa turned out to be an unsurpassed old countess, the ballet collected a whole crop of Golden Masks, and, finally, all its creators received the State Prize - Roland Petit became the first foreign its owner. The French laureate became a truly statesman in Russia: even on his 80th birthday, President Putin was the first to congratulate him, and only then did Jacques Chirac send a telegram. They say that Mr. Petit remained in absolute confidence that the French only realized it after the Russians showed attention to him.

The Bolshoi Theater became almost family to Petya: after “The Queen of Spades,” he moved “Notre Dame Cathedral” to Moscow, and a year ago he staged “Young Man and Death” for Ivan Vasiliev, generously showering him with praise after the premiere. Petit sent his new favorite to the Roman Opera to dance his “Arlesiane”, he was busy with staging this ballet in Moscow, and in the fall he was preparing to celebrate the opening of the historical stage after restoration. But he died - somehow very quickly. Just like everything he did in life.

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Roland Petit died at the age of 88. The French choreographer became famous for his dance stories told with pure Gallic chic and grace.

The recipient of the Legion of Honor did not like anniversaries. He couldn’t stand it when people complimented him on his excellent appearance on his next date. It looked really great though. He was youthful, fit and amazingly active. In addition, I am always surrounded by young dancers and choreographers, including Russians. For Mikhail Baryshnikov and Nikolai Tsiskaridze, he staged The Queen of Spades. He gave Maya Plisetskaya “The Death of the Rose.” Ulyana Lopatkina directed the creative evening.

He transferred his favorite ballets to the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters. Discovered Svetlana Lunkina and Alexander Volchkov to the general public. I dreamed of staging a play about Mayakovsky in Russia, and I was going to dance the main role myself.

It is natural that this Russophile became the first foreigner to receive the State Prize of Russia. And even though the noted performance - the aforementioned “Queen of Spades” - was not one of his successes, the decision of the Russian leadership does not raise any objections. For Petit is not only French, but also our pride. He carried his love for Russian teachers - Boris Knyazev and Olga Preobrazhenskaya - throughout his life. And he took Diaghilev’s wish expressed to Jean Cocteau: “Surprise me!” as a guide to action.

The master has been distinguished by his indomitable energy since childhood. I studied dance during the day, performed in theater extras in the evening, returned home after midnight, and went to general education lessons early in the morning. After completing the dance course, he organized his own troupe. Petit's first major success was the ballet "Comedians" to the music of Henri Sauguet, staged in 1945 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

The ability to tell an amazing story in a few gestures and accurately choose non-common music made not only balletomanes fall in love with the choreographer. He was appreciated by all who admired life and enjoyed its pleasures. What is commonly called perversion in the everyday world was completely natural for Petya. The world is multifaceted, the maestro inspired, and if you are young, you need to taste its temptations. Moreover, youth, according to Petit, is a timeless concept. As long as a person lives with rapture, old age is not scary for him.

The last greetings from the maestro were conveyed to us in February by the dancers of the Paris Opera. The French performed "La Arlesienne". The hero, deceived by his beloved, committed suicide. Of all the performances brought by the guests, this one had a tragic ending. And yet he was the most cheerful, the lightest, the most charming and absolutely relaxed. Just like its author, the true Frenchman Roland Petit.