The Pharaoh’s Daughter was created by Marius Petipa in 1862 for the Bolshoi Theatre in St. Petersburg. The ballet was immensely popular with the public and adored by the ballerinas. After the composer, Pugni, in a fit of anger, destroyed the piano score, Petipa began to stage the ballet without music; the music was added later. Petipa, who addressed the members of the corps-de-ballet as “ma belle”, was convinced that music existed just for dancing and dancing, for ballerinas. Pierre Lacotte, in his restoration for the Bolshoi Theatre Company in Moscow, recreated all the dances, giving highly complex variations and adagios to both ballerinas and male dancers.

Petipa’s choreography was reconstructed by Pierre Lacotte for a lavish production into which the Bolshoi threw all its resources; lavish ancient Egyptian scenery and costumes, brilliant performances by the corps de ballet and the orchestra, and above all spectacular performances by the leading dancers Svetlana Zakharova and Servei Filin. (Washington Post)

The Story

The ballet tells the story of Lord Wilson, an Englishman, who falls asleep after smoking opium with merchants in a pyramid, where he has taken refuge from a storm. He dreams that he is an ancient Egyptian in love with Aspicia, a Pharaoh’s daughter who has been promised to the King of Nubia. She throws herself into the Nile to avoid the marriage, where she is welcomed by the God of the River Nile. All is resolved and Aspicia is finally united with her love.