Coppélia

The title of this article contains the character é. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Coppelia.

"Frantz" redirects here. For other uses, see Frantz (disambiguation).

Coppélia
Giuseppina Bozzacchi as Swanhilde in the Saint-Léon/Delibes Coppélia. Paris, 1870
Choreographed by	Arthur Saint-Léon
Composed by	Léo Delibes
Based on	Der Sandmann by E. T. A. Hoffmann
Date of premiere	25 May 1870
Place of premiere	Théâtre Impérial de l´Opéra, Paris
Characters	Doctor Coppélius Swanhilda Frantz
Genre	Romantic
Type	comic ballet

Coppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann (The Sandman), and Die Puppe (The Doll). The ballet premiered on 25 May 1870 at the Théâtre Impérial de l´Opéra, with the 16-year-old Giuseppina Bozzacchi in the principal role of Swanhilde. Its first flush of success was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War and the siege of Paris - which also led to the early death of Giuseppina Bozzacchi, on her 17th birthday - but eventually it became the most-performed ballet at the Opera Garnier.

The team of Saint-Léon and Nuittier had a previous success with the ballet La Source (1860), for which Délibes had composed the music jointly with Ludwig Minkus.

Plot

The story of Coppélia concerns a mysterious and faintly diabolical inventor, Doctor Coppélius^[1] who has made a life-size dancing doll. It is so lifelike that Frantz, a village swain, is infatuated with it, and sets aside his true heart's desire, Swanhilde, who in Act II shows him his folly by dressing as the doll and pretending to come to life. The festive wedding-day divertissements in the village square that occupy Act III are often deleted in modern danced versions, though one of the entrées was the first czardas presented on a ballet stage.

Influence

The part of Frantz was danced en travesti by Eugénie Fiocre,^[2] a convention that pleased the male members of the Jockey-Club de Paris and was retained in Paris until after World War II.

Some influence on this story comes from travelling shows of the late 18th and early 19th centuries starring mechanical automatons. This field of entertainment has been under-documented, but a recent survey of the field is contained in The Mechanical Turk by Tom Standage (2002). These shows were later to also influence Charles Babbage in his invention of the difference engine.^{[citation needed]}

Alternate Versions

A variation of the Coppelia story is contained in Jacques Offenbach's opera, The Tales of Hoffmann, a fictional work about the same Hoffmann who wrote the story that inspired Coppelia. The opera consists of a prologue, three fantastic tales in which Hoffmann is a participant, and an epilogue. In the first story, based on Der Sandmann, Hoffmann falls in love with a mechanical doll, Olympia, but in this case, the story takes on a melancholy tinge as the doll breaks apart.

In 1974 George Balanchine choreographed a version of Coppélia for the New York City Ballet. He was assisted by Alexandra Danilova, who had performed the title role many times during her dancing career. She staged the Petipa choreography for Act II. Balanchine created new choreography for Act III and for the mazurka, czardas and Frantz's variation in Act I. Patricia McBride danced the role of Swanilda; Helgi Tomasson danced the role of Frantz; Shaun O'Brian portrayed Dr. Coppélius.

Ballet

Act I 1 Prelude et Mazurka 2 Valse Lente 3 Scène 4 Mazurka 5 Scène 6 Ballade de L’Epi 7 Thème Slave Varie 8 Czardas 9 Finale

Act II 10 Entr’acte et Valse 11 Scène 12 Scène 13 Musique des Automates 14 Scène 15 Chanson a Boire et Scène 16 Scene et Valse de la Poupeé 17 Scène 18 Bolero 19 Gigue 20 Scène 21 Marche de la Cloche

Act III 22 Introduction 23 Valse des Heures 24 L’Aurore 25 La Priere 26 Le Travail 27 L’Hymne 28 Le Discorde et la Guerre 29 La Paix 30 Danse de Fete 31 Galop Finale

Scoring

Harp

Strings

Woodwinds 2 flutes (2nd doubling on piccolo) 2 oboes (2nd doubling on English horn) 2 clarinets 2 bassoons

Brass 4 horns 2 valved cornets 2 trumpets 3 trombones tuba

Percussion (2 players) Timpani triangle cymbals drum bass drum with cymbals glockenspiel

Popular culture

Coppelia was featured in the Danish film Ballerina, shown in two parts in the U.S. on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color in 1966 and later released theatrically in Europe. Dancer Kirsten Simone played the lead.

A movie, The Fantastic World of Dr. Coppelius / El fantástico mundo del doctor Coppelius, was released on December 25, 1968. In the U.S., it was titled Dr. Coppelius. The Spanish production, with the ballet company and orchestra of the Gran Teatro del Liceo of Barcelona, features Walter Slezak as Dr. Coppelius and Claudia Corday in the doll-comes-to-life role, Swanhilda / Coppelia.^[3][4]

A scene from the famous ballet film The Red Shoes shows Moira Shearer playing the fictional Victoria Page. Vicky is seen as Swanhilda in the scene in which she pretends to be Coppelia, and fools even Dr. Coppelius.

The ballet Coppélia and Giuseppina Bozzacchi's tragic fate are narrated in the novel No Telling (London: Vintage, 2004) by British author Adam Thorpe (*1956). The novel's protagonist, thirteen year-old Gilles, desperately wants to see the ballet because his crush Jocelyne plays a minor part. He researches into the topic in order to impress Jocelyne, who, sadly, turns out to be fed up with ballet in general and Coppélia in particular.

In the anime Princess Tutu, episode 15 is entitled "Coppelia". Within the episode, the ballet is referenced when the character Pique/Pike is hypnotized in Mythos's presence and begins dancing the puppet-like "Waltz of the Dolls" from Coppélia as the corresponding song plays in the background. Additionally, the clock tower shown throughout the show plays the beginning of "Waltz of the Hours" when it tolls the hour, and the hand organ of the character Edel plays a modified version of "Music of the Automatica" (the original plays in the show as well). A stage adaptation of Coppelia was presented at the Gene Frankel Theater in 1999.

Notes

1. ^ This figure is not unlike Hoffmann's sinister Herr Drosselmeyer in "The Nutcracker" or the macabre Svengali-like travelling magician of the same name in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann
2. ^ Garafola, Lynn, "The Travesty Dancer in Nineteenth-Century Ballet" in Dance Research Journal, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Autumn, 1985), pp. 35-40. (Also reprinted in Ann Dils and Ann Cooper Albright (eds) Moving History / Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader, Wesleyan University Press, 2001, pp. 210-216. ISBN 081956413)
3. ^ imdb.com
4. ^ New York Times Review

See also

• New York City Ballet repertory
  • New York City Ballet 2009 Winter repertory
  • New York City Ballet 2009 Spring repertory

External links

• Balanchine Foundation website
• Long Beach Ballet website
• Balanchine Trust website
• Ballet Met website
• NYCB website
• Swanhilde costume
• Michigan Ballet Theatre website