GAITE PARISIENNE
Music by Jacques Offenbach, orchestrated by Manuel Rosenthal
in collaboration with Jacques Brindejonc-Offenbach
Choreography by Léonide Massine
Libretto and décor by Comte Etienne de Beaumont
Costumes by Barbara Karinska
Lighting by Steven Shelley
World Première: Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Théâtre de Monte Carlo, Monaco 5 April 1938
Original Cast: Nina Tarakanova (Glove Seller), Eugenia Delarova (Flower Girl),
Jeannette Lauret (La Lionne), Léonide Massine (Peruvian), Frederic Franklin (Baron),
Igor Youskevitch (Officer)
U.S. Première Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, October 12, 1938 Metropoltan Opera House,
New York
Same cast as the World Première with the exception of the Glove Seller who was danced by
Alexandra Danilova.
American Ballet Theater Première: Popejoy Hall, Albuquerque, New Mexico, January 12, 1970
Revived in 1988 and 2014
Music by Jacques Offenbach, orchestrated by Manuel Rosenthal
Choreography by Léonide Massine
Revived by Lorca Massine, assisted by Susanna della Pietra
Libretto by Comte Etienne de Beaumont
Scenery by Zack Brown
Costumes by Christian Lacroix
Lighting by Steven Shelley
Scenery, costumes, libretto by Comte Etienne de Beaumont
Lighting by Gilbert V. Hemsley, Jr.
Cast: Toni Lander (Glove Seller), Roni Mahler (Flower Girl), Betsy Erickson (La Lionne),
Michael Smuin (Peruvian), Royes Fernandez (The Baron), Han Ebbelaar (The Officer),
Dennis Nahat (Tortoni)
Bolshoi Ballet Première : Bolshoi Theater Moscow April 12, 2005
Boston Ballet Première: Boston Opera House May 14, 2016
Cast: Anais Chalendard (Glove Seller), Seo Hye Han (Flower Girl), Brittany Summer (La Lionne),
Federico Fresi (Peruvian), Eris Nezha (The Baron), Paul Craig (The Officer)
Royal Swedish Ballet PremiLéonidere: 1956
London Festival Ballet Première: 1973
Les Ballets de Monte Carlo Première: 1989
Léonide Massine on his Ballet:
"While I was in Paris auditioning dancers at the ballet schools of Preobrajenska and Egorova I went
to see Comte Etienne de Beaumont, who told me that he was interested in the idea of doing a ballet
in the style of Winterhalter’s paintings to music by Offenbach. He had obtained from Offenbach’s
nephew the manuscript scores of one hundred and five operettas, and from these we finally chose
enough music to last for about half an hour. We then set about creating the new ballet, which we
called Gaîté Parisienne.
Having decided to set the scene in Tortoni’s, a famous café in Paris during the Second Empire, I
contrived a light hearted episode in which a quarrel between a Baron and an Officer over a Flower
Girl involves all the customers, including a visiting Peruvian, a role which I danced myself, making him
an absurd yet sympathetic character who arrives on the scene with the intention of conquering Paris.
Carrying two carpetbags, full of jewellery, I bounded on to the stage with jerky staccato movements
which fitted the music and served to express the naive high spirits of the ebullient salesman. The
Flower Girl and the Glove Seller, conveying admirably the frivolous mood of the whole production,
with its cancan and the final farandole which whirls everyone away, leaving the Peruvian to set off in
search of fresh adventures."