Ivan Valberkh Explained

Native Name:Иван Иванович Вальберх
Native Name Lang:ru
Birth Date:14 July 1766
Birth Place:Moscow
Death Place:St Petersburg
Resting Place:Smolensky Cemetery, Saint Petersburg City
Nationality:Russian
Education:Vaganova Ballet Academy
Occupation:Dancer, Teacher, Director
Years Active:1786-1819
Employer:Bolshoi Theatre
Known For:Russia's first native ballet master
Spouse:Sofija Petrovna Walberg (d. 1811)
Children:14

Ivan Ivanovich Valberkh (1766 - 1819) was a Russian ballet master, choreographer and teacher. He was the first native born choreographer and ballet master of Russian nationality. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Russian ballet scene was dominated by him and played a huge role in developing style of Russian ballet.[1] [2]

He was fluent in French, Italian and German and knew history, philosophy and mythology. He performed 36 ballets and translated around 30 French plays.[3] He championed the rights of Russian dancers and resented foreign interference.[4]

History

He was born as Ivan Lesogorov on 14 July 1766 in Moscow, Russian Empire.[5] He is also referred as Waldberg or Lessogorov-Wahlberg or Walberch. His father was a theater tailor and his great-grandfather was a captured Swedish officer who earlier served in the army of Sweden during the reign of King Charles XII and decided to stay in Russia.[6]

He studied at the St Petersburg Ballet School under Gasparo Angiolini and Giuseppe Canziani and graduated in 1786.[7] [8] He published two letters in which he accused the Jean-Georges Noverre of violating the rule of the three unities. In the 1786, he become soloist in court ballet troupe, a position which was almost never awarded to the Russians, at the Bolshoi Theatre in St Petersburg. In 1793, he introduced Prince Alexander Aleksandrovigh Shakhovskoy to theaters.[9]

In 1794, he was appointed to lead the St Petersburg School and promoted to post of ballet inspector to oversee the company.[10] He was the first Russian to head St Petersburg Ballet School.[11] When the ballet school was closed for some time and the students were dismissed, he took some of the most capable students to his home, where they continued their studies. There he taught Eugenia Kolosova and Adam Glushkovsky.In 1795, he made his debut with A Happy Repentance. His ballet 'The New Werther' (1799), based on Goethe, established his reputation as the first Russian to make a contemporary themed ballet. He, probably for the first time in history of ballet, took a recent tragic event as a plot. Between 1794 and 1801, he was a teacher at the St. Petersburg Theatrical School. In 1802, he was sent on a business trip to Paris at public expense to learn advanced ballet. There he criticised French ballet and recognized authorities such as Auguste Vestris and returned back to Russia disappointed. He also worked and taught in Moscow in 1807, 1808, and 1811.

In 1809, his Romeo and Juliet was first ballet to be performed based on a Shakespearean tragedy in Russia.[12] [13] He succeeded Charles Didelot as ballet master of Bolshoi Theatre in St Petersburg after he left in 1811. During the Napoleonic wars, he choreographed many ballets which had patriotic themes. His first patriotic ballet “Love for the Fatherland” was performed 4 days after Battle of Borodino. His patriotic ballets were so inspiring that many people in the audience enlisted in the army.[14] [15]

He married Sofija Petrovna Walberg and had 14 children, including Maria Ivanovna Walberg, with her. He died on 26 July 1819 in St Petersburg.[16]

Philosophy and style

During his time under Gaspero Angiolini, he started preferring pantomime and mastered it. Charles Le Picq was a role model for him. His productions were filled with action which stated the instructive importance of ballet. He embraced the concepts of Noverre's ballet d'action in his ballets to create dramatic elements.[17] [18] In his productions, the pantomime often suppressed the dance. He became attracted to the idea of sentimentalism and its democracy. Valberkh created a new style that was based the traditions of sentimentalism in Russian art. He called his choreographic works “moral ballets”. He also wanted to stop being guided by the tastes of the royal court. He sought to collaborate mainly with Russian composers like Nikolai Sergeevich Titov and Nikolai Alexeyevich Titov.[19]

He incorporated Russian folk dance elements into ballets.[20] [21] In his ballet 'Militia', he invoked folk style, kazachok and khorovod, together with military marches to enhance a drama contrasting merry celebration with impassioned scenes of the militia's departure.[22]

He often took inspiration and based his ballets on literature. His productions mostly repeated European repertoire. His creative work was filled with Russian themed ballets and established a distinctive type of national performance, divertissements which depicted ordinary people's life.[23] [24] [25] He also made ballet on foreign historical personage.[26]

He felt that the center of attention was not a hero with his passions, but a simple man with his feelings. He looked for his heroes among ordinary people and often showed an ordinary person who remained faithful to his convictions despite being in difficult circumstances. His productions had two titles - one told about the main character and the plot while the other directly deduced the moral that triumphed the last act.[27] Many of his ballets had a didactic character.[28]

List of ballets

References

  1. Web site: Ivan Valberkh . 2024-01-19 . Oxford Reference . en . 2024-01-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240120142241/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803115044922 . live .
  2. Web site: History . 2024-01-19 . Russian Dance . en-AU . 2017-06-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170608095906/http://russiandance.weebly.com/history.html . live .
  3. Web site: A Study on Léon Bakst's Stage Costumes for Ballets Russes . 2024-01-20 . 2024-01-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240120142227/https://koreascience.kr/article/JAKO200921752341873.pdf . live .
  4. Web site: Cashin . Kathryn Karrh . Alexander Pushkin's Influence on the Development of Russian Ballet . 2024-01-20 . 2023-11-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231127191603/https://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu%3A182279/datastream/PDF/view . live .
  5. Web site: The First One Hundred Years Of Life Of The St. Petersburg' Ballet School . 2024-01-20 . www.aha.ru . 2019-02-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190211145801/http://www.aha.ru/~vladmo/d_txt2.html . live .
  6. Web site: Galayda . Anna . 2023-08-07 . 10 greatest Russian CHOREOGRAPHERS of all time . 2024-01-19 . Russia Beyond . en-US . 2023-09-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230926151112/https://www.rbth.com/arts/336466-ballet-greatest-russian-choreographers . live .
  7. Web site: HISTORY OF THE MARIINSKY BALLET . 2024-01-19 . www.mariinsky.ru . 2024-01-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240117132817/https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/ballet/history_ballet/ . live .
  8. Web site: Giuseppe Canziani, ballet master in St. Petersburg, Russia . 2024-01-20 . www.saint-petersburg.com . 2022-01-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220127092415/http://www.saint-petersburg.com/famous-people/giuseppe-canziani/ . live .
  9. Malnick . Bertha . 1953 . A. A. Shakhovskoy . live . The Slavonic and East European Review . 32 . 78 . 29–51 . 0037-6795 . 4204508 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240121093301/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4204508 . 2024-01-21 . 2024-01-20.
  10. Web site: Russia and the USSR . 2024-01-19 . Oxford Reference . en . 2024-01-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240120142140/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100434290 . live .
  11. Book: Lee, Carol . Ballet in Western Culture: A History of Its Origins and Evolution . 2002 . Psychology Press . 978-0-415-94257-7 . en . 2024-01-20 . 2024-01-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240121093303/https://books.google.com/books?id=a9Ht2zcHc6wC&dq=Ivan+Valberkh&pg=PA23-IA102#v=onepage&q=Ivan%20Valberkh&f=false . live .
  12. Web site: ARTSEDGE: Romeo and Juliet: Making Connections to the Arts: The Performing Arts . 2024-01-19 . artsedge.kennedy-center.org . 2021-04-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210412163741/https://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/exploring/randj/connections/performing/ballet.html . live .
  13. Web site: Chien . Jane Ann . 2022-05-03 . About Helgi Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet . 2024-01-20 . San Francisco Ballet . en-US . 2023-09-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230928140008/https://www.sfballet.org/discover/backstage/about-helgi-tomassons-romeo-juliet/ . live .
  14. Web site: The Beginnings of Russian Ballet . 2024-01-19 . michaelminn.net . 2021-06-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210617025337/https://michaelminn.net/andros/history/beginnings_of_russian_ballet/index.html . live .
  15. Book: Swift, Mary Grace . VIII. Soulful Flights in Russia . 1974 . Wesleyan University Press . 978-0-8195-7798-6 . English.
  16. Web site: 1763-07-23 . Ivan Ivanovich Lesogorov . 2024-01-24 . geni_family_tree . en-US . 2024-01-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240124131950/https://www.geni.com/people/Ivan-Ivanovich-Lesogorov/6000000049199751821 . live .
  17. Web site: Staging Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in the language of classical ballet . 2024-01-20 . 2024-01-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240120142729/https://rune.une.edu.au/web/bitstream/1959.11/7059/7/open/SOURCE04.pdf . live .
  18. Web site: A Study on the Stage Costume Design in Natalia Goncharova . 2024-01-20 . 2024-01-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240120142652/https://koreascience.kr/article/JAKO201017337338276.pdf . live .
  19. Book: Бахрушин, Юрий . История русского балета. Учебник для вузов . 2017-12-02 . Litres . 978-5-04-093591-8 . ru.
  20. Web site: Birtles . Katie . 2021-01-30 . A short history of how Russia became the epicentre of ballet . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20231112011923/https://www.trafalgar.com/real-word/history-russian-ballet/ . 2023-11-12 . 2024-01-19 . Real Word . en-GB.
  21. Web site: History of ballet in Russia: how it became synonymous with Russian culture TV BRICS, 22.03.23 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230601155109/https://tvbrics.com/en/news/history-of-ballet-in-russia-how-it-became-synonymous-with-russian-culture/ . 2023-06-01 . 2024-01-20 . TV BRICS . en.
  22. Wiley . Roland John . 2015 . Dances in Opera: St. Petersburg . live . Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research . 33 . 2 . 227–257 . 10.3366/drs.2015.0139 . 0264-2875 . 26357866 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211106041809/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26357866 . 2021-11-06 . 2024-01-20.
  23. Web site: Ivan Valberkh . 2024-01-19 . TheFreeDictionary.com . en . 2020-11-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201130141647/https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Ivan+Valberkh . live .
  24. Web site: The Mariinsky Ballet Japan ArtsJapan Arts . 2024-01-19 . Japan Arts . 2022-11-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221124074708/https://www.japanarts.co.jp/en/artist/mariinskyballet/ . live .
  25. Web site: Making of nationalistic dance . 2024-01-20 . 2024-01-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240120142652/https://orb.binghamton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1067&context=dissertation_and_theses . live .
  26. Book: Meisner, Nadine . Marius Petipa: The Emperor's Ballet Master . 2019-05-01 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-065930-1 . en . 2024-01-20 . 2024-01-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240120142755/https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=qNmUDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Ivan+Valberkh&ots=ptlY9BnL-u&sig=V4AJPzayYvxE2v1FkzsdUguZgYk&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Ivan%20Valberkh&f=false#v=onepage&q=Ivan%20Valberkh&f=false . live .
  27. Web site: Иван Иванович Вальберх (Ivan Valberkh) Belcanto.ru . 2024-01-20 . www-belcanto-ru.translate.goog . 2024-01-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240120124451/https://www-belcanto-ru.translate.goog/valberkh.html?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc . live .
  28. Book: Leach . Robert . A History of Russian Theatre . Borovsky . Victor . 1999-11-29 . Cambridge University Press . 978-0-521-43220-7 . en . 2024-01-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240120142820/https://books.google.com/books?id=93kbnItM9_AC&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA82&dq=Ivan+Valberkh&hl=en#v=onepage&q=Ivan%20Valberkh&f=false . 2024-01-20 . live.

Further reading

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ivan Valberkh".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.