Russia
In 1853 Ludwig Minkus emigrated to St. Petersburg, Russia to serve as conductor of the Serf orchestra of Prince Nikolai Yusupov, a post which Minkus occupied until 1855. That same year, Minkus married Maria Antoinette Schwarz at the Catholic Church of St. Catherine in St. Petersburg. Schwarz was also a native of Austria, born in Vienna in 1838.
From 1856 until 1861 Minkus served as principal violinist in the orchestra of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre, and soon he was given the dual position of both conductor and principal violinist to the Imperial Italian Opera of that theatre. In 1861 Minkus was appointed as Concertmaster to the Bolshoi Theatre, and by 1864 he was promoted to the prestigious position of Inspector of the Imperial Theatre Orchestras in Moscow. At this time Minkus was also working as professor of violin at the newly established Moscow Conservatory.
It was for the private performances at the Yusupov palace that Minkus composed what appears to be his first score for ballet, the mythological L′Union de Thétis et Pélée (The Union of Thetis and Peleus), first performed in 1857. During his association with the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Minkus composed another score for ballet, the one-act Deux jours en Venise (Two Days In Venice), produced in 1862.
Read more about this topic: Ballets By Ludwig Minkus
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