Ballets By Marius Petipa - Memoirs and Biographies

Memoirs and Biographies

Below is a listing for further reading on Marius Petipa. To date there is no publication which is currently in print.

• Russian Ballet Master: The Memoirs of Marius Petipa (English) translated by Helen Whittaker/Introduction by Lillian Moore. Out-of-print. NOTE – Petipa's memoirs were first published in 1907 in Russia, and were then published in the west many years later. The current publication is out-of-print, and was released in 1971.
• The Diaries of Marius Petipa translated, edited, and introduction by Lynn Garafola. Published in Studies in Dance History. 3.1 (Spring 1992). Out-of-print. NOTE – this publication includes Petipa's diaries from the last years of his life, beginning in 1903 until 1907. It also includes a complete list of his works for the Imperial Ballet, as well as the dances he staged for the works of the Imperial Opera. It also includes extensive notes for all of the diary entries and the works mentioned.
• Mémoires (French) trans. by Galia Ackerman (fr), Pierre Lorrain (fr). Out-of-print. – Petipa's memoirs in French.
• Memuary Mariusa Petipa solista ego imperatorskogo velichestva i baletmeistera imperatorskikh teatrov (The Memoirs of Marius Petipa, Soloist of His Imperial Majesty and Ballet Master of the Imperial Theatres) (Russian). Out-of-print. NOTE – Petipa's memoirs in Russian as originally published in 1907.
• A Century of Russian Ballet: Documents and Eyewitness Accounts 1810–1910 translated, and written by Roland John Wiley. Out-of-print. NOTE – This book discusses the most important productions presented by the Imperial Ballet from 1810 in the time of Charles Didelot on through until Mikhail Fokine's Le Pavillon d'Armide in 1907. It includes accounts of the company and the Imperial Ballet School as well as discussions of Petipa himself from dancers, composers, and historians.
• Currently the scholar and ballet historian Roland John Wiley is working on a full biography of Marius Petipa.