Mathilde Kschessinska - Relationship With Petipa

Relationship With Petipa

Petipa allowed Kschessinskaya to create only a small number of new roles, as he considered Legnani to be the superior ballerina. Although she was able to command top billing in theatre programs or on posters, her efforts to obtain more new roles were thwarted by Petipa, whose authority over the artistic direction of the Imperial Ballet was not challenged by the Emperor himself. Among the few roles Kschessinskaya created were Flora in Le Réveil de Flore (1894) and Columbine in Harlequinade (1900). She also became the first Russian danseuse to master the 32 fouettés of Legnani.

Although Petipa had a great respect for Kschessinskaya as a dancer, he apparently despised her as a person, referring to her in his diaries as " ... that nasty little swine." Even so, he chose her for the lead roles in many of the final revivals of his older masterworks, often devising intricate choreography for her to execute — the shade of Mlada in Mlada (1896), Queen Nisia in Le Roi Candaule (1897), the Goddess Thetis in Les Aventures de Pélée (1897), Aspicia in The Pharaoh's Daughter (1898), the title role in La Esmeralda (1899), and Nikiya in La Bayadère (1900). Such roles became notoriously difficult once Petipa revised them for Kschessinskaya.

In 1899, Prince Serge Wolkonsky became Director of the Imperial Theaters. Although he held the position only until 1902, he achieved a great deal. Sergei Diaghilev was his immediate assistant, and Wolkonsky entrusted him with the publication of the Annual of the Imperial Theaters in 1900. During this period, new names appeared in the theaters, such as painters Alexandre Benois, Konstantin Somov, and Léon Bakst. However, Wolkonsky was forced to send in his resignation after refusing Kschessinskaya's request for a revival of the romantic ballet Catarina.