The star that followed Taglioni and Elssler was Carlotta Grisi, born in a village of Istria and educated in Milan by Perrot. She was a medium between the poetic Taglioni and romantic Elssler. Her favorite ballets were La Peri and Ghiselle (the libretto of the latter by Théophile Gautier and the music by Adolphe Adam). She was excellent in fairy rôles, in which she showed a marvellous conception of imaginary motions and gestures. Her fragile figure was favorable to similar rôles and in these her mimic expressions were superb. She danced in England with success, but somehow failed to arouse the enthusiasm that greeted her contemporary Fanny Cerito. Grisi married her former teacher Perrot, who composed for her many ballets.
Cerito distinguished herself in Ondine and La Vivandière, and was for a long time a favorite of the French audiences. A French critic writes of her: ‘A good many of our readers will probably remember Saint-Léon, the distinguished and popular ballet-master. Originally an eminent violinist, it was out of love for the fairy-like Cerito, whom he married, that he first gave himself up to the enthusiastic study of dancing. Mme. Cerito bewitched the public with her exquisite dancing, while Saint-Léon delighted them with his skill upon the violin and the dignity and distinction of his compositions.’
There were several French, Italian or Austrian ballet dancers who distinguished themselves at home, but none of them succeeded in attracting much the English or American public’s attention. Katty Lanner and Madame Weiss danced with some success in London, and enjoyed a high reputation in Vienna. The characteristics of all the Vienna dancers of this age were their decadent manners and their pretty, plastic poses. Vienna developed more conspicuous operetta dancers than real ballet dancers. Katty Lanner achieved a particular grace and agility in the Le Papillon, by Emma Livry.
Of the French and Italian ballet dancers that appeared during the second half of the nineteenth century most conspicuous are Leontine Beaugrand, Mlle. Subra, Rosetta Mauri, Mlle. Bernay, Mlle. Petipa, and Rita Sangalli. Though local critics praised one or other of these as rivals of Taglioni and Elssler, the fact is they were all either mere acrobatic imitators, decadent impressionists, or conventional figures. The ballet shrinks into a secondary position, as the vogue for opera and orchestral music occupies the foremost attention of the public. Stage dancing degenerates into shows of insignificant meaning. With our best will we can find nothing that would seem worthy of the attention of the French critic who writes of Beaugrand:
‘Before long the public will learn to love this strange profile—so like a frightened bird’s—and criticism will have to reckon with this aspiring talent. She has not yet put forth all her strength. It was not until she appeared in the part of Coppélia that she wholly revealed what was in her, and that the full extent of her grace and poetic feeling was unfolded to the public.’
One season later the expected virtuoso vanishes from the public eye and a new aspirant takes her place. Considering one after the other, one finds little crisp and spontaneous beauty in the steps and gestures of the ballerinas of the last part of the past century. The umbrella-like stiff dress of the classic ballet has only a momentary semi-sensuous appeal. In the long run it becomes unæsthetic and unpractical, since it hides the natural lines of the human body.
CHAPTER XIII
THE BALLET IN SCANDINAVIA
The Danish ballet and Bournoville’s reform; Lucile Grahn, Augusta Nielsen, etc.—Mrs. Elna Jörgen-Jensen; Adeline Genée; the mission of the Danish ballet.