The Mikhailovsky Theatre is proud to present a new version of the ballet Le Corsaire in memory of the outstanding dancer and choreographer Nikita Dolgushin.

Libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Joseph Mazilier edited by Yury Slonimsky and Pyotr Gusev
Music by Adolphe Adam, Julius Gerber, Léo Delibes, Riccardo Drigo, Evgeny Kornblit, Peter von Oldenburg, Cesare Pugni, Ivan Trubetskoy, Boris Fitinhoff-Schell, Albert Zabel

As Dolgushin used to insist, “Traditions will only be kept alive if they are embraced with ardent hearts and minds.” Our new Corsaire is an opportunity to pay tribute to the artistry of choreographers past, dazzle audiences with modern technical achievements, and imbue the ballet with raw emotion.

We invite you to embark on an incredible journey through exotic lands, breathe in the spicy scents of an eastern bazaar, watch as the pirates fight, and get a glimpse of Seyd Pasha’s harem. In this vibrant ballet, swashbuckling adventures are interwoven with a love story, and colourful character dances alternate with classical ensembles and pas de deux.

The ballet master Pyotr Gusev staged a new version of Le Corsaire for the Maly Theatre Ballet of Leningrad in 1955. This production used a modified version of the original libretto, written by Gusev and the ballet historian Yuri Slonimsky. Gusev called upon the conductor Eugene Kornblit to fashion a new score for his production. Although the ballet master retained the traditional interpolations as handed down from Petipa's Imperial-era productions, he discarded nearly all of Adam's original 1856 score in favor of music fashioned from passages lifted from Adam's 1840 ballet L′Écumeur de mer (The Pirate) and his 1852 opera Si j’étais roi. With this new music, leitmotifs were created for the ballet's main characters.

A new character was also included—known as the slave Ali—a role which evolved out of the Slave who took part in Le Corsaire pas de deux in early Soviet productions of the full-length work at the Mariinsky Theatre.

Gusev's revival premiered on 31 May 1955, and went on to become the most popular version of Le Corsaire in Russia. In 1977 the director of the Kirov Ballet, Oleg Vinogradov, staged Gusev's version for the company, who still retain the production in their repertory. The Novosibirsk Ballet also includes Gusev's version in their repertory. In 2009 the Mikhailovsky Theatre Ballet staged Gusev's version as revised by artistic director of ballet Farouk Ruzimatov.

The Kirov Ballet's staging of Gusev's version of Le Corsaire was given a new production in 1989 for the company's engagement at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. A performance of the new production was filmed that same year at the Mariinsky Theatre with the ballerina Altynai Asylmuratova as Medora, Yevgeny Neff as Conrad, Konstantin Zaklinsky as Isaac Lankendem, Yelena Pankova as Gulnare, and Farouk Ruzimatov as Ali. This film has been released onto DVD/video.