Scan by NYPL — https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/09692530-bb8d-0132-fcf9-58d385a7bbd0 · Public domain
L'île des pirates is a four-act ballet-pantomime that premiered at the Paris Opéra on 12 August 1835, choreographed by Louis Henry to a libretto by Adolphe Nourrit. It belongs to the Romantic period of French ballet and was mounted as a major production, with a score assembled from four different composers and sets divided among several designers by act.
What it contains
- Romantic Ballet · The work as a whole — A full-length Paris Opéra ballet-pantomime of 1835 built for star Romantic-era dancers, combining narrative mime (disguise, pursuit, siege) with set dance numbers within an act structure typical of the Romantic ballet stage. Source: "is a French ballet-pantomime created in 1835 and performed during the Romantic period"
- Romantic Ballet — Pas de deux · Act III, the Garden of Women on the Island of Pirates — A discrete pas de deux singled out for separate musical treatment from the rest of the act, the standard formal duet set-piece of Romantic ballet. Source: "the pas de deux in Act III were composed by Luigi Carlini"
What is danced
The article does not describe individual steps or passages of choreography in detail. What it does establish is the formal architecture typical of a grand Romantic-era ballet-pantomime: a scenic frame moving from a coastal villa garden (Act I) to the interior of a ship at sea (Act II) to the 'Garden of Women' on the pirates' island (Act III) to the pirate chief's tent (Act IV), and within that frame a discrete pas de deux singled out in Act III, set to music by Luigi Carlini rather than the house composer Casimir Gide who scored the rest of the work from Act II onward.
Context
The ballet dates from the height of the Romantic ballet vogue at the Paris Opéra, the same institution and years that produced La Sylphide and, shortly after, Giselle. It was created to display Fanny Elssler, one of the era's two dominant ballerinas (alongside Marie Taglioni), in the lead role of Mathilde opposite her sister Thérèse, giving the work a documented place in the star-vehicle culture of 1830s Paris Opéra ballet.
Staging history
The article records only that the role of Mathilde, created by Fanny Elssler, was later taken over at the Paris Opéra by Madame Duvernay and by Pauline Leroux; no later revivals, companies, or restagings outside the Opéra are mentioned.
How to watch it
Nothing of Louis Henry's choreography survives in the source material, so there is no performance tradition to watch against; the work is chiefly of interest as a record of how a Paris Opéra Romantic ballet-pantomime was structured act by act, with pantomime narrative (disguise, pursuit, siege) alternating with set dance numbers such as the Act III pas de deux.
Structure
- Act ISet in the gardens of a coastal villa, with music by Carlini; establishes Mathilde's situation as the pirate's fiancée and the young man's love for her.
- Act IISet aboard the interior of a ship at sea, with music by Gide.
- Act III · Pas de deuxSet in the 'Garden of Women' on the pirates' island; includes a pas de deux composed separately by Carlini.
- Act IVSet in the tent of the Pirate Chief, the culmination of the siege by which the young man tries to reclaim Mathilde.
Structure read from an encyclopaedia article, not from a libretto or score we hold. Confirm against a programme before treating the numbering as authoritative.