imp. J. Rigo, Lebref et C. — nypl.com · Public domain
Ozaï; ou l'Insulaire is a two-act ballet-pantomime that premiered at the Paris Opéra on 26 April 1847, with choreography by Jean Coralli, music by Casimir Gide, and costumes by Paul Lormier. It is documented as Coralli's last ballet, following his earlier success Le Diable boiteux, and it starred the Belgian ballerina Adeline Plunkett in the title role.
What is danced
The article does not describe the choreography, steps, or dance vocabulary of the work in any detail. It records the work's genre as 'ballet-pantomime', its authorship, its premiere cast, and a prose synopsis of the plot (a Tahitian maiden, a shipwrecked French sailor, a broken promise of marriage), but gives no information on what was actually danced — no named divertissements, no described pas, no technical or stylistic detail that could be attributed to a specific act or scene.
Context
The premiere date of 1847 places the work at the Paris Opéra in the later phase of the Romantic ballet era, in the years following Giselle (1841) and other Coralli productions; the article itself notes only that it succeeded Le Diable boiteux and was Coralli's final ballet, without further discussion of the broader dance context.
Staging history
The article notes that the musical score by Casimir Gide was later adapted by Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Tolbecque into a quadrille score, indicating the music's afterlife outside the theatre, but it gives no account of revivals, restagings, or later productions of the ballet itself.
How to watch it
Because the source gives no choreographic detail, a viewer or reader has only the plot and production credits to go on: attend to the frame of a shipwreck-and-return narrative typical of the period's exoticist ballet-pantomimes, and to the fact that it was staged as mimed narrative ('pantomime') rather than as a pure divertissement showcase.