Interview with Étoiles dancers Élisabeth Platel, Jean Guizerix and Charles Jude about the ballet Raymonda, that they performed in the version restaged in Paris by Rudolf Nureyev in 1983.

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Raymonda in rehearsal - Interview with Élisabeth Platel, Charles Jude, Jean Guizerix

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Interview with Étoiles dancers Élisabeth Platel, Jean Guizerix and Charles Jude about the ballet Raymonda, that they performed in the version restaged in Paris by Rudolf Nureyev in 1983. 

Interview with the Étoile dancers

Élisabeth Platel, Jean Guizerix and Charles Jude about Raymonda

Born on board the Trans-Siberian Railway not far from Lake Baikal, Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993) first learnt traditional folk dancing in Oufa (Bashkiria). He saw his first ballet at the Oufa Opera at the age of seven, however, he did not officially begin training as a dancer until he was fifteen. Two years later, he continued his studies at the Vaganova School in Leningrad during which time he was tutored by dance master Alexander Pushkin from 1955 to 1958. The following year he was accepted into the Corps de ballet of the Kirov Theatre where he soon became a soloist. During one of the troupe’s tours of Western Europe, Nureyev made his debut on the stage of the Palais Garnier on May 15, 1961 for a dress rehearsal of Sleeping Beauty. He would also cause a sensation by performing in the Act featuring the Kingdom of the Shades in La Bayadère three days after seeking political asylum from French customs and immigration officers at Le Bourget Airport on May 16, 1961 after the powers that be at the Kirov had decided to send him back to Moscow without allowing him to continue on the Ballet’s tour to London. As a result, Paris remained a city of great symbolic value for him. He ultimately became the director of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1983 to 1989 after having danced for numerous companies (including the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas and London’s Royal Ballet) and having created Tancrède (Vienna Opera, 1966) and Manfred (Paris Opera, 1979). The Paris Opera Ballet’s repertoire would be enriched by his reinterpretations of Marius Petipa’s choreographic masterpieces. These would include Don Quichotte (1981), Raymonda (1983), Swan Lake (1984), Romeo and Juliet (1984), The Nutcracker (1985), Cinderella (1986), Sleeping Beauty (1989) and La Bayadère (1992). The status accorded a male dancer, which in ballet had been greatly undermined since the 19th century, gained new importance in his works. Nureyev also created a number of contemporary ballets including The Tempest (1984), Bach Suite (1984) and Washington Square (1985). He also offered an extremely diverse contemporary repertoire (Frederick Ashton, Rudi van Dantzig, Roland Petit, Maurice Béjart, George Balanchine, Glen Tetley, Martha Graham, Murray Louis, Jerome Robbins, Bob Wilson, Paul Taylor, Hans van Manen, Lucinda Childs, Twyla Tharp, and William Forsythe). Finally, he began a new tradition at the Paris Opera by naming the new Etoiles on stage at the end of a performance in the presence of the audience. The stage of the Palais Garnier had great significance for him: he would salute his audience there for the last time at the end of a performance of La Bayadère on October 8, 1992. His funeral in January 1993 would also be honoured at the Palais Garnier. Rudolf Nureyev was a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur (1988) and a Commandeur des Arts et Lettres (1992).

Born in Saint Petersburg in 1865, the son of musicians (a violinist father and a pianist mother) and a descendant of the prominent Russian publishing family “the Classical G editions,” Alexander Glazunov showed himself to be a talented child. The young pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov composed his first Symphony at the age of 16, which, when performed immediately (1882) under the direction of Balakirev, thrilled both audiences and critics. A wealthy patron, Belayev, took an interest in Glazunov and organized the Russian Symphony Concerts for him: Glazunov’s works were regularly performed alongside the major compositions of the “Mighty Handful” (Balakirev, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and César Cui).To support his musician friends, Belayev founded a publishing house in Leipzig, the first in history to pay copyright royalties. After composing Stenka Razin (1885), a symphonic poem for large orchestra praised by Paul Dukas, Glazunov collaborated with Rimsky-Korsakov on the orchestration of the opera left unfinished by Borodin, who died in 1887: Prince Igor. Glazunov notably completed the overture. Also dedicating himself to conducting, he was invited to Paris in 1889 for the Exposition Universelle, where he gave several concerts introducing Russian music to the French public, including Delibes, Massenet, Fauré, and Debussy.In Saint Petersburg, the Mariinsky Theatre, where the French choreographer Marius Petipa reigned, was seeking a composer to succeed Tchaikovsky, who had died in 1893. The Director of the Imperial Theatres, Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky, called on Glazunov in 1896 to compose the music for Raymonda. The success of this ballet, premiered in January 1898, encouraged Petipa and Glazunov to continue their collaboration with Les Ruses d’amour (1899) and The Seasons (1900).A professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Glazunov was appointed its director in 1905. He continued composing, producing his 8th Symphony, a violin concerto, two piano concertos, and several string quartets. Invited by Sergei Diaghilev, Glazunov contributed to the activities of the Ballets Russes, orchestrating several piano pieces by Chopin for Les Sylphides (1908) and Schumann’s Carnaval (1910), choreographed by Michel Fokine. During a concert tour across Europe, he decided to settle in France in 1928. Among his works composed in Paris were a saxophone quartet for the Garde Républicaine, an Epic Poem dedicated to the Academy of Fine Arts, and a Fantasy for organ written for Marcel Dupré.Alexander Glazunov died in Paris on March 21, 1936, the very day the Lamoureux Orchestra dedicated a tribute to him. He was buried in the Neuilly cemetery, but in 1972 his remains were transferred to Leningrad.

After winning First Prize at the Paris Conservatoire in 1975, Élisabeth Platel joined the Paris Opera Ballet School. The following year, she was admitted to the Corps de Ballet and was promoted to Première danseuse in 1979. Following her debut performance in Giselle on December 23, 1981, she was named Étoile.

A great performer of the classical repertoire, she was chosen by Rudolf Nureyev—then Director of Dance at the Paris Opera—to create the lead roles in Raymonda (1983), Swan Lake (1984), The Sleeping Beauty (1989), and La Bayadère, his final creation, in 1992. She also participated in numerous additions to the repertoire and was a distinguished interpreter of works by George Balanchine and John Neumeier, while also embracing contemporary creations (including Schéma by Alwin Nikolais, Voluntaries by Glen Tetley, and Before Nightfall by Nils Christe).

In 1998 and 1999, Élisabeth Platel was awarded the Massine and Benois de la Danse Prizes for her entire career and her role as an ambassador of the French school worldwide.

Regularly invited by major international companies and theaters, she danced notably with the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet in Moscow, The Royal Ballet in London, the Hamburg Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, and the Kirov Ballet in Saint Petersburg.

On July 9, 1999, she gave her official farewell performance in La Sylphide, while continuing to perform at the Paris Opera as a guest Étoile (La Bayadère and Raymonda in 2000, A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2001, and the tribute to Rudolf Nureyev in 2003).

For several years, she worked as a guest teacher in France and abroad and as a répétiteur, notably at the Rio de Janeiro Theatre alongside Claude Bessy, where she helped restage Suite en blanc (1996), Daphnis et Chloé (1998), and La Sylphide (1997) alongside Pierre Lacotte. In 2001, she assisted Lacotte in his reconstruction of Paquita at the Palais Garnier. In 2002/2003, she taught at the Paris Opera Ballet School and the following season supervised rehearsals for Noces by Bronislava Nijinska.

At the start of the 2004 season, she succeeded Claude Bessy as Director of the Ballet School. In 2008, she restaged La Sylphide with Manuel Legris in Pierre Lacotte’s version for the Hamburg Ballet and again in 2011 for the Vienna State Opera.

Élisabeth Platel is a Commander of Arts and Letters, an Officer of the Legion of Honor, and a Commander of the National Order of Merit.

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