About the work
Ballet in three acts with music by Cesare Pugni, choreographed by Jules Perrot after Victor Hugo's novel 'Notre-Dame de Paris' (1831); first performed on 9 March 1844 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London with Carlotta Grisi in the title role.
Plot
To save the poet Gringoire from the gallows, the dancer Esmeralda marries him, while secretly loving the captain Phoebus. Archdeacon Frollo, obsessed with her, repeatedly tries to force himself upon her and finally has her arrested on a false charge of murdering Phoebus. Her innocence is proven only at the last moment, and Esmeralda is united with Phoebus.
Cultural significance
Marius Petipa reworked the ballet several times at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, most recently in 1899; one of these Russian revisions gave rise to the 'Diana and Actéon' pas de deux, still danced today as a stand-alone gala piece. La Esmeralda is thus one of the few works of the Romantic ballet era to survive beyond Perrot's original within the Russian repertoire.