About the work
Ballet in three acts with music by Cesare Pugni and choreography by Marius Petipa after Théophile Gautier's novel 'The Romance of the Mummy' (1858), first performed on 30 January 1862 at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St Petersburg with Carolina Rosati as Princess Aspicia.
Plot
An English lord and his servant take shelter from a sandstorm in a pyramid, and after smoking opium the lord dreams himself back into the age of the pharaohs: as Ta-Hor, he saves Princess Aspicia from a lion attack, and the two fall in love. Fleeing a forced marriage to the King of Nubia, Aspicia throws herself into the Nile and is saved by river spirits; the pharaoh finally consents to their union before the lord wakes from his dream.
Cultural significance
The ballet was Petipa's first major success as choreographer of the Imperial Theatres and helped him hold his ground against his rival Arthur Saint-Léon – reportedly created in only six weeks. In 1905 Alexander Gorsky substantially reworked the piece for the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, and in 2000 Pierre Lacotte reconstructed the choreography from Stepanov notation and dancers' recollections.