La Esmerelda - Friendship, Freedom and Fitting In...
- theadventuresofaro
- May 15, 2023
- 4 min read
La Esmeralda is a beautiful and exciting ballet based on the book, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. A story first written by Victor Hugo in 1831, it brings us the incredible characters of the beautiful and intelligent Roma, Esmeralda, her love interest, Phoebus and of course the title character, the hunchback Quasimodo. There are many themes that make this ballet and its story particularly special including the unlikely friendship between Esmeralda and Quasimodo. Two outcasts from society, looking to find their way to be accepted and to overcome bullying by their community.
The history of this ballet is vast and there is surprisingly very little information available about it online when compared to other ballets. That is likely because this full length ballet is rarely ever performed in the U.S. In Victor Hugo's original story and in the ballet, the main antagonist is Archdeacon Claude Frollo who is obsessed with Esmeralda and lets just say is feeling a struggle between his oath to his religious duties and his feelings for her. This struggle has been considered to many in the U.S., which tends to be more religious than Europe, to be unsavory and therefore the ballet is barely performed here except for in small segments which are often used for ballet competitions.
La Esmeralda is about a Romani woman named Esmerelda who falls in love with one of the King's archers, a man named Phoebus who rescues her from Quasimodo who has been sent to abduct her by Claude Frollo. Esmerelda feels sorry for Quasimodo because of his appearance and asks Phoebus not to punish Quasimodo for which he is very grateful. There are several different variations of the ballet but the main plot is that Esmeralda and Quasimodo become friends and much to Claude Frollo's dismay, Phoebus and Esmerelda fall in love. And despite the Archdeacon's efforts to thwart their relationship, all ends well and in an uncommon twist to a ballet plot, the female protagonist lives and and lives happily ever after with her true love.
There are so many lovely interesting bits to this story. When Hugo first wrote it in 1831, Notre Dame cathedral was in ruins and there was a real threat of it being taken down. It was so run down and old and nobody cared about it. But interestingly enough, the popularity of the book saved the famous building from destruction. Also of interest is the fact that Hugo may have based some of his characters on real life people including a carver who was working at Notre Dame at the time who in fact had a hunchback. Soon after the book's publication, Hugo went on to help create an opera which ultimately was not successful, however it laid the groundwork for what would become the ballet only just a few years later. Also interesting to note, Hugo changed many plot points to his own story when creating the opera including giving it the happy ending that we see in the ballet today.
La Esmerelda means Emerald in Spanish. It's originally a Greek work that simply means green gem. And her character is quite interesting in that she represents lightness, joy and freedom which is represented by her profession as a dancer. Hers is one of the only roles where the dancer playing her is actually dancing the part of a dancer. And the choreography is a joyful role full of spins and twirls and even includes a tambourine. Here is a clip of her most famous variation danced by Miko Fogarty at the International Ballet Competition. For Esmeralda, her greatest wish is for her people and for Quasimodo to be accepted by society. And for her to be known not just for her beauty and her dancing but for her intelligence and kindness as well.
There are many themes of friendship and anti-bullying throughout the ballet. And these are themes that we focused on heavily throughout our children's version of the book (currently in preparation for publication) in addition to Esmeralda learning how to be seen as something other than just a pretty face (the archdeacon becomes a public official who wants to be friends and is only angry at Esmeralda because she is different.) Also not fitting in and standing up for yourself are very important lessons here as well. At the end of the story there is a huge festival, the Festival of Fools where Quasimodo is made fun of and Esmerelda jumps on stage and stands up for her friend and uses her dancing to earn the attention and respect from the crowd. There is a lot of female empowerment that runs throughout the ballet and many have argued that though Hugo's books tended to show his female characters enduring very difficult circumstances, his goal was to shine a light on marginalized lives that were being overlooked in society at the time.
Since its premiere on March 9th, 1844 by the Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre in London, La Esmeralda has
gone through many choreographic and cast changes and developed greatly over the last century. But the themes and ideas of the basic human rights we all desire and deserve - friendship, freedom and fitting, remain the same.
You can view the ballet of La Esmeralda in its entirety here on YouTube.
References and Further Reading:
More about the Ballet:
History of La Esmeralda Ballet: https://petipasociety.com/esmeralda/
La Esmeralda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Esmeralda_(ballet)
Famous variation from the ballet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50lAMbJUXfc
The Full Length ballet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znm9vA5iFnc
More to watch, listen to and read:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre-Dame
More about Victor Hugo's role in saving Notre Dame: https://notredamecathedralparis.com/the-hunchback-of-notre-dame/ and https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/paris/articles/how-the-french-author-victor-hugo-saved-notre-dame/
The "Real" Hunchback of Notre Dame: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/notre-dames-real-hunchbac_n_683839
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