Auguste-Anatole Petit, known as Monsieur Anatole (5 March 1789 – 22 May 1857), was a French ballet dancer, master and composer.

Life

Premier danseur A principal dancer (often shortened to principal) is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company. A principal may be male or female. The position is similar to that of '' soloist''; however, p ...

at the

Opéra de Paris The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...

from at least 1814, in 1815 he married the dancer Constance-Hippolyte Gosselin. Travelling to

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

in 1818, Anatole and

Eugène Hus Pierre-Louis Stapleton (17 July 1758 in Brussels – 24 February 1823 in Brussels) was a Franco-Belgian ballet dancer and choreographer. He was also known from around 1759 by the pseudonym Eugène Hus, after his stepfather Jean-Baptiste Hus. Lif ...

revived ''Nina ou la Folle par amour'' (a ballet by

Louis Milon Louis-Jacques-Jessé Milon (18 April 1766 – 26 November 1849)Life dates are according to Babsky 1998, p. 422, who also says that there is some uncertainty: he may have been born in 1765 or 1769, and may have died in 1845. was a French ballet danc ...

first put on in Paris in 1813) at the

Théâtre de la Monnaie The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (french: Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, italic=no, ; nl, Koninklijke Muntschouwburg, italic=no; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National O ...

. Anatole remained premier danseur at the Opéra de Paris until 1822, then (after a nearly 10 year blank in the historical record) he is evidenced as a ballet master at the

Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin is a venerable theatre and opera house at 18, Boulevard Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. History It was first built very rapidly in 1781 under the direction of (1726–1810) to house t ...

, replacing

Jean Coralli Jean Coralli (15 January 1779 – 1 May 1854) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer, best known for collaborating with Jules Perrot in creating ''Giselle'' (1841), the quintessential Romantic ballet of the nineteenth century. Early life ...

when the latter was summoned to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

by imperial decree. Anatole only held this role for half a season before being reappearing in 1836 as a ballet master at the town theatre in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

, before ending his career as a professor at the dance school at the Opéra de Paris.

Works

He wrote only one ballet, ''Le Sicilien ou l'Amour peintre'' (''The Sicilian, or Love the Painter''). This was put on at the Opéra on 11 June 1827, with music originally written by

Fernando Sor Fernando Sor (bapt. 14 Feb. 1778, died 10 July 1839) was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer of the Romantic music, Early Romantic era. Best known for writing solo classical guitar music, he also composed an opera (at the age of 19), thr ...

and completed by Jean Schneitzhoeffer. The main rôles in the production were held by

Albert Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Alber ...

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

and Lise Noblet, and another cast member was

Madame Montessu Pauline-Euphrosine Paul (5 June 1803, in Marseille – 1 August 1877, in Amiens) was a French ballet dancer.Jean-Philippe Van Aelbrouck: Dictionnaire des danseurs: chorégraphes et maîtres de danse à Bruxelles de ... ' She married the dancer La ...

. The work had its first success a month into the run, when

Marie Taglioni Marie Taglioni, Comtesse de Voisins (23 April 1804 – 22 April 1884) was a Swedish-born ballet dancer of the Romantic ballet era partially of Italian descent, a central figure in the history of European dance. She spent most of her life in th ...

and her brother Paul appeared in it, making their débuts.

References

1789 births 1857 deaths Paris Opera Ballet dancers 19th-century French ballet dancers French male ballet dancers {{ballet-bio-stub