Louis Alexandre Mérante (23 July 1828–Courbevoie, 17 July 1887) was a dancer and choreographer, the ''Maître de Ballet'' (First Balletmaster/Chief Choreographer) of the

Paris Opera Ballet The Paris Opera Ballet () is a French ballet company that is an integral part of the Paris Opera. It is the oldest national ballet company, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it. It is still regarded a ...

at the

Salle Le Peletier The Salle Le Peletier or Lepeletier (sometimes referred to as the Salle de la rue Le Peletier or the Opéra Le Peletier) was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and con ...

until its destruction by fire in 1873, and subsequently the first Ballet Master at the company's new

Palais Garnier The (, Garnier Palace), also known as (, Garnier Opera), is a historic 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from 1861 to 1875 at the ...

, which opened in 1875. He is best remembered as the choreographer of

Léo Delibes Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (; 21 February 1836 – 16 January 1891) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer, best known for his ballets and French opera, operas. His works include the ballets ''Coppélia'' (1870) and ''Sylvia (b ...

' '' Sylvia, ou la nymphe de Diane'' (1876). With

Arthur Saint-Léon Arthur Saint-Léon (17 September 1821, in Paris – 2 September 1870) was the '' Maître de Ballet'' of St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet from 1859 until 1869 and is famous for creating the choreography of the ballet '' Coppélia''. Biography He ...

and

Jules Perrot Jules-Joseph Perrot (18 August 181029 August 1892) was a French dancer and choreographer who later became Ballet Master of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. He created some of the most famous ballets of the 19th century including ' ...

, he is one of the three choreographers who defined the French ballet tradition during the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

and the Third Republic according to choreographer

Pierre Lacotte Pierre Lacotte (4 April 1932 – 10 April 2023) was a French ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, and company director. He specialised in the reconstruction of lost choreographies of romantic ballets. Early life Lacotte was born on 4 April 19 ...

Biography

Born in Paris, Mérante was a pupil of

Lucien Petipa Lucien Petipa (22 December 1815 – 7 July 1898) was a French ballet dancer during the Romantic period, and the elder brother to Marius Petipa, the famous ballet master of the Russian Imperial Ballet. He was born in Marseille and died in Versai ...

, with whom he figured on the six-member select jury of the first annual competition for the

Corps de ballet In ballet, the ''corps de ballet'' (; French language, French for "body of the little dance") is the group of ballet dancer, dancers who are not principal dancers or Soloist (ballet), soloists. They are a permanent part of the ballet company and ...

, held on 13 April 1860. The jury included the director of the new ''Conservatoire de danse'', as well as the former ballerina

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 t ...

, its guiding spirit. Following ''Sylvia'' Mérante choreographed ''Le Fandango'', a ballet-pantomime that premiered November 26, 1877 and had as librettists for the mimed action the team of

Henri Meilhac Henri Meilhac (; 23 February 1830 – 6 July 1897) was a prolific French playwright and opera librettist, known for his collaborations with Ludovic Halévy on comic operas with music by Jacques Offenbach. He also wrote occasionally for serious w ...

and

Ludovic Halévy Ludovic Halévy (1 January 1834 – 7 May 1908) was a French people, French author and playwright, known for his collaborations with Henri Meilhac on the libretto, libretti for Georges Bizet's ''Carmen'' and comic operas by Jacques Offenbach, inc ...

, who provided librettos to Offenbach and had recently delivered a libretto on a similarly Spanish theme to

Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', w ...

—''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...

''. His ballet, '' Les Deux Pigeons'', after the fable by

La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

, to music by

André Messager André Charles Prosper Messager (; 30 December 1853 – 24 February 1929) was a French composer, organist, pianist and conductor. His compositions include eight ballets and thirty , opérettes and other stage works, among which his ballet (1 ...

has been revived with new choreography, as a showpiece for the youngest dancers of the

. But other ballets, with a mime libretto whose authors normally shared credit with Mérante, are perhaps an irretrievably lost part of ballet history: ''La Korrigane'', "ballet fantastique" by

François Coppée François Edouard Joachim Coppée (; 26 January 1842 – 23 May 1908) was a French poet and novelist. Biography Coppée was born in Paris to a civil servant. After attending the Lycée Saint-Louis he became a clerk in the ministry of war and wo ...

, choreographed by Mérante; ''Les Jumeaux de Bergame'', "ballet-arlequinade" by

Charles Nuitter Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

and Mérante, to music by Th. de Lajarte, and others, produced season after season for the Opéra Garnier.

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. Degas is e ...

included the figure of Mérante, in an immaculate white suit, with the traditional baton for beating time on the floorboards, in his 1872 painting ''Le foyer de danse''. The painting marked the beginning of Dégas' long infatuation with the ballet, but though he had sketched the individual dancers, and the practice room in the company's old premises in the

, with its great arched mirror, he was not permitted to attend a rehearsal in person. Edgar Degas - The Dance Foyer at the Opera on the rue Le Peletier

Wife (in 1861): the Russian ballerina (Mlle Zina, étoile in 1857-1863), whose father Joseph Richard was a French ballet dancer who had come to Russia in 1823 with his niece (or sister) and her husband

Fernando Sor Fernando Sor (baptised 14 February 1778 – 10 July 1839) was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer of the Classical period (music), late Classical era and Romantic music, early Romantic era. Best known for writing solo classical guitar mu ...

References

External links

''Le Fandango''Concours Annuel du Corps de ballet de l'Opéra
(pdf file; in French)

from ''Ballet Magazine'' August 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Merante, Louis French male ballet dancers French ballet masters Ballet choreographers French choreographers French ballet librettists 1828 births 1887 deaths Louis Merante 19th-century French ballet dancers Paris Opera Ballet étoiles Paris Opera Ballet artistic directors

Biography

See also

References

External links