Filippo Taglioni

Filippo Taglioni, also called Philippe Taglioni, lived from 5 November 1777 to 11 February 1871. He worked as an Italian dancer and choreographer, and he personally taught his own daughter, the Romantic ballerina Marie Taglioni. His other child, Paul Taglioni, also became a ballet dancer. While August Bournonville’s version is the one most people know today, Taglioni originally choreographed *La Sylphide* in 1832. The ballet premiered on 12 March 1832, and its success made Marie the most celebrated prima ballerina of the Romantic era while elevating Taglioni to the top of his field. Many say that night launched the great Romantic period of dance.

Taglioni was born in Milan to Carlo Taglioni. He trained mainly with Carlo Blasis and Jean-François Coulon. At seventeen, he made his dancing debut in Pisa, performing female roles. After dancing in other Italian cities, he joined the Paris Opera as a dancer at age twenty-two. With Vestris holding strong control there, Taglioni quickly accepted an offer to become a principal dancer and ballet master for the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm.

In Stockholm, he married the dancer Sophie Karsten in 1803. She was the daughter of famous Swedish opera singer Christoffer Christian Karsten and Polish actress Sophie Stebnowska. The couple had two children, Marie and Paul, both of whom became dancers. The family lived in Vienna and Germany for several years, but to avoid the dangers of the Napoleonic wars, Taglioni moved them to Paris. He danced and choreographed across Europe, mainly in Italy, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. Eventually, he took a more permanent role at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna.

Once settled in Vienna, he sent for Marie, who had been studying ballet in Paris. When she arrived, Taglioni was disappointed with her progress and began training her himself. For six months, he made her practice ballet six hours a day using a structured method. He was extremely strict, showing no sympathy for her aching, bleeding toes. He aimed to give her a light, delicate style focused on jumps with ballon and pointe work—something unheard of before. When she was ready, he brought her back to Paris.

After Marie’s professional debut, she became so popular that Taglioni negotiated a six-year contract for the two of them. The triumphant premiere of *La Sylphide* made her the most acclaimed prima ballerina of the Romantic period and him the most renowned choreographer of the day. Because of this success, they traveled widely together, touring Europe and Russia.

As Taglioni aged, he grew eccentric and unpredictable. He eventually lost all of Marie’s carefully saved fortune through unwise speculations. Still, he must be recognized as a pioneer in a ballet style that forever changed the art. He died in Como, Italy, on 5 February 1871, at age ninety-three.

The ballet-going public usually knows *La Sylphide* as choreographed by Danish ballet master August Bournonville. That is the version most familiar today, but it was not the one performed in 1832. The original production premiered at the Paris Opera Ballet’s Salle Le Peletier in 1832, choreographed by Filippo Taglioni to music by Jean Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer, with a libretto by Adolphe Nourrit based on a story by Charles Nodier. Marie Taglioni and Joseph Mazilier danced the leading roles. Bournonville originally wanted to stage the 1832 version in Denmark, but the Paris Opéra demanded too high a price for Schneitzhoeffer’s orchestral parts. So Bournonville created his own version of *La Sylphide* using the same scenario but a new score by Herman Severin Løvenskiold. That production premiered in 1836 with prodigy Lucile Grahn and Bournonville in the main roles. Thanks to the Royal Danish Ballet’s strong tradition, this version is still performed in Denmark today and has been staged worldwide.

In 1972, ballet master Pierre Lacotte revived Taglioni’s original *La Sylphide* for the Paris Opera Ballet, with noted ballerina Ghislaine Thesmar as the Sylph. Schneitzhoeffer’s original score was reconstructed from a manuscript at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Since Taglioni’s original choreography had been lost long ago, Lacotte choreographed the ballet in the style of the period. The Paris Opera Ballet has since released that production on DVD or video twice.