Raymonda Act III
Before Rudolf Nureyev’s defection to the West, Raymonda was rarely staged outside Russia. Originally choreographed by Marius Petipa in 1898 – the last of his great classics – Raymonda is famous for its exciting blend of dance styles and its complex narrative.
While at the Kirov, Nureyev had both watched and danced in Raymonda multiple times, gaining insights into the production that would later prove invaluable. In January 1962, having only recently arrived in the West, he staged the pas de quatre from Raymonda for performances by a group of fellow dancers in Paris and Cannes.
It was Sir Frederick Ashton—then director of The Royal Ballet—who gave Nureyev his first opportunity to choreograph, when he staged Kingdom of the Shades from Act III of La Bayadère for The Royal Ballet in 1963. In 1964, for his first attempt at staging a full-length classical production, Nureyev was keen to try Raymonda. Sir John Tooley – a senior administrator at the Royal Opera House – wrote that the idea, ‘found no favour with Ashton’. The Royal Ballet was reticent to commission a complex, expensive ballet from a choreographer with so little track record. In an early demonstration of his entrepreneurial spirit, Nureyev persuaded the 1964 Spoleto Festival to commission the ballet, danced by the Royal Ballet Touring Company. With his prodigious recall for steps and movement, he was able to recreate the entire ballet from memory.
Due to the large number of dancers involved, and the complex roles that require the dancers to be superb technicians as well as skilled character actors, staging the full production of Raymonda is a challenge. In 1966, Nureyev decided that the third act of the ballet was compelling enough to be presented on its own.
In The Nureyev Image, Alexander Bland observed that the themes of Raymonda are darker and more Byronic than many other Romantic ballets choreographed in the 19th century. However, Act III provides the ballet with a triumphant happy ending: a forty-minute sequence depicting the lavish wedding celebrations of Raymonda and her fiancé Jean de Brienne, who has just returned from the Crusades and killed his rival suitor, Abderam (sometimes known as Abdulrahkman or the Saracen Chief). The ballet features a grand pas de hongrois, a pas de trois, the pas de quatre in which Nureyev had danced at the Kirov, as well as several solos and a Hungarian folkdance. Nureyev’s love of folk dancing developed in his early years in Russia, and the form remained important to him throughout his life.
With sumptuous Byzantine-inspired sets by Australian designer Barry Kay, the world premiere of Raymonda Act III was performed by the Royal Ballet Touring Company on 7 May 1966 in Helsinki, Finland. Doreen Wells reprised the title role she had danced in the full version of the ballet at the Spoleto Festival, with Keith Rossen as Jean de Brienne. Two months later, it was performed by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House in London. Raymonda Act III entered The Royal Ballet repertoire in 1969 and is still performed today.