Ballet pantomime in three acts premiered on 17th January 1879 at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra, Paris

Choreography: Louis Mérante

Music: Olivier Métra

Libretto: Philippe Gille, Arnold Mortier and Louis Mérante

Premiers Rôles

Yedda: Rita Sangalli

Nori: Louis Mérante

Plot

Summary

Acte 1

Entrance to a Japanese hamlet on the borders of a sacred lake, which can be seen in the distance winding among trees and blue mountains. To the right the fringe of a forest, with blocks of granite in the foreground. To the left, the farm of Yedda’s father, with a view of the interior of the house. A little in front of the farm is a small fountain of carved wood, surmounted by a cock with plumage outspread.

Basket-makers and their women are busy plaiting baskets. Near the lake other peasants are threshing rice straw, which is brought to them in armfuls. Still other groups are eating out of dishes of lacquer and porcelain. 

Young girls adorn Yedda’s hut with lanterns and flowers, for this day she is to be betrothed to Nori, a young peasant. Her father invites the peasants to join in the celebration. But where is Yedda? Her friends call her name.

Yedda enters carrying rushes and reeds. The girls turn their backs in pretended ill-humour. She questions them anxiously and they end by smiling and showing her the flower-decked house. She thanks them warmly and seeks her fiancé, who presently appears, carrying a lacquer chest. He runs to Yedda but the villagers restrain him, while the girls similarly hold Yedda. 

The men tell Nori that he must remove the bow from Yedda’s dress without using his hands, when they will leave the lovers to themselves. He adroitly removes the bow with his lips and the villagers depart.

Nori embraces Yedda and shows her the presents he has brought her; among them is a metal mirror. Yedda is delighted with her reflection. Suddenly a trumpet sounds and a stately procession approaches. It is the Mikado and his cousin, a Princess. Tô, the court jester, helps the Mikado to alight from his litter and indicates the rock as a resting place. The Princess goes to speak with her cousin, but the jester quickly steps between them, until the Mikado dismisses him with a tap of his fan. 

The Mikado enquires the reason for the flower-decked house and, on being told, summons Yedda before him. To present her and the Prince is charmed with her beauty. “And she dances beautifully,” adds the jester. Thereupon the Prince asks her to dance. 

Yedda calls her companions and they give several dances.  At the end they offer the Prince baskets of flowers. Nori offers a flower to the Princess who takes instead the bow he had detached from Yedda’s dress. Tô, who loves the Princess himself, plans to make use of the Mikado’s admiration for Yedda, to serve his own interest. 

Yedda, dazzled by all this unaccustomed splendour, becomes filled with envy. To, fathoming her thoughts, tells her that if she has courage she can be the equal of any of the court ladies. She entreats his counsel. 

The jester replies: “At the far end of the lake, at the hour of midnight, the Spirits of the Night assemble at the foot of the tree of life. They are the daughters of the gods who bestow good and evil upon human beings. When the nightingale sings, step on one of the giant leaves which float on the lake, it will carry you to the Spirits.” 

Tô departs and the villagers call to Yedda from the farm. She is about to go when the nightingale begins to sing. She listens and walks slowly towards the lake. Fearfully she steps on to a leaf, which floats away. 

Nori emerges from a hut. He looks for Yedda and sees her form disappear into the night mist. He calls to her in vain. Peasants hurry in with lanterns. Nori is in despair, convinced that Yedda is lost to him for ever.

Acte 2

A romantic misty lakeside, dominated by the tree of life.

As the moon rises the Spirits of the Night appear from rocks, the tall grass, and the branches of the tree of life. 

Sakourada appears and summons her subjects to dance a measure which grows wilder and wilder. A pale figure looms out of the mist; it is Yedda. 

The Spirits watch her leap to the bank and kneel at the foot of the sacred tree. The Queen asks her the reason for her visit. She replies that she desires wealth. “But how would it help you, who are but a peasant?” asks Sakourada.

“Then confer upon me the power to charm,” answers Yedda. 

“So be it,” replies the Queen. 

She and her companions teach Yedda some dance steps which she reproduces so well that they promise her their protection. Sakourada breaks off a branch of the tree of life and gives it to her, saying: 

“This branch will render you rich, powerful, and of surpassing beauty, but with each wish a leaf will wither, and when there are none you will die.” 

The Spirits point out the road to Yedda, who, radiant, sets out for the palace, where she hopes to realise her ambitions.

Acte 3

A hall in the Mikado’s palace. To the left tall square columns, raised on three steps, which lead to the private apartments: in the middle of these columns is a throne. To the right are plants and flowers. The background is formed by immense screens decorated with images of the gods and Japanese heroes. These screens, when raised, reveal the principal street of the capital.

The Mikado is seen surrounded by courtiers, in the midst of whom is seated the Princess. The court dancers vainly strive to interest the bored monarch.

“Is there no woman among those present who pleases you?” enquires To. 

“None,” replies the Prince, “the one I desire is the peasant I saw yesterday. I shall never see her again.” 

“Who can tell,” observes the jester. “Command that we be alone and I will show you the person in your thoughts.” 

At a sign from the Mikado, everyone withdraws, including the Princess. But, before going, she calls the Captain of the Guard, and, showing him the bow she took from Nori, commands him to find the man from whom she took it. 

When the courtiers have departed Tô makes a sign and retires. The flowers part and Yedda enters the room. 

The Prince runs towards her, but she evades him to inspect all the treasures in the room, then she takes the branch and whispers, “I wish him to love me.” The Prince falls on his knees and declares his passion. 

At this moment the Princess returns. Mad with jealousy, she reproaches the Prince and reminds Yedda of the lover who awaits her in her village. The Prince intervenes and declares that he will marry Yedda. In desperation the Princess snatches a dagger from his belt and tries to stab him. But Yedda utters the wish that he may suffer no injury and the dagger breaks in the hands of the Princess; she is about to take to flight when the Captain of the Guard returns with Nori. 

“There is your fiancée” whispers the Princess. Nori remains motionless, stupefied. The Princess goes out. 

Officials enter for the coronation of the Prince, who leaves to dress after bidding Yedda prepare for the ceremony. She is overjoyed at the thought of realising her highest ambitions. Then she perceives Nori whose love she is about to betray. He implores her to go away with him. She is about to surrender to his entreaties when there is a fanfare of trumpets. Her ambition revives and, to strengthen her decision, she expresses the wish that she may forget Nori. A leaf flutters from the magic branch and she departs. 

Tô and the Princess return and ask Nori if he has won back his betrothed. He shakes his head sadly and is about to leave the palace when he decides to hide behind the flowers and see Yedda for the last time. The Princess seeks another instrument for her vengeance. Tô offers to remove Yedda if the Princess will give herself to him. She consents. 

There is a burst of music and the people surge into the palace. The screens are raised to reveal the city prepared for the festival. The imperial procession enters, led by pages disguised as jesters. Tô tells the Princess that he will profit by the resemblance of costumes to stab Yedda without being recognised. 

Jugglers arrive and are performing their tricks when a man runs towards Yedda with an uplifted dagger. But Nori rushes forward and receives the blow intended for her. 

Yedda, horror-stricken, throws herself on her lover’s body. In despair at the dread consequences of her ambition she takes the fatal branch from her sash and snaps it in two. At the same moment she is stricken in her turn. She tries vainly to reach her lover’s body and falls dead in the midst of the splendour for which she has sacrificed her true happiness.

History

Original Production

Yedda is a ballet in three acts choreographed by Louis Mérante to a score by Olivier Métra. The ballet premiered at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra in Paris on 17 January 1879. The libretto was by Philippe Gille, Arnold Mortier and Louis Mérante and the costumes were designed by M Eugène Lacoste. The sets were by M Daran (Acte 1), M J.-B. Lavastre (Acte 2), MM Lavastre Ainé et Carpezat (Acte 3).

Yedda was written for Sangalli’s reappearance in Paris and provided her with opportunities to display her abilities both as danseuse and mime. The setting of the ballet was likely inspired by the success of the Japanese Exhibition in the 1878 Exposition Universelle which had recently been held in Paris.

Lacoste, the costumes designer, keenly studied the articles in the Exhibition, but his main difficulty lay with retaining the Japanese characteristics while avoiding the traditional robe, which was not suited to the demands of classical ballet.

A contemporary review in Le Figaro declared that the third act was the most Japanese in spirit, declaring:

“there were represented Japanese nobles in their splendid robes of ceremony. … No description can render the effect of these masses. The whole effect is genuinely magical. The colours, although very decided in tone, combine in exquisite harmony. There is a modulation of hues which the intensity of gradations renders almost inexplicable.”

The scenery was highly praised, particularly that of the second act, with the same writer of Le Figaro stating:

“[It was] an inspiration at once grandiose and poetic. The sacred lake with its extraordinary perspective, affords the spectator an indescribable emotion; on seeing the silvery waters extending towards, and vanishing among, the mountains, you experience a mysterious sensation of infinity. On the far bank the tree of life extended its gigantic and innumerable branches.”

Métra’s music, on the other hand, was not as well received. The critic of L’Universe Illustré dismissed the score as:

“too fluent, too simple, perhaps we should have preferred more originality and an oriental element which is lacking.”

Sangalli was said to have displayed

“ that rare suppleness and strength, that perfect precision and elegance which we have praised elsewhere; she mimes the last scene in a very dramatic manner. Mlle Marquet is a very beautiful and noble Princess, Rémond plays the Mikado with much grace and feeling, while Cornet, very alert and refined, amusingly makes clear the dual nature of Tô the jester, who passes from jester to lover and vice versa with a captivating alacrity.”

The writer in Le Figaro made note of an amusing incident relating to the first performance. He noted that Sangalli was obsessed with the fear that she might go on without the famous branch from the tree of life which is essential to the action of the third act. At the dress rehearsal, the master of properties had forgotten to return the talisman that she had received in the second act to her for the third act. Such an omission at the première would have proved fatal, for once Sangalli had stepped onstage it would be too late to hand her the branch.

To guard against this, branches by every possible entrance to the stage, while the Sangalli herself kept a stock of branches in her dressing room. Even so, when she was about to make her entrance a dozen voices anxiously enquired if she had her branch.

London Revivals

1904 Revival

In 1903,  Sarah Nicholson was to retire at the end of the season. As it was her final season, management permitted her to request a ballet to be revived for her benefit. She, attracted to the japonaiserie scenario, chose Yedda as the ballet that would be revived. Richard Hague was neither enthusiastic about the score nor the plot, but nevertheless agreed to revive the ballet for Nicholson with musical revisions by Auguste Péchard. 

Péchard was also to retire at the end of the 1903 season, having served as the Official Composer of the Ballet Music to the Royal Opera House since 1888, and as such his final ballet Tristan and Yseult was to première that season, with Nicholson as Yseult. 

However, Nicholson changed her mind and eventually decided that she would prefer The Peri to be revived instead for her benefit. Péchard had already begun revising and supplementing the score for Yedda but abandoned the project, shifting his focus to revising The Peri. As it soon seemed that few revisions would need to be made to The Peri, Péchard resumed work on Yedda, following the plan that had been agreed upon with Hague. 

In 1904, Hague decided to proceed with a revival of Yedda, reviving the ballet for Harriet Linwood and retaining the majority of Péchard’s revisions to the score. 

The ballet was not particularly successful, with the plot deemed lacklustre and the choreography deemed serviceable. However, the sets, costumes and mise-en-scène were praised, with the costume and set designers creating japonaiserie inspired tableaux which proved to be the highlight of the revival.

Rôles

Yedda: Harriet Linwood

Sakourada: Jane Wheaton

Musical Revisions

A new Pizzicato was composed by Péchard for Yedda in the Divertissement des Corbeilles of the first act. Hague decided to move the Pizzicato to the Grand Pas des Esprits of the second act as a variation for Sakourada and instead interpolate a new variation for Yedda in the Divertissement des Corbeilles. The new interpolation was the Pizzicato de Gouroulli from Messager’s score for The Two Pigeons, which had been revived by Hague in 1898. 

The Coda of the Divertissement des Corbeilles was expanded. 

An Andante was composed for the Grand Pas des Esprits of the second act.

Variations for two female sujets and a Variation for Sakourada were added to the Grand Pas des Esprits of the second act. Péchard had originally provided three variations for this pas: one for a female sujet, one for Sakourada and one for Yedda. The sujet’s variation was retained and Sakourada’s original variation became a variation for a second sujet. Sakourada herself received the Pizzicato originally composed for Yedda in the Divertissement des Corbeilles of the first act. The new variation composed for Yedda in this pas would later be interpolated into the Pas d’Action of the 1908 revival of The Fairy of the Forest. 

The Coda of the Grand Pas des Esprits was expanded.

A Coda was composed for the Pas de la Séduction of the third act but was cut by Hague, returning the pas to its original scheme without a Coda.

Résumé des Scènes et Danses

Acte 1

1) Prélude

2) Scène Paysanne

3) Pas Japonais

4) Scène – Entrée de Yedda

5) Scène – Entrée de Nori

6) Pas du Bouquet

7) Scène – Sortie

8) Scène du Miroir

a) Introduction

b) Andantino

c) Variation de Yedda

9) Marche Japonaise

a) Introduction

b) Marche 

10) Scène du Prince et de Yedda

11) Divertissement des Corbeilles

a) Introduction et Andantino 

b) Ballabile

c) Pizzicato de Yedda (Péchard, 1903) – transferred to the Grand Pas des Esprits

d) Variation de Yedda (Variation de Gourouli from the Grand Pas des Tziganes from The Two Pigeons, revived in 1898)

e) Coda (expanded – Péchard, 1903)

12) Scène – Le Présent du Prince

13) Scène – Le Départ du Prince

14) Scène de la Tentation

15) Scène du Rossignol

16) Scène Finale – La Fuite de Yedda

Acte 2

17) Introduction

18) Valse des Esprits

19) Scène – l’Arrivée de Yedda

20) Scène

21) Grand Pas des Esprits

a) Andante (Péchard, 1903)

b) Ballabile des Esprits

c) Variation I (Péchard, 1903)

d) Variation II (Péchard, 1903, originally the Variation de Sakourada)

e) Variation de Sakourada (Péchard, 1903, originally the Pizzicato de Yedda for the Divertissement des Corbeilles)

f) Variation de Yedda (Péchard, 1903)

g) Coda (Valse-Galop) (Pas de Yedda expanded Péchard, 1903) 

22) Scène Finale – Le Talisman

Acte 3

23) Introduction – Le Palais du Mikado

24) Divertissement 

a) Valse des Éventails

b) Valse des Papillons

25) Scène du Mikado

26) Pas de la Séduction

a) Introduction – l’Apparition

b) Andante – La Séduction

c) Variation de Yedda 

d) Coda (Péchard, 1903)

27) Scène – La Rivale

28) Marche et Ballabile

29) Scène – Présentation de Yedda

30) Ballabile des Ballons

a) Valse

b) Galop

31) Scène – La Mort de Nori

32) Scène Finale – Folie et Mort de Yedda