The Magic Mirror () is a ballet-féerie in four acts and seven scenes, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa with music by Arseny Koreshchenko. The libretto is based on the 1812 fairy tale Snow White by the Brothers Grimm and the 1833 poem The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights by Alexander Pushkin. The ballet was premièred on the at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.
History
The Magic Mirror was the final ballet to be staged by Petipa and was probably his most controversial. Prince Serge Volkonsky commissioned Petipa to create the ballet in 1902, but soon afterwards, Volkonsky was forced to resign from his position as director after an incident with the Prima Ballerina, Mathilde Kschessinskaya and instead, The Magic Mirror was staged under the direction of Col. Vladimir Teliakovsky, Petipa's bitterest enemy. Teliakovsky was determined to de-throne Petipa from his rank of ballet master and Petipa writes in his memoirs that Teliakovsky would stop at nothing to get rid of him and that he believed it was Teliakovsky's plan to sabotage what was to be his last ballet. The Magic Mirror was given the most appalling staging imaginable with horrific scenery designs and costumes that were unfinished and provoked unanimous laughter.
The Magic Mirror was a complete disaster and was received with whistles, cat-calls and even shouts of "curtain" in subsequent performances after the première. Although it was given two abridged performances in 1904, the ballet never found a permanent place in the Imperial Ballet repertoire. It did, however, find a home in Moscow, where it was staged in a revival by Alexander Gorsky and was performed thirty-six times between 1905 and 1911. Despite the failure of the original production, in all the scathing reviews for The Magic Mirror, including a very notorious one by Sergei Diaghilev, Petipa's choreography is never criticised.
Petipa gives the following account in his memoirs of how he was convinced that the ballet's poor staging was all part of a conspiracy to get rid of him:
Roles and original cast
Libretto
Taken from Roland John Wiley's translation of the original libretto.
ACT 1 – A garden in front of the palace
Scene 1
Gardeners, men and women, are decorating the garden, weaving baskets and preparing garlands for the Queen.
Scene 2
The King and Queen enter with courtly ladies and cavaliers; the Queen is young and beautiful, the King old; he tries to please the Queen. Baskets and garlands are brought to the Queen.
Scene 3
The King orders the lace merchants to be led in, whom he has summoned, together with the lace-makers and workmen of their countries, and also the merchants of old Bohemian crystal and precious stones. Among other objects, there is a beautiful ‘magic’ mirror, which possesses the property of reflecting the most beautiful woman in the entire realm. The Queen, seeing her own reflection, is delighted, much to the joy of the King, who buys the mirror. The Queen, rejoicing, invites the courtiers to dance.
After the Mazurka, the King orders for the mirror to be taken to the Queen's room. The Queen looks into the mirror again, but to her question, “Am I the most beautiful of all?” the mirror reflects the image of the Princess. The Queen is horrified. In the loud distance, trumpets are heard; the Queen is upset.
Scene 4
The Princess and her fiancé, the Prince enters with their retinues. The King is overjoyed. The secret envy of the Queen, who recognises in the Princess's face the image that reflected in the mirror, that is, of the one woman whose beauty exceeds her own.
At the end of the Pas d’action, the Queen, extremely upset, asks the mirror again, “Who is the most beautiful of all?” and once again, the mirror presents the Princess's image in all its beauty. This time the Queen, in a fit of envy and anger, faints. All rush to her assistance.
ACT 2
Scene 1 – A park
At the rise of the curtain, the Queen is on stage, her gaze fixed on the mirror. She says to herself, “As long as the Princess is here, I will not be the most beautiful… she must die!”
Scene 2
The Queen calls for the Princess's nurse and says to her, “Listen carefully to my commands: you will go into the forest with the Princess and you will kill her!” Horrified, the nurse pleads, “Take pity, take pity on the young Princess, whom I love so much!” “No!” answers the Queen, “there shall be no mercy. She must die and you must obey me. If not… you will die…” She hands her a dagger.