Le Bal Masqué

It is only comparatively recently that the significance of Pierre Gardel in the development of classical ballet has become justly recognised. His spell as principal ballet-master of the Paris Opera stretched over four decades and as many regimes – the reign of Louis XVI, the years of Revolution, the First Empire of Napoleon, and the straitlaced Bourbon Restoration. It might seem perhaps that he was a sort of ‘Vicar of Bray’ character, skillfully adjusting himself to whatever regime was in power, but this would be unfair to a man so dedicated as he was to the service of his art. Of course it was his duty from time to time to arrange celebratory divertissements, but these were, by their very nature, ephemeral and form a miniscule portion of his total output. Rather, he seems to have considered himself, and indeed to be considered by others, to be above political controversy. It was the institution of the Opera, and more particularly the art of ballet, which had there been developed to a position of such eminence under his aegis, that he served. He retained his post of first ballet-master for so long, not only because of his extraordinarily varied skill as a choreographer, but also, and primarily, because no one else could better exercise the authority that the performance of his administrative duties demanded. His stature in the world of his art made him well nigh irreplaceable. Other distinguished choreographers were to follow him, but a full century was to pass before the ballet of the Opera found, in Serge Lifar, another master with anything approaching his authority in the dual post of creator of a repertory and administrative chief. At a time when successful ballets were not treasured as classics when their creators had left the scene, the repertory to which Gardel had largely himself contributed began to wither after his retirement, and by the time, just fourteen years later, when the Romantic ballet reached its apogee in Giselle, his masterpieces existed only in the memories of the older dancers and spectators

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