''Zoraiya, the Moorish Girl in Spain'' is a grand

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

in 4 acts/7 scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by

Ludwig Minkus Ludwig Minkus (russian: link=no, Людвиг Минкус), also known as Léon Fyodorovich Minkus (23 March 1826, Vienna – 7 December 1917, Vienna), was a Jewish-Austrian composer of ballet music, a violin virtuoso and teacher. Minkus is no ...

. The ballet was first presented by the

Imperial Ballet The Mariinsky Ballet (russian: Балет Мариинского театра) is the resident classical ballet company of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russ ...

on February 1/13 ( Julian/ Gregorian calendar dates), 1881 at the

Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre The Saint Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre (The Big Stone Theatre of Saint Petersburg, russian: Большой Каменный Театр) was a theatre in Saint Petersburg. It was built in 1783 to Antonio Rinaldi's Neoclassical ...

St. Petersburg, Russia Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Notes

*The ''Grand Pas des toréadors'' that is used in every modern production of Petipa's ''

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of West ...

'' is originally from this ballet and it has been widely believed for many years that the piece was interpolated by the Balletmaster

Alexander Gorsky Alexander Gorsky (August 6, 1871 – 1924), a Russian ballet choreographer and a contemporary of Marius Petipa, is known for restaging Petipa's classical ballets such as ''Swan Lake'', ''Don Quixote'', and ''The Nutcracker''. Gorsky “sought grea ...

into his 1902 restaging of ''Don Quixote'' for the Imperial Ballet. However, this is in fact not the case as the ''Grand Pas des toréadors'' was already in ''Don Quixote'' by the time Gorsky staged his revival because it was found published in the ''Don Quixote'' score in 1882. Therefore, the likelihood is that it was actually Petipa himself who interpolated it into ''Don Quixote''.

References

{{Ballets of Marius Petipa Ballets by Marius Petipa Ballets by Ludwig Minkus 1881 ballet premieres Ballets premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre, Saint Petersburg