1. For the dramatic changes in the organization of the Paris Opéra after the Revolution of 1830, see Guest, Ivor, The Romantic Ballet in Paris, forewords de Valois, Ninette and Moore, Lillian, 2nd ed. rev. (London: Dance Books, 1980), pp. 22–25Google Scholar. In England, nineteenth-century ballet appeared exclusively in a commercial setting. John Ebers, a former ticket agent, assumed the management of the King's Theatre in 1820, an association that ended in bankruptcy in 1827. He was succeeded in 1828 by Pierre Laporte, who, with the exception of the 1832 season, controlled the opera house until his death in 1841, whereupon Benjamin Lumley, in charge of finances since 1836, assumed the theater's management. In the hands of this solicitor/impresario, Her Majesty's (as the King's Theatre had been renamed) entered upon an era of glory. In the 1830s and 1840s, under the management of Alfred Bunn, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane became another important venue for ballet. During the latter part of the nineteenth century up to the eve of World War I, ballet lived on in the music-halls, above all, the Empire and Alhambra. Guest, Ivor, The Romantic Ballet in England: Its Development, Fulfilment and Decline (London: Phoenix House, 1954), pp. 33, 46, 83–87, 128–131Google Scholar; The Empire Ballet (London: Society for Theatre Research, 1962)Google Scholar; “The Alhambra Ballet,” Dance Perspectives, Autumn 1959Google Scholar.

In France, it should be noted, the commercial boulevard stage was the breeding ground for theatrical romanticism. Long before the Paris Opéra's Robert le Diable, usually considered the official point of departure for romantic ballet, spectacular techniques and supernatural effects were commonplace in the melodramas and vaudevilles of the popular theaters. Ballet was an important component of these spectacles. Indeed, it was at théâters like the Theatre de la Porte-Saint-Martin, which maintained a resident troupe and regularly presented new ballets and revivals, that the aerial style of dancing associated with romanticism began to crystallize early in the 1820s. Among the talents associated with the flowering of romantic ballet at the Paris Opéra who gained early experience on the boulevard stage were Jean Coralli, who produced several ballets at the Théâtre de la Gaîté. Guest, , The Romantic Ballet in Paris, pp. 4–5, 13–14, 16Google Scholar, Appendix D, pp. 272–274; Winter, Marian Hannah, The Pre-Romantic Ballet (London: Pitman, 1974), pp. 178–179, 193–197Google Scholar.

2. Some instances of gender swapping prior to the nineteenth century are Marie Salle's appearance as Amour in Handel's Alcina (which Salle choreographed herself) and the three graces impersonated by men in Plathée, Jean-Philippe Rameau's spoof of his own operatic style. The lover in disguise à la Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was a popular conceit that called for cross-dressing. I am grateful to Catherine Turocy for this information. For the response of the London audience to Salle's performance, see Migel, Parmenia, The Ballerinas From the Court of Louis XIV to Pavlova (1972; rpt. New York: Da Capo, 1980), p. 25Google Scholar.

3. Le Constitutionnel, quoted in Guest, , The Romantic Ballet in Paris, p. 1Google Scholar.

4. Les Petits Mystères de l'Opéra, quoted in Guest, , The Romantic Ballet in Paris, p. 25Google Scholar.

5. Bournonville, August, My Theatre Life, trans. McAndrew, Patricia N. (Middletown: Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1979), p. 52Google Scholar.

6. Fanny Cerrito's liaison with the Marqués de Bedmar, Carlotta Grisi's with Prince Radziwill, Fanny Elssler's with the Marquis de La Valette, Pauline Duvernay's with (among others) Valette and Lyne Stephens, and Elisa Scheffer's with the Earl of Pembroke are a few of the romances that dot the ballet chronicle of the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s.

7. For the changes introduced by Dr. Louis Véron at the Paris Opéra after the Revolution of 1830, see Guest, , The Romantic Ballet in Paris, p. 28Google Scholar. Under Ebers, the Green Room built at the Kings's Theatre performed a similar function as the Foyer de la Danse, while at Drury Lane, Bunn allowed the more influential patrons the run of the coulisses. Procuresses of “of the worst type” circulated backstage at Drury Lane, among them the blackmailing beauty specialist known as Madame Rachel. Guest, , The Romantic Ballet in England, pp. 36–37, 113Google Scholar.

8. Migel, , The Ballerinas, p. 218Google Scholar. Married in 1845 (to the chagrin of Cerrito's parents who had hoped for a son-in-law with a fortune or at least a title), the couple broke up in 1851. Shortly thereafter, her liaison with the Marqués de Bedar became public knowledge. When rumors began to circulate in 1844 about Cerrito's impending marriage to Saint-Léon, the ballerina's London admirers, headed by Lord MacDonald, created a public disturbance when Saint-Léon appeared onstage. During one performance, the dancer stopped before their box and with a “sarcastic grin” and an “indescribable gesture” hissed menacingly at Lord Macdonald. The word cochon was heard to leave Saint-Léon's mouth, a gross impertinence coming from a dancer. Saint-Léon's written apology appeared in the Times a few days later. Guest, Ivor, Fanny Cerrito: The Life of a Romantic Ballerina, 2nd ed. rev. (London: Dance Books, 1974), p. 85Google Scholar.

9. “Fanny Elssler in ‘La Tempete’,” in The Romantic Ballet as Seen by Theophile Gautier, trans. Beaumont, Cyril W. (London, 1932; rpt. New York: Arno Press, 1980), p. 16Google Scholar.

10. “Perrot and Carlotta Grisi in ‘Le Zingaro’,” ibid., p. 44.

11. “The Elsslers in ‘La Voliere’,” ibid., p. 24.

12. 2 March 1840, quoted in Guest, , Romantic Ballet, p. 21Google Scholar.

13. Quoted in Guest, Ivor, The Ballet of the Second Empire (Middletown: Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1974), p. 200Google Scholar.

14. “Fanny Elssler,” in Gautier, p. 22Google ScholarPubMed.

15. “The Elsslers in ‘La Volière’,” p. 24.