Russia's First National Circus - Revision history

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‎Image Gallery

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‎The Cuzent-Lejarses’ Cirque de Paris

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‎Image Gallery

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‎Image Gallery

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‎Guerra’s Cirque Olympique

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‎The Cirque-Théâtre Impérial

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‎Russia’s First Circus School

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‎The Cirque de Paris in St. Petersburg

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 <Gallery>
 File:Theater_Square,_St._Petersburg.png|Theater Square in 1815
 Image:Alessandro_Guerra_(1838).jpg|Alessandro Guerra (1838)
 Image:Julius_Hager.jpg|Julius W. Hager
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 File:Paul_Cuzent_-_Eybl.png|Paul Cuzent (1845)
 File:Jean_Lejars.jpg|Jean Lejars (1845)
 Image:Baptiste_Loisset.jpg|Baptiste Loisset
 File:Pauline_Cuzent_Buridan.jpg|Pauline Cuzent (c.1845)

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 ===The Cuzent-Lejarses’ Cirque de Paris===
-An equestrian family of considerable talent, the Cuzents (Paul and his sisters, Antoinette, Armantine and Pauline) joined the company of Paris' [[Cirque Olympique (Paris)|Cirque Olympique]], on the Boulevard du Temple, when [[Louis Dejean]] took over the [[The Franconi Dynasty|Franconis]]' circus in 1835. Paul Cuzent (1812-1856) was then twenty-three, and his sisters [[Antoinette Lejars|Antoinette]] and Armantine were already famous for their work on the ''panneau'' in an equestrian act they performed as Les Sœurs Jolibois, using their father’s stage name.
+An equestrian family of considerable talent, the Cuzents (Paul and his sisters, Antoinette, Armantine and Pauline) joined the company of Paris' [[Cirque Olympique (Paris)|Cirque Olympique]], on the Boulevard du Temple, when [[Louis Dejean]] took over the [[The Franconi Dynasty|Franconis]]' circus in 1835. Paul Cuzent (1812-1856) was then twenty-three, and his sisters [[Antoinette Lejars|Antoinette]]&mdash;who was married to Jean Lejars&mdash;and Armantine were already famous for their work on the ''panneau'' in an equestrian act they performed as Les Sœurs Jolibois, using their father’s stage name.
 [[File:Paul_Cuzent_-_Eybl.png|thumb|left|300px|Paul Cuzent]][[Pauline Cuzent|Pauline]], on the other hand, was afflicted with a slight limp that prevented her from following into her sisters’ footsteps. Her brother initially relegated her to the role of musician, and then sent her to a theater company. But Pauline didn't see it that way: She took riding lessons with the "god" of High School dressage, [[François Baucher]], and eventually became the rival of the most celebrated equestrienne of her time, [[Caroline Loyo]].

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 File:Cuzent-Lejars_Poster.jpg|Poster for Cuzent's ''Cirque de Paris'' (1845)
 File:Paul_Cuzent_-_Eybl.png|Paul Cuzent (1845)
-File:Jean_Lejars_-_Goebel.jpg|Jean Lejars (1845)
+File:Jean_Lejars.jpg|Jean Lejars (1845)
 Image:Baptiste_Loisset.jpg|Baptiste Loisset
 File:Pauline_Cuzent_Buridan.jpg|Pauline Cuzent (c.1845)

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 File:Cuzent-Lejars_Poster.jpg|Poster for Cuzent's ''Cirque de Paris'' (1845)
 File:Paul_Cuzent_-_Eybl.png|Paul Cuzent (1845)
 Image:Baptiste_Loisset.jpg|Baptiste Loisset
 File:Pauline_Cuzent_Buridan.jpg|Pauline Cuzent (c.1845)

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 <Gallery>
 File:Theater_Square,_St._Petersburg.png|Theater Square in 1815
 Image:Alessandro_Guerra_(1838).jpg|Alessandro Guerra (1838)
 Image:Julius_Hager.jpg|Julius W. Hager
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 File:Cirque_Saint-Pétersbourg.jpg|Saint Petersburg's Cirque Impérial (1850)
 File:Aleksandr_Guedeonov.jpg|A. M. Guedeonov
 File:Théodore_Rancy.jpg|Théodore Rancy
 File:Gaetano_Ciniselli_(Photo_Podigamasco).png|Gaetano Ciniselli

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 File:Cuzent_-_Jeux_Romains.JPEG|Paul Cuzent
 File:Paul_Cuzent_-_Le_Bien.png|Paul Cuzent (c.1840)
 File:Cirque_Olympique_Russia.jpg|Guerra's Cirque Olympique in St. Petersburg (1845)
 File:Cuzent-Lejars_Poster.jpg|Poster for Cuzent's ''Cirque de Paris'' (1845)

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 [[Image:Alessandro_Guerra_(1838).jpg|Alessandro Guerra (1838)|thumb|right|350px]]The circus that Guerra built in St. Petersburg was a large, rectangular wooden building that looked a little like a hangar, but with a Grecian-style pediment adorned with equestrian scenes, and, above the public entrance, a little portico supported by six pillars. It was not very luxurious, but it was comfortable and well heated (an important detail in St. Petersburg, which the press duly reported) and was well lighted (another aspect vital to the citizens of St. Petersburg, berated as they were by endless winter nights). The stables housed fifty horses, and Guerra also built a coffeehouse adjacent to the circus itself.
-The richness of its costumes (in the Parisian fashion), the talent of its equestrians and, no less importantly, the beauty of its equestriennes guaranteed Guerra's enterprise an immediate success. Furthermore, his company, forty-strong, was particularly brilliant. It included [[Giuseppe Chiarini]], then twenty-two, who would create his own company ten years later and embark into amazing tours around the world; Chiarini, along with Joseph Verdier, performed equestrian scenes in the manner of [[Andrew Ducrow]]. There was also the very talented and celebrated clown acrobat [[Louis Viool|Ludovico (Louis) Viool]], who was not unknown to St. Petersburg since he had already been there with the [[Jacques Tourniaire|Tourniaire Company]] in 1827. Viool was on his way to become an important figure of the Russian circus.
+The richness of its costumes (in the Parisian fashion), the talent of its equestrians and, no less importantly, the beauty of its equestriennes guaranteed Guerra's enterprise an immediate success. Furthermore, his company, forty-strong, was particularly brilliant. It included [[Giuseppe Chiarini]], then twenty-two, who would create his own company ten years later and embark into amazing tours around the world; Chiarini, along with Joseph Verdier, performed equestrian scenes in the manner of [[Andrew Ducrow]]. There was also the very talented and celebrated clown acrobat [[Louis Viool|Ludovico (Louis) Viool]], who was not unknown to St. Petersburg since he had already been there with the [[Jacques Tourniaire|Tourniaire Company]] in 1837. Viool was on his way to become an important figure of the Russian circus.
 Rodolfo Guerra, Alessandro's brother, played opera arias on the flute while standing on the back of a galloping horse. Finally, the great German high-school rider, [[Julius Walter Hager]], rounded this attractive group. Yet the male Russian aristocracy came principally to see the Circus' beautiful Amazons, who were in large supply in Guerra’s company: First, the panneau ballerinas&mdash;Mesdemoiselles Slapashinskaya; Louise Letard, who danced the ''zabadauda'' on her trotting horse; Josefina Guerra, who excelled at jumping over ribbons; and Lezenskaya, who added trick riding to her exhibition. Then, there was the exquisite high-school rider [[Ellen Kremzow]], a favorite of the European equestrian set, who later married the Austrian Count Mensdorff-Pouilly, and was the crown jewel of this bouquet of pretty equestriennes. Maria Leb, Mathilde Baviera, Rosa Nellie, [[Marietta Orsanigo]], and Angelika Hager completed the list.

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 Other attempts, such as ''The Amazons’ Island'', whose theme seemed less dangerous and offered the prospect, if nothing else, of more arousing visions, did not meet with more success. It seems that Cuzent had reached the limits of his competence at the Imperial Circus; his contract with the ''Direction des Théâtres Impériaux'' expired May 20, 1850, and was not renewed. Paul Cuzent and his family left St. Petersburg, but a large fraction of his troupe (among which Ekaterina Fedorova, the Dauvergnes, the Viools and Victor Chabre) chose to stay in the Imperial Circus’ company, where they had the assurance of a steady paycheck and unworried employment.
-===The Cirque-Théâtre Impérial===
+===Le Cirque-Théâtre Impérial===
 [[Image:Palmyre_Annato-1840.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Palmyre Annato]]Eventually, Paul Cuzent’s departure proved catastrophic for the Imperial Circus: Nobody of comparable stature was there to replace him, and the circus passed under the management of Guedeonov, who was essentially a bureaucrat and also took care of the other Imperial theaters, and under the direct supervision of Nikolai I, Autocrat of all Russias, whose attention was evidently held by more consequential matters.

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 ===Russia’s First Circus School===
-[[File:Alberto_Cavos.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Alberto Cavos]]In that year 1847, another Frenchman, the dancer and choreographer Marius Petipa (whose father was also a famous Ballet Master), joined the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, of which he would later become the brilliant Ballet Master&mdash;and with it redefine classical ballet. French influence was strong indeed in St. Petersburg, but the ''Cirque de la Direction des Théâtres Impériaux'' was not only managed by a Frenchman: Its stars came from everywhere safe Russia. As Lenin would do sixty years later, the Czar thought it was due time for the Imperial Circus to have Russian performers within its ranks; and like Lenin, he thought the best way to bring this wish to fruition was to have a school, modeled after these already in existence at the ''Direction des Théâtres Impériaux'' for ballet, drama, and music.
+[[File:Alberto_Cavos.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Alberto Cavos]]In that year 1847, another Frenchman, the dancer and choreographer Marius Petipa (whose belonged to a famous family of dancers and Ballet Masters), joined the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, of which he would later become the brilliant Ballet Master&mdash;and with it redefine classical ballet. French influence was strong indeed in St. Petersburg, but the ''Cirque de la Direction des Théâtres Impériaux'' was not only managed by a Frenchman: Its stars came from everywhere safe Russia. As Lenin would do sixty years later, the Czar thought it was due time for the Imperial Circus to have Russian performers within its ranks; and like Lenin, he thought the best way to bring this wish to fruition was to have a school, modeled after these already in existence at the ''Direction des Théâtres Impériaux'' for ballet, drama, and music.
 Hence Nikolai ordered the creation of the world's very first circus school, which was originally housed in the building of the Imperial Theatre. Acrobatic classes were entrusted to the brothers René and Charles Dauvergne, who at once put into practice the methods that had presided over their own artistic education, and which consisted mainly in using raw force whenever they had trouble providing intelligent answers to their student's problems&mdash;a method that, sadly, has long been favored in traditional circus families.

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 Nonetheless the public soon realized that Mrs. Lejars and the Cuzent sisters were doing tricks that only men could achieve at Guerra's. And there was Paul Cuzent, at his peak at thirty-three, athletic and handsome with his dark looks and bellicose moustache, and his incomparable talent. If that was not enough for Guerra's regulars to swing toward the Cirque de Paris, they could also laugh at the antics of their favorite clown, Louis Viool, who, sensing the change of wind, quickly deserted Guerra and joined the competition. At the Cirque de Paris, Guerra’s regulars could also cheer on the juggler on horseback Jean Chancelet, the acrobatic feats of the brothers René and Jacques Dauvergne, and the young equestrian Jules Lejars&mdash;who was a mere four-year-old.
-Guerra, however, didn't stay hands-tied. One of his sponsors, the Count Orlov, had presented him with 200,000 rubles, no less, to fight the invader, and Guerra used that money to beef-up his company. He called for an old member of his company, [[Gaetano Ciniselli]] (1815-1881), a pupil of [[The Franconi Dynasty|Adolphe Franconi]] and François Baucher, who had learned his trade in Dejean's circuses, which he was happy to leave when they passed into the hands of a new owner, Jules Gallois.(Ciniselli would later become a seminal figure in the history of the Russian circus). There were also the aerial gymnast Charles Price, a future British emulator of [[Jules Léotard|Léotard]] (and who worked, as Léotard would, with his father in tow); and, first and foremost, the ''Diva de la Cravache'', the most illustrious [[Caroline Loyo]].
+Guerra, however, didn't stay hands-tied. One of his sponsors, the Count Orlov, had presented him with 200,000 rubles, no less, to fight the invader, and Guerra used that money to beef-up his company. He called for an old member of his company, [[Gaetano Ciniselli]] (1815-1881), a pupil of [[The Franconi Dynasty|Adolphe Franconi]] and François Baucher, who had learned his trade in Dejean's circuses, which he was happy to leave when, in 1844, they passed into the hands of a new owner, Jules Gallois. (Ciniselli would later become a seminal figure in the history of the Russian circus). There were also the aerial gymnast Charles Price, a future British emulator of [[Jules Léotard|Léotard]] (and who worked, as Léotard would, with his father in tow), and, first and foremost, the ''Diva de la Cravache'', the most illustrious [[Caroline Loyo]], who had also deserted Gallois.
 [[Image:Caroline_Loyo_(Vaux).jpg|thumb|left|350px|Caroline Loyo]]Loyo was the first High School equestrienne to ride sidesaddle. Born in 1816, she had made her debut in 1833 at Paris' Cirque Olympique, then owned by [[The Franconi Dynasty|Laurent Franconi]]. She had an immense talent, deep dark eyes, and looked rather athletic for her time&mdash;a little heavy, some said. But she had been endowed with an extraordinary energy, and also a temper as petrifying in private life as it was in the ring: "She says the horse is to her as a rhyme to the poet, a slave that has only to obey" (Jules Janin in ''Le Journal des Débats'', August 9, 1941).