Léo Delibes, Coppelia - Swanilde Waltz

The ballet Coppelia, by French romantic author Léo Delibes, was the first work in the history of this musical genre to feature a mechanical doll that comes to life as part of the plot. It is a light and amusing work, despite the fact that its plot is based, albeit loosely, on a rather sinister tale by German composer and writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann (The Sandman), which tells the story of a mysterious inventor, Doctor Coppelius, who has managed to build in his gloomy laboratory a life-size dancing doll, which he will baptize Coppelia. The illusion of reality caused by the scientist's creation captivates Frantz, a peasant who falls in love with the doll, abandoning his girlfriend and beloved in the real world, the beautiful Swanilde.

Léo Delibes
At the time of its composition, Léo Delibes was 32 years old. He had studied at the Paris Conservatory, where he was a student of Adolphe Adams, author of another famous ballet, the peerless Giselle. After graduating, he worked as an organist, choir conductor, and piano accompanist, while also composing operettas without achieving particular brilliance. His fame and recognition came in 1870, with the premiere of Coppelia at the Paris Opera, on May 25 of that year, which was a resounding success.

Léo Delibes (1836 - 1891)

Coppelia and the war

The role of Swanilde was played on that occasion by a child prodigy, 16-year-old Giuseppina Bozzacchi, whose career as a dancer lasted only a few months, as she died of cholera the following year as a result of the epidemic unleashed after the siege of Paris, in the midst of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. The war also prevented a more prolonged enjoyment of the ballet's success, since the performances of the work had to be interrupted. But after the end of the confrontation, Coppelia became one of the most performed and applauded ballets of those years.

On a par with Tchaikovsky

It still is, to this day. According to connoisseurs, the music of Coppelia is on a par with that of Tchaikovsky's ballets, for its soul, color, sensitivity, and abundance of nuances. Coppelia is a ballet in three acts, but the actual story unfolds only in the first and second. And as with the endings of the Russian composer's Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, the third is a set of divertimentos, intended here in Coppelia to celebrate the happy reunion of Swanilde and Frantz. One of the most celebrated pieces is the well-known Swanilde's Waltz.