№ 311/кор. 200th birth anniversary of Marius Petipa (1818–1910), ballet master

Marius Ivanovich Petipa (1818–1910) was a French and Russian principal ballet dancer, pedagogue and choreographer. 

In 1847 Petipa was invited by the Russian authorities to come to Saint Petersburg. He made his début on the stage of the Saint Petersburg Bolshoi (Stone) Theatre. Among his great performances were Lucien in Paquita (1847), Diavolino in Catarina, la Fille du Bandit, Faust in the eponymous ballet (1854), Conrad in Le Corsaire (1858), the dual role of Lord Wilson/Ta-Hor in The Pharaoh’s Daughter (1862).

Starting from 1862, Marius Petipa acted as a ballet master, and as the premier maître de ballet from 1869 till 1903. He staged over 60 his masterworks in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, including The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Le Talisman.

The envelope depicts Marius Petipa’s portrait against a ballet scene from La Bayadère; the main image shows The Sleeping Beauty (1890) at the Imperial Ma-riinsky Theatre.