Organization

Admin

Opéra National de Paris

Choreography by

Choreographer (+2)

Pierre Lacotte

Conductor

Mikhail Agrest

Costume designer

Costume designer (+1)

Luisa Spinatelli

Set designer

Lighting designer

Philippe Albaric

Orchestra

Orchestra of the Paris Opera

Ballet

Paris Opera Ballet

Opéra Bastille

Dancer

Valentine Colasante

Paquita

Marc Moreau

Lucien d'Hervilly

Sae Eun Park

Paul Marque

Hannah O'Neill

Bleuenn Battistoni

Guillaume Diop

Dancer (+1)

Léonore Baulac

Germain Louvet

Héloïse Bourdon

Jérémy-Loup Quer

Roxane Stojanov

Thomas Docquir

Inès McIntosh

Francesco Mura

“When I recreate a ballet, I search for the fragrance of the period”, said dancer and choreographer Pierre Lacotte, who died in 2023. In Paquita, that perfume is the heady scent of Spain, mixed with elegant French fragrances.

In the Valley of the Bulls, near Saragossa occupied by Napoleon’s armies, Paquita, a young gypsy girl, refuses the advances of an aristocrat, Lucien d’Hervilly, because of her modest condition. But when she saves him from a plot hatched by the Spanish governor, she discovers that her origins are far nobler than she thought…

Pierre Lacotte, a lover of the Romantic repertoire, reconstructed Joseph Mazilier’s ballet in 2001. The work had enchanted Théophile Gautier when it premiered at the Paris Opera in 1846 but gradually fell into oblivion despite Marius Petipa’s new version in 1882. With its sumptuous sets and costumes, his Paquita portrays a picturesque Spain combining mime and characterful dances with dazzingly vivacious virtuoso technique.

Photos