Balets "Esmeralda"

Victor Hugo's famous novel "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" has served as an inspiration for vivid works of art in various genres. As a ballet, the audience first encountered it in Jules Perrot's choreography – an 1844 production of Esmeralda at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.

In the Latvian National Ballet, it was first performed in 1939 in a version created by ballet master Osvalds Lēmanis. Aivars Leimanis's created Esmeralda will be already the fourth production of this romantic story in the history of Latvian ballet, in which the atmosphere of the Middle Ages will be helped to evoke by Mārtiņš Vilkārsis's scenography and Ilze Vītoliņa's created costumes.

Ballet "Esmeralda" is a simple and powerful story about love and death. The archdeacon of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Claude Frollo, lusts after the beautiful Esmeralda, but the girl's attention is attracted not by the priest, but by the dashing captain Phoebus. The church bell-ringer Quasimodo also has special feelings for Esmeralda. When, driven by jealousy, Frollo wounds Phoebus, Esmeralda is blamed for what happened and faces the death penalty. The only one who will continue to truly love Esmeralda until the end of his life will be the unfortunate Quasimodo.