The Staging of Taglioni’s, Grandmougin’s, and Hansen’s Ballet Die Rebe (1893): Views on Authorship and Posthumous Transmission

Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 10 or Schubert’s Symphony No. 8: These are only some of the most prominent examples of unfinished musical works. How about unfinished works in dance? In May 1893, the Signale für die Musikalische Welt (no. 30) reported at length on the premiere of the three-act ballet Die Rebe at the royal operahouse in Berlin. Besides the composer, Anton Rubinstein, three authors were mentioned: Taglioni, Grandmougin, and Hansen. Yet, it was Emil Graeb, then ballet master in Berlin, who staged it. As the musical journal highlighted, Paul Taglioni, ballet master at the operahouse until 1883, had been dead for nearly ten years by that time. This rises some questions regarding the authorship and transmission of the ballet. What were the various authors’ contributions to the work? Why was the ballet not completed before Taglioni’s death? What resources did Graeb have at his disposal to stage the ballet according to the original idea?These questions are treated with a special focus on Paul Taglioni’s last years of life.

Thierry Jaquemet graduated as a classical dancer from the Zurich University of Arts. Following an international dance career, he completed a Master of Advanced Studies in Arts Management at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences with the support of the Philippe Braunschweig Grant supplied by the International Organization for the Transition of Professional Dancers. He is a member of the Italian Association for Research in Dance and held the 2023/24 Howard D. Rothschild Fellowship in Dance from Harvard University’s Houghton Library for his research project on the “Paul Taglioni Papers in the Harvard Theatre Collection”.