Sylvia McMakin

Cesare Pugni

Cesare Pugni was born in Genoa, Italy in 1802, and lived until 1870 to create over 100

ballet and opera compositions. Over his lifetime, he fell in and out of popularity creating

beautiful music compositions wherever he went. He composed his first synphonie

before the age of ten and was soon admitted into Milan’s Royal Imperial Conservatory

of Music, which is known today as the Milan Conservatory. He was thirteen at the time

and continued to study there with several famous artists of the time until 1922. After

leaving the conservatory, Pungi started work at La Scala, first as a violinist, then as a

music director. While there he composed several ballets and other compositions such

as the ballet Elerz e Zulnida which is one of the first ballets to be completely composed

by one artist instead of pulling different bits and pieces of music from others and

smashing them together. Pugni was on of the first composers of that time to almost

completely create his own work. Eventually, In 1832, he was appointed Maestro al

Cembalo at La Scala and continued to produce music for a short amount of time.

However, Pugni had a severe alcohol and gambling problem that lead to immense debt

and health problems later on in his life. He was asked to leave La Scala when he was

believed to be using the company’s money to fuel his gambling. He then left Milan in

1834 with his large family to escape his debt and poverty.

Pugni and his family ended up in Paris after he was dismissed from La Scala and

ended up frantically searching for work when he connected up with an old friend and

famous composer Vincenzo Bellini. In the end Pugni stole a composition from Bellini
and sold it to the Teatro di San Carlo in order to feed his family. From then on Pugni

created several compositions for choreographer Louis Henry and the Paris Opéra while

taking and arranging the compositions of others as a copyist from 1836 until 1843. In

1843, Pugni became the Composer of the Ballet Music to Her Majesty’s Theatre and

started working with choreographer Jules Perrot and director Benjamin Lumley. This

collaboration would last a long time and produce many famous ballet compositions

during their time working together. Perrot and Pugni produced Ondine in 1843, La

Esmerelda in 1844, and Catarina otherwise known as ou la fille du bandit in 1846. In

1947, Pugni worked with another choreographer Paul Taglioni who worked for Her

Majesty’s Theater and created the ballets Coralia and Théa in addition to many others.

Jules Perrot was offered the position of Premier Maître de Ballet at the Imperial

Theatres in Russia and left Paris. Pugni followed Perrot to keep creating new ballets

and became the Ballet Composer to the St Petersburg Imperial Theatres. Pugni and

Perrot continued to create new compositions and ballets together but Pugni also began

to work with another choreographer Marius Petipa, a new up-and-coming artist. Their

first collaboration was on a piece called L’Étoile de Granade in 1855. In 1858, Jules

Perrot left Russia and was replaced by Arthur Saint-Leon who also used Pungi’s

compositions frequently.

As the years wore on, Pugni turned again to drinking and gambling. Though

Petipa and Saint-Leon continued to utilize Pugni’s talent, he became unreliable in his

older age. He lead two different households in St. Petersburg, one with his second wife

and their seven children, and one with a different woman with which he had an

additional eight children, and plunged both of them into massive debt. Because of his
unreliability choreographers were less likely to work with Pugni and his debt hole

continued to deepen. Miraculously, Pugni composed the music for Petipa’s The

Pharaoh’s Daughter in 1862 which became very successful. Later, in 1864, Pugni

composed the music for Saint-Leon’s The Little Humpbacked Horse which was met with

the same enthusiasm and successfulness. Unfortunately, these two successes didn’t do

much to help Pugni’s condition. He was still unreliable and continued to gamble. Pugni

composed the music for the ballet Le Roi Candaule in 1868, which would become his

last full length ballet. He died in 1870, at the age of 67. For years after his death, Petipa

continued to stage Pugni’s ballets and compositions in efforts to help the two

impoverished families he left behind.

Though Cesare Pugni’s name is not revered with those of composers such as

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (composer of The Nutcracker) he created many beautiful and

impactful ballets. La Esmerelda and Catarina are two very famous ballets he composed

and are still admired and performed all over the world today.
 Works Cited

Cesare Pugni - ABT, www.abt.org/education/archive/composers/pugni_c.html.

“Category:Pugni, Cesare.” Category:Pugni, Cesare - IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library:

Free Public Domain Sheet Music, imslp.org/wiki/Category:Pugni,_Cesare.

“Cesare Pugni.” Compose Cesare Pugni in St. Petersburg, Russia, www.saint-

petersburg.com/famous-people/cesare-pugni/.

“Cesare Pugni.” The Marius Petipa Society, 3 Sept. 2017, petipasociety.com/cesare-

pugni/.
 Sylvia McMakin

Italian Cesare Pugni

1) Buongiorno, mi chiamo Cesare Pugni.

2) Il mio compleanno è il trentuno di maggio.

3) Ho sessantasette anni.

4) Ho i capelli castani e gli occhi marroni.

5) Sono alto e molto bello ma sono molto disinvolto.

6) Sono un compositore. Sono molto famoso a San Pietroburgo, Parigi, e Milano.

7) Scrivo balletti, opere e composizioni per molti coreografi diversi.

8) Lavoro con un coreografo di Francia si chiama Jules Perrot.

9) Creiamo I famosi ballette La Esmerelda e Catarina.

10) Mi piace giocare molto.

11) Sono Ricco e povero perché gioco.

12) Sono egoista e avido.

13) Mi piace le donne.

14) Ho due famiglie e quindici figli.

15) Mi non piace lavorare.

16) Io suono il violino e uso la musica di violino nelle mie composizioni.

17) Non sono debole, sono brillante!

18) Il mio balletto preferito è La Esmerelda perché io sono bravo.

19) Ho un talento naturale per la composizione.

20) Sono Amaro nell anziano.