Ballet "Esmeralda"

Victor Hugo's famous novel "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" has inspired striking works of art in many different genres. As a ballet, audiences first discovered it in Jules Perrot's choreography in the 1844 production Esmeralda at the Royal Theatre in London.

It was first staged at the Latvian National Ballet in 1939 in a version created by ballet master Osvalds Lēmanis. Aivars Leimanis's Esmeralda will be the fourth staging of this romantic story in the history of Latvian ballet, with Mārtiņš Vilkārsis's set design and Ilze Vītoliņa's costumes helping evoke a medieval atmosphere.

The ballet "Esmeralda" is a simple and powerful story of love and death. Claude Frollo, archdeacon of Notre-Dame de Paris, desires the beautiful Esmeralda, but the girl's attention is drawn not to the priest, but to the handsome Captain Phoebus. The church bell-ringer Quasimodo also has special feelings for Esmeralda. When Frollo, consumed by jealousy, 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 is the unfortunate Quasimodo.