Cesare Pugni

Who was Cesare Pugni?

Cesare Pugni was an Italian composer of ballet music, a pianist and a violinist. In his early career he composed operas, symphonies, and various other forms of orchestral music. Pugni is most noted for the ballets he composed for Her Majesty's Theatre in London, and for the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg.

Cesare Pugni is the most prolific composer of ballet music, having composed close to 100 known original scores for the ballet and adapting or supplementing many other works. He composed a myriad of incidental dances such as divertissements and variations, many of which were added to countless other works.

Of Pugni's original scores for the ballet, he is best known today for Ondine, ou La Naïade,; La Esmeralda; Catarina, ou La Fille du Bandit; The Pharaoh's Daughter; and The Little Humpbacked Horse. Of his incidental dances, etc., he is most noted for the Pas de Six from La Vivandière; the Pas de Quatre; La Carnival de Venise pas de deux; the Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux; and his additional music for the ballet Le Corsaire.