Csárdás: Coppélia

There is no good dramatic reason why Swanilda, the heroine of Coppélia, should join her friends in a Hungarian national dance in a street in a village in Poland, where the ballet is set. But no ballet score had ever used this dance before: the novely must have been difficult for Delibes to resist. Besides, Swanilda is angry with her boyfriend Frantz who, she believes, is in love with Coppélia - actually a very life-like doll, though neither of them knows that at this stage - and a csárdás is as good a way of working off excess energy as any other. Like the authentic Hungarian dance, it is in two main sections, one slow and one fast - the first based on a broad swinging melody, the second on a more lively tune that gets quicker and quicker and quicker still before the end.

Gerald Larner ©2003