Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes

Schedule for Cesare Pugni "Esmeralda" (Ballet in two acts) 2013

Composer: Cesare Pugni
Orchestra: The Rakhmaninov Symphony Orchestra

Artistic director and Chief conductor - Alexander Petukhov

Libretto by Jules Perrot after Victor Hugo

La Esmeralda is a ballet, inspired by Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot; with music by Cesare Pugni and design by William Grieve (scenery), D. Sloman (machinery), Mme. Copere (costumes).

It was first presented by the Ballet of her Majesty's Theatre, London on March 9, 1844 with the Ballerina Carlotta Grisi as Esmeralda, Jules Perrot as Gringoire, Arthur Saint-Leon as Phoebus, Adelaide Frassi as Fleur de Lys, and Antoine Louis Coulon as Quasimodo.

Today the ballet is presented in its full-length form only in certain parts of the world; Russia; parts of Eastern Europe; and New Jersey, United States. New Jersey Ballet introduced the full-length version for the first time in the United States in 2004. Outside of Russia, Eastern Europe and New Jersey only excerpts are given - the La Esmeralda Pas de Deux and the Pas de Six, but mostly the Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux is given, which in all actuality is not originally from the ballet (it is often miscredited as having been added by Petipa to his 1886 revival of La Esmeralda).

A second American production of the full ballet was produced in 2011 at The Dance Studio, a small school for dedicated dance students, in Orange, Massachusetts. The production starred two eighteen year old seniors at the school, Bethany Armentrout as Quasimodo and Katie Kenney as Esmeralda using professional choreography from the Bolshoi's most recent production.