Burned Butterfly Emma Livry
Burned Butterfly Emma Livry. Promising career of a French ballerina, one of the last ballerinas of the Romantic ballet era Emma Livry was cut short in November 1862. She was 20 years old… In anticipation of the new ballet productions Taglioni suggested Emma to play a pantomime party of Fenella in the opera “La Muette de Portici”. At the rehearsal, when she was coming to the scene, the lush tunic of her ballet costume caught fire from the gas lamps. The terrified ballerina began rushing across the stage, with a pillar of flame rose above her head. Suffering from terrible burns, Livry died eight months later and was buried in the cemetery of Montmartre. During the farewell ceremony of the poet Theophile Gautier noticed two white butterflies that tirelessly fluttered above the bier. The ballet “Butterfly”, despite its popularity, forever disappeared from the repertoire of the Opera.
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