The Pharaoh's Daughter
Through his association with Saint-Léon and the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet, Minkus came to the attention of the renowned choreographer Marius Petipa. Petipa arrived in the imperial capital in 1847, where he was engaged as "Premier danseur" to the Imperial Theatres, as well as assistant to the Ballet Master Jules Perrot, who served as "Premier Maître de Ballet" to the company from 1850 to 1859. Petipa was named second "Maître de Ballet" after the success of his grand ballet "The Pharaoh's Daughter", set to the score of the Italian composer Cesare Pugni. Pugni had served as "Ballet Composer of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres " since 1850, a post which was created especially for him when he accompanied Perrot to Russia that same year. By the mid-1860s the composer was nearing the end of his life and prolific career. As the decade drew to a close he became increasingly unreliable due to his severe alcoholism, often putting off composing to the last minute and supplying music of an increasingly poor and banal quality. Saint-Léon and Petipa were becoming extremely frustrated with him, and so began to turn to Minkus.