Biografia   

Emma Bessone is hardly well documented in the usual English-language ballet history books. The International Encyclopedia of Dance has but one mention on the pages of its 6-vol. length. (This refers to Bessone as a guest artist at London's Alhambra Theater, 1885 - 86 & 1888 - 90.) Wiley notes she was a guest in St. Petersburg in 1887 and from 1890 to 1891.
Her '87 St. Petersburg stint included her playing the leading role, Emma, as it turns out, in the Ivanov/Petipa ballet called "The Haarlem Tulip."
Somewhere, perhaps in a footnote by British dance historian Jane Pritchard, Bessone is credited as having danced a newly interpolated solo of Petipa's into 'Giselle.'
According to Wiley's "Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov," Bessone was something of a fouette queen until Legnani superceded her in this area: Emma B. was known for her set of 14 such turns;l Pierina L. then came on the scene with her 32.
One passing ref. to Bessone says her triumph in "Tulip" was a grand one unlike her less successful appearances in "Naiad and Fisherman" (her debut role in St. Pete) and in "Giselle" - where she may or may not have been the first ballerina to dance Petipa's Act 1 solo.
Regardless, here then is an uncaptioned photo of Emma Bessone from St. Petersburg, perhaps dating from the 1880s.


fonte: balletalert.invisionzone.com

Emma Bessone. She was an Italian dancer who trained at La Scala and became prima ballerina for both the Maryinsky and Bolshoi companies in Russia.

fonte: cabinetcardgallery.wordpress.com


(Fortunato Vivante) nel 1887, quarantenne, conosce ad un ballo la danzatrice Emma Bessone, venticinquenne, e se ne innamora: la porta a vivere con sé e nel 1899 la sposa.
fonte: fondoambiente.it