Jean Coralli

Pauline Duvernay and Joseph Mazilier danced the lovers Léa and Fernando, and the young Viennese ballerina Fanny Elssler, then just beginning her rise to fame, took the role of the fairy Alcine.

Elssler became a true star in Coralli's next work, Le Diable Boiteau (The Lame Devil, 1836), in which she famously performed "La Cachucha," a Spanish dance that she may, in fact, have choreographed herself.

The scenario, written by Théophile Gautier in collaboration with Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, was set to a score by Adolphe Adam, which had been brought to Coralli's attention by Jules Perrot, who was interested in finding a starring vehicle for his protégée Carlotta Grisi.

The "peasant pas de deux" in act 1, set to interpolated music by Friedrich Burgmüller, was performed by Nathalie Fitzjames and Auguste Mabille, and Adèle Dumilâtre danced the demanding role of Myrtha, queen of the wilis, vengeful spirits of dead maidens deceived by their lovers.

[6][7] Gautier and the composer Burgmüller were again Coralli's collaborators in his next ballet, La Péri (1843), a complicated tale of an oriental fairy beloved by a youth who sees her in an opium dream.