The Magic Mirror (French: Le Miroir Magique) is a ballet-féerie in four acts and seven scenes, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa with music by Arseny Koreshchenko.

Prince Serge Volkonsky commissioned Petipa to create the ballet in 1902, but soon afterwards, Volkonsky was forced to resign from his position as director after an incident with the Prima Ballerina, Mathilde Kschessinskaya and instead, The Magic Mirror was staged under the direction of Col. Vladimir Teliakovsky, Petipa's bitterest enemy.

The Magic Mirror was given the most appalling staging imaginable with horrific scenery designs and costumes that were unfinished and provoked unanimous laughter.

[1] The Magic Mirror was a complete disaster and was received with whistles, cat-calls and even shouts of "curtain" in subsequent performances after the première.

It did, however, find a home in Moscow, where it was staged in a revival by Alexander Gorsky and was performed thirty-six times between 1905 and 1911.

Despite the failure of the original production, in all the scathing reviews for The Magic Mirror, including a very notorious one by Sergei Diaghilev, Petipa's choreography is never criticised.

[2] Petipa gives the following account in his memoirs of how he was convinced that the ballet's poor staging was all part of a conspiracy to get rid of him:[3] ...

Kschessinskaya took an active part in this intrigue, revenging herself because at the benefit of her late father, I had not greeted him with a speech.Taken from Roland John Wiley's translation of the original libretto.

The secret envy of the Queen, who recognises in the Princess's face the image that reflected in the mirror, that is, of the one woman whose beauty exceeds her own.

Scene 1 – A park At the rise of the curtain, the Queen is on stage, her gaze fixed on the mirror.

The Princess looks around in all directions and says to her, “This forest frightens me; there are no forget-me-nots here; why did you bring me so far from the castle?” “The Queen commanded me,” the nurse answers.

You would not commit such a horrible deed!” “It must be thus,” the nurse answers, weeping and holding the dagger in her hand.

The Princess pleads on her knees, “Take pity on me, on my youth!” The nurse, powerfully moved, throws down the dagger, and embraces her, kisses her, saying, “Stay here, try to get your bearings and find a way out of this horrible forest.” They pray.

Scene 8 After the dryads’ dance, a curtain rises at the back of the stage and in the clear distance; the Queen's shade is seen, wrathfully threatening the Princess's nurse for having spared her.

Then the Queen commands that she herself be dressed in peasant's clothes so that she may realise her own intention, having conceived the idea of giving the princess a poisoned apple.

The gnomes stand in groups and beat time on their anvils, accompanying the Princess during her dance.

After the variations, the Elder of the Gnomes takes the Princess into the hut and advises her not to admit anybody during his absence.

Scene 13 The Queen, dressed as a peasant girl and carrying a basket of apples, appears stealthily and knocks on the door of the hut.

The Queen gloats over her deed and fails to notice that she has dropped her handkerchief; seeing that the gnomes are returning, she runs out.

Scene 3 The sun slowly sets and the moon appears in its place, surrounded by stars.

He tries to orient himself to the forest, looks around, asking himself, “What path must I take to return to the castle?” He climbs the tree; as he does, at the back of the stage, a valley appears; the sky is studded with stars.

The Prince's delight and the pervasive joy The gnome hands the King the handkerchief as material evidence of who gave the Princess the poisoned apple.

A sudden derangement of the Queen's mind, who, in an attack of insanity, tells all what she ordered done and then falls dead.