Reviving this huge performance is a great challenge, requiring the collective effort of the whole crew of dancers, choreographers, musicians and artists. Burlaka underlined that restoring this performance demanded “enormous assiduity, patience and hard work with research of historical materials including choreography, literature, artistic and musical materials.”

The most difficult part of this work was choreography as “the aesthetics, the amplitude of the movements, actors themselves and their shapes have changed.”

The new production isn’t a precise copy of the original, but was closely based on its forerunner, the one staged by legendary Russian ballet dancer and choreographer Marius Petipa. Unlike the story by Hugo, Esmeralda does not die, and the ending is promised to be a happy one.

All that was dug out of the archives of Moscow’s and St. Petersburg’s museums, theaters and libraries has now been turned into a stunning performance which is ready to be unveiled in the country’s main theater.

It was first presented by the Ballet of her Majesty's Theatre in London on March 9, 1844, with Carlotta Grisi as Esmeralda, Jules Perrot as both Gringoire and the choreographer.

Four years later “Esmeralda” appeared in Russia. The ballet saw great Russian ballerinas of the past take to the stage such as Matilda Kshesinskaya, Olga Spesivtseva, Ekaterina Geltser, and Galina Ulanova.

The new performance will see seasoned soloists of the Bolshoi theater ballet – Maria Aleksandrova, Natalia Osipova, Nina Kaptsova, Ruslan Skvortsov, Aleksandr Volchkov, Dmitry Gudanov among others.