La Cachucha
La Cachucha. 1840.
Fanny Elssler (b. 1810, Vienna ) was one of the two pre-eminent ballerinas of the Romantic Era. Elssler, performing fiery, rhythmic folk-based dances, was the Dionysian counterpart to the Apollonian, Marie Talglioni, who personified the ethereal Sylph. After captivating audiences in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and London, Elssler embarked on a tour to America in 1840. The audience response in New York City was so overwhelming that Elssler toured the country, extending her stay until the year 1842, enamoring such notables as President Martin Van Buren, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. The music used for her ballets was scored for piano and produced by music publishers in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York, displaying Elssler on the title page, performing one of her exotic dances. This cover shows Elssler performing her most famous dance, "La Cachucha", wearing a flamboyant costume and playing her castanets.
Description: Lithograph, by Eliphalet Brown, Jr.
Location: Cover of sheet music published by Atwill, 201 Broadway, New York City.
Source: Lester S. Levy. Picture the Songs: Lithographs from the Sheet of Nineteenth-Century America, p. 47.
