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Carlotta Zambelli

ballet dancer and teacher (1875—1968)

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 25, 2024
Entity authorityQ2939526 ↗
Source-derived summary

Carlotta Zambelli (4 November 1875 – 28 January 1968) was an Italian prima ballerina and ballet teacher. Apart from a year in St. Petersburg, she spent her entire career in Paris.

Early life

Zambelli was born in Milan. When she was seven, Zambelli studied at the ballet school of La Scala under Cesare Carnesecchi Coppini and Adelaide Viganò. In August 1894, she was discovered by Pedro Gailhard, director of the Paris Opera, who took her to Paris together with her friend Clotilde Piodi.

Career

She made her début at the Paris Opera in 1894 with Faust and triumphed the following year in the Hellé divertimento, impressing the Parisians with her Italian technique and her fouettés. When Rosita Mauri retired in 1898, Zambelli took her place, earning the distinction of prima ballerina.

She was the last foreigner to be designated prima ballerina at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg where she was a great success during the year she spent there in 1901 performing the leading roles in Coppélia, Giselle and Paquita. She then returned to Paris where she was the reigning ballerina at the Opéra until her retirement in 1930.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Carlotta Zambelli” as ballet dancer and teacher (1875—1968). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Carlotta, Zambelli and ballet.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1875, 1968, 1894, 1898—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1875-11-04. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Carlotta, Zambelli and ballet providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Carlotta Zambelli”, the useful work is to connect “ballet dancer and teacher (1875—1968)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 25, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q2939526. VIAF identifies the subject as 61815220. The Library of Congress control number is n97859324. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1875, 1968, 1894 and 1898.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Carlotta Zambelli”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Carlotta Zambelli primary sources, Carlotta Zambelli archive and Carlotta research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Carlotta Zambelli”?
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  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Carlotta Zambelli” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.