Esmeralda on AllMovie

Cesare Pugni composed the score for the ballet Esmerelda in 1844; it recounts the tale of the eponymous title character, an ill-fated gypsy dancer who engages in a scandalous affair with the hunchback bellringer Quasimodo) -- and who appeared at the center of Victor Hugo's seminal 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Russian stage director Nikolai Boyarchikov mounted a production of this work with the Mussorgsky State Academic Opera and The Ballet Company of St. Petersburg; it arrives on video in the home release Esmerelda. Elvira Khabibullina performs the title role, Andrei Bregvadze appears as Quasimodo, and Aleksei Konstantinov is Claude Frollo, the priest.