to dance for Aspicia, then he tells her that she must stay. When she hears this, she asks for one wish: to bring her back to land. When the fishermen and Ta-Hor arrive back on land, the Nubian king detains Ta-Hor and brings him back to the Pharaoh's palace to be punished for "kidnapping" the princess. When Aspicia comes back to land, the fishermen bring her back to the palace. She gets there in time to see Ta-Hor sentenced to death by a cobra bite. She explains that if he dies, she dies, and reaches out for the snake to bite her. The Pharaoh pulls her back and grants her permission to marry Ta-Hor, and the Nubian king leaves in a fit of rage, swearing revenge. Everyone starts to celebrate, but as the party reaches its peak, the opium dream ends and Ta-Hor is transformed back into the English lord. As they leave the pyramid, the nobleman looks back at Aspicia's coffin and remembers the love that they shared and still share. History The Pharaoh's Daughter (La Fille du pharaon) was the first multi-act grand ballet Marius Petipa staged during his long career with the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres. The ballet was staged especially for the benefit performance of the Italian ballerina Carolina Rosati, who performed the principal role of the Princess Aspicia. The premiere on was an enormous success, and soon the ballet became the most popular work in the repertoire of the Imperial Ballet. Marius Petipa staged The Pharaoh's Daughter while he was still serving as assistant ballet master to Arthur Saint-Léon, who from 1859 until 1869 served as Premier Maître de Ballet to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres. The success of The Pharaoh's Daughter earned for Petipa the position of second Maître de Ballet, a position he would hold until Saint-Léon's departure from Russia in 1869. The leading role of the Princess Aspicia was Carolina Rosati danced the lead of Aspicia. A leading ballerina for the Imperial Theater, she was close to retirement at the time of the performance. She danced opposite Marius Petipa himself, who portrayed Aspicia's hero and lover, Lord Wilson/Ta-Hor. Marius Petipa was to be appointed second balletmaster to Saint-Leon after this production. The Pharaoh's Daughter had been widely unseen since its premier until Pierre Lacotte's restaging for the Bolshoi Ballet in 2000. He found old staging notes and ballet notation from Petipa's original