Although the Italian composer Cesare Pugni (1802 – 1870) is best known as the creator of numerous ballets performed in all the most prestigious theaters of his time, from La Scala in Milan and the Paris Opera to the Royal Opera House in London and the Bolshoi Theatre in Russia, his current popularity is limited to only a few titles, among which La Esmeralda stands out. This three-act, five-scene ballet is inspired by Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris and was originally choreographed by Jules Perrot for the Royal Ballet in London in 1844. Pugni's Esmeralda has only recently become a work performed in its entirety in environments with a more prosperous ballet tradition, and it is mainly known to the general audience for two popular excerpts: La Esmeralda pas de deux and La Esmeralda pas de six.

By finally including Split on the map of such ballet environments, the choreographic duo Vasilij Medvedev and Stanislav Fečo will tell us the story of the beautiful gypsy girl Esmeralda, who marries the poet Pierre Gringoire to save him from the deadly hand of the gypsy king. They choreographed this version of Pugni's Esmeralda in 2018, at the invitation of the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of the ballet master and "father of classical ballet," Marius Petipa.