 The ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.After the extraordinary success of the Italian "Prima Ballerina" Virginia Zucchi's performances in "La Esmeralda" in St Petersburg, Petipa went on to produce some of the finest ballets in his repertoire for Italian ballerinas.One of these great ballets was "The Vestal", which was created for the benefit performance of Elena Cornalba.