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Galina Sergeyevna ULANOVA


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the following cover, and the upcoming fold-out photo selection shows a little 1940 sourvenir of Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova. the item is just slightly larger than a match-book, and probably represented the best the Soviets could do during wartime to honor their most honored artists.

the front cover shows a contemporary portrait of GSU; the back shows the ballerina a Masha in Vainonen's NUTCRACKER.

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the following is the fold-out folio of photos from the 1940 'album' with the cover shown above.

the photos show, left & right, top to bottom the following:

top row: portrait & GSU as Coralie in "Lost Illusions" - probably costumed as LA SYLPHIDE

second row: both are captioned as "Swan" in SWAN LAKE, though one assumes it's actually Odette, they could possibly document GSU in the coryphee role of "Big Swan"

third row: two pictures of GSU as Raymonda, in the 1930s staging that renamed Jean de Brienne as Koloman

fourth row: two views of GSU as Maria in FOUNTAIN OF BAKHCHISARAI

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i have now looked further into my scant info. on LOST ILLUSIONS (zakharov's '36 ballet) and yes the 'sylph' being performed by the lead female character, Coralie, a ballerina instead of an actress in the balzac story that inspired the ballet, is connected to a version of LA SYLPHIDE - not LES sylphides (or CHOPINIANA) as proposed earlier. the journalist (male) character that the ballet's libretto makes into a composer is involved in composing a LA SYLPHIDE score during the course of the ballet's action.

thanks for the correction.

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my most recent post, above, regarding the photo of g.s.ulanova in a sylphidelike role was specially posted to support an earlier one by balletalert member 'coda' wherein she rightly pointed out that my suggestion of CHOPINIANA for ulanova's role in LOST ILLUSIONS was unlikely since the ballerina/character ulanova played in the ballet was most likely based on taglioni and LA SYLPHIDE.

after looking further into this, i confirmed the error suspected by coda.

after preparing the above post i meant to delete my earlier, inaccurate, one, but i goofed and mistakenly deleted coda's informative post, which also explained, in answer to alexandra, the background to 1930s RAYMONDA with its koloman character.

i want to extend my apologies to coda for my clumsy clicking and for deleting her post and to readers of this forum for depriving them of coda's informative commentary.

needless to remark i have no idea how to undelete - i understand it's not possible.

i promise to be more careful in the future.

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Quote: "i have no idea how to undelete".

I personally don't even know how to delete. But this is how it should be.

In my previous posting I attempted to answer Alexandra's question: Why Koloman?

In one of the books about Ulanova we read:

"Aiming to present a correct interpretation of the Middle Ages the authors of libretto V.Vainonen and Y.Slonimsky swapped the likable and unpleasant characters of the story... The noble and sublime music written by Glazunov for Jean de Brienne was accompanying now the movements of the perfidious Koloman turned into a bad guy; on the contrary, the spontaneously violent tunes written for Abderrakhman were called now for portraying the beautiful soul and moral strength of "the captive arab" turned into a good guy."

A curious example of Political Correctness. This is the U.S.S.R. of the 1930s!

Where the photograph of Coralli is concerned it is definitely not "Chopiniana".

Balzac's "Lost Illusion" predated that ballet. More probably it is Sylphide since Maria Taglioni was the prototype for Coralli.

Thank you so much for showing us your treasures, rg.

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i now see, coda, that i too have no idea how to 'delete'!

as i deleted what you posted and left what i meant to delete in the first of my fumblings.

as readers of this thread can again see, coda is the one who pointed out the 'sylphide' connection the ulanova/sylph photo, as opposed to the connection to one of 'sylphides' from fokine's CHOPINIANA.

meanwhile for those who find anything 'odd' about the rejiggering of RAYMONDA noted by coda, you should get a load of the re-vamped SLEEPING BEAUTY detailed in tim scholl's SLEEPING BEAUTY, A LEGEND IN PROGRESS. the sovietizing of this petipa/tchaikovsky classic makes the changes in RAYMONDA seem slight, indeed.

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to illustrate fruther the distinctions between ulanova in the role of the 'sylphide' in LOST ILLUSIONS and the role of one of fokine's 'sylphides' here are two cards from portfolio issued in 1960 to celebrate the ballerina's career.

neither photo-card is dated but both likely date from the late 1930s.

the first is CHOPINIANA and the second LOST ILLUSIONS.

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