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Sergei Vikharev - Other Reconstructions?


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Is he in the works of any other Reconstructions??? I read somewhere that a revival of Swan Lake at the Kirov is in the making, and also that he would like to put togethe his own version of Fille du Pharoan. Also that he would like to do Esmeralda, Talisman. I really hope that the Kirov will re-do Le Corsaire.

Let me know :yahoo:

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Is he in the works of any other Reconstructions??? I read somewhere that a revival of Swan Lake at the Kirov is in the making, and also that he would like to put togethe his own version of Fille du Pharoan.

Where did you read this, Solor? Details, please.

Since his two reconstructions for the Mariinsky Theater, Vikharev has been working mostly in Novossibirsk, where he holds an official position (I need to check the title). For that theater, he has restored the Petipa-after-St. Leon Coppelia and, this season, the one-act Petipa treasure, Flora's Awakening.

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Sorry Natalia took me solong to get back - been working alot :wub:

Im not sure where I read about the Swan Lake revival, but I know that I did indeed read of it somehwre. I shall dig around online and keep all of us ballet-nuts posted! :wink:

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Leaving the gossip aspect of the uncited information aside (I don't know where, but I saw it somewhere), Anybody would have a difficult time reviving Swan Lake from the Stepanov notation. Right off the top would come the Valse Villageoise in the first act. Written descriptions say it was similar to the valse in Sleeping Beauty, with student dancers and step units and little vaudeville-y touches that pleased the groundlings and got the kids back to the school at a decent hour, but nobody notated it. When Sergeyev staged the 4-act version in the west, he used that valse as an entr'acte to Act III. There are other sections of the work that are somewhat sketchy, too.

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The Act One waltz is notated, per se, but the notation is indeed sketchy and consists mostly of groundplans, which indicate the use of tabourets (stools). But enough large-scale Petipa waltzes are notated in enough detail so that, in my opinion, if one studies the others well, the information from them could inform a reconstruction of the Swan Lake waltz. The same situation exists for the mazurka in the ballroom scene. You are right that Swan Lake is definitely not one of the better-notated ballets in the Stepanov collection!

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The Act One waltz is notated, per se, but the notation is indeed sketchy and consists mostly of groundplans, which indicate the use of tabourets (stools). But enough large-scale Petipa waltzes are notated in enough detail so that, in my opinion, if one studies the others well, the information from them could inform a reconstruction of the Swan Lake waltz.

I remember the notator who worked with Dowell on his production of Swan Lake for the Royal Ballet saying exactly that (I apologise; I can't remember her name). She was convinced the waltz could have been reconstructed. In the end Dowell had David Bintley choreograph a new waltz.

Many of the variations in this, the company's current production, were not based on the notation - as had been the case with (nearly) all previous RB productions but were staged by Irina Jacobsen. I seem to recall Dowell saying (in a private conversation) that he felt they reflected Petersburg style more authentically.

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Oh dear. I think a couple generations in the ballet world still do not make the distinction between the Imperial era in Russian ballet and the post-Revolution Vaganova era. I am certain there are varying reasons for this. And that would be a whole new thread (and maybe a Pandora's box)!

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Oh dear.  I think a couple generations in the ballet world still do not make the distinction between the Imperial era in Russian ballet and the post-Revolution Vaganova era.  I am certain there are varying reasons for this.  And that would be a whole new thread (and maybe a Pandora's box)!

I made that mistake because I had been told wrongly that Vaganova documented Russian ballet technique from the Imperial era, and that her actual teaching evolved from that point in a different direction than Balanchine's.

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Nope, both Vaganova and Balanchine came out of the era of the Legat Ascendancy, with Vaganova having begun her training in the Petipa-Johannson-Ivanov period. Legat had his own ideas about teaching ballet, and modified, not mimicked the earlier Imperial style. And of course, Vaganova and Balanchine also had their own ideas, and so further modified things. They're related, but not joined at the hip.

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