Desire's Adagio

[jllaney]

I was wondering if anyone could clarify a little on the history of Desire and additional dances he has in Act II. My frame of reference is The Royal Ballet version where Solymosi dances a slower version of the Sarabande. I think it was a wonderful addition to that production and I love the choreography but I was reading a post about the POB version of SB and a few people had made reference to a 7 minute dance(I think it was Legris on the video) and the reaction seemed generally unfavorable. Is it now or has it always been an acceptable part of the staging to give the prince an additional dance? And if so, what piece of music is used?

Thanks

[carbro]

Isn't that another Nureyev interpolation?

[Natalia]

The Bolshoi Ballet's current version, staged by Yuri Grigorovich, includes a vivid 'entrance dance' for Prince Desire, in the early part of Act II. I read somewhere that the choreography for that particular solo is by Vladimir Vasiliev. I don't recall the exact title of the music but it's the same that is used at the Kirov-Mariinsky for the 'Blind Man's Bluff' segment.

[richard53dog]

Isn't that another Nureyev interpolation?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Carbro ,

I assumed that these are Nureyev interpolations. Actually I like the video of the POB Sleeping Beauty a lot, but the Vision Scene seems all pulled apart by the different solos that Florimund has, particularly the last sequence, diagonally across the stage.

And is it supposed to be a joke that after Florimund wakes Aurora up he's hiding in a cluster of female dancers? Aurora has to pull the group apart to find him, almost like a reverse of Siegfied looking for Odette in all the clusters of Swans in Act 4.

I have to saw though that other than some of the extra Florimund stuff in Act 2, I really like this POB version, I wish they would release it in the US.

Occasionally we come across Chinese bootlegs but they are hit and miss quality wise.

Richard

[Ray Boucher]

On 5/4/2005 at 3:22 PM, jllaney said:

I was wondering if anyone could clarify a little on the history of Desire and additional dances he has in Act II. My frame of reference is The Royal Ballet version where Solymosi dances a slower version of the Sarabande. I think it was a wonderful addition to that production and I love the choreography but I was reading a post about the POB version of SB and a few people had made reference to a 7 minute dance(I think it was Legris on the video) and the reaction seemed generally unfavorable. Is it now or has it always been an acceptable part of the staging to give the prince an additional dance? And if so, what piece of music is used?

Thanks

In the POB version of TSB (the version choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev), the Prince's long dance is actually to the "Entr'acte" (No. 18) that is sometimes cut from Act II, probably indeed because of its length. I like the choreography to the pretty violin music personally but I prefer it when the "Entr'acte" is used either as a musical interlude between the panorama and the last scene of Act II or sometimes, like Peter Wright's version for the Dutch National Ballet, as a pas de deux for Princess Aurora and Prince Désiré at the end of Act II after the former is awoken.

On 5/4/2005 at 7:20 PM, richard53dog said:

Carbro ,

I assumed that these are Nureyev interpolations. Actually I like the video of the POB Sleeping Beauty a lot, but the Vision Scene seems all pulled apart by the different solos that Florimund has, particularly the last sequence, diagonally across the stage.

And is it supposed to be a joke that after Florimund wakes Aurora up he's hiding in a cluster of female dancers? Aurora has to pull the group apart to find him, almost like a reverse of Siegfied looking for Odette in all the clusters of Swans in Act 4.

I have to saw though that other than some of the extra Florimund stuff in Act 2, I really like this POB version, I wish they would release it in the US.

Occasionally we come across Chinese bootlegs but they are hit and miss quality wise.

Richard

Also I don't blame people for thinking it's an interpolation that Nureyev did; the Entr'acte isn't used in every single version and even then some may use it differently. The "Entr'acte" was actually interpolated into Act I of George Balanchine's "Nutcracker" production which can get a little confusing when trying to figure out which song is from what ballet and so forth.

[volcanohunter]

One production I saw used the Entr'acte as a purely musical interlude (curtain down, solo violinist standing in front of it) to represent the hundred years between Acts 1 and 2, instead of an intermission. So unlike the Nureyev production, the mime scene between the Prince and the Lilac Fairy was maintained, and with it some very beautiful music.

1 hour ago, Ray Boucher said:

...like Peter Wright's version for the Dutch National Ballet, as a pas de deux for Princess Aurora and Prince Désiré at the end of Act II after the former is awoken.

Wright asked Ashton to provide the choreography for the "awakening pas de deux" for his production for the Royal Ballet in 1968.

https://rohcollections.org.uk/Production.aspx?production=799

[Ray Boucher]

1 hour ago, volcanohunter said:

One production I saw used the Entr'acte as a purely musical interlude (curtain down, solo violinist standing in front of it) to represent the hundred years between Acts 1 and 2, instead of an intermission. So unlike the Nureyev production, the mime scene between the Prince and the Lilac Fairy was maintained, and with it some very beautiful music.

Wright asked Ashton to provide the choreography for the "awakening pas de deux" for his production for the Royal Ballet in 1968.

https://rohcollections.org.uk/Production.aspx?production=799

Ah, that's interesting to know. I'm surprised they had a solo violinist standing in front of the curtain communicating that idea because I'm used to solo players performing from the orchestra pit, but that is a neat concept. Which production was it?

[volcanohunter]

It was a production by Kirk Peterson.

I suspect the soloist stood on stage so that the audience would have something to watch, rather than zoning out and chatting, or something like that.

All in all, it wasn't a bad idea. It meant that a beautiful piece of music wasn't cut, it allowed for the necessary set and costume changes, and it did convey the idea of the passage of time.