51 replies to this topic

[Rosie]

Dr. Coppelius, on Dec 26 2005, 08:56 AM, said:

There are at least two Swan Lake DVD's with Kirov
http://ginza.se/Prod...x?ItemId=126328

http://www.amazon.co...&v=glance&n=130

I really love the first one from 1968 with Yelena Yevteyeva as Odette/Odile, it's a studio production, but be aware that the sound quality is not the best.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for letting me know that:)
Speaking of the Swan lake have u seen the Swan lake where Nathalie dances Odette/Odile and Andres Nordström like the prince Siegfried?

[Helene]

Rosie,

You can use the "Search" button at the top of the page to search for the names of the performers or ballets, to see if anyone has seen or commented on the ballet.  We're a discussion board and not set up for a chat format.

[carbro]

Alexandra, how could you have overlooked this one?

N.B.  I just found this link and don't know how long it will remain active.

[Herman Stevens]

nysusan, on Jul 4 2005, 01:39 AM, said:

Does anyone know what the one the Perm ballet is bringing to NJPAC & Princeton is like?

The current Perm Swan Lake is by Natalia Makarova. It's fairly traditional, except that it's firmly in No Mime Country.

The Perm dvd Swan Lake with Ananiashvili is a different version by Nikolai Boyarchikov, a seventies / eighties choreographer who at some point made a Romeo and Juliet with three or more Juliets on stage just to show us This Could Happen To You Too.

His Swan Lake is not nearly as weird, but it is too bad Ananiashvili wasn't filmed in a better production.

My response to the big question is, by now, NONE. I'd be tempted to vote for the Kirov, because that was the best Swan Lake dancing I have ever seen, three nights in a row. But the Jester drives me crazy. There are too many Swan Lakes (as compared to Raymonda, for instance) and there are too many choreographers with solutions to non-existent problems in Swan Lake.

Maybe it would be a good idea, as Balanchine suggested, to call every single ballet Swan Lake no matter what it really is. That way companies would be absolved of the need to put together lousy Swan Lakes.

[carbro]

carbro, on Apr 9 2006, 11:12 PM, said:

Alexandra, how could you have overlooked this one?

Apologies.  I thought this was a direct link.

To open the file, open "Arts" on the Channels Menu, click "Music and Dance," and "Scene from Swan Lake" is (at least at this writing) the second option on the third panel (11-15).

[drb]

Re: "this one"
Thankfully, Sveta Zakharova left the Mariinsky, for they surely would have dumped Sergeyev's for "this one": ideal for the extensions they made her perform (thank you Bolshoi for letting her become a real ballerina).  It would just have been a matter of finding a Siegfried with a thick enough skull to withstand her pointes!

[fandeballet]

Other than the dreary sets at the end of its run,  ABT's David Blaire production was the one I watched the most.  For me the synthesis of mime and dance in the White Swan Act, was the epitome of classical ballet. For me the only ballet that came close was the Kingdom of the Shades Act in Bayadere, before we got Makarova's production in 1980.

[richard53dog]

fandeballet, on Apr 11 2006, 11:58 AM, said:

Other than the dreary sets at the end of its run,  ABT's David Blaire production was the one I watched the most.  For me the synthesis of mime and dance in the White Swan Act, was the epitome of classical ballet.

Agree with this. And there was NO jester.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          RIchard

[Paul Parish]

I found Perm's version, shown last week here in Berkeley, very satisfying. Especially Ashton's choreographyfor hte corps inact 4, so moving, so intricate, so appropriate, -- and beautifully danced.
THey get the basics right; it's a tragedy.... the young prince enters reading, and walks into hte waves carrying her lifeless body at the end. That's righteous.

There are aspects of the decor I don't like -- SO many characters with long ugly hair. SOme unattractive costumes at court. But the swans are well dressed, and the lakeside scenery is good enough.

The choreographic choices are very fine, mostly (I don't like breaking up the dance of the would-be brides; the rearranging of hte order of act 2 , with hte pas de deux at the end, I didn't like so much but a case could be made for it).

The dancing was sincere, handsome, generous -- which is more htan can be said for most Swan lakes.

Classical and character dancing were both distinguished. in the national dances the Mazurka was especially beautiful.

ANd the pacing was very smart -- Black Swan was truly exhilarating -- the prince was not a glamorous sort of guy, but his DANCING hurried away hte soul. He could absolutely soar. Moiseyeva, the ballerina, I admired a lot -- she's another dancer who's transfigured by the act of dancing (a natural Odile, not at all a natural Odette, too muscular, too strong, but she made a sincere attempt to make you love Odette.... beautiful phrasing, lots of heart).

THere are lots of penny-wise-and-pound-foolish Swan Lakes out there; this one put their resources very much in the right place.

[Lynette H]

Paul Parish, on Apr 12 2006, 03:11 AM, said:

I found Perm's version, shown last week here in Berkeley, very satisfying. Especially Ashton's choreographyfor hte corps inact 4, so moving, so intricate, so appropriate, -- and beautifully danced.

Paul, I'm rather intrigued by this Makarova / Ashton version of Swan Lake as originally done for ENB. I can't find anything about it on the ENB web site, and the earliest ENB Swan Lake production I recall (and there have been many....) was by Raisa Struchkova complete with soviet-style happy ending, which would have been around in the early 90s I think, before the Deane versions.  When was the version you are referring to here made - would it be the 1980s ? Maybe around the same time as ENB took on Ashton's version of Romeo and Juliet ? just curious......

[chiapuris]

I voted for the Mariinsky's Sergeyev version (over POB, ABT, NYCB, and Bolshoi) because of its satisfying 4th act IN SPITE of the happy ending.

PS Haven't seen  Perm's or RB's current version.

[canbelto]

I voted for the POB Nureyev, having just viewed it, because it's classy, traditional, with very satisfying ending, and the solos Nureyev interpolated for Siegfried do not detract from the Petipa/Ivanov structure one bit.

[Paul Parish]

Hey Lynette,

Wish I could say for sure about the date of ENB's --

I think there is a connection with Royal Danish Ballet's Ashton Romeo and Juliet - Peter Schaufuss is the connection (Schaufuss's mother, I THINK, was Ashtons -- original?-- Juliet at the Royal Danish Ballet, where he made his R&J).

MAkarova made her SL when Peter Schaufuss was director of the English National Ballet (he starred in it but was i thought strangely wrong for hte role -- handsome, glamorous, technically brilliant, yes, BUT temperamentally he was cocky, he strutted, which didn't make the Prince plausibly sensitive or melancholy). Leanne Benjamin was fabulous in hte first act pas de quatre. Makarova herself, looking pretty, made a tiny appearance as a serving-girl with a flask of wine. So it must have been not long after her retirement, maybe  ... MAYBE? around hte time she did "On your Toes"?

I expanded what I postred here about Perm into a full-scale rview  for this week's  Dance View Times:
http://www.danceview...g/03/perm2.html
wonder what you'll think.

[rg]

NYPL cat. entry for makarova's swanlake:

Swan lake
Chor: Natalia Makarova after Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa, with additional choreography by Frederick Ashton; mus: Peter Tchaikovsky; scen & projections: Günther Schneider-Siemssen; cos: Dietmar Solt; lighting: David Mohr. First perf: Bradford, Eng., Alhambra Theatre, Apr 12, 1988; London Festival Ballet

[nin one]

I had a VHS of Makarova and Nagy. I watched it so much that it broke. To this day I cannot find that production on DVD, I think it was ~ '75 at the MET? I have searched to no avail, yet I have it burned into my memory as being the single best SL program. Her Odette in this production was solid and confident. However, her 36 fouettes looked a big haggard at the end.

Does anyone know this production?