drb Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 After considering it today, I wonder what it would be like to see NYCB do "real" Petipa--that is, the Sergeyev Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake, not a production that Peter Martins has pre-Balanchinized for the dancers' consumption. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Perhaps a view of the "real" Beauty, Mariinsky, courtesy of the Kennedy Center (two and a half minutes), will help give (us) NYCB version fans some food for thought: http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/ind...8&source_type=O Click on Sleeping Beauty. Link to comment
Hans Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 Unfortunately I don't have RealPlayer so I can't watch the excerpt but aren't those pictures of Zakharova terrifying?! Link to comment
drb Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 Unfortunately I don't have RealPlayer so I can't watch the excerpt but aren't those pictures of Zakharova terrifying?! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If you click on Requires Real Player, they'll give it to you for free. I guess you mean the second photo, the "a la Sylvie" position. Link to comment
Hans Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 I would download it, but I'm at work & am not allowed to--I'll do when I'm at home. Yes, I was referring to the second and third photos. Link to comment
GeorgeB fan Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 I like Martins' SLEEPING BEAUTY mainly because it's the only live performance of this ballet I've ever seen. But I do have some problems it. The sets and costumes are beautiful, however they do have a kind of broadwayness to them. They don't truly capture the grandeur and opulence I feel every production is needed for staging SLEEPING BEAUTY. But more importantly the sets take up too much space. The dancers, especially when they are making their entrance seem cramped. Maybe that is the reason Balanchine never staged his own verison, because he knew the State Theater stage wasn't big enough. But my main problem with Martins' production is the fact he compress a four act ballet into a two act production. I don't have a problem with that it's just that I believe he made the cut off at the wrong place. If you are going to compress a four act ballet into two acts it does stand to reason that the end of your first act would come at the end of the original production second act. Which means The Prologue and the Spell would make up the first act and the Vision/Awakening and the Wedding would be the second act. The way Martins currently has it the first act ends after the vision scene which in a way throw off the balance of the ballet. Suddenly the ballet feels rush, especially with the vision scene. It also doesn't truly allow the characterization of the prince to fully develop. He does not have the chance to truly express his loneliness nor his complete enchantment with the vision of Aurora before his off to awake her. To me that's an important development. It's almost as if the Lilac Fairy is standing around and saying, "OK, OK, hurry up Desire stop looking at the vision, the hundred years is almost over and its time for you to come and kiss to break the spell so I can move on to something else!" It doesn't seem to be that important for Desire to love the Aurora as it is for him to simply break the spell. That said I think Peter Martins should be rightly proud of his achievement because the choreography is wonderful - the best he probably ever done! Link to comment
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