Beautiful death.

[Dr. Coppelius]

It takes Natalya Bessmertnova as Anastacia, almost 5 minutes to die in "Ivan the terrible"

"The dying swan" is also a long and beautiful death scene.

Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet" also take some time to die (not so beautiful).

Are there any more long or beautiful or otherwise remarkable death scenes in other ballets?

[Alexandra]

Interested in short, beautiful deaths? Ulanova's in "The Fountains of Basishirai." About a minute, but very moving.

[Hans]

Fracci as the sylph on the Bruhn/Nureyev Bell Telephone Hour DVD. It moves me to tears every time.

Did anyone see Lynn Seymour do MacMillan's R&J?

[rg]

not too much off topic i trust, but over the years in his reviews of giselle performances, clive barnes has often noted the notion of giselle's dying a 'prettydeath' - when asked, he told me it was from gauthier but i've never been able to find where gauthier said this phrase.

does anyone know where it's published?

[Mme. Hermine]

Traviata!

[Mel Johnson]

not too much off topic i trust, but over the years in his reviews of giselle performances, clive barnes has often noted the notion of giselle's dying a 'prettydeath' - when asked, he told me it was from gauthier but i've never been able to find where gauthier said this phrase.

does anyone know where it's published?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The concept of the "beautiful death" goes back a couple of millennia before Gauthier, into ancient Greece. But Gauthier and his contemporaries borrowed the concept and utilized it in their writings, notably in "La Morte Amoreuse" and Le Roman de la Momie. Actually, in these works, the theme is not so much the beautiful death, but the beautiful UNdeath, having a lot to do with vampirism and spirit possession. Thus, perhaps a little overflow into Giselle.

[Mme. Hermine]

I love purple prose! From La Morte Amoureuse:

*************

"For some time the health of Clarimonde had not been so good as usual; her complexion grew paler day by day. The physicians who were summoned could not comprehend the nature of her malady and knew not how to treat it. They all prescribed some insignificant remedies, and never called a second time. Her paleness, nevertheless, visibly increased, and she became colder and colder, until she seemed almost as white and dead as upon that memorable night in the unknown castle. I grieved with anguish unspeakable to behold her thus slowly perishing; and she, touched by my agony, smiled upon me sweetly and sadly with the fateful smile of those who feel that they must die."

[dirac]

Interesting topic, Dr. Coppelius.

Hans writes:

Did anyone see Lynn Seymour do MacMillan's R&J?

I didn’t, but from what I’ve read, Seymour (and Christopher Gable) in collaboration with MacMillan, chose deliberately to present “unbeautiful” deaths – Romeo and Juliet don’t die romantically, they just die, and you are left with a sense of waste.

[Hans]

dirac, I think the idea of leaving the audience with a sense of waste is a thoughtful conception, emphasizing the pointlessness of the feud between the two families. From what I read, Lynn Seymour stabbed herself in her womb instead of her heart, but I don't really know what she meant to convey with that.

Mel's post reminds me of this scene from the movie "Dracula, Dead & Loving It":

John (resisting seduction by vampiress Lucy): But Lucy...you're dead.

Lucy: I'm not dead! I'm UUUUUNdead!

John: Well, I'm not "unengaged."

More on-topic, does anyone remember which ballerina it was who said, referring to her death scene in Giselle, "[La Sublimova] does not need a sword to die!"?

[bart]

The truly beautiful (in the sense of "moving") extended death scene must be very difficult to carry off.

Unfortunately the first thing I thought of when I read Dr. Coppeliuis' topic was Oscar Wilde's comment on one of Dickens' famous death scenes: "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing." Of course there's the Fokine Dying Swan. But there's also its variant as performed by Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo and numerous slapstick comics..

I don't suppose it counts to include beautiful "after-deaths" -- but what about the Poet in La Sonnambula, carried off in the arms of the eery sleep-walker, possibly to a higher light. (The death itself is rather abrupt and nondescript.)

As for heart-tugging deaths: Marguerite in Val Caniparoli's Lady of the Camelias. The entire last scene, which starts with the terminally ill Marguerite sitting at her (invisible) dressing table mirror facing the audience, is melodramatic but deeply moving.

How about the Stripper's death in Balanchine's Slaughter on 10th Avenue? For those not familiar with the ballet it's quite a surprise -- and IMO quite undeserved.

[Dr. Coppelius]

I don't suppose it counts to include beautiful "after-deaths"

It does, Anastacia does, just like Lucy in "Dracula, pages from a virgin´s diary", some of her most beautiful dancing after she have died.

Why cannot people like Nikiya, Lucy and Anastacia just stay dead?

[sandik]

Why cannot people like Nikiya, Lucy and Anastacia just stay dead?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Because then there would be no Hamlet.

[Mel Johnson]

How about the Stripper's death in Balanchine's Slaughter on 10th Avenue?   For those not familiar with the ballet it's quite a surprise -- and IMO quite undeserved.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That part is a sort of onion. Layer after layer of identity. We have a dancer/actress portraying a dancer, portraying a stripper. If the audience is good, and reads the program notes, or already knows about the musical On Your Toes, then her "death" is at one or two removes from a "real" stage death, and a device to get the note about the hitman to Junior.

[atm711]

More on-topic, does anyone remember which ballerina it was who said, referring to her death scene in Giselle, "[La Sublimova] does not need a sword to die!"?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's only a guess, but that sounds like something Ludmilla Tcherina would have said in the film 'Red Shoes'.

[Hans]

I'll have to watch that movie again. However, I was under the impression that it was someone around the time of Taglioni. (Elssler? I don't think it was Grisi.)

[Mme. Hermine]

Fanny Elssler, according to a post some time ago on Ballet Alert!

[Herman Stevens]

Don't Try This At Home

Well, perhaps it's just me, but it's quite tough to think of a great ballet without a death scene of some kind:

Sleeping Beauty's Act I Sc ii is one big death scene - so she's only dead for a hundred years, so what?

Petrushka is basically about the Moor figuring out how to kill Petrushka, and when he eventually does, there's an ironic operetta death scene for Petrushka.

In Esmeralda, as I recall, pretty much everybody has a near-death scene.

Swan Lake ends in a shared suicide.

Oh, and how about Le Sacre, with the Virgin dancing herself to death?

[carbro]

When the heroine made her first appearance in Pharoah's Daughter, stepping from a sarcophagus, I whispered to my companion, "Ugh! Another necrophilia ballet!" Even though she was already dead, though, in Act III she threw herself into the water, having decided that drowning was better than capture!!! I just did not get that!

[Hans]

Fanny Elssler, according to a post some time ago on Ballet Alert!

I got a ballet history question right!!! :blush: