SLEEPING BEAUTY footnote

[rg]

the attached photo card shows Vill in the Vsevolozhsky-designed production of THE SLEEPING BEAUTY. (it dates sometime before 1914)

tim scholl's "Sleeping Beauty: A Legend in Progress" mentioned variously on this site includes an essay in its excellent appendix by akim volynsky in which the conservative and strong-voiced champion of russian classical ballet contrasts in some detail the pleasures of Vill's performance in the original vsevolozhsky production and the problems with her 1914 appearances given the new, and, in his opinion, very ill-considered, costume designs by korovin.

[Hans]

What an adorable picture! One question, though: it appears that there are strings attached to her hat and wig...do you know what those are and why they might have been there?

[rg]

i don't have the card at my fingertips to double check right now, but the lines you rightly note are likely scratches on the photo and not part of the costume or set-up.

if you have scholl's book the essay by volynsky is on pp. 202-04.

off topic, balanchine danced with vill in a 1923 concert performance, when she did diana and he did the satyr in the pas de deux a trois from LE ROI CANDAULES as a number called: Les Amours de Diane - said to be the precursor of vaganova's ESMERALDA interpolations: Diana & Akteon Pas De Deux. (i forget now who danced endymion on that occasion.)