51 replies to this topic

[bart]

richard53dog, on Aug 29 2006, 07:42 PM, said:

Um, I think perhaps Plisetskaya is having some years added on to her. Sources seem to agree that she was
born in 1925; I think she celebrated her eightieth birthday last year.

Sorry, I wasn't writing clearly. The ballet was made in 1972.  Plisetskaya would have been in her late 40s at that time.  The Times review was of a 1988 performance in Boston, when she was 62.

[richard53dog]

bart, on Aug 30 2006, 01:13 AM, said:

richard53dog, on Aug 29 2006, 07:42 PM, said:

Um, I think perhaps Plisetskaya is having some years added on to her. Sources seem to agree that she was
born in 1925; I think she celebrated her eightieth birthday last year.

Sorry, I wasn't writing clearly. The ballet was made in 1972.  Plisetskaya would have been in her late 40s at that time.  The Times review was of a 1988 performance in Boston, when she was 62.

Well, I may have not been reading all that clearly, too!


It's amazing how long she has keep on performing. She made an appearance in NYC somewhere in the mid 90s. I didn't see it , only hearing about it the next day. But did she perform as part of her 80th birthday? I remember a report in the archives here of a performance she gave shortly after her 79th birthday.

OK, I'll give up Maya and let this go back to Russian lit.

Richard

[Lovebird]

In addition Glinka's romance, Ya Zdes Inezilya, is based on a Pushkin poem. Does anyone know if Tsar Saltan is even performed still, or Kai and Gerda? I have recently finished Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead. In many of his novels Dostoyevsky exhibits a deep understanding, and more importantly an acceptance and sympathy, for distressed human beings. For this aspect of Dostoyevsky I recomend  Netochka Nezhvanova, or Nameless Nobody in English ,about an orphan and her failed musician father.

[bart]

My favorite Dostoyevsky novels are Crime and Punishment -- but especially The Idiot.  I wonder whether it would be possible to make a ballet centered on the character and problems of Prince Myshkin?

[Mashinka]

Valery Panov did a version of The Idiot some years ago with himself and Rudolf Nureyev in the leading roles.

[richard53dog]

Lovebird, on Aug 31 2006, 07:13 AM, said:

Does anyone know if Tsar Saltan is even performed still,



I have recently finished Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead.

Lovebird,

I don't think that the operatic version Tsar Sultan is done all that often. Maybe once in a great while.

But Janacek's operatic treatment of The House of the Dead, which inserts "From" into the title, is done fairly
regularly. Peter Gelb, the new honcho at the Met Opera, has included it in his plans for future seasons.

I'm a real fan of Janacek's music.

Richard

[Lovebird]

I did not know there was an opera based on The House of the Dead, thanks for telling me   Of the many opera adaptations, the one I like the most is Prokofiev's War and Peace. Resurrection is an excellent story for an opera, with an excellent female character. Also Chekhov's story Lady with a Dog is a wonderful story for an opera, concise plot, lots of opportunities for the two principal characters. Lady with the Dog is one of my favorite works of Chekhov, his prose in this story is lyrical, gently humorous and melancholy. Anna Sten gave two of her best film performances in literary adaptations, The Brothers Karamazov and We Live Again, based on Resurrection. She was wonderful in both, I recomend We Live Again for her portrayal of Katiusha.

[Helene]

The last adaptation of Russian Literature for opera that I saw was Prokofiev's The Gambler, based on the story by Dostoevsky.  It was very powerful onstage.

[Paul Parish]

Tolstoy loved Chekov's story "The Darling."

[Helene]

Lovebird, on Sep 2 2006, 09:33 PM, said:

Of the many opera adaptations, the one I like the most is Prokofiev's War and Peace.

According to a footnote by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky from their translation of Anna Karenina, "Tolstoy believed that the need for adjusting music to literature and literature to music destroyed creative freedom" (7-7, p.835)

But, luckily, Prokofiev ignored this.

[miliosr]

I just finished reading Pushkin's narrative poem The Gypsies. Massine based his ballet Aleko on this poem and, since the ballet appears to be lost, I was curious as to what the source material was like.

Now that I've read it, I can't see how you could make a ballet out of this poem except in the most superficial sense (i.e. plenty of atmospheric gypsy dances.) The complicated point that Pushkin makes in his poem -- that the refugee from civilization (Aleko) wants freedom for himself but not for anyone else -- seems beyond the ability of dance to convey. Still, it would be interesting to see the ballet (although it's probably unrevivable at this point.)

[Helene]

miliosr, on Sep 8 2006, 08:45 AM, said:

I just finished reading Pushkin's narrative poem The Gypsies...

Now that I've read it, I can't see how you could make a ballet out of this poem except in the most superficial sense (i.e. plenty of atmospheric gypsy dances.) The complicated point that Pushkin makes in his poem -- that the refugee from civilization (Aleko) wants freedom for himself but not for anyone else -- seems beyond the ability of dance to convey.

I just finished reading Anna Karenina, and can see why ballets based on the novel can be made only the most superficial sense.  The psychology in the book is the source of its riches, particularly in the ways that Karenina and Levin are very much alike.  Portraying a Tragic Love Affair barely scratches the surface and misrepresents the characters of Karenina and Vronsky.

[richard53dog]

miliosr, on Sep 8 2006, 04:45 PM, said:

I just finished reading Pushkin's narrative poem The Gypsies. Massine based his ballet Aleko on this poem and, since the ballet appears to be lost, I was curious as to what the source material was like.

Now that I've read it, I can't see how you could make a ballet out of this poem except in the most superficial sense (i.e. plenty of atmospheric gypsy dances.) The complicated point that Pushkin makes in his poem -- that the refugee from civilization (Aleko) wants freedom for himself but not for anyone else -- seems beyond the ability of dance to convey. Still, it would be interesting to see the ballet (although it's probably unrevivable at this point.)

Rachmaninov also created an opera based on this Pushkin story. I don't know much about it or how often this Aleko may be performed, though but I believe I've seen a recording or two floating around

Richard

[artist]

I was a fan of Anton Chekov in drama class. Always picked his plays because it was easy to relate to.  But didn't his audience and actors take his work seriously, when he didn't mean it to be?

[cubanmiamiboy]

Oh, God, I LOVE THIS TOPIC!
Well, XIX Century Russian Literature has been always been part of my readings ever since i was a kid.  Growing up in Cuba, we had to study it a lot, and then, afterwards, i just started to love it and  devoured everything that i could get.  Gogol, Pushkin, Chejov, Shojolov, Turgueniev, Lermontov, Lomonosov, (you name it)  and then, my favorite bad boy of them all, the one and only Dostoiewsky.  About a recomendation, i can't resist but name my favorite title of all times, Dostoiewsky's "Crime and Punishment"   (somewhere else i just mentioned that i'm reading for the 11 th time!).  Somehow i just can't get enough of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov    , and as i get older, it looks to me that the more that i try to know him, the more fascinating and less accesible he turns !