44 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

bart, on Aug 1 2007, 04:16 PM, said:

Both versions are danced wonderfully, although I found myself looking more closely at the purity of Laurent Hilaire and Isabelle Guerin, partly because I could see it so clearly defined in the filming.

Hi bart, and thank you so much for your wonderful and detailed analysis!
Well, now that i know that i won't see any original Petipa/Minkus on the reconstructed "lost act"   , and that my Nureyev POB version is very well liked among the experts   , it's obvious that i will  be looking up to rg's suggestion , the 1991 Kirov  Komleva/Abdyev production...(it's only on VHS on Amazon, and currently unavailable).  BTW bart, ever since i saw for the first time the Nureyev's POB video, i've also been enchanted  by the Guerin/Hilaire duo..

[rg]

to confirm the date of the filming of the soviet/kirov BAYADERE, it's 1977 - dating of videos gets complicated b/c sometimes the distributor notes the date the title was marketed w/ its label and not necessarily when the perf/filming got done.
fyi:
La bayadère / USSR Gostelradio ; presented by Dennis M. Hedlund ; television director, Elena Macharet ; choreography by Vakhtang Chabukiani and Vladimir Ponomarev after Marius Petipa, staged by Chabukiani ; music by Ludwig Minkus.
U.S.S.R. : Gostelradio, 1977 ; W. Long Branch, N.J. : Kultur International Films. (130 min.) : sd., col.
Recorded in performance at the Kirov Theatre, Leningrad.
Scenery, Orest Allegri, Konstantin Ivanov, and Adolf Kvapp.
Performed by the Kirov Ballet.
Gabriella Komleva (Nikia), Redzhep Abdien [Rejen Abdyev] (Solor), Tat'iana Terekhova (Gamzatti), Gennadii Seliuskii (Chief Brahmin), Yuri Potemkin (The Rajah), and company.
Conductor: Victor Shirokov.
Intermission narration in Russian.

[Mariano]

cubanmiamiboy:

The Kirov ballet recently brought to the Met in New York city the "restored" staging of their original "Bayadere" (they did the same with The Sleeping Beauty).  The difference with the ballet we've seen in the theatres and videos is amazing.  I haven't seen this "original" version on DVD.

From the commercially available Bayaderes, there are 2 which I would recommend because they are "standard", both staged by Natalia Makarova for the Royal Ballet and for La Scala.  Either of these two DVDs is wonderful, it's a matter of choice about the cast.  The La Scala recording came out recently, and is superb, with Svetlana Zakharova and Roberto Bolle.

I always avoid Nureyev's POB version (which I saw at the Met in NYC) because it was recorded with wide angle almost all the time, to capture the lavish settings but leaving the dancers distant from the viewer, almost like part of the settings.

[cubanmiamiboy]

rg, on Aug 1 2007, 11:50 PM, said:

to confirm the date of the filming of the soviet/kirov BAYADERE, it's 1977 - dating of videos gets complicated b/c sometimes the distributor notes the date the title was marketed w/ its label and not necessarily when the perf/filming got done.

Thanks, Rg.  Yes, i was refering to the marketing date, which is 1991, but i knew that this was an older work from the 70's, which actually, it would be very exciting  to look at, giving the fact that back then there was not a strong emphasis on production lavishness at the Kirov, (which is closer to my own experiences on what i was used to consume in Cuba), so the choreography is way more exposed..

[atm711]

I am surprised there wasn't more talk of the Bolshoi production with Gracheva/Vetrov, both of whom gave gorgeous performances.  Vetrov's Shades solo is one of the best I have seen. To anyone familiar with this production, I would love to know who the Gamzatti was---and also, the 3 soloists in the shades scene.  There is one scene in this production I can live without---it's in the Gamzatti 'tutu' scene---before Nikiya's basket dance.  A male corps flies around beating what looks  like tom-toms and behaving like refugees from 'Prince Igor'.

[richard53dog]

atm711, on Aug 11 2007, 06:39 AM, said:

I am surprised there wasn't more talk of the Bolshoi production with Gracheva/Vetrov, both of whom gave gorgeous performances.  Vetrov's Shades solo is one of the best I have seen. To anyone familiar with this production, I would love to know who the Gamzatti was---and also, the 3 soloists in the shades scene.  There is one scene in this production I can live without---it's in the Gamzatti 'tutu' scene---before Nikiya's basket dance.  A male corps flies around beating what looks  like tom-toms and behaving like refugees from 'Prince Igor'.

Well, here's where you have different strokes for different folks. Of the 5-6 Bayadere's I have, I rank this in a tie for the bottom spot (the other being the recently released La Scala production)

First this production looks old and worn, and no beauty in the first place. I hate the blocking, (and this is a personal issue;  I find the badly applied blackface offensive).

If there were other considerations I could overlook some of this but I find Gracheva sound but more boring than Wonder White Bread (for those not from the US, this is NOT a compliment) .  She did not move me one bit.


The Gamzatti is Bylova(hopefully I have that right).
I can't get that this is a dancer with a major company, she is SOOOOOO sloppy. And she seems to find it difficult to get up fully on point. I REALLY hated her.

Vetrov. Yes, he is dashing and looks like a Solor and a lot of his dancing is very showy and exciting. He was the only reason
I kept the tape.


Well, there you have it. Of course this is all my opinion and others will differ.

[canbelto]

I think that if you're going to start with Bayadere's, start with either the POB or Kirov videos. I'm of the very strong opinion that starting with Makarova's version of La Bayadere gives one a false impression of the ballet. I admire her for trying to reconstruct the "lost act" but in the process she sheds so much of the ballet that it practically becomes the Cliff Notes version of La Bayadere. I started with the Makarova version (at the ABT, then on video) and so I was shocked to see the POB video. Wow, this is Grand Ballet, I thought. At first I was impatient at the spectacle, but eventually I came to appreciate Petipa's design of pairing the pageantry of the Betrothal Scene with Nikya's personal tragedy, and then with the austere beauty of the Shades act.
And I've never appreciated 8 dancers more than in La Bayadere. Makarova uses 24 Shades. The POB, Kirov and Bolshoi use 32. 24 Shades - beautiful. 32 Shades (especially when danced with a corps as well-trained as the Kirov or POB) - breathtaking.

[agnes]

Completely agree with canbelto.  I saw ABT's performance this May, and now am watching the POB version.  And what a difference!  The POB version is more aligned with how an Eastern tragic myth might be staged for a ballet.  Makarova's staging had that Hollywood happily-ever-after / good-over-evil flavor to it...more of a Western thought process.

[canbelto]

Quote

rumor has it that nureyev was on the 'trail' of getting the last act's music for his POB staging but ill health prevented him for following-through on his plans.

Actually in "Dancer's Dream," it says that Nureyev considered reconstructing the last act, but ultimately chose the "gentler" ending of having Solor and Nikya reunited in the dream. In this sense Nureyev's version is almost identical to the Kirov version (except in the Scarf duet, Solor pirouettes along with Nikya. But really, that's it.) So it seems as if ending the ballet after the Shades act was an artistic choice.
And hasn't the Kirov dropped the "new-old" Bayadere? The "new-old" Sleeping Beauty has remained in the repertoire but I haven't heard reports of the "new-old" Bayadere being staged in years.

[aurora]

canbelto, on Aug 22 2007, 02:17 PM, said:

And hasn't the Kirov dropped the "new-old" Bayadere? The "new-old" Sleeping Beauty has remained in the repertoire but I haven't heard reports of the "new-old" Bayadere being staged in years.

They brought it to NY in 2002. It was very long. I actually found it rather boring  

[Alexandra]

canbelto, on Aug 22 2007, 02:17 PM, said:

Quote

rumor has it that nureyev was on the 'trail' of getting the last act's music for his POB staging but ill health prevented him for following-through on his plans.

Actually in "Dancer's Dream," it says that Nureyev considered reconstructing the last act, but ultimately chose the "gentler" ending of having Solor and Nikya reunited in the dream. In this sense Nureyev's version is almost identical to the Kirov version (except in the Scarf duet, Solor pirouettes along with Nikya. But really, that's it.) So it seems as if ending the ballet after the Shades act was an artistic choice.
And hasn't the Kirov dropped the "new-old" Bayadere? The "new-old" Sleeping Beauty has remained in the repertoire but I haven't heard reports of the "new-old" Bayadere being staged in years.

Yes, that is on "Dancer's Dream," but that isn't necessarily definitive. Other people, in interviews, are more in line with what rg posted above.  (There are several contradictory statements about other things by artists interviewed on Dancer's Dream, which happens when you talk to artists )

[Helene]

I haven't seen the "Dancer's Dream" Bayadere, but I own the Raymonda and have seen another (Sleeping Beauty, I think.)  The Raymonda is precious to me because of the dance footage, but these films remind me a bit of "The Making of [Harry Potter]" that HBO or studios create to sell the movies.  They're a bit softballin my opinion, and I usually fast-forward to the dancing and ignore the interviews and talky footage.  They're official, and occasionally piquantly dishy, but I don't find them terribly illuminating, unlike the interviews in the documentary in the POB Jewels DVD or the charm of Delouche's films that lovingly depict their subjects.

[KULTUR FILMS]

The Komleva 1977 Kirov La Bayadere, that is currently unavailable on VHS
is scheduled to be released on DVD for sale January 29th, 2008 from
Kultur International Films, please check our website www.kultur.com
it will be posted there for pre-order the end of December.


Thanks
Andrea

[carbro]

Thank you, Andrea!

I hope you will come back and let us know when Kultur is about to release other back and new ballet properties.  We have a forum focused on miscellaneous video topics.

And a warm welcome to BalletTalk.  

[EricMontreal22]

Sad to say that there's still no release of the reconstructed ballet.

However adding another vote to the 1977 Kirov performance didn't they use the same scenery as the 1900 production (the reconstructed one) for this production for the first acts--but not the Shades?  (Wikipedia says so but they coul dbe wrong) which would add another partial element of authenticity.  (to make things more confusing apparantly recently the Marrinsky has taken to performing the 1940s version again--but using all the desings, or so I've read, of the 1900 reconstruction...)