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"Giselle" 1884 Petipa/Minkus Act I PDD


cubanmiamiboy

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I read somewhere that for his "Giselle" 1884 revival, Petipa comissioned Minkus to create the music for a new Act I Giselle/Albrecht PDD to be danced by Maria Gorshenkova. Is this PDD still preserved in any current production...?, I also read that in 1978 Gerald Arpino used this Minkus's rarely heard music for his ballet "L'air D'esprit" for the Joffrey. Anybody familiar with it...? Any advise on where to get this music...?

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L'AIR D'ESPRIT was telecast w/the joffrey ballet in a program sent out from art park, as follows:

The Joffrey Ballet live from Artpark 1978. 120 min.

Telecast on WNET-TV on August 30, 1978 from Artpark in Lewiston, New York. Producer: Wiley F. Hance. Director: Emile Ardolino.

Performed by the Joffrey Ballet and guest artist Rebecca Wright.

Les patineurs; chor: Frederick Ashton; mus: Meyerbeer arr. by Constant Lambert; scen and cos: William Chappell; lighting: Jennifer Tipton; danced by Lisa Slagle, Ann Marie De Angelo, Ursula Burke, Laurence Blake, Carol Messmer, John Grensback, Susan Stewart, Jeffrey Hughes, Carole Valleskey, Gregory King, Mark Goldweber, Denise Jackson, Gregory Huffman, Cynthia Anderson, and Patricia Miller. -- Interview with David Midland and Joanne Allison of Artpark. -- Interview with Gerald Arpino. Valentine; chor: Gerald Arpino; mus: Jacob Druckman; danced by Rebecca Wright and Christian Holder. -- L'air d'esprit; chor: Gerald Arpino; mus: Adolphe Adam; cos: A. Christina Giannini; ltg: Penelope Curry; danced by Francesca Corkle and Kevin McKenzie. Interview with Robert Joffrey. -- Cakewalk; chor: Ruthanna Boris; mus: Louis Gottschalk; scen: William Pitkin; cos: Robert Drew; ltg: Thomas Skelton; danced by Diane Orio, Denise Jackson, Cynthia Anderson, Christian Holder, Krystyna Jurkowski, Carole Valleskey, Rachel Ganteaume, Laurence Blake, Philip Jerry, Jerel Hilding, Paul Shoemaker, Ursula Burke, Amy Danis, Susan Frazer, Donna Gowen, Carol Messmer, Beatriz Rodriguez, Trinette Singleton, Ellen Troy, Gregory King, John Grensback, Gary Chryst, Lisa Slagle, Charlene Gehm.

and i believe mel is correct about the bolshoi recording.

if mem. serves some of the music interpolated into act 1 of the bavarian ballet's staging of GISELLE w/ nureyev and seymour uses some of this music.

a chart compliled by frank reis(sp?) for a DANCE MAGAZINE insert on GISELLE details some of this music's interpolations.

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I believe that this interpolation was included in a recording of the ballet by Algis Zuraitis and the Bolshoi Orchestra made sometime in the early 70s. I don't know if it's currently available anywhere.

Thank you, Mel, for your always helpful information. Will do some research to see if i can get this Bolshoi/Zuraitis recording somewhere.

Thank you also, Mr. G, for your detailed description of the telecast.

L'air d'esprit; chor: Gerald Arpino; mus: Adolphe Adam

Mmm, now i'm confused...music by Adam or by Minkus...?

if mem. serves some of the music interpolated into act 1 of the bavarian ballet's staging of GISELLE w/ nureyev and seymour uses some of this music.

will take a look at my old VHS, but yes, i always took noticed of the Giselle/Albrecht dancing of this production as longer than usual, but i thought that it was the Rudy's usual extra-steps approach on choreography ...(BTW, never came out on DVD...?)

a chart compliled by frank reis(sp?) for a DANCE MAGAZINE insert on GISELLE details some of this music's interpolations.

Will definitely try to search for it...

Again, thank you both , as always, for your valuable information!

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Oh, that pas de deux is by Minkus all right. It does things harmonically and melodically that Adam would never have done. Remember, we're talking about a piece of music that was recorded ca. 1973, and scholarship in ballet music at that time almost entirely consisted of believing the album credits. I remember hearing that music for the first time, thinking "No way that's Adam," and scanning the liner notes for a source, which wasn't given.

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here's the NYPL cat. entry on the GISELLE folio/insert from DANCE MAGAZINE:

Ries, Frank W. D. In search of Giselle: "travels with a chameleon romantic."

Dance magazine. New York. Aug 1979, p [59]-74. illus

Traces changes in the ballet from its original production in 1841 to the present. Chart (p. 72-73) compares score of 1841 Paris production with the 1888 St. Petersburg version.

re: the zuraitis recording, i don't know if it's been re-released on CD but it's on vinyl and used compies sometimes come up for sale. i don't recall ever seeing the same recording on CD for resale.

Marion Smith's excellent book on GISELLE also notes what recording contain which 'lost' music: BALLET AND OPERA IN THE AGE OF 'GISELLE' by Marian Smith (Princeton University Press).

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the attached .jpg is a scan of the liner notes for the zuraitis recording of GISELLE. (according to this text, signed by Karolynne Gee, "Musical interpolations by other composers had been introduced into the original score long before 1887 [the year of Petipa's last? restaging] when Petipa asked Leon Minkus, resident composer at the Maryinsky, to write additional music for Giselle's first act variation (No. 7) and for her second variation in the 'Grand Pas de Deux' (No. 15)." [the notes then go on to note the addition from the start of Burgmuller's 'peasant' pas de deux.]

oddly, no specific mention of the 'pas de deux' (No. 4) .

fyi:

post-848-1191513394_thumb.jpg

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Ok...this is the Minkus PDD/music I'm talking about. Here it is played just with a piano, but it can be heard with full orchestra in the Zuraitis. My next question is if the choreography presented in the clip is somewhat derived from Petipa's 1884 revival of "Giselle" for Gorshenkova or later on when Karsavina danced it. According to some accounts, this PDD was retained for a while at the Markiinsky, just to be dropped later on. I'm very curious about the accuracy of the clip...(well, to the usual extent for which we all see Petipa's legacy).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdkFLSuU4H8

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it would seem typical of this era of soviet ballet to say, automatically, and categorically that any ballet with a famous/classic title likewise had ONE famous composer, such as:

LE CORSAIRE = Adam

GISELLE = Adam

PAQUITA GRAND PAS CLASSIQUE = Minkus

this was all in line w/ identifying all the choreographic elements of any ballet once produced by Petipa as "pure Petipa" through and through.

never mind that the archives in russia held the particulars of all these ballets and their various musical and choreographic interpolations.

sometimes though it seemed to take a Western scholar looking through the archives to sort out the real identifications - detailing the in's and out's of the CORSAIRE pas de deux recently by a scholar at a conference for the Munich production is but one example.

this has now changed, thankfully, with some renewed interests in the 'old' ballets in russia.

most recently the scholarship applied to the new/old stagings in Petersburg by Vikharev etc. and by the Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet Yuri Burlaka, in his careful work with identifying the various variations for his staging of Paquita Grand Pas, are good examples of this change.

the youtube films of this "Giselle" pas de deux by Golovkina make the choreography look most like something created for a ballet competition, to show off the skills of a young, 'contemporary' ballet dancer, and not to recreate, or 'reconstruct' anything from the 19th century. even the costuming looks standard and gala-presentation-like rather than historically appropriate.

i cannot say how long Petipa's interpolated pas de deux lasted on the boards of in russia.

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And that the music is by Adam. Why, I wonder, the confusion?

The confusion is still on the air. This music was, by all accounts regarding the 1884 revival, written by Minkus and added by Petipa, along with Giselle's variation for the second Act-(her Tempo di Valse one with Albretch collapsing on the floor)-, and probably even Giselle's Pas de Seul Act I -(Spessivtzeva's solo). Then my curiosity on the choreography goes to where does it comes...given the fact that it kind of survived well into the XX Century when Karsavina danced it...

I wonder if anybody ever saw this Pas de deux being danced during the 50's, or even before...

(Edited to add: There is no mention of Minkus in the Zuraitis, BTW...)

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And that the music is by Adam. Why, I wonder, the confusion?

The confusion is still on the air. This music was, by all the accounts regarding to the 1884 revival, written by Minkus and added by Petipa, along with Giselle's variation for the second Act-(her Tempo di Valse one with Albretch lying on the floor)-, and probably even Giselle's Pas de Seul Act I -(Spessivtzeva's solo). Then my curiosity on the choreography goes to where does it comes...given the fact that it kind of survived well into the XX Century when Karsavina danced it...

I wonder if anybody ever saw this Pas de deux being danced during the 50's, or even before...

(Edited to add: There is no mention of Minkus in the Zuraitis, BTW...)

I cannot exactly confirm the case for Giselle, but it was certainly the practice that leading dancers in the Imperial era did not all dance the same choreography and music and choreography was interpolated willy-nilly in the major works. I think rg may be correct that it looks like something prepared for a competition and a friend says he had seen Pyatkina dance this pas. It has also been suggested that it is a second cousin to the Auber Grand pas Classique but I can't quite see that.

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I had seen this clip before getting my hands on the Zuraitis, and so I though that it could be part of the Minkus PDD. Then when I finally got to listen the recording, I realized that Feijoo's variation music didn't belong there. So now it seems to be ever more "lost" music going on from Giselle.

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Don't know the composer, but Mary Sleaping used that music in her production for Festival/English National Ballet.


What a memory, I failed to recognise the music. Well done. I do remember both Eva Evdokimova and Galina Samsova's extraordinary performances in this production.
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the video listed below includes Skeaping's "Pas des vendanges" - which may or may not include the solo in question here; i haven't located my copy of this video to do any cross-checking.

NYPL cat. entry:

Giselle [videorecording] / produced by Magnetic Video Corporation/Twentieth Century Fox ; directed by Stanley Dorfman and Rudolf Nureyev ; produced by Stanley Dorfman ; choreography by Peter Wright after Coralli and Perrot ; music by Adolphe Adam. 1979. (76 min.) : sd., col.

Choreography for Pas des vendanges, Mary Skeaping ; costumes, Peter Farmer.

Performed by the Bavarian State Opera Ballet

Rudolf Nureyev (Albrecht), Lynn Seymour (Giselle), Monica Mason (Queen of the Wilis), Youri Vamos (Hilarion), and Gerd Larsen (Berthe).

Music performed by the New World Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by David Coleman.

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That is an exquisite performance. it's Helgi Tomasson's choreography, The production is San Francisco Ballet's, I've seen it many times now.: this is from a second pdd for Giselle and Albrecht. I believe this music is some more Burgmuller, whose music is used for the "usual' Peasant pdd.

I found this very interesting clip. Bailarina is Lorena Feijoo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-_JbM-gfHw

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I finally watched that clip from a machine where I can hear the sound. The steps to the "Minkus" pas de deux are very similar, but this one has different music. I wonder if somebody "shoehorned" one variation into another. Music could be Drigo. He seemed fond of the harp.

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I finally watched that clip from a machine where I can hear the sound. The steps to the "Minkus" pas de deux are very similar, but this one has different music. I wonder if somebody "shoehorned" one variation into another. Music could be Drigo. He seemed fond of the harp.

Mel which clip are you referring to?

Re the clip of the variation danced by Lorena Feijoo, which is choreographed by Helgi Tomasson and is a fine example of Tomasson's craftsmanship (which Christian posted), SFB supplies thefollowing productions credits about the music for San Francisco Ballet's Giselle:

Production Credits: All music and orchestrations are by Adolphe Adam (unless otherwise noted). Adam wrote the music to Giselle between April 11 and June 8, 1841. Most of the music used in this new production is published and available for purchase by Kalmus Music Publishers (however, there is no published score that includes all of the music traditionally used in modern performances of Giselle). A copy of an 1854 manuscript score in the Paris Opera archives was used as a reference in preparation of the orchestral materials, which included several details missing from the published edition. Additional orchestrated and arranged music was printed for these performances: ACT I -- Peasant Pas de Cinq: traditional interpolation of music by Freidrich [sic] Burgmüller; Ladies Variation: "Shepherd's Return" from 18 Etudes de Genre for piano solo, orchestrated by Emil de Cou; Giselle’s Variation: traditional music attributed to Ludwig Minkus; ACT II -- Finale - allegro con moto -- ,arranged and orchestrated by Emil de Cou. Cathedral bells courtesy of San Francisco Opera.
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