24 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

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...?

[Mel Johnson]

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.

[rg]

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.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Mel Johnson, on Oct 3 2007, 08:08 PM, said:

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.

rg, on Oct 3 2007, 11:39 PM, said:

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

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

rg, on Oct 3 2007, 11:39 PM, said:

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...?)

rg, on Oct 3 2007, 11:39 PM, said:

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!

[Mel Johnson]

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.

[rg]

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).

[rg]

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:

Attached Files

•  ZuraitisGiselleList.JPG   126.03K   33 downloads

[Dancecreature]

In the Giselle recording of Bonynge there is a pas de vendanges that is a piece that I have only seen in a shortend version of the Seymour and Nureyev film recording. Is this the pas de deux that you are talking about or was it from Adam?

[cubanmiamiboy]

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).

[Lidewij]

This is the same pas de deux, but the film says the choreography is by Golovkina..

[bart]

Lidewij, on Mar 22 2009, 02:18 AM, said:

This is the same pas de deux, but the film says the choreography is by Golovkina..

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

Thanks, Lidewij, for the Link to a charming performance.

[rg]

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.

[cubanmiamiboy]

bart, on Mar 22 2009, 04:04 AM, said:

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...)

[leonid]

cubanmiamiboy, on Mar 22 2009, 12:55 PM, said:

bart, on Mar 22 2009, 04:04 AM, said:

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.

[cubanmiamiboy]

I found this very interesting clip.  Bailarina is Lorena Feijoo