27 replies to this topic

[Mme. Hermine]

Dracula, I suppose.  

Now a Fall of the House of Usher ---

[puppytreats]

Mme. Hermine, on 21 August 2011 - 08:01 AM, said:

Dracula, I suppose.  

Now a Fall of the House of Usher ---

I saw a clip of "Fall of the House of Usher" by the Royal Ballet on tv a few weeks ago.  It was not impressive and not very goth.

[sandik]

James Canfield's Dracula, made for Oregon Ballet Theater, has its goth moments.  

I'd be interested in seeing a steampunk influenced ballet, though I'm not sure whose repertory it might fit in with.

[Mel Johnson]

Consider this:  Both The Nutcracker and Coppélia have libretti by the original "Mr. Goth", E.T.A. Hoffman.

[Drew]

Mel Johnson, on 21 August 2011 - 03:11 PM, said:

Consider this:  Both The Nutcracker and Coppélia have libretti by the original "Mr. Goth", E.T.A. Hoffman.

Libretti based on his work anyway (he died in 1822)--and rather less gothic than their Hoffmann sources...though productions may well choose to underline Hoffmanesque elements.

La Sonnambula (or Night Shadow as it was once called) and La Valse are rather 'goth' or gothic in tone--even if they are the work of a choreographer generally known as neo-classic. (Probably Gaspard de la Nuit too, but my memory of that ballet is very vague--similarly Cotillion which I saw once in the Joffrey's reconstruction of it.)

The dark cartoonish critics of Robert Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze also have a gothic quality--especially as they stand out against the Casper Friedrich inspired backdrop; but I have never thought that that moment of the ballet 'worked'--it's at once too literal and too exaggerated and almost seems (unintentionally) giggle worthy.  

There may be other examples in Balanchine's oeuvre as well--at least I would not be surprised since that was definitely one of the colors on his palette albeit not one he used very prominently or often.

On topic? There is a huge world of fantasy literature out there; it's not a genre I read, but it's hard for me to believe it would not supply some intriguing stories that might be at home on the ballet stage.

[sandik]

Drew, on 21 August 2011 - 09:38 PM, said:

Mel Johnson, on 21 August 2011 - 03:11 PM, said:

Consider this:  Both The Nutcracker and Coppélia have libretti by the original "Mr. Goth", E.T.A. Hoffman.

Libretti based on his work anyway (he died in 1822)--and rather less gothic than their Hoffmann sources...though productions may well choose to underline Hoffmanesque elements.

The Pacific Northwest Ballet production does point up some of the darker elements, especially the part of the story where the young girl is bitten by a rat and becomes ugly.

Drew, on 21 August 2011 - 09:38 PM, said:

On topic? There is a huge world of fantasy literature out there; it's not a genre I read, but it's hard for me to believe it would not supply some intriguing stories that might be at home on the ballet stage.

I read an interview recently with an author who had written screenplays for a couple of his novels, and I think I can boil his lengthy and detailed comments down to this -- films are about what you can see.  It's possible to "show" an interior process, but more often than not, the parts of a novel that translate well to film are the parts that can use the visual world to communicate the story.  I think that holds for dance as well.

[JMcN]

Michael Pink's Dracula (which was made for Northern Ballet in 1996) is very gothic.  I think they may still perform it at Milwaukee as well as New Zealand.  We also saw it in Atlanta and it was presented in Oslo.  The sets and costumes by Lez Brotherston are utterly fabulous and the score by Philip Feeney is serious drive faster music.  In its years in the NB rep it attracted a following among the British Gothic community and we often used to see groups of them in the various theatres.  We were usually glad we weren't sitting behind them due to the Gothic hairstyles!

Northern Ballet now has David Nixon's Dracula - not quite as gothic but a very fine production.

[Helene]

Colorado Ballet also performed Pink's "Dracula" last October and in 2006.

[Amy Reusch]

I kind of thought there were many!

[BocaBallerina]

Has anyone ever done a "Phantom of the Opera" ballet? That would be a stunning work with powerful music, costumes and production value!

[Alymer]

Yes.  Roland Petit for the ballet of the Paris Opera. I didn't see it myself but I don't get the impressionn that it was a great success.

[bart]

Thanks, Aylmer.  Some Googling turned up the following:  Petit's version had a score by Marcel Landowski.  It premiered in 1980, at the Palais Garner, well before Lloyd Webber's version.  

Leads were danced by  Peter Schauffus, Dominique Khalfouni, Patrick Dupond,  Jacques Namont, and Sylvie Clavier.

Has anyone here seen the Petit ballet?  Or heard the score?

[Cordelia]

How about King Lear?  Okay maybe I'm not impartial since I am named after a character in King Lear.  Actually, Twelfth Night would make a better ballet than Lear.  It would have more opportunities for pas de duex and variations, not unlike Ashton's A Midsummer NIght's Dream.  Plus who wouldn't want to see more female to male cross-dressing in ballets.