23 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

Mel Johnson, on Dec 15 2008, 04:50 PM, said:

That's the one that starts with the pas marchés battus, and is the version that Markova danced.  The choreography there may be Lopukhov's.

I always thought that Lopukhov had just merely restaged the existing Ivanov choreography.  So excuse my ignorance, but if this is not the case, and his Nutcracker was rather a different choreography from the Sergueiev notated one, ...what then is being referred to as "the version that Markova danced"...? Are we talking about two different versions: Ivanov/Sergueiev/Fedorova/Markova vs. Lopukhov/Schollar/Markova...?

[Paul Parish]

The dance of hte sugar plum fairy--

THe old version (Ivanov, Petipa, or Lopukhov?) is the best -- though there are at least two of it.

As the Royal Ballet and all its derivatives dance the variation, the ballerina stays down afer the battus and goes from efface devant to effface arabesque WITHOUT releve in between --

Everybody else goes back up onto pointe there. Mary Ellen Moylan did it for Ballet Theater and is shown in it in the TINY little bit of footage of her dancing included in th  "Dancing for Balanchine/6 balanchine ballerinas" program does this movement with EXQUISITE accuracy and softness. It is very rare to see anyone do it so beautifully; though the movement suits the music PERFECTLY, it is very hard to do it and keep breathing.

THE RB's version is scarcely less beautiful, but it IS much less crystalline -- and it is much easier, so the ballerina can do it with considerably less strain, and she can be that much more gracious....

WOnder which version is preferable? ANd which is the original?

Does "Lupokhovi" refer to Lupokhov or to Lupokhova? Did she have the technique to do that dance?

[Paul Parish]

the dance of hte sugar plum fairy played on the glass harmonica -- really even more heavenly than hte celesta check it out:

[Amy Reusch]

Thank you thank you Paul!  This troubled me for years because I thought I remembered being taught that Sugarplum Fairy was originally composed for glass harmonica... but when I brought it up about 15 years ago at a ballet company performing another piece to glass armonica, was told no, no... the celeste... and I must be mixing up Tchaikovsky with Mozart.    But I see in Wikipedia Tchaikovsky's first draft called for a glass harmonica! (although apparently probably not Franklin's instrument but some sort of glass "xylophone")....   ???.    

At least I don't feel quite so silly now...

[Mel Johnson]

volcanohunter, on Dec 15 2008, 10:27 PM, said:

Mel Johnson, on Dec 15 2008, 08:31 PM, said:

It had written in Cyrillic at the top under the title, "Lopukhovi".

I'm curious about the orthography. I wonder which case it's supposed to be.

Nom. Lopukhov
Acc. Lopukhova
Gen. Lopukhova
Dat. Lopukhovu
Instr. Lopukhovym
Prep. Lopukhove

I'm always curious when I try to read Cyrillic cursive.  All I can say is that it looked like a cursive и to me.  I don't know who wrote it, or exactly when except before 1934.

[cubanmiamiboy]

I would like to pick up this thread after almost two years, because I'm still intrigued about ABT's Nutcracker's gap post-Fedorova and pre-Baryshnikov.  

Does anybody remembers if the ballet was done during the 60's and the 70's years before Misha's own staging...?
If so...was it still Fedorova's...?
Did Lupe Serrano ever danced in The Nutcracker...? If so...which role and who's production...?

    

[Mel Johnson]

Fedorova's version wasn't Ballet Theatre; it was Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.  The pas de deux did make it to BT as a free-standing divertissement, all by itself.  Lupe used to dance it with Royes Fernandez, and later Scott Douglas.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Oh...NOW i get it...so I guess Mme. Alonso's references to Fedorova's abridged version from back in the days point to that of the BRMC-(from where all those pics of Danilova as the Snow Queen I've also seen come from, right...?)So then that means that ABT never had a complete Nutcracker until Baryshnikov version came along....? Wow...
So then I assume that Serrano was probably from the very last generation of ballerinas who danced the Fedorova SPF PDD, right...?
Thanks a lot, Major Mel!!  

Edited to add: Silly me...I should have read more carefully this...

atm711, on 04 December 2008 - 04:52 AM, said:

Back in the early BT days there was not a complete Nutcracker.  What was very very popular was the Act II Adagio recreated by Anton Dolin.  Alonso, Markova, Hightower--they all performed it.

So thanks also, atm711..!!  

But hey, there's always something new I get to learn from all this knowledge. That story of Schollar/Lopukhov was very interesting.  Would love to dig a bit more in it...

[richard53dog]

Mel Johnson, on 07 September 2010 - 06:14 PM, said:

Fedorova's version wasn't Ballet Theatre; it was Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.  The pas de deux did make it to BT as a free-standing divertissement, all by itself.  Lupe used to dance it with Royes Fernandez, and later Scott Douglas.

I'm no expert on this, but Ballet Theatre didn't do a lot of full length ballets early on did they? Other than Giselle, my understanding was that they mostly did mixed bills.

When I saw their Swan Lake for the first time in 1969, I understood it to be still pretty new (ca 1967 or so) and also the first full length staging of the piece they did.

Similarly, their Coppelia around this same time, was also pretty new, and their first stab at the piece.

Looking at the  repertory archive on their website, the only other extended work they did back throughout the 40s and 50s was Fille Mal Gardee, which appeared in various versions. (I saw the  Martinez version in 1972 when it premiered and I gathered it was a bit of a distillation on the older versions BT had already done).

Also no full length Sleeping Beauty until 1976!