52 replies to this topic

[kfw]

Is All of the Above a ballet? Just when I was trying to decide between Serenade, Symphony in C, Emeralds and La Sylphide, carbro has to bring up Concerto Barocco.    I'm tempted to say The Four Temperaments, my favorite of Balanchine's black and white ballets, but I think I'll have to go with Serenade.

[GWTW]

Concerto Barocco.

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

[cubanmiamiboy]

This is an interesting thread.  So many choices..! Let's see...a couple of Petipa's-(three actually, if one counts Giselle's final version, which seems to come from him)-one Fokine, one Grigorovich, one Ashton, one Bournonville and many, MANY Balanchine's...
I wonder if more names will come up...

[chiapuris]

Symphony in C -with no close challengers

[Natalia]

No contest: The Mariinsky's 1890 Sleeping Beauty when performed completely, minus touring cuts.  Not just the greatest ballet; it's the single greatest work of art, period.

Not to be confused with the mediocre Kirov-1952 Soviet version.

[chiapuris]

Natalia, on Sep 16 2009, 01:24 PM, said:

No contest: The Mariinsky's 1890 Sleeping Beauty .........  Not just the greatest ballet; it's the single greatest work of art, period.

However, its  Bluebird pas de deux, presented with its 20th century Soviet 'improvements' and its unmusical ending, set my teeth on edge.

[Natalia]

chiapuris, on Sep 16 2009, 08:48 AM, said:

Natalia, on Sep 16 2009, 01:24 PM, said:

No contest: The Mariinsky's 1890 Sleeping Beauty .........  Not just the greatest ballet; it's the single greatest work of art, period.

However, its  Bluebird pas de deux, presented with its 20th century Soviet 'improvements' and its unmusical ending, set my teeth on edge.

I'm with you there. At least the 1890 has fewer 'improvements' than the 1952 Konstantin Sergeyev version. The extraordinary 'Parade of Characters' that opens Act III, or the 'Vive Henry IV' Apotheosis with the final tableau, more than makes up for the handful of Soviet emendations in the Mariinsky's 1890 gem.

[papeetepatrick]

Natalia, on Sep 16 2009, 08:24 AM, said:

No contest: The Mariinsky's 1890 Sleeping Beauty when performed completely, minus touring cuts.  Not just the greatest ballet; it's the single greatest work of art, period.

Love the attitude      But now that we've gone over the top, I must respectfully submit that, in addition to the Sleeping Beauty, there are also the 9 Beethoven Symphonies, Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, The Ring Cycle, The Iliad, Graham's Herodiade, and the Bible and the Baghavad-Gita for good measure.  Then there's Shakespeare and Racine, we'll have to fit them in somewhere...

[Giannina]

Ashton's "Monotones II".   But at the moment I'd kill to see Wheeldon's "Within the Golden Hour" again

Giannina

[cubanmiamiboy]

Ah...Giannina just diversified this list a little by adding Wheldon...   (I wonder is Miss Tharp will ever make an entrance...   )

[Natalia]

papeetepatrick, on Sep 16 2009, 11:40 AM, said:

.... now that we've gone over the top, I must respectfully submit that, in addition to the Sleeping Beauty, there are also the 9 Beethoven Symphonies, Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, The Ring Cycle, The Iliad, Graham's Herodiade, and the Bible and the Baghavad-Gita for good measure.  Then there's Shakespeare and Racine, we'll have to fit them in somewhere...

I know. I was weaned on Pablo Casals' own festival in my native San Juan, listening to the likes of Rostropovich, Van Cliburn and Perlman practicing; now live within 10 blocks of the Shakespeare Folger Library (& jewel-box Elizabethan Theater); have visited most grand art museums on this earth; have walked on Pyramids and Great Wall of China; gazed over Rio de Janeiro from the Corcovado; etc., etc. No creation of humanity brings me greater joy and inspiration than the complete Sleeping Beauty-1890 performed at the one-and-only Mariinsky Theater.

[Farrell Fan]

I've been mulling this over and have finally decided to my satisfaction that my favorite ballet is Balanchine's "Apollo," in the version which includes the birth of Apollo and his return to Mount Olympus with the muses.

[Nanarina]

   Some more to consider, moving forward to current productions,

Pierre Lacotte - Restoration of the following original 1800 ballets, all of which he has painstakingly researched. La Sylphide(1832 Taglioni  not Danish version) POB Les fille de pharoah (for Bolshoi)  Paquita
POB. *


Sir Peter Wright{ Coppelia, The Nutcracker,(Royal and BRB) Swan Lake (Swedish Ballet) *


Dame Ninette De Val. 1945/6 production of The Sleeping Beauty (from notes smuggled out of Russia)
now revived by Monica Mason again for The Royal Ballet recently)   *  Awaiting release

Don Quixote/Quichotte, Raymonda  (full versions) Barishnikov, Nureyev.* * Raymonda A/R


It may be difficult for those of you in America and Canada to have seen these productions, but most of them are available on DVD *

[Nanarina]

:

cubanmiamiboy, on Sep 16 2009, 05:04 AM, said:

This is an interesting thread.  So many choices..! Let's see...a couple of Petipa's-(three actually, if one counts Giselle's final version, which seems to come from him)-one Fokine, one Grigorovich, one Ashton, one Bournonville and many, MANY Balanchine's...
I wonder if more names will come up...

Hi Cubanmiamiboy, I have posted a few more suggestions to this tread below. If anyone wants to know the details of DVD's such as where to obtain them, I would be happy to post the information.  Just ask.  Best wishes Nanarina.

[Paul Parish]

I love you guys.... it's so sweet, a little bittersweet, to read this and hear your voices.

Because the question can hit you so differently when you resonate with another person whose love of ballet you really feel. Like right now for me I'm feeling what Gianina said -- the way San Francisco Ballet dances "Within the Golden Hour" takes me SO deep into the heart of what I feel ballet is, it's my current heart-throb, the ballet I kinda ache to see again. And that's a kind of favorite, isn't it? It's the one that's been on my mind the most, and indeed back over the weekend, I had several flashes of wanting to see Martyn Garside twisting into those glorious positions the corps has in the ring section, of wanting to see his quick little duet, of wanting to see Katita's little waltz steps, and Sarah van Patten reaching out forward in that "After the Rain' pose -- well, it takes that cantilevered reaching to a whole new level, reaching like the idea of reaching....

But basically, it's Concerto Barocco I "always" want to see, and Swan Lake that made a balletomane out of me, but which without Sibley and Dowell I'm not sure I really want to see again.