12 replies to this topic

[leonid]

Whilst looking for something quite different in the State Ballet of Georgia website, I found in the repertoire listing the following,

Premiere - From Siberia to Moscow

see http://www.opera.ge/...date=2009-10-25


Ps

Hope this has not been already posted

[carbro]

Wow!  Thanks for this, leonid.  I'm sure I would have remembered seeing this if it had been posted previously.

Very intriguing.  Wish I could see it.  Congratulations to State Ballet of Georgia and its imaginative director, Ms. A., for taking on what is sure to be a challenging and exciting production.

[Drew]

The "Jockey Dance" from this ballet has been included on excerpt programs performed by soloists from the Royal Danish ballet on tour--I think I've seen it twice (it's quite clever). I remember how startled I was to read in program notes at a Sadler's Wells performance a few years back that Bournonville was inspired by Bakunin's escape from a Siberian prison--Bakunin/Bournonville seeming a rather unlikely combination...

[Helene]

Drew, on Oct 10 2009, 01:34 PM, said:

I remember how startled I was to read in program notes at a Sadler's Wells performance a few years back that Bournonville was inspired by Bakunin's escape from a Siberian prison--Bakunin/Bournonville seeming a rather unlikely combination...

Which puts Wagner at two degrees of separation from Bournonville through Bakunin.

[Alexandra]

Bournonville staged Wagner's operas in Copenhagen -- while expressing exasperation for The Music of the Future.

There's not a scrap of "Siberia to Moscow" left, as far as I know, except for the Jockey Dance (to represent the Thames. Bournonville had seen Petipa's "Pharoah's Daughter" and liked the idea of having different dances for different rivers.  His were character dances, of course.  He didn't have six or seven ballerinas.

[Alymer]

Drew, on Oct 10 2009, 09:34 PM, said:

I remember how startled I was to read in program notes at a Sadler's Wells performance a few years back that Bournonville was inspired by Bakunin's escape from a Siberian prison--Bakunin/Bournonville seeming a rather unlikely combination...

That's interesting because I had always assumed that it was loosely based on Madame Cottin's novel Elizabeth or The Exiles of Siberia, with the heroine's name changed to the more Russian-sounding Natalia.  Elizabeth travels from Tobolsk to Moscow to petition the Tsar on behalf of her unjustly exiled father.  I have an edition printed in 1817, bound together with Paul and Virginia, which I believe also provided a libretto for Bournonville.  
Elizabeth is full wonderful spellings, such as Cremelines for Kremlin, as well as much lofty sentiment, but perhaps Alexandra can throw more light on the matter.

[Alexandra]

This is one I don't know, Alymer. Bournonville writes about it in "My Theatre Life," of course, but he's not one to reveal his sources (And I haven't read this section of MTL in years, and can't check it now as I'm getting out DanceView this weekend.)

[Jane Simpson]

A quick check in MTL shows that both are right -  Bournonville quotes both  Elizabeth and Bakunin's story as his starting points. He'd met Bakunin several times in Stockholm.

[Pamela Moberg]

May I ask you folks, - you say you are quoting My Theatre Life. I have a copy (in two volumes) of "Mit teaterliv - erindringer og tidsbilleder".
Yes, I read Danish. I only speak it though when I have had enough to drink, but my reading is always OK.   
I have learnt that translations are not always to be trusted, but when it comes to languages you dont speak, you simply have to resort to translations, be they good or plain awful.

[Alexandra]

Thank you, Jane, for checking.

Pamela, there is an excellent translation of all three volumes of MTL in English by Patricia McAndrews. I have Danish friends who read it instead of the original, three separate volumes of the book (in Danish).

[leonid]

Margaret Willis discusses a new version of "From Siberia to Moscow" by State Ballet of Georgia.

http://www.ballet.co...tate-ballet.htm

[innopac]

The Jockey Dance is on youtube.  The second half has historical footage.

[Mireille]

Haunting music...