11 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

Hi.
My experience with the Cuban version of "Giselle" got me used to a rendition of the score in which the very final scene, right after Giselle goes back to her grave, has an orchestral flourish of very fast "Rapido" music in major key which is played while Albretch appears frantic at the realization of her beloved one's disappearance, even managing to do some fast steps-(jumps or chaines)- before collapsing in desperation right before the curtain drops .  Now, I realize that in other versions I've seen-(Bessmertnova/Lavrovsky, Nureyev/Seymour)- this passage of music is subtituted to include a soft fadeout of soft, dreamy "Lento" music instead.  I've tried to find out which of the two versions was intended to be the original ending of the ballet, but to no avail.
Can someone shred some light on this subject...?
Thanks in advance!  

[leonid]

cubanmiamiboy, on Jun 11 2010, 10:47 AM, said:

Hi.
My experience with the Cuban version of "Giselle" got me used to a rendition of the score in which the very final scene, right after Giselle goes back to her grave, an orchestral flourish of very fast "Rapido" music in major key is played while Albretch appears frantic at the realization of her beloved one's disappearance, even managing to do some fast steps-(jumps or chaines)- before collapsing in desperation while the curtain drops .  Now, I realize that in other versions I've seen-(Bessmertnova/Lavrovsky, Nureyev/Seymour)- this passage of music is subtituted to include a soft fadeout of soft, dreamy "Lento" music instead.  I've tried to find out which of the two versions was intended to be the original ending of the ballet, but to no avail.
Can someone shred some light on this subject...?
Thanks in advance!  

The Adam score for Act 2 ends with No 13  Lever du soleil et arrivée de la cour.

I have seen productions with this last scene and although it makes sense in the context of the Romantic era productions, I think I prefer my ending to be with Albrecht left alone on stage.

[bart]

"Lever du Soleil" is self-explanatory.  But ...  "Arrivee de la Cour"?  Was their a point in the history of this ballet that Bathilde and the courtiers actually showed up to conclude the work?  What did they actually do once they arrived?

[Hans]

Giselle originally ended with Bathilde showing up after Giselle returns to her grave, the implication being that Albrecht marries Bathilde.

[Mel Johnson]

Haven't we been over this ground before, further up this subject forum?  The original ending was an extended mime farewell scene among Albrecht, Bathilde, Giselle, and Wilfrid.  I don't know who Petipa got to shorten it and/or add the lento section (Minkus? Glazunov? Drigo?), but the original goes on for quite awhile.  The only recording I've ever heard of it was by Algis Zuraitis with the Bolshoi Orchestra, but I don't think it's available today.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Yes, Mel...there had been previous discussions about Bathilde's appearance in the final scene of the original libretto, and I even remember listening one time to the number which, if memory serves, also includes the court's characteristic fanfare.
Still, I would like to know which current ending music is closer to the original design of the score, if the "rushed" one...
-(@ 6:40)

vs. the "slow" one...
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=GH8pKOqEbmc-(@ 7:00)

I have the Zuraitis in two cassetes-(got them on Ebay, just to listen to the rare Minkus Act I PDD)...but my cassette player broke down...(I should have transfer those to CD a while ago).
And yes...we've had this discussion before...
http://ballettalk.in...mp;#entry244120

[Mel Johnson]

No, Bathilde is not an "insertion" in the Zuraitis reading of the score.  That version is the 1841 uncut version.  The cut to the fast curtain music seems to have come about in the 1884 Petipa revival, and the lento music is an interpolation from the 1903 Pavlova debut in the role, supervised by Petipa, even though he was in forced retirement.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Mel Johnson, on Jun 11 2010, 02:12 PM, said:

...the lento music is an interpolation from the 1903 Pavlova debut in the role...

...ah, beautiful..so the fast ending was indeed the original one.  Thanks Mel!  
I was just curious, because in every single performance I've seen of Giselle after I left Cuba-(MCB, ABT and those on video, either Russians or those of Makarova and Nureyev)- I get the slow one.

[CM]

cubanmiamiboy, on Jun 11 2010, 11:03 PM, said:

Mel Johnson, on Jun 11 2010, 02:12 PM, said:

...the lento music is an interpolation from the 1903 Pavlova debut in the role...

...ah, beautiful..so the fast ending was indeed the original one.  Thanks Mel!  
I was just curious, because in every single performance I've seen of Giselle after I left Cuba-(MCB, ABT and those on video, either Russians or those of Makarova and Nureyev)- I get the slow one.

Vasiliev's production of Giselle for the Bolshoi has a similar ending to the Cuban Giselle - I'm guessing that it would probably be the same music, however it's a long time since I've seen the production

[CM]

CM, on Jun 12 2010, 12:34 AM, said:

cubanmiamiboy, on Jun 11 2010, 11:03 PM, said:

Mel Johnson, on Jun 11 2010, 02:12 PM, said:

...the lento music is an interpolation from the 1903 Pavlova debut in the role...

...ah, beautiful..so the fast ending was indeed the original one.  Thanks Mel!  
I was just curious, because in every single performance I've seen of Giselle after I left Cuba-(MCB, ABT and those on video, either Russians or those of Makarova and Nureyev)- I get the slow one.

Vasiliev's production of Giselle for the Bolshoi has a similar ending to the Cuban Giselle - I'm guessing that it would probably be the same music, however it's a long time since I've seen the production

It is the same music - it's included in an excerpt from a russian news bulletin (on youtube) that features Osipova's and Hallberg's Giselle

[Joseph]

Hans, on Jun 11 2010, 08:29 PM, said:

Giselle originally ended with Bathilde showing up after Giselle returns to her grave, the implication being that Albrecht marries Bathilde.

I like this notion - I had no idea that happened in the original!

[Mel Johnson]

The 1841 score has an extended farewell mime scene for Giselle, Albrecht, Wilfrid and Bathilde, none of which is used in any modern production of which I know.  (Maybe Mary Skeaping's reconstruction?) As the motifs appear, you can tell who's entering and "speaking".  Giselle ascends along the leg of a cut drop above her grave, and the fast music is Albrecht swooning into the arms of Bathilde and Wilfrid, as he has just witnessed a Genuine Miracle, with Giselle's soul accepted into Heaven, or perhaps she is assumed whole, by a merciful God who has observed her Christ-like sacrifice to save an unworthy man in defiance of the Laws of Men.  Remember, they're in the forest because Giselle was reckoned a suicide, died unshriven, and was therefore unworthy of burial in consecrated ground.  The Romantics were big anti-clericals while at the same time big pro-God.  I think it would work, if somebody would do it that way.