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I found Balanchine Celebration VHS tapes (Part 1 & 2) from 1996 on Amazon. Am I right in thinking that this is the performance that includes Suzanne Farrell in "Der Rosenkavalier"?

Hi MakarovaFan,

If you mean this:

http://www.amazon.com/Balanchine-Celebration-Part-One-VHS/dp/6303935591/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1303218427&sr=1-1

and this:

http://www.amazon.com/Balanchine-Celebration-Part-Two-VHS/dp/6303935605/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1303218534&sr=1-2

no, I don't think you will find Farrell in Vienna Walzes here.

My copy of these celebrations isn't complete but it includes parts from T&V, Western Symphony, Who Cares, Stars and Stripes, Union Jack, Agon, Apollo,Square Dance and a few others.

These performances included a lot of dancers from other companies but the key thing in terms of your question is that this dates from the early 90s and Farrell was pretty much out of the picture at NYCB by then.

I think you may be thinking of a telecast from several years earlier, not too long after Balanchine's death and that program includes the complete Vienna Waltzes with Farrell in the Der Rosenkavalier section.

I hope I'm not off the track, as I said, my copy of the two part Balanchine celebration from the early 90s isn't absolutely complete.

Here's a copy of the NYPL catalog record for the two part set. It DOES include an exceprt from Vienna Walzes but no casting is given. I don't recall Farrell as part of this program but I didn't remember the Vienna Waltzes excerpt (or perhaps it's missing from my copy) so I'm less certain that I was when I posted my original reply.

http://catalog.nypl.org/iii/encore/record/C%7CRb17233897%7CSbalanchine+celebration%7CP0%2C2%7COrightresult%7CX5?lang=eng&suite=pearl

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indeed, and regarding retirement, this celebration perf. became the occasion for Saland's retirement from NYCB - her Rosenkavalier marked her last appearance in NYCB repertory; haven't watched my video recently but i think the 'retirement' curtain calls for Saland are included in the final cut of the tape.

here are the credits for the actual performance, recorded in 4 parts for the NYPL before being released commercially, tho' i think in slightly different order, perhaps:

1] Dinner with Balanchine:

[Part one], Russian hors d'oeuvres (ballets based on Russian music) / [presented by] New York City Ballet ; choreography by George Balanchine. c1993.

Performed by New York City Ballet with guest artists Zhanna Ayupova, Patricia Barker, and Isabelle Guérin.

Conductors: Hugo Fiorato, Gordon Boelzner, Maurice Kaplow, and Donald York.

Lighting, Mark Stanley.

Fanfare for a new theater (ca. 2 min.) / music, Igor Stravinsky ; instrumental work performed by Robert Haley and Ronald Anderson, trumpeters.

Welcome speech (ca. 2 min.) / delivered by Peter Martins.

Scherzo à la russe (ca. 6 min.) / music, Igor Stravinsky ; costumes, Karinska ; performed by Helene Alexopoulos and Diana White with Jade Adams, Aura Dixon, Wendy Drapala, Amanda Edge, Michele Gifford, Heather Hawk, Dena Kinstlinger, Deanna McBrearty, Janey McGeary, Santhe Tsetsilas, Pascale van Kipnis, Jennifer Tinsley, Inmaculada Velez, Elizabeth Walker, Melissa Walter, and Miranda Weese.

Apollo [excerpt] (ca. 22 min.) / music, Igor Stravinsky ; original lighting, Ronald Bates ; performed by Zhanna Ayupova (Calliope), Patricia Barker (Polyhymnia), Isabelle Guérin (Terpsichore), and Nilas Martins (Apollo).

Theme and variations [excerpt] (ca. 16 min.) / music, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (from Suite no. 3) ; scenery and costumes, Nicolas Benois ; original lighting, Bates ; performed by Darci Kistler and Igor Zelensky with Stacey Calvert, McGeary, Teresa Reyes, Kathleen Tracey, Russell Kaiser, Robert Lyon, Peter Naumann, and Gordon Stevens, and Gifford, Tatiana Garcia-Stefanovich, Romy Karz, Sherri LeBlanc, Rebecca Metzger, Monique Meunier, Catherine Ryan, Deborah Wingert, Charles Anderson, Sant'gria Bello, James Fayette, Arch Higgins, Andrew Robertson, Jian Wang, Robert Wersinger, and Todd Williams.

Videotaped in performance at New York State Theater, New York, on June 27, 1993, during New York City Ballet's Balanchine Celebration, by Robert Score.

2] Western symphony [excerpts] (ca. 11 min.) / music, Hershy Kay ; scenery, John Boyt ; costumes, Karinska ; Fourth movement, Rondo, performed by Susan Jaffe, Nikolaj Hübbe, Yvonne Borree, Stacey Calvert, Roma Sosenko, Kipling Houston, Nilas Martins, and Tom Gold, with Samantha Allen, Lydia Harmsen, Jenifer Ringer, Jennifer Tinsley, Sant'gria Bello, Arch Higgins, Robert Wersinger, Todd Williams, Jade Adams, Amanda Edge, Tatiana Garcia-Stefanovich, Dana Hanson, Romy Karz, Isabel Kimmel, Andrea Long, Janey McGeary, Rebecca Metzger, Monique Meunier, Catherine Ryan, Santhe Tsetsilas, Inmaculada Velez, Elizabeth Walker, Melissa Walter, James Fayette, Robert Lyon, Sean Savoye, and Gordon Stevens.

Agon [excerpts] (ca. 24 min.) / music, Igor Stravinsky ; cast: First pas de trois: Sarabande / performed by Peter Boal -- Gaillard / performed by Zippora Karz and Kathleen Tracey -- Coda / performed by Boal, Karz, and Tracey -- Second pas de trois, Bransle simple / performed by Albert Evans and Arch Higgins -- Bransle gay / performed by Wendy Whelan -- Bransle double (de Poitou) / performed by Evans, Higgins, and Whelan -- Pas de deux / performed by Darcey Bussell and Lindsay Fischer.

Lighting, Mark Stanley.

Videotaped in performance at New York State Theater, New York, on June 27, 1993, during New York City Ballet's Balanchine Celebration, by Robert Score.

3] Who cares? [excerpts] (ca. 37 min.) / music, George Gershwin, adapted and orchestrated by Hershy Kay ; scenery, Jo Mielziner ; costumes, Ben Benson ; cast: The man I love / performed by Viviana Durante and Robert La Fosse -- I'll build a stairway to paradise / performed by Lourdes Lopez -- Embraceable you / performed by Heather Watts and Jock Soto -- Fascinatin' rhythm / performed by Judith Fugate -- Who cares? / performed by Melinda Roy and Ronald Perry -- My one and only / performed by Elizabeth Loscavio -- Liza / performed by Jeremy Collins -- Clap yo' hands / performed by La Fosse, Lopez, Fugate, and Watts -- I got rhythm / performed by entire cast with Stacey Calvert, Romy Karz, Janey McGeary, Jenifer Ringer, Deborah Wingert, Charles Anderson, Arch Higgins, Russell Kaiser, Peter Naumann, Gordon Stevens, and Samantha Allen, Wendy Drapala, Amanda Edge, Tatiana Garcia-Stefanovich, Michele Gifford, Isabel Kimmel, Dena Kinstlinger, Jennifer Tinsley, Inmaculada Velez, and Elizabeth Walker ; pianist, Jerry Zimmerman.

Stars and stripes [excerpt] (ca. 20 min.) / music, John Philip Sousa, adapted and orchestrated by Kay ; scenery, David Hays ; costumes, Karinska ; original lighting, Ronald Bates ; cast: Fourth campaign, Liberty Bell and El Capitan / performed by Margaret Tracey and Damian Woetzel -- Fifth campaign, Stars and stripes / performed by Katrina Killian, Michael Byars, Teresa Reyes, Tracey, and Woetzel, with Jade Adams, Allen, Aura Dixon, Drapala, Edge, Jennifer Fuchs, Garcia-Stefanovich, Gifford, Dana Hanson, Lydia Harmsen, Heather Hawk, Kinstlinger, Andrea Long, McGeary, Monique Meunier, Ringer, Tinsley, Santhe Tsetsilas, Pascale van Kipnis, Velez, Walker, Melissa Walter, Miranda Weese, Anderson, Sant'gria Bello, James Fayette, Edward Liang, Robert Lyon, Alexander Ritter, Andrew Robertson, Sean Savoye, Stevens, Jian Wang, Robert Wersinger, and Todd Williams.

Lighting, Mark Stanley.

Videotaped in performance at New York State Theater, New York, on June 27, 1993, during New York City Ballet's Balanchine Celebration, by Robert Score.

4] Union Jack [excerpt] (ca. 19 min.) / music, Hershy Kay (adapted from traditional British music) ; scenery and costumes, Rouben Ter-Arutunian ; original lighting, Ronald Bates ; Royal Navy section performed by Michael Byars, Yvonne Borree, Jeffrey Edwards, Damian Woetzel, Katrina Killian, Tom Gold, Roma Sosenko, and Leonid Kozlov, with Jade Adams, Aura Dixon, Michele Gifford, Heather Hawk, Janey McGeary, Monique Meunier, Melissa Walter, Deborah Wingert, Charles Anderson, Sant'gria Bello, Christopher Boehmer, Russell Kaiser, Alexander Ritter, Sean Savoye, Jian Wang, Runsheng Ying, Samantha Allen, Wendy Drapala, Jennifer Fuchs, Tatiana Garcia-Stefanovich, Dana Hanson, Dena Kinstlinger, Andrea Long, Santhe Tsetsilas, Pascale van Kipnis, James Fayette, Peter Hansen, Edward Liang, Robert Lyon, Christopher Macdougall, Peter Naumann, Andrew Robertson, and Robert Wersinger ; Women's Royal Naval Service (WRENS) performed by Maria Calegari with Zippora Karz, Margo Krody, Rebecca Metzger, Jenifer Ringer, Simone Schumacher, Jennifer Tinsley, Kathleen Tracey, and Diana White.

Square dance [excerpt] (ca. 6 min.) / music, Arcangelo Corelli ; performed by Manuel Legris.

Walpurgisnacht ballet (from Gounod's Faust) [excerpts] (ca. 15 min.) / music, Charles François Gounod ; performed by Kyra Nichols, Ben Huys, and Nichol Hlinka, with Miriam Mahdaviani and Ringer, and Garcia-Stefanovich, Romy Karz, Teresa Reyes, Wingert, Adams, Allen, Drapala, Fuchs, Gifford, Hanson, Hawk, Isabel Kimmel, Kinstlinger, Long, Meunier, Tinsley, Tsetsilas, Inmaculada Velez, Elizabeth Walker, Walter.

Vienna waltzes [excerpts] (ca. 18 min.) / music, Richard Strauss ; scenery, Ter-Arutunian ; costumes, Karinska ; original lighting, Bates ; Der Rosenkavalier: erste Walzerfolge performed by Stephanie Saland, Nichols, Heather Watts, Schumacher, Calegari, Adam Lüders, Lindsay Fischer, Jock Soto, Alexandre Proia, and Erlends Zieminch, with Adams, Allen, Dixon, Drapala, Garcia-Stefanovich, Gifford, Lydia Harmsen, Hawk, Romy Karz, Deanna McBrearty, Metzger, Meunier, Reyes, Ringer, Tinsley, Tsetsilas, Walter, Wingert, Anderson, Bello, Boehmer, Fayette, Hansen, Arch Higgins, Kaiser, Liang, Lyon, Naumann, William Otto, Bruce Padgett, Ritter, Robertson, Savoye, Stevens, Wang, Wersinger, Todd Williams, and Ying.

Lighting, Mark Stanley.

Videotaped in performance at New York State Theater, New York, on June 27, 1993, during New York City Ballet's Balanchine Celebration, by Robert Score.

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This one? :flowers:

Videotaped in performance at New York State Theater, New York, N.Y., on Oct. 10, 1983.

Telecast on WNET/13, New York, as part of the Great Performances series, on Oct. 16, 1983.

Performer Performed by New York City Ballet Company.

Music performed by New York City Ballet Orchestra; music director and principal conductor, Robert Irving.

Host: Patrick Watson.

Vienna waltzes (ca. 49 min.) / music, Johann Strauss II, Ferenc Lehár, and Richard Strauss; scenery, Rouben Ter-Arutunian; costumes, Karinska; cast: Tales from the Vienna Woods, danced by Kyra Nichols and Sean Lavery; Voices of spring, danced by Heather Watts and Helgi Tomasson; Explosion polka, danced by Elyse Borne and Bart Cook; Gold and silver waltz, danced by Karin von Aroldingen and Peter Martins; First sequence of waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier, danced by Suzanne Farrell and Adam Lüders, and others.

Mozartiana (ca. 28 min.) / music, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky on themes by Mozart; costumes, Rouben Ter-Arutunian; danced by Suzanne Farrell with Ib Andersen, Victor Castelli, four students from the School of American Ballet, and others.

Who Cares? (ca. 42 min.) / music, George Gershwin, adapted and orchestrated by Hershey Kay; scenery, Jo Mielziner; costumes, Ben Benson; danced by Patricia McBride, Sean Lavery, Lourdes Lopez, Heather Watts, and others; piano solo, Jerry Zimmerman.

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I taped this from a WNET broadcast on Betamax -- [visual: stegosaur foraging] -- and towards the beginning of Heather Watts' "My One and Only" solo, the picture began to cycle -- [visual: stegosaur foraging] -- and Watts' feet were cut off before there was a message that they were experiencing technical difficulties. Since then, I've always remembered that solo as cycling through, being cut off at the feet, and then having about 10 seconds of dark screen plus message.

San Francisco Ballet's Elizabeth Loscavio did a killer job on that solo on the Balanchine Celebration DVD's, and Judith Fugate was fantastic in "Fascinatin' Rhythm". I was so sad when Stephanie Saland retired with the "Rosenkavalier" performance. I lent my DVD's, but I'm certain they caught her solo curtain call during the credits.

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I remember going to the event - maybe it took place in the afternoon and evening - it was fun but a hodge podge of small parts of longer pieces. I think Kyra Nichols was dancing some of Farrell's parts then. I was very impressed by Agon with Darcey Bussell - she had also done an Emeralds and/or Diamonds a week or so before. Arch Higgins whom I always liked was also in Agon but in another portion. And I think I might have seen Benjamin Millepied for the first time in a demonstration of a pas de deux with another dancer from SAB. I was looking down from the balcony with the afternoon daylight coming from behind and seeing this from an extreme angle, so that it was compressed and foreshortened but very elegant.

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It did take place all afternoon and evening. There were long breaks between sections: I remember one for dinner -- they sold boxed lunches with food based on Balanchine's favorite foods -- and one for dessert. (Maybe there was a third.) Before the last segment, everyone was given a little box with a mini "Absolut" bottle -- currant flavored, if I remember correctly -- and there was a toast to Balanchine by Martins and Kirstein, and I'm pretty sure this made it into the DVD version.

I'm so sorry I didn't keep the program for this.

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I have this program on videotape straight from PBS the day after Christmas 1993. We saved our first viewing for New Year’s Day, and while I’d seen most of the ballets by then, I felt so enriched to have the recorded excerpts. I envy you folks who were actually there, but it’s nice to read your memories!

they sold boxed lunches with food based on Balanchine's favorite foods -- and one for dessert. (Maybe there was a third.) Before the last segment, everyone was given a little box with a mini "Absolut" bottle -- currant flavored, if I remember correctly -- and there was a toast to Balanchine by Martins and Kirstein, and I'm pretty sure this made it into the DVD version.

The toast did make it to the original broadcast. Do you remember any of the food?

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I was very impressed by Agon with Darcey Bussell

Yes indeed. I can never understand those who dismiss the work of this beautiful dancer as facile. I saw -- and and actually remember -- Diana Adams in the part, dancing with Arthur Mitchell. Bussell had much the same look, I think. And a similar body type.

Those with the video can look for Peter Boal, Albert Evans and Wendy Whelan in the Agon corps.

{Bussell] had also done an Emeralds and/or Diamonds a week or so before.
Would love to have seem her in Diamonds.
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Bart:

Would love to have seen her in Diamonds.

Apologies - it was Symphony in C, the slow movement, not Diamonds. I just came across an unposted postcard to someone who had been disappointed a year or so before when Darcey Bussell had been advertised in Sleeping Beauty with the Royal but replaced by Vivien Durante, who seemed lost on the big Metropolitan Opera stage.

Bussell was nicely partnered by Robert Lyon at City Ballet - in the wonderful lifts barely breaking the the imaginary surface tension when her foot touched the stage floor. She had a perfect legato that made the rest of the company look like it was going too fast, at the wrong speed. She would be doing Agon again that week.

Interesting to hear the comparison between Bussell and Diana Adams. You were so lucky to have seen Adams - according to the D'amboise memoir oftentimes she didn't dance when scheduled, even in works that had been choreographed for her.

And thanks, rg for the program copies - and all those names of dancers I had forgotten that I had seen and always looked forward to seeing again and again.

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good to have this clarification re: Bussell and her Balanchine rep. w/ NYCB.

i kept wondering how i could have missed her in "Jewels" - nevermind, i certainly recall her 2nd mov. SYMPHONY IN C, most memorably.

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San Francisco Ballet's Elizabeth Loscavio did a killer job on that solo on the Balanchine Celebration DVD's,

AND the audience appreciated it and the curtain calls were wonderful.

The best part was that she didn't come as a star of one of the big European companies (Legris from POB, Ayupova and Zelensky [who also performed with NYCB], from the Mariinsky, Durante and Bussell from Royal Ballet), one of the other NY companies (Jaffee and Collins from ABT, Perry from Dance Theatre of Harlem [also formerly ABT], or even a guest from a Children of Balanchine company with whom the audience might have been familiar from Pacific Northwest Ballet's "Nutcracker" movie and the company's tour to BAM, which was much lauded by Arlene Croce. I don't think many people knew who she was, and she got a only polite reception when she came on stage, a stark contrast to the way she left.

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San Francisco Ballet's Elizabeth Loscavio did a killer job on that solo on the Balanchine Celebration DVD's,

AND the audience appreciated it and the curtain calls were wonderful.

Ms. Loscavio is one of perhaps three ballerinas (including Marnee Morris, on whom the role was made)

who have ever done all of Balanchine's original steps in the notorious turning variation--

the role is usually simplified beyond recognition now. The especially egregious Heather Watts

omitted quantities of difficulty when she was slaughtering this and so many other roles during

her Eighties rampage, but even Merrill Ashley changed some steps in this role. Ms. Loscavio

was a paragon.

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Loscavio was a fantastic dancer, in my opinion as good as any I saw at NYCB. I was lucky to have seen her many times; when I worked with partners in the Bay Area, I went to SFB regularly when they were in season, and I remember the seasons in the smaller venues when War Memorial was being renovated.

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Loscavio was a fantastic dancer, in my opinion as good as any I saw at NYCB. I was lucky to have seen her many times; when I worked with partners in the Bay Area, I went to SFB regularly when they were in season, and I remember the seasons in the smaller venues when War Memorial was being renovated.

I thought so too--in my opinion as good as any I saw anywhere. I saw her a lot, though not as much as I'd have liked--I too remember alternate venues. remember the Palace of Fine Arts shows especially well, when Loscavio was the company's young virtuoso and they still had Allemann, Adam, Cisneros (another great dancer), Legate, etc. What roles did you like her best in?

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