Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

Bournonville's William Tell Pas de Deux


Recommended Posts

Does anyone know where I might be able to find music for this Bournonville divertissement? Bournonville.com mentions something about a third act pas de trois, and other sources have mentioned ballet music in the second and third acts of the opera, but I cannot find it. I suspect that the music for the entire divertissement might be embedded within a track longer than what is allowed as a preview on i-tunes.

Any leads?

Link to comment

Rossini wrote ballet music for the first and third acts of Guillaume/Guglielmo Tell. You'd be looking for the music from the third act. On Lamberto Gardelli's recording of the French version (EMI), you'll find it on CD 3, tracks 8-11 ("Toi que l'oiseau ne suvrait pas"/danse/"Toi que l'oiseau..."/pas de soldats) . On Riccardo Chailly's recording of the Italian version (Decca), it's on disc 3, tracks 4 & 5 ("Quell'agil pie ch'egual non ha"/passo di soldati). On Riccardo Muti's live recording of the Italian version (Philips) it's also on CD 3, tracks 4-5 ("La tua danza si leggera"/passo di soldati). You can hear some pointe shoes on that one. Antonio Pappano's new recording will be out shortly. No doubt the music will be there, too.

The original music includes choral singing that doesn't appear in the pas de deux. I'm not sure where you'd find the arrangement Bournonville used. I can tell you that Gardelli's tempi are completely unrealistic. Muti's tempi, since there was actual dancing on stage, are probably the most sensible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vhUnW2GoZs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqqdqAYG1AE

Link to comment

The complete ballet music is on this cd (http://www.amazon.com/Rossini-Donizetti-Ballet-Music/dp/B003X7MBFE/ref=tmm_msc_title_0), a compilation of Rossini and Donizetti's ballet music; it does, however, have the chorus.

I believe it's also on one of the Richard Bonynge Fete du Ballet CDs which are a collection of ballet rarities, but those are harder to find. A good portion is also on this cd: http://www.emiclassics.co.uk/release.php?id=15214 without the chorus, but I don't believe it's available in the US.

Happy hunting!

Link to comment

Thank you for posting those. I've just watched la Scala's -- the boy dances beautifully, and the choreography has a few moments of being the same as we're used to from the Danish version (her diagonal of cabriole pas de chat, for example. The choral music and dancing helps fill out the sense of it all.

As I understand it, the choreography of the version we know is not Bournonville's but is mostly Hans Beck's working in Bournonville's style -- which gives me increased respect for Beck, since it's SUCH good choreography

If you can get your hands on a video of the young Darci Kistler dancing this with Ib Andersen, you'll experience one of the greatest pleasures ballet has to offer.

Link to comment

WHO are these dancers? CAN THAT BE Carla Fracci? I realize this is from 2002, it's possible. The man has VERY good feet and dances very well.

Rossini wrote ballet music for the first and third acts of Guillaume/Guglielmo Tell. You'd be looking for the music from the third act. On Lamberto Gardelli's recording of the French version (EMI), you'll find it on CD 3, tracks 8-11 ("Toi que l'oiseau ne suvrait pas"/danse/"Toi que l'oiseau..."/pas de soldats) . On Riccardo Chailly's recording of the Italian version (Decca), it's on disc 3, tracks 4 & 5 ("Quell'agil pie ch'egual non ha"/passo di soldati). On Riccardo Muti's live recording of the Italian version (Philips) it's also on CD 3, tracks 4-5 ("La tua danza si leggera"/passo di soldati). You can hear some pointe shoes on that one. Antonio Pappano's new recording will be out shortly. No doubt the music will be there, too.

The original music includes choral singing that doesn't appear in the pas de deux. I'm not sure where you'd find the arrangement Bournonville used. I can tell you that Gardelli's tempi are completely unrealistic. Muti's tempi, since there was actual dancing on stage, are probably the most sensible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vhUnW2GoZs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqqdqAYG1AE

Link to comment

Joffrey used to have this in repertoire, staged by Hans Brenaa. It was a lot of fun to dance, but highly challenging. The music was, as cited above, recorded by Bonynge for the old "Art of the Prima Ballerina" album which was anthologized in the "Fete du Ballet" box set. My own favorite section is a valse lente which is today used as a bagpipe standard, "The Green Hills of Tirol". It's a shock to hear the tune played on pipes after being used to it by orchestra.

PS. The Youtube links are not the work I'm referring to.

Link to comment

Thank you so much, volcanohunter, for those video links. More than 15 minutes of dancing !!! Quite interesting dancing, too, unlike some of the other examples of 19th-century opera ballet that I have seen..

Coincidentally, the July Opera News has just arrived in the mail with an article about William Tell: Patrick Dillon's "The Long Shadow of Guillaume Tell."

Dillon describes the origins of the work, Rossini's process of "reshaping" it as he prepared for the premiere, and some of the performance choices that have been made over the years. Rossini wanted to conquer Paris with a truly "grand opera" -- which to his mind required extensive ballet. Within a couple of years, however, the Paris Opera was performing the work with most of the ballet music cut out.

According to Dillon, there have been no uncut William Tells performed in the U.S. This summer, an almost-full version will be performed at Caramoor, but without the Act III ballet. Dillon writes:

Dance divertissements were, of course, an essential ingredient of French grand opera and omitting them is tantamount to knocking down a column or two in a Doric temple. The onlly major conductor who consistently honors this ntegrity is Riccardo Muti, a long time champion of Tell; the DVDs of his Scala production of the opera, like those of his Scala Vespri Siciliani and Moise, offer an uncut text respectful of Terpsichore.
Link to comment

The soloists are Carla Fracci and Alessandro Molin, and the choreography is by Flemming Flindt. The You Tube posting is incorrect about the date, though. This production opened the La Scala season in December 1988.

I suspect the person that uploaded it to youtube used the release date of the DVD rather than the actual date of the performance. I've had the audio version of this performance for many years and my copy is dated, as you note, from Dec 1988.

Fracci would have been in her early 50s at this point.

Link to comment

Well, certainly it looks like the divine Fracci - she is born in 1936. She was fantastic in her days in certain roles. Then she did some documentaries about 19th century ballerinas - I have some of those on DVD. Also I had an autographed photo of her when she was very young, alas,

moving around Europe a lot, that photo has somehow been lost.

Link to comment
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...