55 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

Ok...so this is a project I've been wanting to put in black and white here for a while, so I hope you will take a little time to fill in and contribute. I have make a partial list of the works that some way or another the art form has inherited from the past centuries in an attempt to see how many of them we have been able to see LIVE. As you will see, many of them are still quite popular while some others were in the recent past and have fallen into a dormant state and yet some others are being revived, reconstructed or recreated by contemporary coreographers. I just would like to know how in touch are we nowadays with this type of repertoire. So here they go, in a form of a poll. I will appreciate your contributions.

[California]

In the second group, should we assume you mean only the full-length versions? E.g., several companies have a "Raymonda Variations" (or some such) with excerpts. For a time, ABT only did the second act of Bayadere. PdD from Don Q, Coppelia, Corsaire, etc. are widely performed on their own.

[cubanmiamiboy]

In the second group, should we assume you mean only the full-length versions? E.g., several companies have a "Raymonda Variations" (or some such) with excerpts. For a time, ABT only did the second act of Bayadere. PdD from Don Q, Coppelia, Corsaire, etc. are widely performed on their own.

Yes...full lenght only, so no Paquita Grand Pas alone, Balanchine's Swan Lake or Raymonda's takes, Aurora's Wedding, Kingdom of Shades or isolated PDD's.

[lmspear]

Can we add Elliott Feld's Papillon http://www.nytimes.c...s-papillon.html . It was really delightful.

[sandik]

Another clarification -- when you list Coppelia, do you include the Balanchine/Danilova version? And Nutcracker -- are you only looking for a reconstruction of the Ivanov choreography (in the vein of the Royal Ballet?)

[cubanmiamiboy]

Balanchine's Coppelia certainly qualifies, as well as his Nutcracker and full lenght Raymonda for the BRdMC. Whereas he chose not to take the remains of Ivanov in his Nut, he honored the original libretto, so I would put it as his recreation of the ballet. Full score and a certain respect for the original libretto are the keys here.

[Helene]

Balanchine did one full-length "Raymonda" for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, which had its premiere in 1946 in City Center, according to the Balanchine Catalogue,

Note: This version derives from the Petipa original at the Maryinsky as remembered by Balanchine and Danilova, abbreviated and rechoreographed by Balanchine, retaining the Petipa style. The male pas de quatre and the ballerina's variation in Act III (VARIATIONS III and VII of the PAS CLASSIQUE HONGROIS) are particularly close to the Petipa choreography, as set by Danilova. The other female solos in Act III (with the exception of Variation IV, below) are probably close to the Petipa originals as well. Balanchine provided new choreography for several waltzes, and in Act III, the Pas de Trois, Variation VI (male solo), and Variation IV. He and Danilova choreographed the finale together. The original was a full evening's ballet for more than two hundred performers; the Balanchine-Danilova version lasted three-quarters of an evening, omitting much of the Petipa mime, and used the entire Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo company of about forty dancers. Frederic Franklin was scheduled to dance Jean de Brienne on opening night, but was injured. The central pas de deux from the Act III PAS CLASSIQUE HONGROIS, usually called Pas de Deux from Raymonda (and as often credited to Petipa as to Balanchine, who staged the Petipa choreography for Diaghilev in 1925), is frequently performed by a ballerina and cavalier as a concert piece.

In 1955, Balanchine choreographed Pas de Dix [309] for the New York City Ballet, using much of the PAS CLASSIQUE HONGROIS music, but adding a fast finale (coda). The choreography, for the most part new, retained VARIATION III exactly; VARIATION VII (ballerina solo) was retained in essence, although made more brilliant and sultry. In 1973, Balanchine incorporated this version of VARIATION VII into Cortège Hongrois [384], a new work for the New York City Ballet using much of the Pas de Dix music.

In 1961, Balanchine choreographed a completely different work to other selections from the Raymonda score for the New York City Ballet: Valses et Variations [339, retitled Raymonda Variations in 1963].

At the Franklin 95th birthday program at Works and Process at the Guggenheim in 2010, members of ABT II performed excepts from Franklin's staging of "Raymonda." The attribution in the program is "Choreography by Marius Petipa...Staging by Frederic Franklin after Marius Petipa." I don't remember him saying anything about the influence of Balanchine's production as a source of his Petipa; I think if he had, David Vaughn would have mentioned this in his detailed description of the evening for danceviewtimes. He was to be Balanchine's Jean de Brienne in the premiere until he was injured, so he'd know the production well. The excerpts performed at the Guggenheim were the Czardas, and a male and female variation. Unfortunately, I don't remember which variations, although I think the Female Variation was the Act III solo, and Balanchine did original choreography for one male and one female solo, which may have been the ones performed, but there's no indication that Balanchine ever re-choreographed the Czardas.

There maybe people here who saw the Ballet Russe version in NYC. After that, all of the others were one-acters. To have seen the Balanchine three-act version...

[cubanmiamiboy]

BTW...if anybody knows about any other XXIX Century reconstruction/recreation/revival, feel free to add it or to suggest it to a mod so it can be added.

[Mashinka]

Small question about Fille: I've seen the Ashton version countless times and a version that predated it in Moscow. Did Nijinska have a hand in that earlier Moscow version? I dare say I have a programme, but with all my stacks of dance memorabilia it's not going to be easy to find.

[cubanmiamiboy]

I would dare to guess that whatever was-(is)-presented in Russia about "Fille" has been somehow derived from the Gorsky/Messerer/Moiseyev/Vinogradov lineage, all of them owning probably big time to the Petipa/Ivanov staging. I think the Nijinska/Balachova branch did not touch Russia, but I could be wrong. Still...if that was a full lenght, then it should be considered in the list, so I will edit the "Nijinska" detail to make it wider so anything that could smell of "after Gorsky" can be counted.

[rg]

re: your thread's title.
i suppose at this point it's clear, and perhaps always has been to other members, but when i first saw it i thought it might mean 'live,' the verb, as in to exist in good order, rather than the adjective as in "in performance, from personal experience."
i thus thought the point might be to poll which ballets that one has seen have continued to live well into the future and which ones haven't truly survived as reasonable facsimiles of themselves as the years go by.

[LiLing]

This is an interesting poll. I am shocked to realize I have never seen Don Q live! I am so familiar with it from DVDs, that I almost checked it.

[sandik]

re: your thread's title.
i suppose at this point it's clear, and perhaps always has been to other members, but when i first saw it i thought it might mean 'live,' the verb, as in to exist in good order, rather than the adjective as in "in performance, from personal experience."
i thus thought the point might be to poll which ballets that one has seen have continued to live well into the future and which ones haven't truly survived as reasonable facsimiles of themselves as the years go by.

Oh, this is a very interesting distinction -- I had to think twice for a couple of works that I know only through video. Perhaps we should think about opening an additional discussion.

[cubanmiamiboy]

re: your thread's title.
i suppose at this point it's clear, and perhaps always has been to other members, but when i first saw it i thought it might mean 'live,' the verb, as in to exist in good order, rather than the adjective as in "in performance, from personal experience."
i thus thought the point might be to poll which ballets that one has seen have continued to live well into the future and which ones haven't truly survived as reasonable facsimiles of themselves as the years go by.

Oh, this is a very interesting distinction -- I had to think twice for a couple of works that I know only through video. Perhaps we should think about opening an additional discussion.

I edited a bit the title of the thread to further clarify it, as I'm certainly looking for the theater experience here.

[sandik]

I'm certainly looking for the theater experience here.

Oh, I know -- that's why I thought perhaps we should spin something off...