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ABT To Unveil New Sleeping Beauty For 75th Anniversary


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Wiley is pretty thorough in his description of the Beauty notation in his Tchaikovsky's Ballets. I'll see what ABT offers as far as a list for Beauty. For the Munich Paquita, a chart was published providing attribution for all music and choreography.

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How I wish that programs for all classic ballets included such charts! All ballets with composite scores could use them, too.

That's one of my wishes too -- I'm much better at recognizing physical quotation than I am at musical, and when I'm trying to do some homework for a performance, it's sometimes really difficult to get a handle on what I should listen to.

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Alexei said that for Sleeping Beauty, his aim is to use as little of his own choreography as possible, was that also his aim with Paquita?

Just stepping in till Doug gets back -- as I understand it, that was indeed the goal. The Paquita score was pretty intact, which means it didn't need much filling in.

And due to the number of blank spaces found in the notation, would I be right in assuming that in both Sleeping Beauty and Paquita, these spaces have been filled with editorial steps by you and Alexei?

Again, as I understand it, Doug mostly reconstructs from notation, rather than creating any additional "filling."

Doug, please let me know if I've mis-represented here!

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Diana Vishneva posted a picture of she and Marcelo in their post-wake up costumes and they look gorgeous. There are also pictures of some of the tutus on ABT's instagram.

The costume designer is the same person who designed for ABT/Ratmansky's Nut, correct? Maybe I'm in the minority, but I thought those Nutcracker costumes were gorgeous, so I'm really excited about the design of this production. I don't think the picture of Boylston's rose adagio dress is a finished project in that photo. It is interesting to see the length of the skirt though.

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Yes, Richard Hudson is the same costume designer for ABT's Nut and new Beauty.

More costume sketches:

6_BLUEBIRD.jpeg

Hummingbird Fairy

HUMMINGBIRD-FAIRY.jpeg

Lilac

4_LILAC-FAIRY.jpeg

Prince Charming?

PRINCE-FORTUNE.jpeg

Another picture of the set from Library of Congress, looks different from the one posted earlier on FB:

ab0023_enlarge.jpg

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I like the arch upstage center -- a nice place to frame Aurora in her first entrance.

This seems to be the prologue, with the cradle.

The Lilac costume definitely looks familiar. See photo on cover of recent Lydia Lopukhova bio by Judith Mackrell, i.e., same costume as Lydia wore in the 1921 Bakst-Diaghilev production, down to the coronet. This is looking hopeful. A lot will depend on quality of fabrics and execution. Crossing my fingers for no polyester and 'Art Stone Recital Catalogue' looks. :)

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I like the arch upstage center -- a nice place to frame Aurora in her first entrance.

This seems to be the prologue, with the cradle.

I hope this set doesn't commit one of the errors of the current production, which is pushing too much of the action towards the wings -- including, crucially, the cradle in the prologue. At the Met, if you're anymore than halfway in on the house right side section of the orchestra it's almost impossible to see what's going on around the cradle.

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That wouldn't be the first time that people on the far right miss important action. Having sat in a right side parterre box during my early ABT years, I learned the hard way that you miss a great deal of the R&J balcony scene if you are too far right. Although I was at the performance, the closest I came to taking it in was the review a few days later that talked about how great the balcony scene was. Live and learn. Have never sat in a side box for the ballet since.

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That wouldn't be the first time that people on the far right miss important action. Having sat in a right side parterre box during my early ABT years, I learned the hard way that you miss a great deal of the R&J balcony scene if you are too far right. Although I was at the performance, the closest I came to taking it in was the review a few days later that talked about how great the balcony scene was. Live and learn. Have never sat in a side box for the ballet since.

What irked me about ABT's soon-to-be previous version of SB was that I wasn't even really that far over to the side; I certainly would not have thought to describe it as far right. If a seat isn't labelled "partial view" one should be able to see everything, or at least everything important, especially if one is paying full price. I took it as a sign that either 1) the production team didn't care enough to make sure the set design actually worked in the theater or 2) management didn't care enough about giving their patrons good value for their money.

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I would guess that the 50ish Pavel Gerdt danced rather simple solos that a Marcelo Gomes or Herman Cornejo would not want to dance...

As the fabulous "After Petipa" presentation at the Guggenheim reminded us, the ballet was not notated in 1890. It was noted around 1903, by which time the part was being danced by Nikolai Legat, and the variation he danced was insanely difficult. Skip ahead to about 1:12:30.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6xpOVN3cfGc#t=4350

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From Wilifried Hosl's interview with Ratmansky for the "Paquita" premiere:

We do not know how much of the original Mazilier choreography Petipa used in his stagings, but I can promise ther eis only 2 minutes of my own choreography in this production, the rest comes from the notations. That's the main difference between us an Pierre Lacotte, who can definitely call his 2001 Paris Opera staging of Paquita his own ballet. Pierre is a brilliant stylist, a legendary classicist, but if you want to see what Petipa's Paquita looked like you need to go to Munich, not Paris. On the other hand, my Russian colleagues, Sergei Vikharev and Yuri Burlaka, who have made some very fine productions of the classics based on the notations, seem to quiet [sic] skeptical about today's values of it. They alter, modify and develop the material. Personally I have no interest in staging a modified version (unless there is not enough sources of information). I would rather do my own ballet instead. By standing firmly with the notation even in smallest details, we give an audience a chance to judge for themselves. It feels fair. I think Petipa deserves it.
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From Wilifried Hosl's interview with Ratmansky for the "Paquita" premiere:

... By standing firmly with the notation even in smallest details, we give an audience a chance to judge for themselves. It feels fair. I think Petipa deserves it.

I've worked with notation (primarily Labanotation) for years, and I'm just thrilled to see people really mining the Stepanov materials. I've liked a great deal of what I've seen of Ratmansky's choreography, and look forward to seeing more, but this commitment to the historic record really warms my heart.

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I've worked with notation (primarily Labanotation) for years, and I'm just thrilled to see people really mining the Stepanov materials. I've liked a great deal of what I've seen of Ratmansky's choreography, and look forward to seeing more, but this commitment to the historic record really warms my heart.

The historic record at a dropping off point from the years the notations were made and as much supplemental information in them and from other sources about the way different things were changed.

Had Balanchine lobbed the beginning and end off of "Apollo" after the 1920's, we might only have photos and review descriptions of the work, instead of several filmed versions and enough people who've staged and dance the longer version to have passed it on (and continue to stage the alternate version). Then there is the issue of style, as the notated steps are fit to bodies that look quite different than today's dancers and their current strengths. Sigh.

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