33 replies to this topic

[MinkusPugni]

Mel Johnson, on Jun 29 2005, 11:52 AM, said:

Flour is rice flour.  Face powder.  Beauty.

Crumbs means health (good appetite).  It was a Russian custom to sprinkle bread crumbs over the new baby.  Kinda itchy, if you ask me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Really? Is that what it means. I see... I asked my French teacher and she said it litterally means "Flower of the Flour" and doesn't make sense. She's an idiot lol. Neways, thanks of the info.

[Paul Parish]

maybe it's like creme de la creme --

in effect, cake flour, the softest....

the cool thing about the fairies is the variety in hteir music and their dances -- each one so particular, so vivid, and so different....

i think of their toe-hops as Petipa's way of showing the latet in pointe work, but with a very poetic aim -- he makes them tiny like Shakespeare's fairies (who used walnut shells for their carriages), like dragonflies and other creatures that can run around on the surface of water.

Ah, the bread-crumb fairy is my girl.... there was a great thread about this several years back, and I dug out my Wiley and quoted Petipa's detailed and poetic instructions to Tchaikovsky, how he wanted to hear the sound of hte bread-crumbs falling in the music. I can't find it exactly again, but Petipa loved what Tchaikovsky provided, the little plucked-string sounds making a delicate melody.....

It was VERY beautifully danced in SanFrancisco (where Helgi Tomasson renamed her the Fairy of Tenderness and set it at a quite slow andante) by Shannon Lilly, who did hte toe hops with a silky, soft, exquisite quality and exquisite line in he upper body....

there's some controversy about this variation, Sergeyev's version does not have a quick temps de fleches at the end of the phrase (which most Russians now use, and TOmasson used in his). That was certainly the Royal Ballet's version, until Makarova's staging -- I wonder if she changed that(???) Jane, Mel, Glebb, do you know?

[Estelle]

MinkusPugni, on Jun 29 2005, 07:11 AM, said:

Mel Johnson, on Jun 29 2005, 11:52 AM, said:

Flour is rice flour.  Face powder.  Beauty.

Really? Is that what it means. I see... I asked my French teacher and she said it litterally means "Flower of the Flour" and doesn't make sense. She's an idiot lol. Neways, thanks of the info.

"Fleur de farine" does indeed literally mean "flower of the flour", and it means a very white flour. It's a somewhat archaic term (it can be found in some translations of the Bible for example) so it's not very surprising that your teacher didn't understand it, especially as she's not supposed to be a ballet expert.

[bingham]

MinkusPugni, on Jun 29 2005, 02:27 AM, said:

In the score, the fairies' names are:

1. Candite (Honesy, candid)
2. Coulante. Fleur de Farine (Running. Flower of the Flour)
3. Miettes qui Tombent (Crumbs which fall)
4. Canari qui Chante (Canary which sings)
5. Violente (Violent)
6. La Fee des Lilas (The Lilac Fairy)

The only one that confuses me is the Coulantes fairy. Flower of the Flour? I read somewhere what the Miettes fairy is but I can't quite remember. Anyway, those names are usually shortened in the programmes to:

1. Candite
2. Coulante
3. Miettes
4. Canari
5. Violente
6. Lilas

      I'm a bit confused with Violente's variation.If the fairies are wishing the different virtues for Aurora, why wish her this" virtue"( or does Violente have a different meaning)It is my favorite one though.Anyone?Thanks

[Mel Johnson]

Coulante is not only "flour", it's "face powder".  This fairy confers beautiful skin.  Miettes is a part of good fortune (and good appetite!), as a Russian tradition was to sprinkle the baby with breadcrumbs after the baptism.  (a symbol for the Holy Sacrament)   Violente is for "energy".  And her variation is certainly energetic!

[vissi d'arte]

Quote

Violente is for "energy".  And her variation is certainly energetic!

I've heard (BUT I'M NOT SURE) that Violente also is authority or power (energy) since her pointing of the fingers  should symbolize electricity. ´
Also the variation (the music) of the second fairy in the florestan pas de deux.

[jllaney]

Are the fairies from the pas de quatre in act 3 all originaly female? In the 96 Royal version, the gold fairy is a male and I think I've read on this site that that is a more recent phenomenon.  The Gold fairy music is not used on that particular DVD but it's lovely and for some reason it just sounds like a male variation.

[carbro]

We've been discussing the fairies in the Prologue.

Act III contains either a pas de trois ("Florestan and His sisters") or a Jewels quartet (Diamond, Sapphire, Silver and Gold).  Sometimes it's a Jewels trio.  None of these has fairies.

[rg]

act 3's jewel quartet was originally conceived as a foursome of additional fairies: the fairy of gold, of silver, of sapphires and of diamonds. (see p. 372 of wiley's A CENTURY OF RUSSIAN BALLET, where he provides his translation of the 1890 libretto.) i think there are sketches and even photos of the original 'jewel' foursome all fitted with fairy wings.
arlene croce once complained about the libretto/plan, suggesting that by act 3 audiences didn't need any more fairies.
several stagers have of late given the 'gold' variation to a male dancer - macmillan for ABT and martins for NYCB, as we know the music was given in the final version of the 1890 staging by petipa, to aurora in lieu of the 'vision' solo tchaikovsky composed for act 2, which for some reason he didn't think apt and thus omitted.

[scherzo]

vissi d, on Mar 7 2007, 03:17 PM, said:

Quote

  Violente is for "energy".  And her variation is certainly energetic!

I've heard (BUT I'M NOT SURE) that Violente also is authority or power (energy) since her pointing of the fingers  should symbolize electricity. ´
Also the variation (the music) of the second fairy in the florestan pas de deux.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned (I'm tired): I have an idea that the pointing may also symbolise curiosity...

[volcanohunter]

vissi d, on Mar 7 2007, 04:17 PM, said:

Quote

  Violente is for "energy".  And her variation is certainly energetic!

I've heard (BUT I'M NOT SURE) that Violente also is authority or power (energy) since her pointing of the fingers  should symbolize electricity.

That bit of trivia is mentioned on the Royal Ballet web site:

"[Petipa's] choreography embraced many new developments of the day.  In the fifth fairy variation (Violante, who brings the gift of temperament), Petipa wanted to show the sparkling power and darting nature of electricity, then a new innovation that greatly impressed him."

http://info.royalope...cs=1009&cs=2698

[Mel Johnson]

Petipa actually attended a science lecture in St. Petersburg which featured a large static generator and a lot of different things which acted as dischargers, most colorfully, the lecturer's own fingers.  I just hope that lecturer was well insulated, as some of those old static generators could develop quite a wallop of a charge.  Anyway, "Mr. P." thought that it looked neat, so he wanted to incorporate the image in the new show.

[jllaney]

Thanks so much for the education rg.

[vissi d'arte]

Hi!
I was watching some dvd:s of the Sleeping Beauty (the Paris Opera version by Nureyev,and the one by Sir Peter Wright with Sofiane Sylve); when it occured to me I don't know the names of the fairies in the prologue in these two productions. And it doesn't say, they're just called the six fairies or something....??

In Nureyev's production it's seven fairies because the Lilac Fairy is entirely a mime role, as in Sir Peter Wrigth's production....; but Nureyev also choose to make the second variation a duett for two fairies.  So I'm wondering if any one knows the names of the fairies in both these production, and what giftes and virtues they bring!!!

The Production I know best,  the swedish royal ballet production by Dame Beryl Gray, has them called:
Fairy of Beauty
Fairy of Grace
Fairy of Abundance
Fairy of Well Sound
and Fairy of Authority

Please answer me!!! I'm curious and confused!!!   

The swedish royal ballet's III act she has kept the Florestan pas de trois with Florestan and his sisters, Silver and Diamond.  It's really a beautiful production, one of my favorites.  

[carbro]

The University of Pittsburgh hosts a translation of Perrault's tale.  It identifies the fairies by their gifts:

Quote

Presently the fairies began to bestow their gifts upon the princess. The youngest ordained that she should be the most beautiful person in the world; the next, that she should have the temper of an angel; the third, that she should do everything with wonderful grace; the fourth, that she should dance to perfection; the fifth, that she should sing like a nightingale; and the sixth, that she should play every kind of music with the utmost skill.

For our Auroras, the Fourth Fairy's gift would be the most important.