Siegfried's Black Swan Variation

[jllaney]

Could anyone recommend a danceable CD version of Siegfried's Black Swan variation? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Mel Johnson]

The latest properly-cut recording of the male variation was contained in the collection entitled "Ballet Gala", a mammoth 10-disc set from Seraphim. It's out of print, now, and one of our posters apparently got the latest one available on the used market, but keep on checking the Amazon.com lists for "new" used copies. Ebay isn't a bad idea, either. The conductor is Richard Bonynge. Bear in mind that most recordings of the Black Swan materials will show up in Act I, and the adage segues to the male variation. The Bolshoi's Gorsky choreography will fit most of these recordings, but it makes for some very long dancing for the poor guy.

[rg]

whatever i note here should be double-checked with mel who knows far more than i ever will about recordings and sources of variously 'standard' variations and their tempos. (solor also knows much in this area, as do several other balletalerters.)

however let me say that i recently bought a pricey 10-CD set called FETE DU BALLET (with a DECCA label), and on the disc called THE ART OF THE PRIMA BALLERINA there is a cut called "Pas de Deux: The Black Swan" - it's CD 3 of the set; to the best of my knowledge thisset is still currently available, but i could be wrong here.

also - and mel would know this - i can't recall if the nureyev/fonteyn vienna state SWAN LAKE - now on DVD - uses the petipa/ivanov/drigo-tweaked variation that i assume is sought here. if it does appear on that DVD, the good thing is that the perf. is not filmed w/ an audience so there would be no applause to make taking the audio track off the disc a huge problem. not that i'd know how to do that myself...

as noted: none of the above should be taken as gosple; mel, and others, will be able to confirm or deny or modify any of my thoughts.

good luck.

[rg]

p.s. THE ART OF THE PRIMA BALLERINA was also re-released on disc in a LONDON label set called: DANCEMANIA, maybe that's still around as a used CD set or on ebay.

[Mel Johnson]

You know, I can't remember whether the Vienna Fonteyn/Nureyev uses the Drigo version of the Tchaikovsky, or whether he substituted the driving tarentella-like variation from the pas de six, which Balanchine lifted for his one-act "Swan Lake". And yes, I believe that export versions of "The Art of the Prima Ballerina" was released in the US as Decca, as English Decca bought the earlier Angel catalogue, including its Seraphim line, and you can find recordings under several publishers including EMI Classics.

[jllaney]

So after much research and sleepless nights I've finally come up with the solution. A reviewer on Amazon named Adam has a wonderful list of ballet cd's to own. I'm sure he must be a member on this site and I thank him eternally. He mentioned that Vato Kahi and the Georgian Festival Orchestra has a CD of exerpts and that the performance version of the black swan pas is included. It's $4 on Amazon so I bought it and he's totally right. The andante is slow and danceable and Siegfied's variation is PERFECT! Odile's variation and the coda are oddly missing(go figure) but those's are readily available on other CDs. Thanks for all your help.