Balanchine SWAN LAKE stage picture

[rg]

the attached scan of a recently acquired photo shows balanchine's SWAN LAKE - there is no caption or date, but i believe it might show DIANA ADAMS as Odette, Queen of the Swans - the Siegfried is even more difficult to figure out - could it be jacques d'amboise? (the dark-haired dancer looks young.)

whovever the dancers, the moment is one from this Beaton-designed production that i've not seen often. the very low and bow of the prince to odette is something i especially connect to balanchine's view of the ballet.

[Marga]

It certainly looks like Diana Adams. The profile seems unmistakably hers. I also think the Siegfried could be Jacques d'Amboise. The narrow frame of the body seems to be his. It's a wonderful picture!

Nancy Reynolds, in R in R, writes that "Over the years, nearly all the male and female principals have danced the leads in Swan Lake".

[Farrell Fan]

I have a friend who, on gala occasions at the NY State Theater, is able to identify celebrities on the promenade just by looking down at the tops of their heads. Such a talent is required here. But seriously, it's a beautiful photo -- thanks for posting it, rg.

[rg]

i don't pretend to have a 'top of the head' talent but i have been known among some of my colleagues to have a talent, say at the stage door, for recognizing dancers who exit in street clothes, espeically visiting companies w/dancers with whom one is less familiar. whenever i'd guess correctly and i don't pretend to have 100% accuracy, i was sometimes moved to note to my sometimes puzzled companions that i seem to have a gift for recognizing dancers 'with their clothes on' as opposed to recognizing them in their 'naked' state on stage in the theater.

[carbro]

. . .i have been known among some of my colleagues to have a talent, say at the stage door, for recognizing dancers who exit in street clothes, espeically visiting companies w/dancers with whom one is less familiar.

Something in the way they move?

[Ray]

It certainly looks like Diana Adams. The profile seems unmistakably hers. I also think the Siegfried could be Jacques d'Amboise. The narrow frame of the body seems to be his. It's a wonderful picture!

Nancy Reynolds, in R in R, writes that "Over the years, nearly all the male and female principals have danced the leads in Swan Lake".

I'm not sure about that profile--it also suggests Nora Kaye to me (she was in City Ballet from '51-'59 [right?] and, I believe, danced Swan Lake). Yet the long limbs do help make the case for Adams.

[Marga]

I see what you're saying, Ray. This photo of Nora Kaye shows the same line of nose , but, still, I don't think the legs are similar.

Nora Kaye

Here, Diana Adams' legs for comparison:

Diana Adams

Diana Adams

[rg]

thoughts of kaye crossed my mind too, but think it looks somewhat more like adams than kaye.

but i can't say anything for certain.

[Ray]

whovever the dancers, the moment is one from this Beaton-designed production that i've not seen often. the very low and bow of the prince to odette is something i especially connect to balanchine's view of the ballet.

Yes, and it's a bit sad to think that NYCB probably won't do this version again. Did Suzanne ever dance it, by the way? Maybe her company could revive it...

[rg]

yes, farrell did odette.

i don't think it's a given that nycb won't also put balanchine's swanlake on a mixed bill and save the martins's prod. for one of the company's runs of such 2-acters.

i suppose the programs would have to reflect the diff. calling the first 'balanchine's swanlake' or some such and the latter 'martins's swanlake'

but only time will tell, i suppose.

[Mel Johnson]

I must confess that I never realized how much I loved the old Beaton "scratchboard" set until it was replaced by something less magical.

[ViolinConcerto]

If they revive Mr. B's choreography, it's likely that they would revive the horrible (IMHO) "Ice Palace" set.

My childhood memories of the mysterious lake and castle will probably fade with the rest of my memories.......

I noticed that the swans in the photo have wings, which I don't recall in State Theater days, even the "old" production, with the mechanical swans. How many productions has NYCB done?

At some point I will scan and post the photo postcard that RG has (casually) identified as a spinning Maria Tallchief and a blurry Andre Eglevsky. It's a wonderful photo.

[Mel Johnson]

Yes, the Ice Palace set and the black costumes suggest that we have reached not Swan Lake, but Puffin Bay. Now there's a thought to revise the body image for NYCB!

[rg]

i suspect if balanchine's SWANLAKE returns to rep. it will be in the most recent, undistinguished version w/ vaes's kirstein-commissioned designs complete w/ those arbitrarily black costumes. (why martins increased the number of swanmaidens i'll never know. all this does is somewhat congest balanchine's original choreographic plans and patterns.)

unfortunately i never saw the beaton scheme on stage - see scan below, w/ as mel describes it the 'scratchboard-like' background.

my first and so far preferred version of balachine's staging was ter-arutunian altdofer-like version, complete w/ its art-nouveau-like long-necked conveyor belt swans - and speaking of these prop swans, can anyone tell me if they existed in their way in the beaton production?

to my way of seeing any prod. of SWAN LAKE, with aspirations to honoring its 19th c. traditions, that eleminates these prop swans - and thus the daytime world of swans vs. the nighttime world of the swanmaidens - is an incomplete one to say the least.

ABT's blair prod. had only one, the queen w/ her coronet on her head (tho' mckenzie's fails to show any swans gliding on its lake, at least it has the prop swan in the prologue to the overture). the vinogradov version for the kirov has a lake with a marvelous line of swans, tho' no crowned queen.

most others, nothing.

if anyone knows of a book or article that includes a photo of the beaton that documents these 'mechanical' swans i'd love to know about it.

[bart]

I first saw this in '57 with Hayden and Adams. I don't recall details of the set, which seems to me have been rather dark, monchromataic, misty, and unobtrusive. It seems to me that they didn't change until the company moved to the State Theater.

Mel, what is the "scratchboard" effect to which you refer?

The all-dark (all-black?) costume for Siegfried fits my memory of those years as well. It seems that ligher detailing and elaboration were added later. Is Magallanes a possibility here?

I recall the angle from which the camera was shot. City Center's first-level "balcony" -- or whatever it is/was called -- certainly loomed close to the stage! What a wonderful angle for observing Balanchine's patterns and also seeing individual details.

[kfw]

No mechanical swans here, but this photo from an old program appears to be of the same production:

[bart]

Thanks, kfw. Now I can see the "scratchings." I don't ever recall, however, the set being that brightly lighted.

Another question for those who were there: did those big wings remain throughout the life of the Beaton sets? I don't remember them and they seem the kind of thing one would remember.

[rg]

ter-arutunian's designs replaced beaton's in '64.

scartchboard is a technique of drawing thru a black field made by a coating of india ink on a specially made white board - the scratching, w/ pen points, removes the black layer and makes for a white-on-black graphic appearance.

beaton's white lines on black, which could as easily been make w/ white ink on black paper (or almost as easily, white ink tends to be thick and hard to keep flowing).

hope this makes sense. and yes the other foto posted from a prog. repro. is a somewhat famous g.p.lynes pic of the same beaton prod. (this one tho' comes from a studio session, prob. w/ an eye toward souvenir prog. reproduction. the photo i scanned is a publicity shot - unidentified and undated - taken, presumably, during a performance.

[kfw]

and yes the other foto posted from a prog. repro. is a somewhat famous g.p.lynes pic of the same beaton prod. (this one tho' comes from a studio session, prob. w/ an eye toward souvenir prog. reproduction.

Souvenir program is what I should have written.

[popularlibrary]

I first saw the NYCB's Swan Lake around 1959-60, and I remember the conveyer-belt swans then, though I think in a somewhat different formation than in the 1964 production - my memory is a little too hazy to describe the difference. As I recall, the big wings vanished as did Wilde's variation and the dance of the four little swans (wasn't that because Mr. B got tired of their constantly stopping the show?).

[Mel Johnson]

I definitely recall the large swans-on-tracks, three or four of them at least, traveling behind the ground row at City Center. The curtain came up on that scene rather toward the middle of the Act II opening Scena music, and the last swan was seen to travel following them, but was in shadow until the last big restatement of the "Swan" leitmotiv, when a bright follow-spot picked it up, and the Queenly crown was obvious in the bright light. Theatrically, a terrific cue.

I also remember the large leg-and-border cut drops, also in negatives, for the rest of the life of this staging at City Center. When the company shifted to State Theater, I think that they were replaced by simple black legs and borders, because the former were too small for the new stage. The same sort of thing happened to the Nutcracker sets. They needed a larger scale, but in that case, what was designed was an improvement over the old ones. The pas de neuf, originally led by Wilde and eight coryphées to music from Act IV, is still with us, but the four little swans was a sort of bugbear to Kirstein, who called it "a simple applause machine." At City Center, usually it was there, but sometimes not.

[Paul Parish]

I think the ballerina might be Tanny -- it looks like her nose to me, also her cheekbone. I've been watching her and jacques in Robbins's faun on youtube -- almost daily, FABULOUS little film, off the d'Amboise DVD. (I've got to buy that.) It's fascinating how her face recomposes from different angles -- she had a fabulous face, with a striking aquiline nose. I think this really might be her.

The legs look a little thick for Tanny's, but hte angle and the side-lighting may be playing tricks on hte eyes.

It DOES also look like Jacques.

[Marga]

No mechanical swans here, but this photo from an old program appears to be of the same production:

And is that Pat Wilde with her head flung back?

Paul, I'm sorry, I don't see Tanny at all in that ballerina.... ...but I strongly agree that Siegfried looks like Jacques!

edited to add:

I just looked up some of Tanny's pics and see where one might get the impression that she would be a candidate for "who's the ballerina?". However, from having seen her and Diana (and Nora Kaye, for that matter) dance, and from the eye one develops from one's own training, the way the body is held in the photo just doesn't come across as LeClercq for me (and neither do the legs -- even if lighting thickens them a bit).

Tanaquil LeClercq

[Mel Johnson]

Hard to tell facially from this angle, but that foot is certainly Wildean.

[Paul Parish]

Good LORD, Marga, that's a hot photo of Tanny....

Have mercy....

Mel, are you talking about the foot of the lady doing saut de chat or of the ballerina in B+?