cubanmiamiboy

😶

I was lucky enough to see Ratmansky's Bayadere in Berlin, and if this production looks at all like that one, then it's a winner. The recon is just wonderful.

And this is all coming from which source...?

They're being punished by default.

To resume. I'm glad Miami is the New World repository of this venerable ballet's trip to its roots, after the fantastic voyage it has been subjected to for more than a century. Now we can finally say that we have a correct Swan Lake in America that honors its most notable-( if not its original)- choreographer,Monsieur Petipa. Before we could only direct people who wanted to know what the real finale of the ballet was to McKenzie's for ABT. Now we have a second option. In lieu of the success of this production down here, I can only hope to see a second collaboration. How about La Bayadere? That would be fantastic, wouldn't it..? Anyhow.... here's the complete ballet taken from a Zurich performance https://youtu.be/RL4AHFG2sQU?si=gO3LsYNRT8HXaqM9

As a matter of comparison with the video of the Kirov 1895 Act Four I just posted, here's the act in a very much 1877 way, with the music Petipa and Drigo later on decided to delete for their 1895 production, including the "storm music". And with the additional "reconciliation pdd", the 1877 "Andante con Moto" not used in 1895, which belonged to one of the Act III princesses variations. This is what Ratmansky DID NOT use, wanting to follow Petipa'95 design instead of Reisinger'77. Now...after years of watching many productions of SL all over the world, I find that stagers feel more comfortable following the original 1877 musical scheme, with its effective "storm music". The Petipa/Drigo additions in 1895 of "Un poco di Chopin" and Valse Bluette ", orchestrated piano pieces that were NOT written for Swan Lake by the composer are a bit difficult, given their length. I find that people favor a quick resolution of the ballet after Act III, and those two pieces add much more time before the double suicide. I still think it is a great thing that what Petipa intended when he reworked the failed ballet has been brought back to life. It is unfamiliar indeed, but at least it exists as a historical testimony.

Ratmansky's staging of Swan Lake's most interesting part is its Act IV, the most problematic act for many stagers. It is usually musically truncated, or eliminated whatsoever. Most of the times what we get is a sort of an epilogue that uses the 1877,.deleted by Petipa so called "storm music"-( ABT). Many other times we get an ubiquitous "reconciliation pdd"-(POB)-to the also deleted by Petipa 1877 "Andante con Moto"-(one of the original six princesses variations from Act III). So having the 1895 Drigo/Petipa scheme for this act is quite nice. This are the two interpolated "not from Swan Lake" Tchaikovsky piano numbers , orchestrated for the occasion..."Valse Bluette" and "Un poco di Chopin" Now ..this is not the first time it is offered. The Kirov had it. And here you can find much of the choreography that Ratmansky used for the two numbers, including the serpentine entrance of the black tutus. Which makes one wonder.. Was the Kirov using a pre-Soviet choreography by the time this recording that kept traces of the Imperial Ballet design, and which Ratmansky found to be quite identical to what he found in Stepanov?

The mime. One of the glorious things this recon has is the mime. There is A LOT of mimimg going on at all times. Since Act I we see Benno mimimg to the audience -( his back to the rest of the courtiers)- that the Prince is coming-( that rarely seen gesture to denote "spear", and that "he's coming to forget things". In other words...to have fun. Prince Siegfried also mimes, summoning everybody to dance and drink. The tutor mimes that "the Queen is coming". And the Queen's mime to Siegfried is the usual we all know that has been kept quite intact throughout stagings. "You, my son, were a little boy, then an adolescent, and now you're all grown up. And don't you forget. Now you have to get married. And from beyond our Kingdom, not one, not two, but six princesses...all beautiful, well dressed and holding fans will come. And you have to pick one". Act II's initial encounter between Prince Siegfried and Queen Odette also has lots of mime, albeit one that has been quite kept in London and ABT. The usual "lake of my mother's tears, strong sorcerer, one way to break the spell". You know it well. Act III's mime has a little strange moment I still don't quite get. When Odile shows up in the room, Prince Siegfried obviously recognizes her and happily tells his mother...."Look, mother...this woman I know...I have met her already!" But then he runs to her miming "Remember me...? We met already!" And what comes next is confusing, because Odile mimes back something to the extent of "What..? Oh, I don't know what are you talking about!" And then both run away for the Fandango to start. I asked one of our Odettes what was all that about and she told me something to the extent of "Ratmansky's Odile , even if looking like Odette, is not trying to make Siegfried believe it is her. Her task is to hypnotize Prince Siegfried and everyone in the room into forgetting anything that happen before in his love life and make him give his word to ANOTHER WOMAN". Interesting. Act fourth mime is glorious. And quite new. The maidens are looking for their Queen around the lake. We have to remember she has been kept locked up by VonRothbart, and just released after his objective has been reached. Two of the maidens mime "Queen Odette, come over here", and when they ask the rest of the women if they have seen her, they all answer "No, we haven't". Suddenly Odette comes in great distress. This segment is not balletic. She comes running as a desperate woman-( which she is in fact at that moment, as it is night time)- and congregates her courtiers to tell them the story. After that she mimes that "now the only way left for me to break the spell is if I die". The maidens say that "Absolutely not", and they keep pulling her back from the cliff and encircling her to prevent her form commiting suicide. When Siegfried shows up in utter desperation-( in a very dramatic moment where he kneels in shame in front of Odette )- then another mime happens, where Odette tells him the same she told her maidens. That now it is too late...that he has given his marriage promise to another woman and that the only way to break the spell is for her to die " After that, the double suicide occurs. I was very pleased to how clear the mining segments were.

I haven't posted in a while. I'll try my best with my little phone screen. I'll divide my post to concentrate in a particular subject instead of boring you all with a long post. So this is the second run of Ratmansky's recon of SL with MCB. From the first run I attended six performances. From this one , four and counting. I guess we could be talking endlessly about his take, so I'll try to highlight some thoughts I believe to be pertinent. Swan Lake is an old ballet that has seen some extended reworking since the failed Reisinger premiere. And here's where my first point goes. Swan Lake and the ballroom act: the fouettes. Why do we go see Swan Lake? For some it might be to luxuriate in a favorite ballerina's technical capability. And that's how I started my relationship with the work in Cuba. As the Cuban production was quite old and dusty-( believe it or not....from the 1950's), and at many times canned music was used, as a professional orchestra was off the limits due to the mismanagement of the government funds BY the government, I got to be introduced to the ballet mainly as a vehicle for the most spectacular ballerinas I've ever seen showing off their technique in the most bombastic ballroom pas de deux's reworking I've ever witnessed. The Cuban version has a series of back to back feats. First the ubiquitous 32 fouettes, which back there were single but right on the beat. There used to be two columns in the backdrop, and Odile HAD to dance in between them. No traveling allowed. Following, the infamous sautees sur le pointe en arabesque penchee, which I'm sure you've seen. The ballerinas would cover the whole stage jumping on pointe while slowly going down to a penchee. And here's where the ballerina would definitely pass or not the balletomannes Swan Lake test. After that there would be a fantastic circle of pique turns, to finish it all in a daring fish dive a la Tchaikovsky Pas de deux. The level of excitement in the opera house would reach limits I have never experienced anywhere else after I left the island. We would scream, whistle... pandemonium. Ratmansky's ballroom pdd is , just as with all the rest of his take, a historical document. Here we come to face what we believe to be the closest to what was choreographed by Petipa. Some of the choices might look odd to our modern eyes, starting with the entrance...where both Siegfried and Odile start dancing right away side by side, instead of Siegfried lifting Odile as we're used to. Odile, of course is not a "black swan" anymore. Her skirt is multicolored. We see many chainee turns done in demi pointe, and her a la seconde arabesques don't reach pass the 90 degrees. The ending of the adagio is quite unorthodox, with Odile holding onto Siegfried's knee while in arabesque penchee. Her fouettes are simple. I'm sure Ratmansky wanted 32 clean ones to the music, parting aways with the modern, favored multiple pirouettes in between. As with NYCB, there's no pause for applauses after the fouettes. The most shocking part of the pas is the different music for Siegfried's variation. This is the trumpet carried "Tempo di Valse" from the original 1877 score, part of Act I "Pas de deux for two Merry Makers", later on interpolated by Drigo and Petipa for the new Odile/Siegfried ballroom pas. Now...if one is to follow the order on the "Merry Makers" 77 design, this variation happens second to the one we know to be that of Siegfried. In other words....it looks as if was meant to be a female variation in 1877. I'm not sure if Ratmansky found it to be the one that was actually used in 1895, or if he took it as a choice to the absence of a notation for Siegfried's dance. Interestingly, I had seen Siegfried dancing to this music before. Alonso's version-( actually Mary Skeaping for the Cuban ballet, 1958)-has it as his variation, albeit not in the ballroom but during the first lakeside act. The National dances are quite pretty. The Tarantella features the men holding lutes and tambourines for the women. Here and there we can hear Drigo's musical cuts of 1895. This is more obvious during the love swearing of Siegfried to Odile, where several bars of music are missing, compared to the 1877 version. For references, Peter Martins staging uses the whole of the 77 Tchaikovsky's bars during this segment. The Mazurka finale also shows cuts. One of the most poignant differences between 1877 and 1895 is the princesses segment. If you listen to the 77 score-( the Dutoit/Montreal recording is the best one), you see how more elaborated it was originally. Apparently, the princesses entered at different times during the waltz. There are several fanfares that disrupt the music, which is resumed right away after each princess get in. Ratmansky uses the 95 choice, which is only one fanfare for all the princesses, who enter as a group instead of individually. The waltz is not interrupted. Now ...I'm a bit doubtful about the princesses waltz. As with many Soviet and Soviet derived stagings-( Konstantin Sergueev and Asaf Messerer), the princesses all wear the same dress, don't have attendants and sport fans. Their choreo, dancing with each other, is suspiciously similar to the Soviet ones as well. I wonder if this is really taken from historical 1895 sources. Of course we don't get any of the 1877 original six variations for the princesses. And that's another thing. The music of this variations is so beautiful that throughout history from staging to staging choreographers have succumb to it, using them at various times across the acts. The most well known one is the "Adagio con Motto" , which is usually given to a fourth act "reconciliation pas" between Odette and Siegfried. It is, of course, absent in the recon. To be continued.

I have seen the three attempts at restoring the original fourth act wedding/temple destruction, namely Makarova's, Vikharev's and now Ratmansky's. This is the most comprehensive one.

Ooooh ....ok. Thanks for the clarification!

Leave that SL on where it is, my friend!!😍 That double suicide in profile with the heavens apotheosis while the swamp thing is convulsing on top of the rocks is iconic!! And then....I can go back and forth between that and my home company 's great recon....😎

True. But because I dislike so much the usual narrative that Latin automatically disqualifies someone from being white-( the perennial "they were many Latinos at the party and a few whites")- without knowing that many of those whites ARE actually Latinos, I usually check "other", and write "Caucasian". It is up to them to figure what do I mean by that.😂

Of course generalizations are always a bad idea. For instance...I am Cuban by origin, just as my two parents and four grandparents, and I have successfully traced the origin of the families of the four of them back to the 1700's, having come to Cuba from France, Spain and England. On my maternal grandfather's side-( the English, Barnstaple, one)- they are all blue eyed blondes, a trait that went all the way down to my mother and the three of my first cousins. I only inherited the blonde. But...long story short, there's a difference between race,. ethnicity and COLOR. The notion of either "Latin or white" is ridiculous, because you can have the whitest skin and the bluest eyes and still be born in a Latin country and have three generations of Latins behind you in your family, particular in countries colonized and inhabited by an array of European nationalities.