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CM

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Posts posted by CM

  1. It's wonderful that the film has been discovered and has been authenticated. Some more links:

    An article about the history of “la fete des narcisses “in Montreux

    http://www.narcisses.ch/narcisse_fete.php

    According to Grigoriev's “ The Diaghilev Ballet”

    “At Lausanne (assume this refers to the company's performances at “la fete des narcisses” at Montreux – 30 km from Lausanne - on June 2nd and 3rd as there were no other performances in Switzerland in 1928), our old friend Ansermet conducted us again - still as handsome as ever though now slightly grey at the temples”

    “Les premieres gravures” /”the early days” by Ernest Ansermet contains many of his vintage recordings of ballet music including four tracks of Les Sylphides – two waltzes, a mazurka and a prelude – with Diaghilev's Ballet Russes Orchestra. It is available at Amazon on MP3 and possibly on CD, and I guess that this would be an authentic soundtrack for the footage.

    British Pathe's description of the footage of the Diaghilev company has been updated:

    http://britishpathe.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/the-va-find-secretly-recorded-footage-in-the-british-pathe-archive-of-the-beautiful-and-famously-unfilmed-ballet-russes/

    Roger Salas of “El Pais” discusses the discovery and looks forward to the Barcelona and Madrid Diaghilev exhibitions”

    http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/Identificado/fragmento/cine/Ballets/Russes/Diaghilev/elpepucul/20110203elpepucul_9/Tes

  2. More links:

    "ABC Classic FM celebrates the NGA's exhibition of the costumes of the Ballets Russes". The documentary series "The astonishing Ballets Russes" is very interesting. The Dance on Screen episode discusses the filming of Fred Astaire, Ashton and some contemporary choreographers (mostly UK-based) in addition to "Les Noces"

    http://www.abc.net.au/classic/events/stories/s3121269.htm

    Spanish Classical radio has a number of podcasts available on Diaghilev and the ballets russes:

    http://www.rtve.es/podcast/radio-clasica/grand-jette/pagina-2.shtml

    John Galliano's ballets russes and Rudolf Nureyev-influenced menswear show

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx2jhTgH5MU

  3. Comparing the NGA video of Thamar

    http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/BalletsRusses/Default.cfm?MnuID=3&GalID=13

    against this photo from Lichine's Francesca Da Rimini:

    http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/balletrusse/gid/slv-pic-aaa45817/1/br000241

    it looks to me that the role of Thamar is played by Lubov Tchernicheva, the ballet mistress of Diaghilev's Ballet Russe and of De Basil's Original Ballet Russe, wife of Serge Grigoriev, regisseur to both companies.

    According to Serge Grigoriev, Lubov Tchernicheva “electrified our audiences” when she played the same role in Madrid in 1917. She received positive reviews at the London premiere of Thamar during the Diaghilev ballet's 1919 Coliseum season. V@A images have a 1920 woodcut of her in the role at

    http://www.vandaimages.com/results.asp?image=2010EA6207-01&itemw=2&itemf=0002&itemstep=1&itemx=2

    In 1939 she performed in the London premiere of Francesca Da Rimini during the Original Ballet Russe Season at Covent Garden. During the same season Fokine worked on the premiere of Paganini. The rehearsals and performances in this season were used for research for the screenplay for “the Red Shoes” and apparently were the basis for much of the backstage detail of the final film. Tchernicheva and Grigoriev restaged "Firebird' for the Royal Ballet at the 1954 Edinburgh Festival.

    According to the V@A blog,

    http://www.vam.ac.uk/things-to-do/blogs/diaghilev-and-ballets-russes/end-continues

    some of the exhibits from the latest exhibition will be touring to Madrid, Barcelona and Quebec during the next eighteen months.

  4. The 1954 Firebird clip comes from the same British Pathe feature that included footage of the Diaghilev exhibition. Leonid commented on the Firebird clip some time ago in the Diaghilev thread. I think Fonteyn looks much more feral and spiky in this clip than in the Czinner film (which is currently available - al 130 minutes of Firebird, Ondine and Swan Lake Act II- plus special features of archive interview with Fonteyn, image gallery and a PDF document. However it is region 2, PAL. Search "the royal ballet" on Amazon co uk to find it)

  5. Looking more closely at the credits of the Thamar footage on the NAG youtube channel, it seems that there were two different people filming Thamar in colour in the 1930s. The film-maker on the credits on the NAG film is a Joseph Ringland Anderson, whereas the Australian Screen version was shot by a Ewan Murray-Will.

    The London Coliseum will present a restaging of the original version of Thamar in its Ballets Russes season in April 2011. The season will also feature Nicolai Tsiskaridze as the Blue God

    http://www.eno.org/see-whats-on/productions/production-page.php?&itemid=1163.

    This week the V@A blog has some more photos from the 1954 Diaghilev exhibition, and features the haunted theatre – an inspiration for an encounter in Colin Wilson's “ Ritual in the Dark”

    http://www.vam.ac.uk/things-to-do/blogs/diaghilev-and-ballets-russes/diaghilev-1954-again-–-times-change

    This part of the exhibition looks very cinematic with references (I think) to “The “Red Shoes”. The staircase reminds me of Cocteau's “la belle et la bete”

    http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=340354

    The current V@A Diaghilev exhibition will close in less than two weeks time.

  6. Most of the ballet russe film on the NGA youtube channel is in colour and I'm wondering whether it has been online before - the Australian Screen website only shows the Thamar excerpt in colour

    "With exotic, lush designs and costuming this colour sequence brings to life the Ballets Russes performances in a way that black-and-white film does not. Shot from a higher, sharper angle to the stage by Murray-Will, this clip is still vivid in its detail"

    http://aso.gov.au/titles/collections/chesterman-collection/

  7. I've seen some of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo footage before but I think it was silent film. The NGA must have added soundtracks to the ballet films on their youtube channel. It makes so much difference, e.g.,

    http://www.youtube.com/user/NationalGalleryAus#p/u/14/C4rA1NASK50

    http://www.youtube.com/user/NationalGalleryAus#p/u/9/Gb10L1P280A

    http://www.youtube.com/user/NationalGalleryAus#p/u/13/gRR5wKPdNhM

  8. I believe that the NGA costumes were mostly bought at the third Ballets Russes auction in 1973 - I think it was the one where some people bought costumes for their fancy dress parties:

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/a-superb-body-of-work-minus-the-bodies/story-e6frg8n6-1225964103090

    What I'm particularly enjoying about the new videos coming out of Australia is the music - it makes the costumes so much more evocative. It's also wonderful to see film from ballets like Thamar - NGA has loaded quite a few excerpts from the ballets russes de monte carlo on their youtube channel in the last day or so.

    All I did was to find the ballet russes-related links - the credit should go to the people who've worked on the various Ballet Russes celebrations

  9. An introductory video and a video showing the lighting of the NGA exhibition

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_SpYmkWNtw

    The two hour PBS documentary "Paris,the luminous years" is available internationally for a short period at:

    http://video.pbs.org/video/1690715934

    It's interesting background to the period - the paintings and colours look great on my PC. The section dedicated to Diaghilev starts at around 43 minutes and finishes at around 69 minutes however there are references to the ballet throughout the film. It includes excerpts from the Joffrey Ballet's productions of "Parade" and l'apres-midi d'un faune"

  10. François-Xavier Roth and Les Siecles Orchestra recreate some of the music from the June 4,1910 Ballets Russes performance at Palais Garnier, including:

    A recreation by Francois Dru of the1910 presentation of le Festin

    The first Parisian performance of Carnival (orchestration Alexander Glazounov, Nikolaï Rimski-korsakov, Nikolaï Tcherepnine).

    Scheherazade in its original version with all four scenes (not just the two that were choreographed for the June 4 1910 premiere) plus a narrator (in french) .

    Concert took place at la cite de la musique in Paris and it will remain online until June 2011.

    http://www.citedelamusiquelive.tv/Concert/0949201.html

    “Paris, the Luminous Years, to be shown on PBS television across the United States as of 15 December (check local listings), is a first-rate documentary film on the ‘City of Light':

    http://www.culturekiosque.com/art/news/pmadato_pboccadoro571.html

  11. The V&A has produced a wealth of virtual material for the exhibition - it's been fun to compare the film/images of the London exhibition against those of the Edinburgh and Monaco exhibitions.

    The V@A channel's a useful link - it contains some video on music, choreography and conservation

    http://www.vam.ac.uk/channel/

    Birmingham Royal Ballet's website has an overview of Natalia Goncharova written by Jane Pritchard

    http://www.brb.org.uk/pdf/Natalia%20Goncharova.pdf

    Finally, the National Gallery of Australia's exhibition opens in December

    http://nga.gov.au/BalletsRusses/

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