Marc Haegeman

One of the main arguments of the partisans of updating the classics is that they consider it an essential step to assure the survival of the work. Patrice Bart in Paris is a case in point. Just like his mentor and example Rudolph Nureyev, of whom he was the assistant at the Paris Opera for several years, Bart has now produced his own versions of 19th century classical ballets ("Don Quixote", "Coppelia", "Swan Lake", "La Bayadère", "Nutcracker", more to follow). Updating means for Bart re-choreographing parts, altering the libretto, tightening the action, adding psychological depth to certain characters… no matter, everything is done for the sake of keeping the work alive and kicking, and accessible for today's audiences. Funny, but except maybe for his Bayadère, I wasn't too thrilled by the result and most of the changes felt like redundant. Must have been me. His starting point is not necessarily distrust of the original. Bart considers he knows too little of what this "original" is, what it looked like and how it was done. He thinks it's beyond his reach. That's why he doesn't disapprove of an experiment like the Mariinsky's reconstruction of Petipa’s "Sleeping Beauty", because he considered this particular theatre was in the right position to attempt the reconstruction and had the necessary sources and knowledge at hand. Bart finds the Spanish character dances of most productions of "Don Quixote" weak and beside the point, because they are only "in the style of". For his own "Don Quixote" he asked the Spanish castanet virtuoso José de Udaeta to re-choreograph them. In my view it all depends of which choreography "in the style of" we are considering: is it original Petipa or Bournonville, or is it another update in the 4th degree by less inspired artists of what once has been Petipa or Bournonville?

No doubt, it's great to have this young and promising talent. It also reminds me of what Patrice Bart, ballet master of the Paris Opera Ballet, said without any hint of irony or jest : "I have never seen a convincing Giselle younger than 30 or 35".

Alexandra, the solo was introduced by Lifar in the 1930s (when he danced it at the Paris Opera with Spessivtseva). He performed the apparently endless series of entrechats. I don't really prefer any of the two, as long as the result is the same: exhaustion (and not like Baryshnikov who continues to look like an athlete...). It's also quite important that there is an interplay between Albrecht and Myrtha at this point. She commands him to dance. In the recent Giselles from the Kirov I saw there was none. Most of the Albrechts performed their diagonals of "brisés" like madmen, without ever waiting for Myrtha's signal to continue. It looked downright silly to see Myrtha raise her arm when Albrecht was already gone.

Exactly, Mary, the Wili Moyna seems to have been an odalisque, Zulma a bayadère, and there were Wilis from several more or less exotic places, each performing a characteristic 'national' dance. Although the exotic dances are gone, the various rhythms can still be heard in the score. The original Myrtha also seems to have been a completely different character than we are used to now. More an amusing seductress (more sylphide ?) than a cold-hearted leader of ghosts.

Gautier et al. probably didn't think through all of the details, but the problem is also that we don't really see what they were thinking about, or intended. Giselle has been handed down and altered. Peter Wright made it clear during a masterclass that he saw two different things in Giselle picking up the sword: a death symbol and a phallic symbol. First she is fascinated and describes a circle with it, then it seems as if the sword is attacking her, making serpentine movements with it and fascination turns into terror.

In Peter Wright's production Myrtha is clearly describing a circle shortly after her entrance in the 2nd Act, as if showing her domain.

Alexandra, the notion, or better the suggestion of the jilted maidens comes afterwards in Heine's description. "It is peculiar to popular legends that their most terrible catastrophes take place at weddings (...). So long as the lips have not yet touched the brim, the pleasant drink may yet be spilled. A gloomy wedding-guest may come unbidden, and one whom no one dares bid hence. He whispers one word in her ear, and the bride grows pale. He makes a secret sign to the bridegroom, who follows him out into the stormy night, and is never seen again. Generally it is a former pledge of love with another." (H. Heine. Translation by Charles Godfrey Leland, London, 1892)

The love of dancing is all-important for the Wilis. Dancing is all they do, as indeed dancing is the essence of Giselle's 2nd Act, in contrast to the 1st. The idea of the jilted maiden can already be found in Heine's description.

Although Théophile Gautier who has co-written the libretto, makes it clear that she dies of suicide ("Chez les femmes, la raison est dans le coeur"... ), I think it makes more dramatic sense if she dies from a broken heart. The latter fits more in the Romantic image and it doesn't make much sense that Giselle's mother reminds her of her weak heart if she will die by the sword anyhow. In any case, it's out of the question that if Giselle dies from suicide she is buried in sacred ground. But the forest is not convincing either, as in some productions there seems to be a whole collection of graves in the forest: cemetery in the forest, or... ? Another question, if Giselle indeed dies of suicide and is not supposed to be buried in sacred ground, why is her grave so elaborately built ? And why does it take Hilarion and Albrecht so long to visit the grave ? [ 04-16-2001: Message edited by: Marc Haegeman ]

Nikiya - Xiomara Reyes is Cuban. I gather she is Cuban-trained, in any case he danced with the National Ballet of Cuba and was a soloist (eventually first soloist) with the Royal Ballet of Flanders in Belgium, from 1992 till last year. I always liked her; in her last season here she was an excellent Florine. Dancers like her gave the company some profile (shame there aren't more like that). Anyway, good to hear she was able to join ABT. Give her some time; the jump between the RB of Flanders and ABT is rather wide as you will understand ... ;)

Thank you for these impressions. With the recent Kirov "Giselles" in mind I would be interested to hear how the principals were dressed and everything. Was it traditional, with respect for period and style, or was it a 'modernized' looking Giselle? As when it comes to laughing members of the audience, we had some here recently at a performance of the Royal Ballet of Flanders during Myrtha's entrance. A few people started laughing, saying: "Wow, a ghost!" Good to hear that the Kirov corps is still considered as the reference point, Alexandra. Oh well

That's great news! Congratulations! Well done, Leigh.

Funny thing indeed. If they go on like that next year they won't have any problem finding the winner.

It may be interesting to list the nominations once more. Best ballet production: Jewels (Maryinsky Theatre) Manon (Maryinsky Theatre) Pharaoh's Daughter (Bolshoi Theatre) Afternoon of a Faun (Bolshoi Theatre) Faust (Maly Theatre) Best Male Performance: Vyacheslav Samodurov (for Rubies, Maryinsky Theatre) Maksim Khrebtov (for Lescaut in Manon, Maryinsky Theatre) Dmitri Belogolovtsev (for Afternoon of a Faun, Bolshoi Theatre) Sergei Filin (for Pharaoh's Daughter, Bolshoi Theatre) Best Female Performance: Uliana Lopatkina (for Diamonds, Maryinsky Theatre) Diana Vishneva (for Rubies, Maryinsky Theatre) Maria Alexandrova (for Pharaoh's Daughter, Bolshoi Theatre) The Golden Mask for Best Male dancer was not awarded. There is also an article about the recent Golden Mask Festival in: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2001.../04/11/014.html

Last Sunday, in Moscow, the prestigious Golden Masks for performing arts have been awarded. In the category 'Ballet' the prize for the best production went to the Mariinsky's version of Balanchine's "Jewels". The prize for best female dancer went to Diana Vishneva for her performance in "Jewels".

NO7, the dates are May 16, 17, 18 for "Giselle", and May 19, 20 (both matinee and evening) for "Corsaire".

So does the Bolshoi. In this production there is also a dance for the little Cupids in the last Act.

Enterachilles, although I don't necessarily think that audiences in Amsterdam prefer modern dance to classical ballet, it is surely the combination "Kirov" and "Swan Lake" that made the difference. Let the Kirov bring "Sylphide" to Amsterdam and the theatre may be far from sold out as well. According to the Dutch organizers the "Swan Lakes" sold out well in advance, while "Giselle" and especially the Fokine program needed extra publicity.

NO7, that's not really true. They sold out for all the performances of "Swan Lake". The Fokine programs didn't, but with "Swan Lake" the theatre was packed. We should also realize that the largest part of the audiences in Amsterdam consisted of theatre visitors, not exactly ballet fans, but just people who wanted to see a performance of the world famous Kirov Ballet, and "Swan Lake" is always a safe bet.

NO7, some of the soloists had already left Amsterdam before the final weekend, leaving us with two Siegfrieds for four "Swan Lakes" in three days. I wonder what would have happened if one of the remaining soloists got hit by a bike or something. It's sad to realize that this Kirov legend mentioned by enterachilles seems to shine a whole lot less when they are not performing in London, New York or Japan.

Just a short note about the final performances of the Kirov Ballet in Amsterdam. Inspiration had already left the building before the band was gone, because the two "Swan Lakes" I attended were among the most lacklustre performances I have seen by this company. Veronika Part may be a beautiful dancer, her Odette-Odile is also tedious and utterly uninteresting. As Odette she struck just a few nice positions but forgot to create a character; as Odile she lacked brilliance and oomph. Evgeny Ivanchenko as Siegfried matched her pretty well in his apathy and danced rather weakly. That somebody like Alexander Kurkov is still cast as Rothbart is incomprehensible, but we already knew that the company was overstretched. It was however quite painful to watch. The pas de trois was excellent, some ravishing moments of the female corps (although the little swans were sloppy) and some fine national dances, but I'm afraid that wasn't enough to save the evening. I much preferred Tatiana Amosova on the second occasion. Not the most touching or warmest Odette I have seen, but at least a performance that came alive. Her Black Swan was exciting and had a riveting finale. Sadly Ivanchenko was again a dead loss on stage.

vrsfanatic, Nina Sakhnovskaya has been living in Augsburg, Germany. [This message has been edited by Marc Haegeman (edited March 24, 2001).]

OK, we got some confusion here with the names. Mme. Hermine obviously means the Sleeping Beauty performance with Asylmuratova and Zaklinsky, filmed in Moscow in the late eighties/early nineties, and commercially available. The famous Beauty film with Sizova and Soloviev dates from 1964. Sizova was born in 1939; Zaklinsky in 1955.

CygneDanois, Kolpakova first danced Aurora in her fifth season with the Kirov; she was 23. I don't know exactly when Asylmuratova made her debut in the role; I suppose when she was in her mid-twenties. Andrei, perhaps? Sizova was 25 when they made the film.

Although Maya Dumchenko definitely belongs to the group of youngsters whose fast rise coincided with Makhar Vaziev taking over at the Kirov Ballet, she somehow fell out of favour (at least since 1998) and has been mainly consigned to second rank duty, the dancer who performs when most of the others are absent or injured, and missing some tours. As far as I was able to see, there is absolutely no ground for that. Manhattnik, Zhelonkina has always been remarkable for the quality of her plastique and movement, even when she was only doing Flower Girl in "Don Quixote" or Bell dancer in "The Fountain". Vishneva's "Giselle" is "special" indeed, as it is basically in open defiance of the ballet’s performance tradition, but actually tells us nothing new about the role. Depends of what you expect of your Giselle, no doubt.