Solor

I dont understand why some of the old ballet photos are doctored up to look like cartoons. For example the photos provided in Garafola's "Diaries of Marius Petipa". Ive seen some of these same photos and they look really nice the way they were originally. For example heres 2 photos. The first 2 are of the same photo of Pavlova in "La Fille Mal Gardee", the second 2 are of Kschessinskaya in "La Esmeralda" with her pet goat Djali.

Pavlova Original - http://img280.imageshack.us/img280/6535/ma...avlova19011.jpg

Pavlova Re-done - http://img271.imageshack.us/img271/8440/ma...avlova19012.jpg

Kschessinskaya Orignal - http://img280.imageshack.us/img280/8039/la...kschessinsk.jpg

Kschesinskaya Re-done - http://img280.imageshack.us/img280/6100/ks...sinskaya1zq.jpg

Why is/was this done to these old photos?

Wow pugni's Humpbacked Horse....that really cool! Now all I have to do is learn to read music

I just bought an very old piano reduction of Drigo's 2 act "Harlequinade" off of Ebay. Although the manuscript is for piano, it also specifies orchestration. It also has stage directions in french. Theres a dedication in to an Alexandra Feodorovna? It also gives a listing of the orignal cast. I was wondering if anying knows anything about this book?

1. http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/241/harlequinade54fz.jpg

2. http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/9751/harlequinade11nd.jpg

3. http://img284.imageshack.us/img284/950/harlequinade27sn.jpg

4. http://img277.imageshack.us/img277/3013/harlequinade34lk.jpg

5. http://img284.imageshack.us/img284/5130/harlequinade43jl.jpg

After the topic of the Black Swan PDD and the Karsavina photos as Odile I got to thinking about the footage of her doing barre work and various other classroom stuff in the film "Glory of the Kirov". Of all of the different clips offerred in that film the footage of Karsavina fascinated me most of all. Unfortunatly the footage has that sort of 'sped up' quality that alot of old footage from the period has. Luckily I was able to pause my DVD player and adjust the slow-motion in order to get the footage to play at the right speed. Other parts of this footage is played in slow motiuon in the film, and again I was able to speed up my DVD player in order to get the correct speed.

I was really intigued by the level of technique - for example when doing grand battement (pardon me if my spelling of 'ballet french' is incorrect!) Mlle. Karsavina was very wobbley, when doing her entrachat sixes she landed almost in 3rd position, with her heels barely touching the floor (shin-splints? My teacher Marat Daukeyev used to SCREAM at me when doing various brise voles and entrechat quatre/trois/six/de voile or royales for not putting my heels all the way down). When doing her tour jetes I was really suprised at how much she leaned forward (once in class when I was about 10 yrs. old I leaned to far forward when executing a GRAND tour jete if there ever was one and I fell flat on my face!). The other thing that suprised me, which I have also noticed when watching very old footage of dancers, was the way that Karsavina held her arms - it seemed that in those days there wasnt as much emphasis put on 'correct' positioning of the arms? Maybe the technique wasnt as evolved?

I have taught class to some students who were maybe about 20 or so. They werent technically polished by a long shot but they could execute almost any combination given to them; they were very coordinated. It got me to thinking how much they danced exactly like the ballerinas I have seen in very old footage of say Vecheslova or Karsavina, etc.

i gather these boxed sets are now quite rare; clive barnes has one but it's in his country place so his offers to show it to me mean a trip out of the city, which has yet to happen.

that would be really neat to see RG! Indeed those costumes are similar.

Yes I scanned the 1999 ones and the some of the 1892 ones from Scholl's book......I wanted to share them with others who may not have the book, as they are really cool! When I first got the book I was flipping back and forth for while comparing the 1890 sets to the 1999 ones.....well done on behalf of the 'reconstructors'!

Heres some other pix I scanned from Scholl's book, the first is of Maria Anderson as Fee Fleur de Farine with an Unidentified page - check out Mlle. Anderson's corsetted waist! Makes me wonder how she danced! Those 19th century Danseuses sure had some endurance doing classical ballet in corsets! Was Anderson also the first White Cat? The second is of Marie Petipa as the Lilac Fairy in her Prologue costume with Lyubov Vishnevskaya as a member of her suite.

1. http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/7084/sl...gbeauty16ox.jpg

2. http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/7892/sleepingbeauty22mp.jpg

I scanned these photos and am posting them for those who havnt seen them (or for those who want to see them again), they are so beautiful! The detail is amazing, particularly the decor of the Prologue and Aurora's bedchamber. It's obvious that the period of the story was represented, which rarely happens these days. Compare if you like the 1890 sets to the reproductions. IMPRESSIVE! Perhaps there are those that dont care for the decor? Could it be that thier detail and opulence is distracting?

Prologue -

1890 - http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/258/prologue18903bc.jpg

1999 - http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/4421/prologue19995lw.jpg

Act I -

1890 - http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/1031/acti18903sv.jpg

1999 - http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/8536/ac...knitters4lb.jpg

Act II -

Vision Scene 1890 - http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/4007/ac...ionscene4eb.jpg

Vision Scene 1999 1 - http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3527/acti...onscene21zs.jpg

Vision Scene 1999 2 - http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3359/acti...ionscene3hg.jpg

Panorama 1890 - http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/7624/ac...panorama8oh.jpg

Panorama 1999 - http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/9730/acti...panorama8dk.jpg

Aurora's Bedchamber 1890 - http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/6489/sbedchamber2zh.jpg

Aurora's Bedchamber 1999 - http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7742/sbedchamber7dx.jpg

Act III 1890 - http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/1353/actiii18906ek.jpg

Act III 1999 - http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/9329/ac...ocession9js.jpg

Apotheosis 1890 - http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/2434/ac...otheosis1ll.jpg

Apotheosis 1999 - http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9311/acti...otheosis3yw.jpg

Moderator's note: Solor, because rg is the moderator of the Ballet History forum, he has special photo privileges not available to the general membership.

This conserves bandwidth and helps minimize the expense of running the site.

Oh ok - geez I must have tried 100 times to do that!

Now wait a minute RG - I thought that the photo of Karsavina on the left was of her as Medora? I have always seen that photo credited as such ?

I finally got a scanner!! Heres somepix - Most of them I scanned from books I have, some I bought of off ebay. I put them here for those who havent seen some of them. When I first saw the Kschessinkaya/Gerdt Shades photo (below) my eyes got really BIG....gorgeous picture!

To bad it's retouched though.

Kingdom of the Shades 1900, w/ Mathilde Kschessinskaya & Pavel Gerdt. (check out how they hold thier veils, and that they dont come out of buns but are on top of thier heads)

http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/9475/laba...theshadesma.jpg

Ekaterina Vazem as Nikiya, 1877

http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/2394/la...terinavazem.jpg

Nutcracker 1892, Act I w/ Sergei Legat as Nutcracker & Stanislava Stanislavovna Belinskaya as Clara. (Does anyone know what the little boy in the middle is supposed to be? Its a realy nice costume. I was thinking perhaps one of the gingerbread soldiers or one of the mechanical dolls? But I think the dolls were al played by adults.)

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/5518/nutc...actisergeil.jpg

The first Herr Drosselmeyer, Timofei Stukolkin, 1892

http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/5425/nutc...ertimofeist.jpg

The first Suger-Plum Fairy, Antoinetta Del-Era, 1892

http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/4253/era18921ut.jpg

Maestro Cesare Pugni -

1. Circa 1830-ish? http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/325/cesar...irca18404df.jpg

2. Circa 1860-ish? http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/7397/cesa...irca18604su.jpg

Arthur Saint-Leon, circa 1865?

http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/4087/arth...obybbraqueh.jpg

What role is Anna Pavlova dancing here? #2 photo w/ Mary Pickford

1. http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/5017/anna...rca192018mt.jpg

2. http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/4496/an...fordcirca19.jpg

Kschessinskaya & Preobrajenskaya in 'Le Jardin Anime', I believe. Not a very good quality photo....circa?

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/1516/le...nimemathild.jpg

Students of the Imperial School in the Children's Polonaise & Mazurka from Act II of "Paquita", late 1800's?

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/9988/sp...irca19000pf.jpg

Heres Vaganova (#1) and Trefilova? (#2) in the same costume, though I have seen the Vagova photo credited as the Dryad Queen in "Don Quixote", and the Trefilova photo as Esmeralda in "La Esmeralda" (a little , but I find it really interesting that every time Petipa mentions Vaganova in his diaries her name is usually followed by 'awful' or 'terrible' when commenting on her performance.)

1. http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2564/laes...avaganova19.jpg

2. http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/1294/zzzzz8pc.jpg

Pretty photo of Lubov Egorova in I believe Pavel Gerdt's revival of the Pugni/Petipa "The Blue Dahlia"

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/4670/th...gorova19054.jpg

The Pharoah's Daughter -

-Platon Karsavin (father of Tamara Karsavina) as either Taor or the Nile King? I don't know who the danseuse is, anyone know? Rosati perhaps?

http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/6406/sdau...cenecarolin.jpg

-Mathilde Kschessinskaya as Aspicia in the Pas de Fleche, Petipa's revival of 1898. What a cool costume!

1. http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/214/sda...emathildeks.jpg

2. http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/214/sdaug...emathildeks.jpg

3. http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/3518/sdau...mathildeks1.jpg

-Sofia Fedorova in the Pas des Caryatids. Shes a playing a character called Hita??

http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/1602/sd...atidshitasl.jpg

-Anna Pavlova playing a character called Vint-Anta?

http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/2528/sd...anta19066ji.jpg

Great photo RG, much better quality! I was wondering, how are able to put up the thumbnail of a pic like that?

Heres a really interesting photo that somehow I seemed to never notice in Smakov's "The Great Russian Dancers" - Tamara Karsavina as Odile and Pierre Vladimirov as Siegfried, 1913, the "Black? Swan Pas de Deux" -

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/4418/sw...vinaasodile.jpg

Regarding composer/musical credits, I can't believe how poor under-rated Maestro Riccardo Drigo NEVER gets credited in "Swan Lake" productions live or on film for his work on the score. Grant it, a company may not be utilizing the complete 1895 St. Petersburg performance score, but I'm sure 99.9% of them perform his revised endings for the 'Love Duet', and the 'Black Swan Adage', as well as his orchestrations for Odile's famous Variation, the 'Swan's Waltz' ('Valse Bluette'), and the 'reconciliation' Pas de Deux (Un poco di Chopin) (though there aren't many western companies that perform the latter 2 dances).

The 'Golden Idol' (bazok) music is by Pavel Emilievich Feldt(1905-1960) composer and conductor who worked at the Kirov and Maly Theatres. Feldt assisted on the realisation of a number of important ballet scores for Leningrad companies from the 1930's to the 1950's.

Ps. Feldt also conducted the first performances of Shostakovich's. 'The Limpid(Bright) Stream' and Khachaturian's, 'Gayane' and 'Spartacus'.

Thanks a whole lot for letting us know Leonid! Where/how did you find this out by the way? Interesting......

This confirms our fears that Vishneva would not be dancing Ondine at all this season...and there goes the possibility of a DVD, this year, at any rate. [The one remaining Ondine of the season is in June, while Vishneva is in NYC.

26 - Bayadere (Soviet version) - Terioshkina/Golub/RUZIMATOV (perhaps his farewell to the role of Solor?)

So were there conditions that 'Ondine' would only be filmed is Vishneva was dancing the lead?

Is Ruzimatov retiring?

this POB version was filmed in December with Agnès Letestu, José Martinez and Karl Paquette, so it should come out by the end of the year.

Im glad this is coming out! .....Im not to thrilled however about Ms. Letestu danicng Odette.

There is a short variation for the additional cavalier (preserved in a variant which Alexander Gorsky, who danced this part, made later as a choreographer), but none for Siegfried. The virtuoso requirements of Siegfried's part as notated in this pas d'action raise doubts that it was performed thus in 1895."

Could this be the variation that Chabukiani danced first in the 1930s that eventually became Siegfried's 'Black Swan PDD' variation? For those who dont know, Im referring to the traditional variation for Siegfried in the 'Black Swan PDD' that was fashioned out of the omitted allegro ending of the 'Black Swan Adage' (musically the 'Black Swan Adage' is an Andantino).

In "Tchaikovsky's Ballet" theres a footnote regarding this variation (pp.318 - notes for pp. 248-254, no.36) -"The original allegro survives in some modern productions, and, although rescored, has been wrongly attributed to Drigo...In the score used in performances at the (Mariinsky) Theatre this music appears with the rubric 'Variation of Chabukiani'."

This variation is performed in different orchestration in the west, in Russia the main melody is orchestrated for oboe (I think?) the first time around, and in the west it is orchestrated for 1st violins. Aso the ending is slightly different in the Russian version - it has a more Minkus/Pugni ending (where the last note is repeated after a pause). Anyway, if this were not teh variation danced by the cavalier in 1895, what was danced?

I have now seen both Nureyev's 1966 film of Swan Lake and his final version choreographed for the POB. And I was shocked at how different the two productions were.

Nureyev's 1966 version seemed to be very self-consciously "different." Different musical arrangements (for the Black Swan pdd especially), different choreography (6 cygnets instead of 4, an allegro ending to the Love Duet, no pas de trois in the first act), different production values (the garish costumes and a year's worth of eyeshadow on Nureyev, Siegfried drowning). It was like the rebellious 60s version of Swan Lake.

Nureyev's final version for the POB, however, is essentially an extremely traditional production. It was as if he decided all his new ideas in 1966 were bad, and it was better to go back to Petipa/Ivanov. All the traditional musical numbers are used. He listened to Margot Fonteyn and restored the mime, especially in the second act. Pas de trois? Back. The production is very understated and classy. The ending is still tragic, but it's much more effective than the 1966 drowning -- Odette jumps back in the lake, and Siegfried lies lifeless, and Rothbart emerges from the lake, victorious. A heart-wrenching conclusion. The only "different" thing about this Swan Lake is of course some extra solos for Siegfried. But the core of the Petipa/Ivanov Swan Lake is firmly retained, something I can't say about many recent productions (the McKenzie version, the Martins version, even the Grigorivich production). I much prefer this to the Bourmeister production that the POB had been dancing before the Nureyev version. Nureyev's is much more traditional, much closer, I think, to Petipa/Ivanov.

Funny you should mention this canbelto! I just watched my tape of Nureyev's 1966 Swan Lake the other night! I also watched, for the first time, the 1980 film of the Royal Ballet's production w/ Makarova and Dowell, which I found to be terrible - not Makarova and Dowell of course, but just about all of the soloists.

I have heard that Nureyev's POB Swan Lake was called "controversial".....I myself dont care much for non-traditional productions of Swan Lake, but I do like Nureyev's 1966 production - maybe because I have such affection for anything 1960s regarding style of the time, etc. That production is VERY 60s, even the choreography matches the sets and costumes, and vice versa if you know what I mean - theres a style that runs through the whole thing that is really cool. I especially like Nureyev's 'Grand Pas de Cinq' in the first act (Ashton utilized many of the same numbers that Nureyev did for his Pas de Quatre in the ballroom scene - Nureyev's version sure beats Ashton's horrible choreography for the Royal Ballet production )

Perhaps Nureyev tastes changed with age, and as it should be, for the better! I would love to see his POB Swan Lake.....is there a film available?

are you serious?!?!?!?!?!?!? BOY DO I FEEL DUMB..... I thought that perhaps this was happening, but I know that when I have emailed them in the past I have gotten replies in my inbox, not my bulk mail folder. Ive been getting tons of junk mail lately, and I usually just dump that folder, but I dont check it....YIKES! Well, I emailed yesterday, so hopefully theres a reply. Thanks alot Jane Simpson!!!!

I have been emailing The Dancing Times now for about 4 months in an attempt to inquire about information on purchasing back-issues, and to see if the ones I am interested in are available. I send an email probably about once a week, and I have gotten no reply! RG was kind enough to give me another address, but I havnt gotten a response from that one either (?) I was wondering if anyone knows why this is? Or if someone else has encountered this problem? My emails are polite and courteous, and I send the same one each time (Im not, like, screaming or being nasty in them, so I know it isnt becauseof that.... lol!)

In trying to get a hold of Donald Sidney-Fryer's "Checklist of Ballet Scores by Cesare Pugni" I emailed the author. Much to my suprise he informed me that after nearly 20 years (1980-1999) of PAINSTAKING research he is coming out with a sort of 'bio-encyclopedia' on Pugni. So far he has 2 boxes FULL of works and information, libretti, etc. on the prolific Maestro, each filled with 2,500 pages!!.......he said if it were done a la Cyril Beaumont's complete book of ballets, it would fill two volumes at 1,100 pp each! WOW! The number of full-length ballets by Pugni, at least according to the 'checklist' is at 312, though this doesnt even include all of the various supplemental Pas and variations, dances, etc. WOW!!!

He had the help and encouragement in assembling the info from some of Pugni's decsendants from his 2nd wife Marion Linton. He will begin releasing in via the internet this summer, it will be titled "The Case of the Light Fantastic Toe - The Romantic Ballet and Signor Maestro Cesare Pugni". Ivor Guest commented in and article I read that Pugni is in long over due need of a champion - looks like hes got it! I thought I'd let my fellow ballettalk buddies know! I think it's VERY cool, and about time!

I cant believe Carla Fracci danced the lead in this ballet - wasnt she in her 60s?

What is the name of the man that choreographed this ballet in 1997 for the Arena Ballet? All info on the web just says 'Chalmer-Petipa'....

12 I 1858, 3 XI 1858, 24 I 1863, 20 IX 1865, 30 XI 1880, 3 III 1888, 13 I 1899,

15 V 1931, 31 V 1955, 6 X 1958, 11 IV 1968, 5 VII 1973.

What do those numbers and Roman numerals mean?

I just watched Mme. Makhalina and Andris Liepa in "Essential Ballet", she was DEVINE!!!!!.....what is she up to these days? She only 38......is she retired? Does she dance elsewhere? On 'For-Ballet-Lovers-Only' she is listed as a member of the company, but then again so is Asylmuratova. I read Marc's bio of her, and well known controversial start at the Mariinsky due to her physique, etc., and how when Oleg V. left she was put on the back burner, so to speak . Now the Mariinsky is ruled by ballerinas that have her physique....actually more extreme versions of it.

Is she not looked up to the Mariisnky by the younger generation? Does she coach? She is/was? such a devine Ballerina......