Mel Johnson

How about "Holders of ringing cell phones will be crucified. Upside down." Yeah! ;)

As long as he's got something to do, he's fine. It's when the part is obviously an overlay that he bothers me. If he interacts with other characters on the stage, it usually works pretty well. One of the most successful jester uses I ever saw was as a facilitator/foil for the Tutor. The Jester would slip the old boy bottles of hooch from the Peasants and get him drunk. After that, he would serve as the Tutor's Fool, sort of like Lear's, but much lower-key. They walked off of Act I with the Tutor grandiloquently gesturing, obviously explaining the Secrets of the Universe, and the Jester nodding as if he understands, and dropping a shrug as they leave.

Another reason why I think it's wise to have the Princess Mother out of action when Siegfried exits. At one time, the Royal suggested that she had had some sort of seizure and died! It gave Deanne Bergsma a nice opportunity to pitch down the steps to the throne and arrange the corpse decoratively.

And there always is the slightly subversive view that hereditary royalty may be pleasant and intelligent enough as people, but are seriously underinformed and unsophisticated in many areas. The Russians had seen it in their own Imperial family, and earlier, both Louis XVI and Anne of Cleves (Mrs. Henry VIII #4) had to have the "facts of life" explained to them AFTER their marriages! [ 06-30-2001: Message edited by: Mel Johnson ]

I had never thought of it that way - Benno is sort of a Mercutio cognate to Siegfried's Romeo! A good idea!

After all, he hasn't seen Swan Lake umpteen hundred times, the way we have! ;)

To speak up for the male dancers for a moment, our variations aren't anywhere near as well-documented as the women's, but you're quite correct, even the ones that are properly recorded get changed regularly; it rather annoys me. But to return to the thread question: sure, if the ballerina is otherwise outstanding, change it.

Perhaps we are, Doug; the one I'm thinking of has a nice bridge to the coda, and would make a great breather for both Siegfried and Odile before the fireworks!

I think I mean a different one, then, if you're thinking of one that starts with a low trumpet solo. The variation I'm thinking of starts in the cellos and horns, and is answered by the woodwinds. The trumpet gets involved toward the end, with a nice countermelody, but that's the wrong end!

Kind of like the royal prohibition on taking ponies in the New Forest. Have to control the harvest somehow!

Choreographers and ballet masters (and less-than-masters) over the years have been beguiled by all that wonderful Pas de Six music and have dipped into it to greater or lesser effect seemingly at will. It would make a perfectly marvelous stand-alone piece, and I have seen it used in that way. Doug, when you refer to the "B-flat major waltz" are you referring to the original woman's variation in what we called the Black Swan pas de deux today? I've always liked that music and thought it a pity that Petipa and Ivanov couldn't have found some use for it.

Using Alexandra's filter of "what's good for print media is good for Ballet Talk", it may be fair to recall the landmark case of Times v. Sullivan in which the principle of "the truth is proof absolute against libel" was upheld, but also added that "malicious or wanton use of information, particularly untrue, is not protected speech" - by extension, the Court created another safeguard against runaway gossip campaigns, even if the information were true. I think it works pretty well.

I can't speak for the current version of ABT's production, but in the Petipa/Ivanov 1895 version, Von Rothbart does not dance as such at all. He has some moments where he acts as a support for Odile, and after the Black Swan Pdd, there is a scena for the three of them where the "waltz of the princesses" is briefly reprised, and then moves into some fairly forceful mime, where Von R. extorts a promise to marry Odile from Siegfried.

Good story, and one that would have gone well on the old "Great Saves" forum. Thanks for sharing.

And related to emploi, but different from it, at least within Swan Lake itself, intentional parallel construction.

It still makes sense to have him in there when the ballet is presented as a part of a four-act complete version. When the pdd is offered as an independent divertissement, he becomes superfluous. And Von R. doesn't do any lifts with Odile. Siegfried does any that are in there.

Yes, indeed, the Balanchine one-act Swan had huntsmen, and they were more active than are the ones in the present redaction of the work.

I remember coming home on leave once, and going to meet Lourdes Lopez before she was in the company up at SAB. I asked her what had happened to Don Q this season. She replied, "Well, he's put a snake lady in the palace divertissement." I said, "Oh, goodie, a snake lady - just what it needed!" :rolleyes:

And Benno doesn't spare his principal much; he does promenades with Odette, while Siegfried does all the lifts!

In order, huh? OK - lemme try: The Bolshoi, starring Nina Timofeyeva and Maris Liepa. The old Royal production, starring Svetlana Beriosova and Donald MacLeary. The "old" NYCB version, while Balanchine was still tinkering with it - the day I saw it, 4 Swans were IN! The Kirov, starring Alla Sizova and Yuri Soloviev. And after that, I get them all mixed up! [ 06-24-2001: Message edited by: Mel Johnson ]

Well, in productions that still have the mime, she tells us, and I'm willing to take her at her - uh - "word"!

Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux has a turn sequence in the coda, but it's not a continuous brace of fouettés, and Balanchine had several different versions of it, each one tailored to an individual ballerina, i.e., Hayden's was different from McBride's, which was different from Farrell's, which was different from Verdy's, and so on. The Danse Russe in Act III was a sort of oddity in the course of the ballet. The original ballerina, Pelagia Karpakova, wanted to dance a demi-character Russian dance, so Tchaikovsky indulged her. According to the original program, it was in the 1877 version of the score. There are two principal versions of the score, the 1877, and the edited-by-Drigo 1895 version. Almost all the rest are derived from these two. [ 06-23-2001: Message edited by: Mel Johnson ]

But on the other hand, how, short of dropping into a mime that occurs nowhere else in the ballet, does one communicate the Prodigal's words to his Father, "Father, I have sinned against you, and before God. I am no longer fit to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your servants."?

Yes, de Mille was always fond of saying that, and if you didn't ask, she'd tell you! ;) She did such a good work of PR that the legendary ballets of Oklahoma HAVE become the first in the Conventional Wisdom, but then, there are the the exceptions...

Wow! What a chance for Remembrances of Times Past! I suppose the first "goose bump" experience at the ballet I had was as a little kid and I saw "Opus 34" - scared the living bejeezus out of me, and I don't remember anything else from that program, except how creepy it made me feel! For a better experience, how about Raissa Struchkova and Alexander Lapauri (still) dancing the "Moszkowski Waltz" in a Bolshoi "highlights" program. And there was Fonteyn - so many there it's hard to select a top choice, but I just remember the first time I saw her exit in Act II of Swan Lake, and the memory still sends shivers up and down my spine. And Merle Park, displaying the most aristocratic aplomb down the very last in the "Rose Adagio". And also in the fish dives in Act III - they weren't tricks, they were dance! Then Patti McBride and Eddie Villella bouncing onto the stage at City Center, during the first season of "Tarantella"! Not letting out the Adagio in Square Dance with Nicholas Magallanes and Pat Wilde. Nobody's quite done it for me in that like those two! Then there was Toni Lander in "Grand Pas Glazounov"...when she did the "cembalom" variation, I was one big goose bump! My first "Bayadere" with the Kirov, and Kaleria Fedicheva etching herself into the interior of my skull as the ideal Nikiya. Everyone I see now, I judge against that standard. Most don't do well! And again, not to slight the corps in the same work. Arthur Mitchell doing "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" with Linda (Rosenthal) Merrill as the gorgeous redheaded stripper! Lordy, this could go on and on, and get very personal. I better stop while I'm ahead!