Mikhail

Dear colleagues, in a few days Bolshoi’s ballerinas go to London. They still do not know what to cry at the end of Le Petit Corsaire. Help them, please. I am quite serious, this is a problem and all good proposals will be transferred immediately to Ratmansky and Burlaka. Time goes too fast. It is not necessary to look for an adequate translation to “Au bord” ot “À l’abordage” or to dig special dictionaries. 1) The cry should be familiar to any English speaking audience (which consists of not only sailors ) to produce humoristic effect. 2) Still some associations are necessary – either with pirates or, more general, with sea battles, or even more general, with an appeal to some brave and dangerous actions. What do football fans cry, by the way? 3) It should be short enough and easy to pronounce. Thank you.

You are right, Mme. Hermine, just forgot that ABT has Sergeev's version which starts at the bazaar. Natalia, I think we should not worry about tour to London. Bolshoi had the successful experience in 1956 how to dance in a very cold weather.

Oh, yes, Natalia, you are right, Igor Zapravdin plays piano in my link but the music is so famous that one could readily find orchestrated records. I do not think it is really important for our readers. I do not think we have to give exact references to each statement as how we publish scientific papers. Do we fight for the copyright or just support the free conversation? Sorry if I violated some of your rules. Esmeralda’s variation was interesting for me in the context of Le Corsaire for two reasons: it gave an example of Burlaka’s job and it was used once as Medora’s variation instead of the present Finesse d’amour.

Eh, Marc, the history of different variations and their music is so complicated… For example, please listen to this music well known as Esmeralda’s variation which was usually attributed to Drigo. Yuri Burlaka found that this is a variation of Sieba from the ballet “Sieba or La Spada di Wodan” (1877, Teatro Regio) by Romualdo Marenko (1841-1907). Nice, isn’t it? By the way, this variation with tambourine was interpolated by Grigorovich in his version of Le Corsaire (Bolshoi, 1994) as Medora’s variation in the first act, when she danced at the Market Place in front of Conrad. Not a good idea, I guess, to use so famous dance.

Yes, Marc, but the music of the variation belongs to Drigo. I specially asked Burlaka why Trubetskoi was not mentioned in the booklet and received this answer.

Dear Friends, these are my notes on the Bolshoi’s new production of Le Corsaire. I hope they will be of interest to some of “alertniks”. First of all, Burlaka and Ratmansky do not pretend that this is a reconstruction of “the original Petipa”. That would not be possible for many reasons. They did use everything they could find – Harvard notations, Petipa’s own notes from The Bakhrushin Museum in Moscow, different scores from Paris, Moscow and St.Petersburg, and so on. But notations are incomplete and even if we had full records of the steps, dancers’ bodies have changed, costume materials have changed, dyes are different, etc. Thus, the stagers concede only to giving an interpretation of what was found in the archives. At least this is honest, and I like that. They consider the various interpolations as also being of importance from the point of view of dance art and have decided to preserve these. They staged the missing bits themselves, together. Initially it was decided that Burlaka would concentrate on Petipa’s choreography and Ratmansky would create new dances. And so it is written in the booklet. But in the end, in the opening night program both are listed on equal basis as co-authors of the new production. Burlaka alone is given credit for musical dramaturgy of the production as he is an expert in old ballet music. I guess the list of dances is the most important part for us because the synopsis is almost the same everywhere and is well known. In what follows I mark by blue color dances and names of composers. Act 1, scene 1 - The Market Place There is no shipwreck at the beginning as there is in the ABT production or in the Mariinsky version. A group of pirates appear among the crowd at the bazaar. Conrad and Birbanto are there, too. Medora is on the balcony. She throws a bouquet of flowers to Conrad and then goes downstairs for a while – Medora’s entrée, a very short dance, just a few steps on the music of Adolphe Adam. She contacts Conrad, but Isaac Lanquedem (a mime role) sends her back to the house. Seid Pasha appears and sees Medora on the balcony. He is impressed and wants her downstairs, but Lanquedem offers him a couple of slaves instead, a male and a female. Then this couple dances the famous Pas des esclaves (music by Prince Peter von Oldenburg, the male variation – Riccardo Drigo). The entrée of this pas des deux is much longer than in other productions. The Pasha is not impressed and orders Medora to come. Lanquedem has to obey, and Medora dances a pretty and very long (4.5 minutes) variation which is called Finesse d’amour on the music by Cesare Pugni. The dance is very nice and consists of eight sections; the Pasha and Conrad take part in it too. Burlaka says this is original choreography. I have never seen it before, at least not all of it. Seid Pasha offers a lot of money for Medora. Lanquedem sells her and signs the paper. The Pasha goes to his palace, and finally Danse des corsairs (ballabille d’action) follow (Adam and Pugni), which is also common and well-known. Birbanto and his girlfriend lead it. At the end of the scene Medora and Lanquedem are kidnapped by Conrad. Act 1, scene 2 - The Cave The corsairs arrive with goods, and very soon three couples begin Danse des Forbans (Pugni) lead, again, by Birbanto and his girlfriend. After that comes the famous Pas de deux (Riccardo Drigo, female variation – by Julius Gerber). This is the Pas de deux with the slave which we know, but there is no slave Ali, who appeared later during the Soviet epoch. Conrad and Medora dance it, the text is standard, but the very end is changed a bit – there is no “slave” pose, extremely bent one – Conrad just falls on one knee in a noble, European way. Then we have the argument over the slave women. The pirates are mutinous, and a small fight ensues, but the conflict is resolved and Medora appears in a male costume to dance Le petit corsaire (Pugni). She is not on her toes, and is dressed in the same costume and shoes as all the other pirates. I heard that in Munich the ballerina danced on pointe and to different music, which was not in the original Petipa version. A funny story. At the end Medora has to cry “Au bord” – Karsavina described this in her memoirs and several ballet critics of that time have written about it. But both the French words and their Russian translation (“na bort”) are phonetically similar to the gynecological medical procedure – abortion (“abort” in Russian). So our ballerinas confused and hesitated, and Burlaka and Ratmansky were indeed afraid that the audience would laugh. On the other hand, Medora dances Le Petit Corsaire with a megaphone in her hand which doesn’t make any sense if she stays silent. Finally they changed the words to “À l’abordage” (“na abordage” – almost the same in Russian). By the way, can you tell me please what should they cry in English to be understood in London and in New York? There is also Danse des enfants (music by Adam) – danced by four girls and two boys from the Ballet Academy, the end of the 2nd year. Then we get the scene with Conrad and Medora’s frolicking on the couch, and Medora’s variation (also by Adam) follows. After this, the story with the poisoned flower and the second kidnapping of Medora takes place. The end of the 1st Act – about 65 minutes. Act 2 - Harem games Zulma, the favorite wife of Seid Pasha appears surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting. Zulma is an important mime role because the young Gulnara is her rival and enjoys the support of the younger harem girls. Gulnara’s variation (again Adam, the main composer) with the Pasha’s cane. The variation is very coquettish and vivid. Seid Pasha is pleased and throws her his handkerchief as a sign that he is going to spend this night with her. A game with the handkerchief ensues, and it finally comes to the hands of an old and unattractive female slave (in black-face). Pas des trois des odalisques (Adam – entrée and third variation, Pugni – 1st and 2nd variations and coda) begins. Then Lanquedem brings Medora and we arrive at the great-great Le jardin animé. It consists of Valse 1 (Léo Delibes), Adagio 1 (Delibes), Gulnara’s variation (nice harp music by Albert Heinrich Zabel), a variation for two coryphées (Drigo), Valse 2 (interlude by Delibes), Adagio 2, Medora’s variation and coda – all to Delibes’ music. Burlaka found the scheme for Le jardin animé in the State Central Theatrical Museum (Bakhrushin) archives in Moscow and says he was surprised that this wonderful composition was created on the basis of only 6-7 steps. He says that his reconstruction is simpler in steps but much more complicated as an ensemble than what we are familiar with, and that he considers the composition to be a perfect creation of Petipa on the same level as The Shades in La Bayadere or the Dream scene in Don Quixote. At one point all the women dance between the flower beds and garlands to demonstrate their exact and exquisite technique. The New Bolshoi Stage is too small for this scene (as is the Coliseum’s stage in London) and I dream of seeing it on our main stage when it reopens. Then we have the episodes with pilgrims who are really the pirates in disguise. A fight begins and Conrad is arrested. The end of the second act, about 40 minutes. Act 3 - The Wedding To save Conrad, Gulnara suggests that she and Medora exchange dresses and that she marry Seid Pasha in Medora’s place. Medora tells the Pasha that she agrees to the wedding. The festivities begin with Pas des eventails (music by Riccardo Drigo, with one exception). This Pas existed in previous productions and was danced in the pirates’ Cave. Burlaka and Ratmansky transferred it to the third act and re-choreographed it almost completely anew, as the old choreography has not survived. It is danced now by Medora, Gulnara, a cavalier, six coryphées (the leading two of whom are the same girls from Le jardin animé). The order of the dances: Entrée, adagio (Medora and her anonymous cavalier), variation of the six coryphées, Gulnara’s variation (it is done to the harp music by Zabel and was composed by Petipa for Sokolova, Karsavina’s teacher), the cavalier variation, Medora’s variation (which also belongs to Petipa) and coda. The stagers’ imagination is responsible for what is not Petipa in this scene. I did not like at all the cavalier’s variation. The adagio was not bad, and I liked the coda, but I was completely surprised by the variation for the six girls – the coryphées. It is so beautiful and so correct in style that it looks as if it was composed by Petipa himself. I believe the Muse visited Burlaka and Ratmansky with this one. But the game with fans is not so impressive as we could wait following the descriptions in literature. There is no effect of a peacock tail, the coryphées just keep blue fans during their entrée. After the Pas des eventails, Gulnara takes Medora’s place during the wedding. Then Medora is left alone with the Pasha and Scène dansante de caractère (Adam) follows during which the Pasha is disarmed and Conrad and Medora successfully escape. Seid Pasha has to be satisfied with Gulnara, who reveals his ring on her finger and announces that she is his wife. Zulma falls unconscious. To conclude – the music of this Pas is not original, not by Adam. I asked Burlaka and he told me that it was taken from Drigo’s score for the ballet “The Enchanted Forest” (“La forêt enchantée”). Then I’ve read that this was the first full-length ballet by Drigo and the first ballet staged by Lev Ivanov. It was done for the graduation from the Imperial Ballet School in 1887. Composed for one performance it held the stage for 20 years (R.J.Wiley, The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997, pp. 84-91). Epilogue– the Shipwreck A large ship appears on stage - I counted ten people on it with Conrad, Medora, and Birbanto among them. Then we have a short dance (actually, just some ballet poses) for Medora and Conrad, the storm, a new fight between Conrad and Birbanto, and, finally, the shipwreck. This is called Danse au bord de vaisseau (Adam), but there is no space for any real dancing on the ship. The shipwreck is very impressive even in our time of special effects in movies. Everybody dies at sea, but Medora and Conrad are saved on the seashore and stand in the famous final pose to thank the heavens for their rescue. This is the end of the story and the 3rd act again takes about 40 minutes. The ballet starts at 7 pm in Moscow (actually, 15 minutes later), and there are two intermissions, plus curtain calls, so it ends at 10:45 pm. Sorry for the equivalently long text.

Hello to everybody! Dear friends, We continue our project – an Internet-bridge, through which Bolshoi dancers will answer your questions on-line. This year our guest is Bolshoi’s principal Svetlana ZAKHAROVA. The e-mail address for your questions is for_svetlana.zakharova@yahoo.com . Please send them not later than August 26. We will use two languages for this enterprise, so all questions and answers will appear both in Russian and in English. Please be sure to mention your nickname and location (the city and the country). It would be nice if you repeat your questions here. After collecting the questions we need some time: Ms. Zakharova - to answer the questions and organizers - to translate her replies. The preliminary dates for the session on line is September 25-26. The address of the thread for the Internet-bridge is as follows: http://forum.balet.ru/viewtopic.php?t=1016 . Thank you for the interest in the project.

There are some technical details concerning the virtual meeting with Maria Alexandrova. The link http://forum.balet.ru/viewtopic.php?p=11589#11589 given above is the first post on a special thread to collect questions to Maria. When she enters the Internet tomorrow, each question and her reply provided with the translation from/to English/Russian will appear in consecutive order as a separate post on the same thread. Questions which could come during the session will be processed after the questions arrived in advance. Welcome tomorrow to meet Maria Alexandrova.

I am just to announce that the thread http://forum.balet.ru/viewtopic.php?p=11589#11589 , prepared for the virtual meeting with Maria Alexandrova, is renewed regularly. Questions which are displayed in the original languages for the moment, will be translated later. There are also some interesting links.

Sure, Carbro, the discussion will be preserved there.

Thank you, Helene, for the support. I have an idea. Participants of this forum can formulate their questions just here till, say, September 30. I guess, it will be easier for people and for the organizers to prepare something beforehand. Additional questions stimulated by the virtual talk with Maria Alexandrova can be sent by e-mail, as was described.

WOW! Dear friends, We are starting a project unprecedented for ballet-forums – an Internet-bridge, through which Bolshoi dancers will answer your questions on-line. The first dancer to participate in this experiment is Bolshoi’s principal Maria Alexandrova. The session will take place on October 1st, 8 p.m. Moscow time, (6 p.m. Central European Summer Time, 5 p.m. British Summer Time, 12 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). We will use two languages for this enterprise, so all questions and answers will appear both in Russian and in English. The e-mail address for your questions is bolshoi_dancer@yahoo.com (you can send them beforehand). Please be sure to mention your nickname and location (the city and the country). So, please join us on October 1st at the aforementioned time. Please do not forget to reload the page regularly to follow the discussion. The proposed duration of the virtual meeting with Maria Alexandrova is about 1-1.5 hours. The address of the thread is as follows: http://forum.balet.ru/viewtopic.php?p=11589#11589 . Thank you for the interest in the project.

Here are the results for the seniors as they were reported that night at http://forum.balet.ru/viewtopic.php?p=10213#10213 . Grand prix – Denis Matvienko (Ukraine) Women Duets 1. Matvienko Anastasia (Ukraine) 2. Domracheva Natalia (Russia, works in Kiev) and Krysanova Ekaterina (Russia, Bolshoi) 3. Osipova Natalia (Russia, Bolshoi) Soloists 1. Obraztsova Evgenia (Russia, Mariinsky) 2. Dronina Jourghita (Lithuania) 3. Matsak Natalia (Ukraine) Men Duets 1. Ishchuk Victor (Ukraine) 2. Kozlov Ivan (Ukraine) and Wang Zhiwei (China) 3. not attributed Soloists 1. Salenko Yaroslav (Ukraine) 2. Tabyldy Doszhan (Kazakhstan) 3. no candidates Andrei Pisarev from Ukraine who danced in the group of men soloists was injured at the rehearsal 15 minutes before the beginning of the competition and did not participate.

Participants of the 3rd round: Juniors: http://www.russianballet.ru/rus/mlgr3tur.html Seniors: http://www.russianballet.ru/rus/stgr3tur.html

Official list of the participants of the second round is published at the site of the Ballet magazine: Juniors: http://www.russianballet.ru/rus/mlgr2tur.html Seniors: http://www.russianballet.ru/rus/stgr2tur.html To my regret, no English version is presented. Between others – dancers from the US Mathias Dingman and Christina Shevchenko. Natalia, sorry. The competition of choreographers will be continued on Satruday morning. Dancers will show numbers which were not included to their official programs of the first round.

Bart, I guess, the large number of foreign tourists at the Bolshoi does not improve the situation with the claque but influences just in an opposite direction.

Bart, you can also find answers to some of your questions at http://www.clacker.ru/ - a new site in Russian affiliated to the old one, bolshoi.net / adagio.ru. As is clear from the name of the site the point of view you will be introduced there is the one of the claque. Well, it's also some information… Natalia, please have a look at it - may be, you will find it possible to give some comments. They pretend to help dancers but evidently you will never learn from there about shameful incidents when they prevented performances. The last one happened two days ago, on Monday, at the performance of La Bayadere with Svetlana Zakharova, Igor Zelensky and Maria Alexandrova as Gamzatti (the ballet was shown in the scope of the opening of the Moscow ballet competition). Just before Alexandrova's variation in the Grand Pas of the 2nd act, when the audience and the orchestra were silent and the ballerina was already standing in preparation, somebody cried out “Oh” - loudly in an unnatural foolish (but already familiar!) manner. This produced a slight, but noticeable wave of laugh in the audience, to which Ms. Alexandrova only smiled back and demonstrated such skills and drive that earned sincere and real, not organized ovation. All this happened in the presence of Mr. Grigorovitch and the members of the jury - Natalia Makarova, Natalia Bessmertnova, Ludmila Semenyaka, Mikhail Lavrovsky, Heinz Spoerli, Alex Ursulyak and others. The only reason for this barbarous behavior is that the claqueurs are just desperate to show their fading importance. In addition to Mashinka's information: many years ago there was an article in "Pravda" by Irek Mukhamedov against the claque. About three years ago Maria Alexandrova gave two interviews expressing strongly negative opinion concerning the claque's actions what produced the current war with her. This is mentioned by a claqueur himself at the beginning of the article which Natalia couldn't read to the end.

Well, Natalia, I share your feelings. Nevertheless, I forced myself to read the article to the end overcoming a natural aversion - it is always better to know whom you are dealing with. Probably, you did not notice that the article consists of three parts – the button to continue is at the end of each part. The first one is “dedicated” to Alexandrova, the second one – to Tsiskaridze (it is written in a similar style as this dancer cut his ties to the claque) and the third one – to "good old days" with Grigorovitch and to the criticism of the current repertory policy of the Bolshoi. Now you know too the value of the claque criticism and praises (one has to compare positive reviews at their site to professional cries “brava” at the Bolshoi’s performances). Everybody goes his own way. Alexandrova has a lot of honest and passionate admirers in Moscow, not to say about Nina, who always naturally put the audience on “fire”. Altynai or Zhanna were also appreciated by sincere ballet lovers (all four of these ballerinas are between my favorites). Meanwhile President Putin signed on June 6 a decret (published at the official Kremlin site) honoring Maria Alexandrova and Svetlana Zakharova the titles “Merited Artist of Russia”. This is an official recognition of these two exceptional ballerinas. And to hell with the claque.

Bart, you have a rare chance to obtain a first hand information from the claqueurs themselves. Here is the link to the same site, to the article by Irina Vinogradova (also unknown to the readers of conventional press). It gives the Claque profile in case one reads it cum grano salis: http://pr.bolshoi.net/news/iv_230903.htm . Unfortunately, it is in Russian, may be Natalia will take pains to expound the most ugly parts of it.

The prizes “Benois de la Danse – 2005” are delivered yesterday at the Bolshoi to: Male dancer - MATHIEU GANIO Female dancer - MARIE-AGNÈS GILLOT and SVETLANA ZAKHAROVA Choreographer – ALEXEI RATMANSKY Composer – MAURO LANZA Scenographer – JIRI KILIAN The life in art – TRISHA BROWN and HANS van MANNEN

The Golden Masks were delivered yesterday to: “Forsythe in Mariinsky” program – the best performance Natalia Sologub (Steptext) – the best female role Andrei Merkuriev (In the Middle Somewhat Elevated) – the best male role So all ballet Masks go this year to Mariinsky. Congratulations! http://www.goldenmask.ru/news.shtml?/cgi-b...pl?id=138&page=

Ye-e-e-es, Natalia, you are right. The Bolshoi’s program as it stands for the moment is as follows: There will be about 14-16 performances in New York: Pharaoh’s Daughter, DQ, Spartacus and The Bright Stream. Besides Bolshoi comes to Philadelphia with Spartacus, to Wolf Trap with DQ and to Orange County with Spartacus and The Stream. In total Bolshoi will give about 25 performances in the US. Sorry once more for my mistake with R&J.

Natalia, after your post I have doubts whether I recalled correctly the list. May be, I was wrong and R&J indeed should be replaced by The Stream. I will try to check this point and will keep you informed ASAP. Sorry!

I was at this meeting also and can add something from Ratmansky’s talk. • Four ballets are included to the program of the Bolshoi tour to New York and San Francisco this summer: The Pharaoh Daughter, Don Quixote, Spartacus and Romeo & Juliet (by Poklitaru). • There will be two premiers at the Bolshoi the next season: The Golden Age and a ballet by some choreographer from abroad but with a music of a Russian composer. The contract is not signed yet and Ratmansky gave no other details. Did he talk about Cinderella? • Shostakovitch’s 100th anniversary will be celebrated in Moscow at the Bolshoi the next year by the performances of his opera Katerina Izmailova and four ballets: The Bright Stream and The Bolt (both by Ratmansky), The Golden Age by Grigorovitch and some other ballet. To my question if he talked about Massine’s Red and Black (the 1st Symphony) Ratmansky answered that they have had this idea. But he preferred not to interfere into details for the moment. No company was mentioned in the context. May be, allertnics know better which company in the West dances now Shostakovitch’s music? Well, Natalia, I have no idea about the common practice… As far as I know, all these ballets were created not for the regular Bolshoi’s repertory but to be performed by a private enterprise. Ananiashvili ordered the ballets, paid for them by her own money and received the rights for 10 years. But there were no problems with Leah. When Ratmansky decided to stage it at the Bolshoi, he just asked “Nina, may I…”, and the permission was given immediately. I know nothing about the financial conditions of their agreement. Actually Ratmansky became famous in Moscow after first two of these ballets, which were shown several times at the Bolshoi as well (earlier there was Capriccio by Stravinsky / Ratmansky at the Bolshoi which was performed probably once at some special event). The audience like them and some people (me too) dream about Ratmansky’s triple bill at the Bolshoi: Charms of Mannerism as the entry, Leah as a main course and Dreams about Japan for the closing. But Alexei himself replied that the Bolshoi will have too much of Ratmansky in this case.

Ballet Lovers, thanks a lot for the interesting review. Just to understand. Are you sure about The Spring Waters danced by Marquez and Samodurov? Somewhere it was announced as The Voices of Spring. If so this is a famous Strauss waltz staged by Ashton for the Prince Orlovsky’s ball in Die Fledermause. What is quite natural to dance by a couple from Covent Garden. It would be so kind of you to clarify the point.