Mikhail

Dear RSE, I don't know about the production mentioned. Marian Smith writes in her book, that the wili fugue was used also by Heinz Spoerli (Basel Stadttheater Ballet), Pierre Lacotte (Ballet de l’Opéra du Rhin), Kirk Peterson (Hartford Ballet).

Two books by Akim Volynsky were published recently in Russia: the collection of his ballet reviews (very nice to read) and his "Book of Exultations" ("Kniga likovanij").

Well, I agree with RSE, Pierre Lacotte does exactly the same (may be with the better taste and knowledge). But he did not pretend to reconstruct ballets. I guess it is better to have La Sylphide, L’Ombre, Natalie, Marco Spada, The Pharaoh’s Daughter, etc. by Lacotte than nothing. The problem is whether he has enough imagination to create the ballets which are not similar to each other. By the way, I am extremely interested in his Giselle with the fugue of the wilis. Did anybody watch it live or on video?

ah

Perhaps, it will be interesting to know that “The Talisman” was created recently in Italy: The Talisman Arena Ballet, Padua, March 16, 1997 Music – R.Drigo, choreography – Chalmer-Petipa. Cast: Carla Fracci (Niriti), Ileana Citaristi (Amravati), Alessandro Molin (Vayou), Stephan Fournial (Noureddin), Simona Mangani (Damayanti). Probably, it was done in the context of Drigo’s 150th anniversary in 1996 (the composer was born in Padua and there was a conference on the occasion). This was not a restoration, of course - rather a stylization to the epoch. There are some discrepancies with the synopsis, but many scenes fit the latter. I know nothing if Chalmer used Sergeev’s notations from Harvard.

Adolphe Adam was born on July 24, 1803, so tomorrow we celebrate his 200-th anniversary. I guess our discussion is just in case. In what follows I use different words to distinguish different creatures: the traditional “wili” and the neologism “veela” invented by Ms. Rowling whose description of veela’s dance I like very much. May be, not invented, may be, Ms. Rowling used some unknown for me sources? I would be glad to any information of this kind. 1. Where did Wilis live? The text which is quoted so often and which was put as a preface to the original synopsis in the booklet on Giselle of 1841, does not contain the exact indication to the area. The English translation can be found in: Marian Smith. “Ballet and Opera in the Age of Giselle”, Princeton, 2000; p. 229: There exists a tradition of the night-dancer, who is known, in Slavic countries, under the name Wili. Actually the original text by Heinrich Heine from the section “Elementary Spirits” (“Elementargeister”) of his book “On Germany” reads as follows: In einen Theile Oestereichs gibt es eine Sage, die mit den vorhergehenden eine gewisse Aehnlichtkeit bietet, obgleich sie ursprünglich slavisch ist. So, Austria is indicated by Heine himself. But is it true? Theophile Gautier mentioned another geographical point in the review article for La Presse of July 5, 1841: ... all those delightful apparitions which you encountered in the Harz mountains and on the banks of the Ilse in the velvety mists of German moonlight… (English transl. is taken from: I.Guest. “Gautier on Dance”, Dance Books, London, 1986; p. 94). A small river (rather a brook) Ilse still exists in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, it flows to Oker, and it gave the name to a town Ilsenburg. This is pretty close to the Upper Harz with the famous mountain Brocken. As is known this peak was a favorite place for witches to gather together (see “Faust”, Walpurgisnacht scene, where the name Ilsenstein is also mentioned). So this is quite a proper place for witches, wilis and others from that company to appear. And this is exactly the area Heinrich Heine traveled through in 1820. Saxony accepted Christianity later than other parts of Germany and one believed that pagan traditions and legends have been preserved better there. On the other hand nobody told that Heine listened and wrote down the legend himself. He widely used tales and legends collected by brothers Grimm and other romantics. In a footnote to the Russian edition of the collection of his works it was said that a rhyme by Theresa von Artner could serve as a source for the Heine’s story about the wilis. This rhyme was published in the “Pocket Almanac on the Native History” and was called “The Dance of Wilis. Folk Slavonic Tradition”. Unfortunately, no exact reference was given. 2. Teutonic Wili vs. Slavic Veela Cyril Beaumont made a statement in “The Ballet Called Giselle” (I used a reprint – Dance Books, London, 1996; p. 19): That the legend is of Slavonic origin is doubtless correct, for there is a Slav word vila, meaning a vampire, the plural is vile… And further: Most dictionaries and works of reference are silent on the subject of the Wilis, but Meyer’s Konversationslexikon defines the Wiles or Wilis as a species of vampire consisting of the spirits of betrothed girls who have died as a result of their being jilted by faithless lovers. It is worth mentioning that Gautier himself used once the word vampire describing “Giselle”. Namely, when Berthe tried to stop Giselle from dancing, she told her: “You will become a vampire of the dance!” (“Tu sera un vampire de la danse!”) – T.Gautier. “Notices sur Giselle”, Les Beautes de l”Opera, Paris, 1845; p. 10. But the word “veela” does not mean “vampire”. Yuri Slonimsky (“Giselle”, Academia, 1926; p. 11 – in Russian) quoted a footnote from a Russian translation of the synopsis published in St.Petersburg in 1857: This tradition is taken from a Slavic, or more precise, Serbian myth about celestial creatures called Veely [Russian plural from Veela – M.]. The main difference in their temper is that Serbian Veely are pure creatures primary spiritual. In contrast, German Wilis are metamorphosed creatures: they were brides and became sepulchral toilers of dance. Serbian veely are not wick, they punish men only for evil actions and more often for a presumption and a pride. They do this with comprehension and dignity as it becomes creatures of higher reason to behave. They are also passionate to dance. To send whirling a show-off hunter or an overbearing knight is more than a delight for them. Serge Lifar knew the difference between a Slavic veela and a Teutonic wili quite well. He discussed the question in: “Giselle. Apotheose du ballet romantique”, Paris, Albin Michel, 1942; pp. 117-118 (sorry, I do not know if the English translation exists). He also stressed that there were different local versions of the tradition about the phantoms who killed by dance. Veela was never a woman, she is a metaphysic not metamorphosed creature. Veely do not attack poor peasants, they represent a kind of an immanent justice materialized by the folk imagination. Lifar told that the Slavic tradition penetrated Germany where romantics transformed it into a melodramatic story. He mentioned also that exactly the same tradition exists in old Breton tales. In Russian folklore veely do not exist. Lifar saw some traces of the tradition in a story “Vij” by Gogol, but the phonetic resemblance of “vij” and “veela” is not convincing, in my opinion. The origins of the words are different, not saying about the difference of the tempers of these personages. Etymological dictionary tells that in the southern branch of Slavic languages “veela” means “a sorceress” and probably the word is connected also with old Icelandic “veidr” (to hunt, to chase) and with similar root words in Lithuanian. Modern encyclopedias of myths and mythology defines a veela as a kind of a nymph: charming beautiful young girl – tall and slender, with long flowing hairs and sometimes with wings. They could fly like birds, or they walk like light shades. They wear long white dresses, sometimes with a gold belt or a gold crown. They are strongly connected to water which makes them close to mermaids. Normally they are friendly to people, especially to men: they help them, often they fall in love with them. A veela can even marry a men and have children from him. But soon or later she leaves her husband and children to be back to veela’s community. In some versions of the legend one has to take her clothes (or the wings) and then the veela becomes a normal woman and stays at home. This plot is developed in some Russian fairytales although the word veela is not used. Interesting to note that in Russian tales the attempt of a husband to keep his charmed wife (say, by burning up her dress or wings) leads just to the opposite result: she leaves immediately blaming him for the impatience and not trusting her. Veely appear at nights, at dawns or sunsets, they like either full moon or, just the opposite, they prefer a new moon. They can be born from an early-dew or from a grass or a flower. Sometimes a small beautiful girl could be transformed into a veela. That is a metamorphose is allowed also in some special cases. A special feature of veely is their musicality: they permanently gather to sing and dance in a ring. If we read Gautier’s description of the second act, we notice immediately that his Teutonic wilis appear from flowers, water lilacs, grass and trees. Thus, they are rather nymphs (driads, water-nymphs, etc.) in this episode than the dead women. Sorry for this more scientific than poetic descriptions.

Dear colleagues, I have something to add about wilis, their habits, temper, kind of life, etc. Unfortunately I have no time now as I go to St.Petersburg in a few hours to enrich my Moscow impressions on the Royal Ballet. Thus, I will post the next week. Being pressed I would like to attract you attention to the question which, for the best of my knowledge, was never discussed in literature: "By which means the wilis affect men"? Evidently, not physically, as they are bodiless spirits, almost transparent. For the prove it is enough to recall the famous episode from "Giselle": the troops of wilis move through each other in sautes en arabesque. So they influence men psychologically. Hillarion was not thrown to the lake, he fall himself being charmed and emaciated. Then what did their unhappy victims feel? What did happen in brains of Hillarion and Albert? The answer can be found in the 4th book about Harry Potter "The Goblet of Fire". Namely, in a chapter where Ireland and Bulgaria play the match at the World Championship of Quidditch, this favorite game of wizards and witches. Our heroes are fans of Ireland and decorated themselves by the symbols of the country. Before the match about hundred "veela" appeared on a field to support Bulgaria. And look what happened then: Veela were women… the most beautiful women Harry had ever seen… except that they weren't - they couldn't be - human. This puzzled Harry for a moment while he tried to guess what exactly they could be; what could make their skin shine moon-bright like that, or their white-gold hair fan out behind them without wind… but then the music started and Harry stoped worrying about them not being human - in fact, he stopped worrying about anything at all. The veela started to dance, and Harry's mind had gone completely and blissfully blank. All that mattered in the world was that he kept watching the veela, because if they stopped dancing, terrible things would happen… And as the veela danced faster and faster, wild, half-formed thoughts started chasing harry's dazed mind. He wanted to do something very impressive, right now. Jumping from the box into the stadium seemed a good idea… but would it be good enough? "Harry, what are you doing?" said Hermione's voice from a long way off. The music stopped. Harry blinked. He was standing up, and one of his legs was resting on the wall of the box. Next to him, Ron was frozen in an attitude that looked as though he were about to dive from a springboard. Angry yells were filling the stadium. The crowd didn't want the veela to go. Harry was with them; he would, of course, be supporting Bulgaria, and he wondered vaguely why he had a large green shamrock pinned to his chest. Ron, meanwhile, was absentmindedly shredding the shamrocks from his hat." I think we should be grateful to Ms. Rowling for the significant contribution to the Gisellelogy.

Daron, la perfection n’est pas de ce monde. There are no doubts you are completely right in what concerns Fadeyechev. He was the best of four last artistic directors, and the officials will not allow him to be back. Not only because of the personal reasons: there is a long tradition in Russia and the USSR – who is fired is fired forever (some exceptions happened only during the “perestroika”). I would agree with Roma in many parts of her post. But I am not afraid that Ratmansky will occupy the Bolshoi stage with his ballets. The main question is what he is going to do with the classical grand ballets and the works by Balanchine? I am sure this is the only way to let artists to dance more than once a month. I think also that one of the first problems to be solved is to bring back the normal Swan Lake and the Sleeping Beauty – I found that Grigorovitch’s versions of these ballets are awful. This is a completely personal point of view, of course. It could be SL by Gorsky-Messerer (the traditional Moscow version) and SB by K.Sergeev (as Mariinsky prefers Vikharev’s one).

I am optimistic because nothing could be worse than the situation during maestro Rozhdestvensky’s term two years ago.

Indeed, Marc, there was a press-conference, a few days ago, before the announcement about Ratmansky. There will be two premiers at the Bolshoi. In December - a new version of R&D. The choreographer - Radu Poklitaru, the ballet will be staged (directed?) by the famous Declan Donnelan (I am not sure in the spelling). Poklitaru tells that the ballet will be staged for bare-legged dancers (?!). In March-April the revised Balanchine program will be back: "Agon" and "Symphony in C" are taken from the previous one cancelled by the administration after Fadeechev was fired. "Mozartiana" will be replaced by the set of pdd: Tchaikovsky, Sylvia, Tarantella and Pas de trois by Glinka. I regret! There was a project to obtain some new ballets by Wheeldon but nothing was mentioned at the press-conference. French TV comes in October to shoot "The Pharaoh Daughter" - they will work at the three last performances. The cast is not known yet. No other news for the moment.

The contract of Mr. Boris Akimov as the artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet ends today. It is announced officially that this position was offered to Mr. Alexei Ratmansky and the offer was accepted. The contract is for three years, what is usual. Because of his international obligations Mr. Ratmansky's term will be started from January 1, 2004. Meanwhile Mr. Akimov will keep the position until this date and will be responsible also for the Bolshoi tour to Paris in January. After that Mr. Akimov will stay at the Bolshoi as a coach. He keeps also a position of the artistic director of the Moscow Academy of Choreography (Bolshoi's ballet school). In a short interview Mr. Ratmansky made some statements although he prefers not to discuss for the moment his plans in details. He tells that the possibilities given by the job with the Bolshoi ballet dominate over all his and his family doubts. He hopes to have enough time to create new ballets for the Bolshoi company, presumably one a year. He promises to fulfill all obligations abroad to the end of the year. As is known, Mr. Ratmansky has a tenure as a dancer at the Royal Danish Ballet. He staged already a few ballets for this and other companies including Mariinsky, Bolshoi and San-Francisco Ballet. His new ballet "The Bright Stream" became a bestseller in Moscow this spring. Ratmansky plans now to stage "Anna Karenina" for the Royal Danish Ballet - the premier is supposed to take place in April, 2004. Nevertheless Ratmansky is going to visit Moscow regularly before the more permanent removal in January. And he thinks that the time comes now when he has to stop his career as a dancer. Mr. Gennady Yanin, the Bolshoi soloist, will be his deputy director (actually Yanin has the same position now). Mr. Ratmansky was born in Petersburg 08/27/1968. During 1978-86 he was trained at Moscow Ballet School where his teachers were Mrs. Markeeva and Mr. Pestov. He was the student of the same year as Vladimir Malakhov, Gennady Yanin, Yuri Burlaka (the principal at the Vyacheslav Gordeev's company) and Natalia Ledovskaya (the principal at the Stanislavsky theater) and they were and still are good friends. After the graduation in 1986 Ratmansky was sent to Kiev where he became a soloist and principal of the Ukranian National Opera house. He won Nijinsky prize in Moscow in 1992. He made also his studies as a ballet master at Choreography Department of the State Academy for the Performing Arts in Moscow (1988-92). In 1992-95 Ratmansky was a principal at the Winnipeg Royal Ballet, from 1997 - at the Royal Danish Ballet. His ballet "Dream of Japan" was awarded by the Golden Mask" in Russia (1998). The last year Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark honored Mr. Ratmansky by the order of the Danish Flag. In total Alexei Ratmansky staged about 40 concert numbers, small and full scale ballets.

As I understood the main idea (aphoristically expressed in the title and the last paragraph), Marc states that Makarova’s version is essentially the old-fashioned Soviet Kirov-ballet production by Konstantin Sergeev. He finds some irony in the fact that the Mariinsky is back now to the Petipa’s original “SB” while the Royal Ballet did just the opposite. The old version performed by the Royal Ballet, Marc said, was close to the Petipa’s original as it has been staged in London by Nikolai Sergeev (whose notations Vikharev used recently to reconstruct the ballet in St.Petersburg). So the Soviet-born “Beauty” became an orphan in Russia and now, as Marc said, “is adopted to the respectable British family”. Marc did not like also some scenes in the Makarova’s production. Almost nothing was said in “Nezavisimaya gazeta” about the performers. But I find it confusing, Brendan, to use the backward translation in the presence of the author. I guess it would be nice if Marc himself explains his point of view. As everybody knows, articles are usually cut by editors, and may be Marc will find it possible to put the unabridged text in the Internet (here or at his own site) if there are no plans to publish it off-line.

The success of “The Limpid Stream” by Ratmansky was extraordinary. I found about ten articles in different newspapers. Alexandrova, Filin and Yanin are mentioned almost everywhere. In what follows please find some quotations concerning Masha. Anna Gordeeva, “Vremya novostei” “And of course Maria Alexandrova - Ballerina. Sticking completely to modern style of dancing, a bit pushing aside and mocking, she managed to hint to the pre-WW2 manners. But not in the way to generate a smell of archaic and dangerous naphthalene, but to revive the glorious Moscow legend about reckless and victorious dance which forces the audience to click the tongues in admiration. Alexandrova throws herself into her partner’s arms as Lepeshinskaya used to do.” Olga Gerdt, “Gazeta” “The duet of Classical Dancers (Maria Alexandrova and Sergei Filin) with “fish” jumps was a tribute to the high art. Perhaps, Alexandrova created one of her best roles.” Tatiana Kuznetsova, “Kommersant” “The overexcited Ballerina bursts into the male dancers circle with gigantic pas de chats to perform a traditional solo. She performs a bacchanalia on points, a mixture of the Dance with a Snake from “La Bayadere” and a folk dance of Caucasian Djigits.” “Undoubtedly Maria Alexandrova was a top star of the premiers. The role of Ballerina was created with the account of her essential qualities – huge jump, light rotations, fine phrasing and the sense of style. And Alexandrova was generously repaid by the role of the boy-ballerina which became the best one in her repertory (not so rich for the moment, alas).” [Also some comments are to the point. I am extremely glad to read this, because Ms. Kuznetsova is the highly professional ballet journalist. She was born in the ballet family, studied in Moscow Academy of Choreography, danced for 20 years with the Igor Moiseev’s company and only after finishing her dancing career turned to ballet critic – M.] Elena Gubaidullina, “Izvestiya” “The roles of the Ballerina and the Male Ballet Dancer were performed by Maria Alexandrova and Sergei Filion with an irony and a virtuosity.” Vladimir Kotykhov, “MK” “Maria Alexandrova (Ballerina) is a gunpowder, fire, rocket. Alexandorva demonstrates enchanting technique and rare scenic temperament. Her Ballerina pierced the stage by jumps sharp as a razor, screws into the floor by points hard as steel, flies into her partner’s arms in an acrobatic “fish” jump.” Anna Galaida, “Vedomosti” “Ballerina demonstrates her temperament by a virtuoso solo with the dancing male corps de ballet at the background as it was common in Kshesinskaya’s times and Maria Alexandrova succeeded to do this brilliantly.” Violetta Mainietse, “Kultura” “In the first cast the center of the performance is Maria Alexandrova in the role of Ballerina: her dance is confident, her acting is convincing and without pressure, her looks piquant in a male costume. Raymond Stults, “Moscow Times” (the original is in English) “Star among both casts was Friday night's Ballerina, Maria Alexandrova, currently the brightest light among the younger generation of Bolshoi dancers. Heretofore underused and confined to a narrow range of parts, Alexandrova now has a role that seems specially created to give scope to her formidable talents. Though Ratmansky makes little use of her astonishing leaps, her equally astonishing precision and winning stage presence are very much on display.”

It is announced at the official site of the Bolshoi, that Maria Alexandrova will make her debut as Esmeralda in “Notre Dame de Paris” on May 1st, 2003. Quasimodo – Tsiskaridze, Foebus – Neporozhny, Frollo – Godovsky. Probably the sudden decision to give this role to Masha is connected with her great success in the role of the Ballerina in “The Limpid Stream” by Ratmansky. I will try to present some info on her dance in the “Stream” later on.

May be it will be of interest to know that a review on “The Sleeping Beauty” at Covent Garden was published today in one of the most respected Russian newspaper “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” (The Independent Newspaper). The author is Marc Haegeman and I would like to thank him for the cooperation with the Russian press. Usually they cannot afford to send their correspondents to the Western theaters what results in a lack of information for Russian readers. I present here a reference for Russian speaking members of the BalletAlert: http://www.ng.ru/culture/2003-04-24/6_avrora.html

Fyodor Lopukhov. The best book about him is written by G.N.Dobrovolskaya: “Fyodor Lopukhov”, Leningrad, Iskusstvo, 1976. She writes about all his ballets, the choreography of “The Limpid Stream” is described at pp. 258-264. She is mentioned as Dobrovolskaia Galina Nikolaevna in the catalogue of the New York Public Library but I did not find there her book about Lopukhov. I do not think it was translated but it is strange that NYPL has no Russian copy. Instead I discovered three videotapes in the catalogue (Call # *MGZIC 9-2654), presented to the Library by the Choreographic Institute of the Leningrad State Conservatory. This is a performance of November 17, 1986 in honor of the 100th anniversary of Lopukhov’s birth. Producer/director: Nikita Dolgushin. The first tape contains two excerpts of interest for this thread: “The magnificence of the universe: Thermal energy” (1923). Music: Ludwig van Beethoven (Symphony no. 4). Danced by Tatiana Ermolaeva, Larisa Boytsova (?), and male ensemble. -- The ice maiden: Adagio and variation (1927). Music: Edvard Grieg, arr. by Boris Asafiev. Danced by Valia Ganibalova and Igor Morozov. I have nothing to add to Marc’ remark about “The Ice Maiden” (thank you, Marc). I agree that the “Dance Symphony” or “The Grandeur of the Universe” was probably the most interesting of Lopukhov’s experiments with the ballets. Too many of acrobatics as critics said at that time but later Grigorovitch used some of the invented lifts in “The Legend of Love”, for instance. Natalia Voskresenskaya reconstructed “The Grandeur of the Universe” in 2000 for the Japanese company Nippon Ballet Academy. Voskresenskaya worked with Lopukhov’s home archive and nobody knows how many surprises are still waiting us there. Perhaps, nothing is lost. This fall Voskresenskaya and NBA gave one performance in Moscow – we watched her reconstruction of one act of “The Hunchback Little Horse” by C.Pugni. It was nice. Unfortunately the Dance Symphony was not shown in Moscow for some reasons which were not connected with the art. But people who had a chance to watch a videotape told me that it seemed to be completely in the style. I heard also that this work was awarded in Japan as the best ballet performance of the year. Probably with the help of the BallertAlert members we can find some traces of that record. As I understood from literature, the great mistake by Lopukhov was to provide the Dance Symphony with a synopsis. If it were just an abstract ballet (what was actually the case) there would be no problems, but the synopsis described some achievements of the mankind and contained some mystics so it became a target for ideological attacks. Such a pity. Leigh, I really don’t know what to add about Shostakovitch’s and Lopukhov’s relations with the regime. It would be a long story with a lot of quotations, examples from different branches and too many conjectures with a lack of facts. The music was, probably, too ironic and venomous for that time when everything was clear and straightforward: this is good, this is bad, this guy is a friend, this one is an enemy. Say, in one fragment from “The Bolt” I hear the paraphrase of the popular song (almost an official anthem of the Soviet Air Force) in a combination with sounds of a different style which did not fit the cheerful march. In particular all Shostakovitch’s ballets (starting from “The Golden Age”) were criticized because more interesting music has been given to negative personages. Probably, our chiefs suspected that Shostakovitch showed them a fig in his pocket. May be they were even right:). Lopukhov himself described the story with “The Limpid Stream” in a few paragraphs of his memoirs “Sixty years in ballet” (Moscow, Iskusstvo, 1966, pp. 272-274). The last paragraph of this part reads as follows: “I can hardly explain in full everything what came to pass. Although now I see very distinctly my mistakes and weak points in this ballet. I think other people will extract more wide and objective conclusions from the lesson given by “The Limpid Stream”. I don’t want neither to make excuses nor to refer to objective conditions”. Evidently Lopukhov could not convince his “sons” (in a spiritual sense) and only his “grandsons” started to share and exploit some of his ideas - he told something like that but I cannot recall the exact quotation. Asaf Messerer who danced in “The Limpid Stream” at the Bolshoi, also mentioned the ballet in his book “Dance. Reflection. Time” (Moscow, Iskusstvo, 1979, pp. 128-130). He wrote that he could not understand the role of the Classical Dancer, the character of this guy, what to play, what to present at the stage. And Lopukhov answered him: “Don’t complicate matters, just dance yourself”. Messerer was not satisfied and concluded that Lopukhov was much stronger in a theory than in practice. Of course, the idea of the abstract dance appeared too early but why the leaders of the country did not allow in “The Limpid Stream” what was allowed in many popular movies? May be, there is no enigma at all. Very often it happened so that jealous colleagues who were trusted at high places used their connections to remove a concurrent or something like that. Using ideological arguments and accusations, naturally. May be, everything happened occasionally. Two weeks before these articles in “Pravda” a special Department was organized to govern all kinds of the art and the bureaucracy just was eager to find an appropriate target to start with. May be indeed Stalin did not like the ballet, which by default led to the idea that Soviet people did not need it at all:(.

That's true, Mel: the music was known as suites and was performed often by radio, for instance. Thank you for this remark. The full score was recorded only by Rozhdestvensky, as far as I know. But the ballet itself was forgotten. By the way, for many years Grigorovitch also had plans to stage a new version of second Shostakovitch's ballet - "The Bolt", but with a different story. I even heard about a preview of the 1st act which occurred to be quite similar in choreography to "The Golden Age". People report from Moscow about the great success of "The Limpid Stream". The first critical article appeared the next morning in "Vremya MN" and it was completely positive. Other publications will appear now on Monday.

The Limpid Stream Perhaps, somebody (Ina, Inga) will tell us about the yesterday premiere of the “Stream” at the Bolshoi. Thus, I decided to present here some information about this ballet which is probably not known in the West. The title (“Svetlyi ruchei” in Russian) can be translated in different ways. The official site of the Bolshoi suggests now the translation “The Bright Stream”, it can be also “The Clear Brook”. I accepted the title used in Gennady Rozhdestvensky’s record of Shostakovitch’s music (Stockholm Royal Philharmonic orchestra, Chandos Records Ltd., CHAN 9343/4, 1995). As a source I use the original booklet published in Leningrad in 1935. It contains the original libretto, the ballet program, the introductory article by the authors, Fyodor Lopukhov and Andrian Piotrovsky, the article by Dmitri Shostakovitch “My third ballet” and other materials. The Story “The Limpid Stream” is the name of a collective farm somewhere in Southern Russia, in foothills of the Caucasus mountains. Our heroes work there – a specialist in agriculture Pyotr and his wife Zina, who keeps a position of an organizer of entertainments. At the opening night these roles were interpreted by Yuri Klevcov and Inna Petrova, the second cast which will dance on Sunday includes Anastasiya Yatsenko and Vladimir Neporozhny. A small team from the capital comes to that village to give a concert – no names are given to these personages , just Ballerina (Maria Aleksandrova at the opening night and Elena Andrienko in the 2nd cast), The Classical Male dancer (Sergei Filin and Jan Godovsky) and the Accordion Player. The Ballerina occurred to be Zina’s schoolmate. Somehow Zina keeps in secret (even from her husband) that she graduated a ballet school. Meeting the Ballerina is a challenge to her, she puts on her ballet shoes and they dance together - as a kind of a competition to prove that Zina indeed forgot nothing from the ballet pas. Then her husband Pyotr falls in love with the Ballerina and invites her for a rendezvous in a forest at night. But the Ballerina tells everything to Zina and they exchange their dresses to give a good lesson to the unfaithful husband. Pyotr and Zina meet and dance the whole pdd together. Nevertheless, Pyotr being more and more inspired by the beautiful girl and the brilliant dancer does not recognize that he is dealing all the time with his own wife. There is a third couple – elderly people from a town who spend the summer in a country (I will call them the Husband and The Wife). The Husband also is enamour with the Ballerina and would like to meet her privately. The same idea comes to his Wife who is dreaming about young and handsome Classical Dancer. The Dancers decide to give lessons to them too and they are exchanging dresses as well. So the Ballerina comes to meet the Wife and dances as a male partner with her performing the pas usual for male dancers. The Classical Male dancer goes to meet the Husband, they dance also and I was told that Filin was splendid on points and in a costume of a Sylph. Two more duets for the ballet and some ridiculous adventures which happen to them during these meetings. One more rendezvous is fixed on the same night: the Accordion Player (Gennady Yanin in the first cast, Ruslan Pronin in the second one) tries to seduce a teenager villager (a character dance on the interpolated music from “The Bolt”). But she is protected during their meeting by some farmer disguised as a dog (there was a scene when “the dog” used a bike). All this night full of mystifications and jokes is over, the next day the actors start their concert. Suddenly Pyotr sees two Ballerinas at the stage. Both are in masks and both dance quite well. Finally Pyotr realizes his mistake and being ashamed returns his heart to his wonderful wife who can dance as well. Two couples and two more male dancers join in a pas de six which had a fantastic choreography as is described in literature. All other mystifications are also explained and everybody joyfully dance in apotheoses. The History The Ballet was staged by Lopukhov for the Malyi Opera and Ballet Theater (MALEGOT) in Leningrad, the premiere was on April 4, 1935. The main idea was to create a comedy on the basis of the modern (Soviet) life. This was quite usual in movies of that time (as well as in Hollywood). The authors explained that they were trying to continue the line opened by “La Fille Mal Gardee”). Critics estimated the choreography very high as well as the music by Shostakovitch. The plot was found too light-minded and not well constructed logically. Some critical remarks were given about the interpolations in the music: Shostakovitch inserted fragments from his preceding ballet “The Bolt” (in the meaning “screw”) written for another personages in different circumstances. It was true in a sense, this music being very impressive by itself did not fit the situation. “The Bolt” was removed from the repertory after the first performance and probably Shostakovitch tried to save the best part of it. After the success in Leningrad Lopukhov received the position of the chief choreographer at Bolshoi, two leading dancers were moved to Bolshoi and the revised version of “The Limpid Stream” was staged there (the premiere was on November 30, 1935. The roles of the Ballerina and the Classical Male Dancer have been performed by S.Messerer and A.Ermolaev. The plot was changed a bit. In particular, the scene with the seducing of a teenager and the protecting her “dog” was removed. Pyotr became not a husband of Zina but just a young guy who “feels a sympathy to her”. The scenes of night rendezvous with Classical Dancers were also shortened. Again the ballet received a good press and the audience was enthusiastic about it. The music was called “the best component of the ballet”, and Lopukhov was recognized as the best Soviet balletmaster. Soon the situation changed dramatically. Suddenly, two articles were published in the main newspaper “Pravda” – “Confusion instead of music” about Shostakovitch’s opera “Katerina Izmailova” (January 28, 1936) and “The Ballet Falsity” (February 6, 1936). The legend tells that Stalin was at the performances and did not like them (at least such statement was made in memoirs by Igor Moiseev). “Pravda” criticized the ballet for “formalism” and for presenting “puppets” instead of realistic images of soviet people. “The Limpid Stream” was immediately removed from the repertory, Lopukhov was fired from Bolshoi, Shostakovitch never wrote a ballet music anymore, and Piotrovsky, the author of the scenario, disappeared in GULAG. Ratmansky was going not to restore the ballet with the lost choreography. He was going to stage a completely new ballet accepting the first version of the scenario and the full score with all interpolations made by Shostakovitch. The result was presented yesterday at the Bolshoi, but I can tell nothing as I am not in Moscow now. I heard also that the final pas de six is not staged by Ratmansky.

Well, I will be impressed too if the President of the US is involved in the selecting of ballet awards. But we have a different experience in Russia: our leaders were interfered in everything. For instance, «The Limpid Stream» and opera “Katerina Izmailova” were forbidden by Stalin personally (the premiere of the “Stream” in a new version by Ratmansky will take place tomorrow at the Bolshoi). As far as I know Mr. Putin never attended performances of “La Dame de Pique”. > It is really beyond my understanding how you can compare the work of a > master choreographer like Petit with an amateur like Ratmansky. Tahor, did I compare people? Sure I did not. I just formulated very clear why I do not like “La Dame de Pique”. Even a “master choreographer” can produce not a masterpiece and this is just the case. On the other hand Ratmansky is not an “amateur” – he staged about 40 ballets and concert numbers and one can see his productions at Mariinsky, Bolshoi, Danish Royal Ballet, Swedish Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, etc. If we discuss “Lea” or “Cinderella” I would criticize these ballets too. If I were asked about “Golden Masks” I would give the awards to Tsiskarizde for his Hermann, to Ananiashvili for her Lea, a special “Mask” (such possibility exists and was used the last year even twice) to Liepa for her distinguished mimic role in the ballet . I would give the “Mask” for the best choreography to Ratmansky for “Lea” and “Cinderella” (although I did not like everything in these ballets I think they are much more interesting than “La Dame”). And probably it would be better not to select the best ballet of the last season. At least I would have doubts at this point. If I am forced to do the selection I would vote for “Lea”. I noticed a correlation: Tsiskaridze’s fans are very enthusiastic about “La Dame”, I know no exceptions. It is beyond my understanding and seems very strange for me as I like the ballet art and ballets not for the participation and/or success of that or another dancer. What is also a completely personal and subjective point of view:).

Three of four awards were given to “La Dame de Pique”, nobody received the fourth one - the Golden Mask for the best choreography. This COMBINATION is indeed the greatest surprise of the Golden Mask festival. I do not wonder by awarding of Ilse Liepa and Nikolai Tsiskaridze. Their works were good enough but to tell the truth the concurrence this year was so high that all nominates could gain the awards as well. Me personally I would prefer Ananiashvili as Lea – the role is both highly dramatic and dancing. But the jury made its choice and it was neither better nor worse than any other choice they could make. Actually the jury could even dice and any result would be appropriate. Thus, I see no reasons to use too much words describing how good is Liepa (only miming SHE is a pivot of “La Dame de Pique” and probably her artistic talent is the only raison d’etre for the ballet). Or to tell the stories how impressive is Tsiskaridze in his jump over the bed (which is in a ridiculous way supposed to block up the exit from Hermann’s lodging) or in his jetes en tournant around the Countess (what symbolizes probably the vicious circle of his exaggerated devotion to money). Evidently there is no need to guess how the role of the Countess would look like if created for Asylmuratova (why not Plisetskaya? she would be excellent). We watch what was presented at the stage and we estimate what was created by Roland Peti and Bolshoi company. But I am surprised indeed with the decision to proclaim “La Dame de Pique” as the best ballet of the last season in Russia. It seems the jury just could not award Roland Peti for the choreography – people would laugh at the decision. And for some reasons they did not want to award young and talented Alexei Ratmansky. By the way, I have seen not only “La Dame de Pique” but also competing “Lea” and “Cinderella” (both by Ratmansky). Did you, Coda and Tahor?. As to “La Dame de Pique” I was at the performance of December 5th, 2001 and carefully watched also the videtape with the record of the opening night (I was absent then in Moscow). I dare say it was enough for me and I am not eager to attend the performances of “La Dame de Pique” anymore. Why? I found the choreography rather eclectic and full of self-quotations from “Clavigo”, “Notre Dame de Paris” and “Carmen”. I did not like the mixture of the modern steps with classical pas in the role of Hermann – it seems this was done with the only purpose to demonstrate Tsiskaridze’s abilities. Lousy? I don’t know, I prefer to use the words “dull” and “boring” in this case. I think the very structure of the ballet repeats that of “Clavigo”. Besides, there are no good ensembles in the ballet. I did not like the adaptation of the Pushkin’s plot made by Peti who converted the story into a trivial melodrama. I did not like the distortions of the great Tragic symphony (the tempi, the wrong order of different parts). Thus, if we “subtract” three duets of the main heroes which were awarded already then what is the “residue” of the ballet which is announced now as the best BALLET performance? I am afraid the residue is just zero. By the way, the mentioned three duets have been shown as a concert number during a recent performance in honor of Ilse Liepa - they produced stronger impression being not dissolved in the ballet. All opinions are subjective but some of them are more subjective than the others. Some fans of Tsiskaridze called “La Dame de Pique” a masterpiece of the great choreographer. I guess they are motivated mostly by the fact that “La Dame de Pique” is the first and the only ballet staged for Nikolai. Thus, “La Dame de Pique” is condemned to be considered as a masterpiece. Besides it found a support at high places. Just as an illustration: R.Peti, I.Liepa and N.Tsiskaridze are nominated also for the State Prize, and the nomination is done by the Ministry of Culture. It is not a competition, “La Dame de Pique” has no rivals, and the final decision will be made by President Putin in June.

News about the supposed debut of Ms. Alexandrova as Aspicia in "The Pharaoh's Daughter" - a fight in four rounds. The red corner - Ms. Alexandrova, the Ballerina. The blue corner - Mr. Akimov, the Bolshoi Ballet art director. Round 1. Ms. Alexandrova was promised the role and started the rehearsals in January. A partner was not given to her, and the decision was postponed and postponed. To her natural questions during two months Ms. Alexandrova was replied "you should wait", what worried both the ballerina and her fans. The problem is that the Bolshoi has only three Tahors and two of them (Tsiskaridze and Filin) planned to be absent at the time of the performances on March 18 and 19. The first performance was given to Ms. Gracheva and the second one was supposed for Alexandrova's debut. The cast for the third performance on March 23 was fixed a long ago - Ananiashvili and Filin. Advantage to Mr. Akimov in this round. Round 2. The beginning of March. The administration accepted Alexandrova's work on the role but decided to give both performances to Ms. Gracheva and Mr. Belogolovtsev. Our third Tahor did not dance with Gracheva in this ballet as well. The motivation for the decision was that it would be difficult for him to rehearse the duets with two ballerinas simultaneously. No new Tahor was chosen for Ms. Alexandrova. A knock-down to Masha. Round 3. Unfortunately Ms. Gracheva was injured at the performance of "Giselle" on March 13 and it became clear immediately that she could not dance in "The Pharaoh's Daughter". One more Aspicia, Ms. Lunkina, was allowed earlier to go to Belgrade for some gala just in these days. Ms. Ananiashvili had her performance already being fixed in her contract. What to do then? The administration could allow Mr. Belogolovtsev and Ms. Alexandrova to rehearse urgently their duets in these four days and to dance both performances. Helas! They gave no chance to Masha and preferred another solution: Ms. Ananiashvili kindly agreed to help the theater, to rehearse and to dance with Mr. Belogolovtsev (this couple was formed also for the first time) BUT only one performance on March 19 (what was her 40th birthday). The performance of "The Daughter" on March 18 was cancelled, the public was suggested to be paid back which was completely unusual. The second knock-down to Masha. Round 4. The administration could replace "The Daughter" on March 18 by "DQ", for instance, to compensate Ms. Alexandrova the lost of Aspicia by Kitry at least. Again No! Instead "La Bayadere" was announced with Ms. Volochkova and her permanent partner - Mr. Ivanchenko from Mariinsky. Finally Ms. Alexandrova danced The Third Shade on March 18, The River Congo variation on March 19 and will dance Ramze on March 23. Besides she will dance the second (jump) variation in DQ's Grand Pas (with Ms. Volochkova as Kitry) on March 25 - this is her schedule for the whole month. There will be no "Daughters" at the Bolshoi until the end of the season. I guess Alexandrova's debut is postponed now forever. Knock-out and our "Bravi" to the victorious Bolshoi's administration. The end of the match. P.S. Two days ago the casting was announced for "Raymonda" which will be restored at the Bolshoi in May, after 2.5 years of absence - Nadezhda Gracheva & Andrei Uvarov, Maria Allash & Alexander Volchkov, Anastasia Volochkova & Eugene Ivanchenko. No perspectives again for Ms. Alexandrova. Can somebody tell if Ms. Alexandrova can join a corps de ballet of some Western company and to start her carrier from the very beginning? It seems the Bolshoi does not need a ballerina of her qualities.

Alexandra, thank you. Your remark becomes even more interesting because I had a similar experience at the Bolshoi during the performance of "La Bayadere". A gentleman was sleeping in a chair nearby emitting a smell of a good cognac. He revealed no evident interest when Anastasia wore a long dress but waked up when she appeared in a tutu in The Kingdom of Shades. It is difficult to describe our conversation and his further reaction, I could only imagine the sea of his boiling hormones. Probably, there are men and men. I do not understand these guys and find Ms. Volochkova being cold, mincing, not inspiring and the same in different roles. May be I am wrong. Will we change the title of this thread:)?

Marc, everybody knows that Ms. Volochkova is the most beautiful woman at the Bolshoi company and... what to add? Well, she is beautiful, isn't it enough for so many of us? Some crazy people as ballet critics and balletgoers are not satisfied with the quality of her dance last 5 years, but nobody cares. Should one consider seriously the opinion of such a minor part of the society? To be popular nowadays means to appear often at TV screens and on covers of glamor journals. So she IS popular.

Sorry, Marc, I did not see your post sending mine. Besides of probable prejudices there exists a problem of the repertory policy at the Bolshoi. Many young ballerinas are in the same position as Alexandrova and Masha understands this quite well - she mentioned the problem in her interview by TV. In short. I think the Bolshoi keeps too many ballets for the two-three soloists (say, La Fille Mal Garde, ballets by Roland Petit and all that). I am not going to say that they are bad or not interesting for the audience. But such a great company as the Bolshoi should have more Grand Ballets of the past. Here is again the statistics of the last season, the number of performances: Giselle - 18, SL - 15, Nutcracker - 10, DQ - 10, La Bayadere - 8, Sleeping Beauty - 5, La Sylphide - 5. In total - 71 performances of the classical ballets, that is 52%. Everybody can count how many pdd, pdt and solo variations are in these ballets besides of the main roles. May be this explains something. The distribution of ballerinas in the mentioned ballets. The numbers are not official, they are taken from the data at the official Bolshoi's site but not all sudden changes in the casts were taken into account there. Nevertheless: Volochkova - 16, Ryzhkina - 8, Gracheva - 7, Antonicheva - 6, Goryacheva - 6, Lunkina - 6, Stepanenko - 6, Ananiashvili - 5, Petrova - 3, Andrienko - 3, Alexandrova - 2, Kaptsova - 2, Shipulina - 1.

Dale, Surprisingly you are completely right in your conclusions. Alexandrova herself dreams about Odette/Odille, as far as I know. This is her weak point:). She was preparing the role - at least the part of Odille was ready a long ago. She was even nominated in some document to the third cast at the premiere of the Grigorovitch's version two years ago (Anastasia Volochkova was in the first cast, Galina Stepanenko - in the second) but never appeared on stage, neither at the Bolshoi nor in tours. Although during that time we watched at least four debuts (Antonicheva, Shipulina, Andrienko and recently Lunkina) and none of these beautiful ladies danced better than Nina Ananiashvili or Nadezhda Gracheva (my personal point of view, of course). Why not to try Masha? I really don't know. All this is one of the great mysteries of life, as was formulated here. Some people cannot imagine Alexandrova as a classical romantic ballerina. So what? Let her try and prove, please! To my taste, I would prefer Masha's stormy temperament to any cold fishlike dancer even having perfect lines. The problem is to convince Mr. Akimov, and Masha will try to convince the audience:). I see no difficulties with a partner. Masha is not a miniature girl, but she is not so tall and heavy as some ballerinas of the Kirov-Mariinsky, for instance, or Ms. Volochkova, the "main" Swan of the Bolshoi. Masha danced already with all male-dancers of the Bolshoi (Tsiskaridze, Uvarov, Filin, Belogolovcev, Gudanov, etc.) including those who are not so tall or extremely strong. She danced Kitri with Carreno who is not tall as well. I guess Alexandrova's debut in SL becomes just a fantasy. At least it seems to be impossible now at the Bolshoi - only somewhere in the West or in another Russian company. May be, the following statistics will be of interest at the forum. The last season there were 15 performances of SL at the Bolshoi, and the distribution of ballerinas was as follows: Volochkova - 6, Stepanenko - 3, Antonicheva - 2, Ananiashvili, Gracheva, Shipulina and Andrienko - 1. More probable are Masha's debuts this season in La Fille du Pharaon (the performances will be in a month but the administration still did not tell her the name of a partner so she cannot rehearse duets) and in Legend of Love in June (the role of Mekhmene Banu was ready a few years ago but at that time the ballet was excluded from the Bolshoi's repertory). May be she will be chosen to dance in a new ballet by Alexei Ratmansky - The Limpid Stream on music by Shostakovitch. We will see soon - the premiere is supposed to be in April. I am dreaming about her Raimonda but this is also just a fantasy. Alas!