doug

Having not seen the Kirov's new-old BAYADERE, but having worked with the 1900 notations of the ballet, I am interested in hearing what was new/different/changed in their Shades scene. Could some of those who saw the production fill me in?

Exactly. I wasn't thinking of the musical issues. Minkus composed many more ballets than Tchaikovsky. Pugni contributed many scores as well, including DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH, and I think he was a less talented composer than Minkus. We're not used to their sort of music today, most finding it dull or worse, but theirs was the norm in late 19th century Russian ballet. Makes us grateful for Tchaikovsky and Glazunov, and maybe even Drigo, but nonetheless, Petipa and his dancers were most used to the Pugnis and Minkus's of the day. Doesn't mean we have prefer them or even like them (personal preference being a different issue than appreciation), but they can be appreciated for being involved with a large part of Petipa's output.

LA BAYADERE is very representative of most Petipa full-length ballets (lots of pantomime, character dance, use of children, melodrama, score by a house composer, long running time). It's interesting to read the various reactions to the Kirov's reconstruction (which, btw, I have not seen). SLEEPING BEAUTY was a special case - Tchaikovsky was on the team and Vsevolozhsky made a lot of contributions. It suceeded, overall, whereas NUTCRACKER did not, despite the work of the same team. SWAN LAKE has morphed into something it was not when it was revived in 1895. Many people today might have the same reaction to a reconstructed SWAN LAKE as they have to the new-old BAYADERE. So, in this light, I might agree that, of those ballets which are still in rep today, BAYADERE is most representative of late 19th century Russian ballet.

In addition his nearly-full-length Raymonda in 1946, Balanchine choreographed three more ballets to music from Raymonda.

PAS DE DIX was choreographed in 1955 for a principal couple and 4 supporting couples. This is essentially the "Pas Classique Hongrois" from Act III. The choreography is a mixture of Petipa and Balanchine. Nearly every number was "refreshed" by Balanchine and several of them are completely Balanchine.

RAYMONDA VARIATIONS (originally, Valses et Variations) was made in 1961. Most of the music is from the Act I, Scene 2 vision scene. Roles include a principal couple and 12 corps women. Comparing Balanchine's choreography to the notated Raymonda, I find that all of the material in Raymonda Variations is new Balanchine, although he does quote Petipa in the opening steps of the harp variation, sans scarf.

CORTEGE HONGROIS was choreographed in 1973 for Melissa Hayden's retirement from NYCB. It is essentially Act III, with a pas de deux from the Act II pas d'action and the Waltz from Act I, Scene 1. Roles include a principal classical couple, principal character couple, 8 classical couples and 8 character couples. I believe this ballet is very important in Balanchine's output for two reasons. First, Balanchine quoted Petipa often, but frequently set Petipa's steps to different music than originally set by Petipa (for example, Raymonda's famous accelerating passes). Second, Balanchine rechoregraphed the Czardas, so we have an extended example of character Balanchine.

[ March 21, 2002, 03:12 PM: Message edited by: doug ]

I completely agree that Raymonda requires wit and command. In my opinion, modern productions don't require what was required of Raymonda originally. According to the story of the ballet, she had will and pep to spare.

She's the center of attention in Act I and clearly enjoys it. After reading the letter announcing the return of Jean de Brienne, she orders a cour d'amour to be prepared stat for the next day. She's not too courtly to resist dancing a solo in the middle of a waltz by a bunch of peasants. She enjoys spending time with her friends. She accompanies their dances on a lute and has enough energy after a long day to show them a new dance of her own.

In her nightmare vision scene with Abderrakhman, she stands up to him and rejects his advances. She doesn't faint until the end of the conversation (and maybe fainting was the proper way to indicate that the conversation was over).

In Act II, she doesn't faint a second time when Ab shows up instead of Jean. In fact, she's so feisty that Aunt Sybille has to remind her of her manners. So she dances with Ab, just to be polite, but doesn't give an inch.

In the final act, she jumps on the Hungarian band wagon and delivers the hottest number of the night. That's our girl!

Did anyone see the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo's (nearly) full-length Raymonda staged by Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova? I would love to hear about it.

Mary, you've brought up a great point about the relationship of the story to the music and dance. Both Tim Scholl and Roland John Wiley have made the point that Raymonda seems more about dance than story, that the story simply links together the various dance suites. I generally agree with this, although Act I, Scene 1 is mostly about story. From there, the ballet is mostly a series of dance suites: Act 1, Scene 2 is a classical suite; Act II includes both a classical pas d'action and a character suite; and, of course, Act III is the amalgamation of classical and character dance.

But, Raymonda has MORE story than we've seen in any modern productions. To my knowledge, each is missing the character development originally given to Sybille (in Act I Scene 2) and Ab (Act I, Scene 2), and most definitely the character development of Raymonda (in the original, she conversed with everyone - Sybille, her friends, Ab, etc.). With mime essentially gone by the wayside, all her character development has to be expressed through her variations, and this was something never contemplated by Petipa or his late-19th century audience.

By the way, the White Lady does appear later in the ballet, during Jean's fight with Ab. She must have made a pass across the stage or appeared or something during the third part of the battle. Her theme runs quickly therough the orchestra, just before Jean kills Ab. But she is certainly much less present than the Lilac Fairy or Sugar Plum, etc.

I am not fully convinced that an emotional thread is necessary for the music and choreography, or the full-length ballet, for that matter, to be successful. I wonder if that notion is more a modern one. Or perhaps this view was held by most back in 1898, but not by Petipa? (Bach was thought to be outdated by the time he reached old age, too.)

Mel, you've got a treasure there. Do you know if the transcribed piano reduction is related to the 1946 Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo version of Raymonda by Balanchine and Danilova? The NYPL holds musical sources for that production, as well.

The notations do not generally indicate anything about character of movement. This is particularly true with the Raymonda notations, which were mostly made by Nikolai Sergeev. A couple other ballet sin the repertoire were notated in more detailed fashion and offer more instruction on movement and partnering, but these notes really can't be said to relate to "character" of movement.

I thought it might be helpful to layout the cast and structure of Petipa's 1898 Raymonda. From this base, we can discuss the production itself and subsequent Raymonda productions. This is a little long, but hopefully worthwhile.

* * * * *

CAST LIST

Raymonda, Countess de Doris (Pierina Legnani)

The Countess Sybille, canoness, Raymonda's aunt (Mme Cecchetti)

The White Lady, protector of the House of Doris

Clemence, girlfriend of Raymonda (Mlle Kulichevskaya)

Henriette, girlfriend of Raymonda (Preobrazhenskaya)

The Knight Jean de Brienne (Sergei Legat)

Andrei II, King of Hungary

Abderrakhman, a Saracen knight (Pavel Gerdt)

Bernard de Ventadour, a troubadour or Provence (Georgi Kyasht)

Beranger, a troubador of Aquitaine (Nikolai Legat)

Seneschal, in charge of the castle of Doris

* * * * *

ACT I, SCENE ONE - Raymonda's Name-day

Scene I: A hall in the castle of Doris. Raymonda's 4 friends are onstage (Henriette, Clemence, Bernard and Beranger). The Senescahl issues order re: name-day celebrations.

La Traditrice: dance of 4 friends and 12 [older, I think] students.

Scene II: Sybille enters with 8 ladies in waiting. Scolds everyone for their idleness.

Reprise de la danse: No one pays any attention and they dance again.

Scene mimique: Countess demands pages put away their instruments.

La Recit de la Comtesse: Countess tells story about White Lady, protectoress of the castle, whoe statue is upstage center. The White Lady will bless them if they fulfill thei responsibilities, but not if they are idle (!).

La danse: Everyone makes fun of the superstitious old woman and dances around her.

Scene III: Servants announce arrival of messengers. Countess goes to get Raymonda.

Scene IV: Entrance of Raymonda (with variation in which she picks up flowers that girl students have put in a trail on the ground).

Scene V: Raymonda reads the letter stating Jean de Brienne will return tomorrow to marry her.

[At this point, Petipa added an entrance for the Saracen knight, Abderrakhman, who offers Raymonda gifts in honor of her name day. She is not interested and he plans to abduct her at a later time. Glazunov composed only 8 additional bars of music for all this action.]

Scene VI: 8 vassals enter and congratulate Raymonda. 24 peasant couples follow.

Grande valse: 24 peasant couples.

Pizzicato: variation for Raymonda.

Reprise de la valse: Waltz resumes with peasant couples and entree for Raymonda.

Scene mimique: Raymonda asks the seneschal to arrange a cour d'amour for the next day's wedding festivities. Everyone departs, except Raymonda and 4 friends. It is evening.

Prelude et la Romanesca: dance for 4 friends (Alexandra Danilova referred to this dance as a "character mazurka" although the music is in 4/4 time and not a mazurka.)

Prelude et variation: Harp variation for Raymonda with scarf.

Scen mimique: Raymonda lies down, fanned by pages. Clemence plays the lute. All magically fall asleep except Raymonda.

Scene VII: Apparition de la Dame Blanche: The White Lady descends from her pedestal. Raymonda is petrified but follows her out onto the terrace. Curtain falls.

* * * * *

ACT ONE, SCENE 2 - Visions

Entr'acte

Scene VIII: A park outside the castle. White Lady is followed by Raymonda (actually Raymonda's doubles, who will watch the real Raymonda in the subsequent dances). A mist covers everything. When it lifts, Jean de Brienne and 12 knights are surrounded by 48 corps women and also children. The women crown the knights. Raymonda runs to Jean.

Grand Adagio: Raymonda and Jean pas de deux with corps groupings.

Valse Fantastique: Corps waltz.

Variation 1: Female soloist.

Variation II: Female soloist.

Variation III: Raymonda [Petipa did not use the music Glaznuvo composed for this variation. Instead, he used an arrangement of the waltz from Glazunov's "Scenes de Ballet".]

Coda: Everyone.

Scene IX: Raymonda goes back to the White Lady, who mimes, "Look, and learn what awaits you." Raymonda turns back to Jean and find herself face to face with Abderrakhman. Everyone else has disappeared. Extended mime conversation ensues. He wants her, she rejects him. She faints (either here or after children's dance).

Scene X and Ronde des follets et des farfadets: student will-o'-the-wisps and goblins appears and dance around Raymonda.

Scene XI: The sun rises.

Scene XII: Friends from the castle come out onto the terrace, see Raymonda, and try to revive her.

* * * * *

ACT II - Cour d'Amour

Entr'acte

Scene I - March: A courtyard at the castle of Doris. Everyone congratulates Raymonda, but she is worried that Jean has not yet arrived. Trumpets announce special guests ...

Scene II: Abderrakhman arrives and Raymond recognizes him from her dream. Sybille reminds Raymonda of her duty of hospitality.

Scene III (Grad pas d'action): Dramatic adagio in which Abderrakhman tries to woo Raymonda. 4 friends also participate.

Variation I: Henriette or Clemence.

Variation II: Henriette or Clemence (I'm not sure who danced which variation).

Variation III: Bernard or Beranger (this variation is now often used for Jean in Act III).

Variation IV: Raymonda (horn solo).

Coda: all.

Scene mimique: Abderrakhman presents his retinue to Raymonda and a character suite begins.

Entree des jongleurs: 30 men and 30 women. They hit sticks on the ground during the dance.

Danse des garcons arabes (Arab boys): 12 student boys. Balanchine danced this role in 1917.

Entree des Sarrazins: Saracen couple.

Grand pas espagnol: Lead couple and 12 women (this was later changed to 8 couples; the notation was first made for 16 women, then crossed out to change to 8 couples).

Danse Orientale: This was intended as a variation for Raymonda, but from all I can gather, this number was omitted in 1898.

Bacchanal: The coda of the character suite. Everyone participates and at the end Ab tries to adbuct Raymonda.

Scene IV: Jean and King Andrei arrive in the3 nick of time. Brief fighting. The king calms everyone down. Jean and Ab receive swords and prepare to duel.

Le combat: The fight itself, which has three short parts. In the third part, the White Lady appears (along with her musical theme) and Jean kills Ab. Andrei joins the hands of Jean and Raymonda.

Hymne: Everyone is relieved and celebrates.

* * * * *

ACT III - Le Festival des Noces

Entr'acte

Le cortege hongrois: Outside at Jean's castle somewhere in France. A procession in which Raymonda and jean are congratulated by wedding guests.

Grand pas hongrois: a Hungarian divertissement in honor of the present of King Andrei II of Hungary. Petipa seems to have re-arranged the order of the dances, but I'll give them in the order in the score. This particular number is a czardas for a lead couple (Preobrazhenskaya and Bekefi) and 20 additional couples.

Dance des enfants: Children's dance for 12 student couples.

[Mazurka]: Petipa added a mazurka, from Glazunov's "Scenes de Ballet", for a lead couple (Marie Petipa and Kchesinsky) and 12 additional couples.

Entree: 8 couples plus Jean and Raymonda.

Pas classique hongrois: addagio for 8 couples, Jean and Raymonda.

Variation I: Female variation (don't know how danced it). Could have been Clemence or Henriette because both neither of the dancers portraying those roles danced in this section of the divert. Preobrezhensakaya was dancing character dances during this act.

Variation II: Female variation (don't know who danced it).

Variation III: Men's pas de quatre for Jean, Bernard, Beranger, plus Alexander Gorsky (!). Quite the line up of dancers!

Variation IV: Raymonda's piano variation.

Coda: All classical participants.

Galop: Everyone.

Apotheose: The apotheosis depicted a tournament. The back of the stage opened to reveal an open square in which a tournament is taking place.

END OF BALLET

The libretto is the story of the ballet as printed in the audience program book. Sometimes it differs from the ballet master's notes (which usually contain many more details). The libretto does not generally contain any information about steps.

The Raymonda libretto has been translated by Roland John Wiley and is printed, along with an original cast list and list of dances (including how many dancers performed each dance), in his book, A Century of Russian Ballet (Oxford, 1990), pages 392-401.

The "orchestre sur la scene" shows up a couple of times in the ballet. In the full score, six brass (trumpets and tenor cornets, I believe) are required. They play fanfare figures at the "big" royal moments.

Mel, not to be argumentative, but are you certain the French notes in the piano reduction mention the portrait? If so, could you give me the page number in the score, because I may have missed it?

I have made a composite and comparative description of the action of Raymonda using the original published libretto, Petipa's scenario and notes to himself, the original cast list and list of dances, as well as the piano reduction which was made in conjunction with the premiere. To my knowledge, the portrait is not mentioned in these documents. The French notes in the piano score were included Glazunov and taken verbatim from Petipa's instructions to him for the composition of the ballet.

These documents seem to indicate the a messenger brings a letter to Raymonda, which she takes and reads. When Petipa added the introduction of Abderrakhman in Act I, Scene 1, Ab brought gifts for Raymonda in honor of her name day. Vassals also come to congratulate her. Peasants also come and bring flowers garlands that are subsequently used in the "Valse provencale."

The first physical introduction of both Jean and Ab was therefore in Act I, Scene 2, the vision scene, in which it is at least clear that Raymonda loves one and is terrifed of the other.

[ March 06, 2002, 11:02 PM: Message edited by: doug ]

Re: the female classical variations, I mean those for Raymonda, Clemence, Henriette and the vision variations. Most of these variations as danced in the Bolshoi version resemble what is given in the notations for the ballet.

Petipa asked Glazunov for three vision variations. He omitted the music for the third variation (subsequently choreographed by Balanchine and that's another story) and substituted an arrangement of a Glazunov waltz from "Scenes de Ballet" as a variation for Raymonda. The ballerinas performing the two vision variations were not originally Henriette and Clemence.

Here is a little more confirmation: the original cast list mentions "citizens of Provence" in the list of additional persons.

Mel, that's great logic about Abderrakhman. I'm not sure when the portrait became part of the scenario. It is not part of the original scenario or libretto. Did it originate with Konstantin Sergeev's Kirov version or before that?

Back to the countries of origin issue: interestingly, while the published libretto states that the letter to Raymonda reads that King Andrei will return to his native land (Hungary) and therefore Jean de Brienne will soon arrive in Provence, Petipa's scenario states that the letter reads, "Knight Jean de Brienne has returned, covered with glory, to his native castle [presumably in France]. Tomorrow Brienne will be at the Castle Doris [where Raymonda lives] to celebrate his wedding." But according to the libretto, the wedding ends up being at his castle, "on the slope of an Alpine peak."

Okay, I think I might have it. I'm reading the original libretto here. Raymonda is French and Jean de Brienne also is French (of course you were right about his name). The wedding is at HIS castle and the Hungarian divertisement is given in honor of King Andrei II of Hungary, who is a guest at the wedding. Jean was doing battle under the banner of King Andrei, that's why the two were traveling together.

I have the Grigorovich Bolshoi production on video as well as the K. Sergeev production with Kolpakova. I will go through them and comment more on which parts I find correspond to what is notated of the ballet. For starters, the women's classical variations in the Grigorovich version are very close to what is notated, as is much of the character suite (but not Spanish) in Act II.

[ March 06, 2002, 05:12 PM: Message edited by: doug ]

Hesitating ever so slightly, I would argue that the story is fine as Petipa first conceived it. That said, Petipa changed the story prior to the premiere, so Raymonda has never, to my knowledge, has never been presented as first conceived, or as Glazunov intended in composing his score.

I think Raymonda is actually French, but I could be wrong. She is the Countess de Doris and lives with her Aunt, the Countess Sybille, canoness, in Provence. (In the notations, Nikolai Sergeev refers to Sybille as Raymonda's mother - no one seemed to really know the story, even back then.)

Raymonda's fiance is Jean de Brienne, a Hungarian knight, who, at the beginning of the ballet, is already off fighting in the Crusades.

Act I, Scene I, is Raymonda's name day (Alexandra Danilova called it Raymonda's birthday) and there is a celebration with court and peasants paying tribute to Raymonda. A messenger brings a letter stating that Jean will return from the Crusades the following day to wed Raymonda. Raymonda orders a cour d'amour (court of love) to be organized for the next day. During this scene, Sybille also reprimands idle courtiers by telling them that if they do not fulfill their duties they will not be blessed by the White Lady,

protector of the house of Doris (there is a statue of her upstage center).

In Act I, Scene 2, the White Lady comes to life and shows Raymonda a vision of herself dancing with Jean de Brienne. Then she shows Raymonda a vision of a Saracen knight, Abderrakhman, who wishes to seduce Raymonda. After a long mime action scene, Raymonda faints and her friends find her outside on the lawn.

Act II is the cour d'amour. Abderrakhman shows up instead of Jean de Brienne and it appears that Raymonda's nightmare will come true. But Jean de Brienne, accompanied by King Andrei II of Hungary shows up. Jean and Abderrakhman fight a duel, Jean kills Ab and everyone is happy.

Act III is the famous wedding scene, held at Jean's place (or Andrei's?) in Hungary.

The plot change Petipa made was having Abderrakhman visit Raymonda during Act I, Scene 1, and try to woo her. When she spurned him, he planned to kidnap her. I think this was a mistake. It takes the surprise away from the vision scene, where we would first see Abderrakhman suddenly replacing Jean in the dream. Act II is also compromised because we already know Ab is planning to kidnap Raymonda. So, I think Ab's intro in Act I, Scene 1, for which Glazunov wrote just a few extra bars of music, makes the next two scenes partly redundant.

I am all for going back to Petipa's original scenario.

Thanks, everyone, for the clarifications. I gotta get my tapes out and watch again! Jeannie, looking forward to your CINDERELLA review.

Jeannie, I'm so glad you were able to see the K. Sergeev RAYMONDA. I've worked with the Raymonda notations (circa 1903 and written by Nikolai Sergeev) extensively - RAYMONDA is one of my favorite ballets. However, I have found that Girgorovich's version contains choreography closer to the notations than does the K. Sergeev staging for the Kirov. This is true only for the variations, however, because most of the corps choreography in Acts I and II of both productions does not at all resemble the corps choreography as notated. Grigorovich's Act II pas d'action adagio (for three couples) is quite close to the notated version (except for Abderrakhman's leaps), while I believe the K. Sergeev pas d'action is a pas de deux.

Unfortunately, neither production, so far as I know, includes the student "bugs" in the Act I, Scene 2, vision scene, which remind me of Balanchine's MIDSUMMER bugs, at least in the choregraphic floor patterns. I don't think either prodcution includes the "Danse des Enfants" in Act III either.

Absolutely amazing music, and the Kirov version does indeed includes more of it than any other version that I know. The NAXOS recording is, in my opinion, the best available (and cheap!) - also the most complete.

In this context, a repetiteur is a document: the musical score of a ballet arranged for a single violin, or two violins (two violins were the norm in Russia), or sometimes piano, to be used for rehearsals. In the case of GISELLE, the repetiteur is written out like a piano score (with treble and bass clefs), although I doubt a piano was used for rehearsal. In the middle of the staves the mimed conversations are recorded, along with stage directions and other information.

I've always thought he was a cupid on Canari's cage in Act III. I have an 1890 group picture of the Act III characters and Canari is in a big bird cage with little kids sitting on the edges. The Kirov includes this in their production. Balanchine wrote, "I also appeared as a cupid on one of the carriages in the final act," (Balanchine's Complete Stories ... page 746).

Sorry, hi, yes, I'm here. My understanding is that Carabosse was performed by a double in Act III when Cecchetti danced Blue Bird. Also, Giannandrea Poesio, Cecchetti scholar, has told me that Cecchetti only dance Blue Bird a couple of times.

I saw the Kirov's BEAUTY in New York and London. The King performed his mime scene before the Rose Adagio during a very extended harp cadenza.

Glad there are so many comments on this great ballet. I'm happy to read them and wish I could see it again. On another note, the Kirov's 'new' BAYADERE will be very interesting. The notations (which were made based on the December 1900 revival) are of a completely different sort than BEAUTY and there are far fewer comparative sources to draw from. Can't wait to see it at some point once it premieres.

Marian Smith's book, "Ballet and Opera in the Age of Giselle" (Princeton, 2000), is currently the most authoritative work on the original production of Giselle. It really is amazing. Marian was able to work with a repetiteur that likely was created to assist with the staging of Giselle in St. Petersburg in 1842. The rep contains all of the mimed conversations, which are very lengthy and detailed. Characters are developed much more fully than we now see. The crowd scenes were much larger too: 32 vine gatherers, 4 musicians, 24 children, 16 in the hunt, 4 pages.

The choreography is referred to in the rep but only via stage directions that are included in addition to the mimed conversations.

Just a note that I feel think CORTEGE HONGROIS is an important work because of Balanchine's character choreography. Comparing Balanchine's czardas choreography to Petipa's czardas choreography, the heritage can be clearly seen but also the way in which Balanchine brings character dancing into the 20th century, in the same way he did classical dancing. There are not many clearer examples of his character work than CORTEGE HONGROIS.