Myrtha

I think it's a bit more than that. For historical reasons I also don't like steps being altered or substituted. So many changes have crept into Swan Lake over the years that it's becoming increasingly difficult to know how much of the original choreography remains. At least we know for certain that the 32 fouettés were present in Petipa's original, so let's not hurry to toss them out. Actually there's some doubt about that. In the book Tchaikovsky’s Ballets by Roland John Wiley, it states on page 247 (and footnote on page 317): "In Zolushka [Cinderella] she [Legnani] performed two triple turns on pointe four times in succession, and, in the last act, thirty-two fouettes, for which her Swan Lake became famous. Footnote: According to Solyannikov (‘Vospominaniya’, p. 86). Legnani performed not thirty-two but twenty fouettes at the first performance of Swan Lake in 1895 and won an ovation after repeating the number." It was typical of the time to give encores of variations, so I'm guessing Legnani encored the section with 20 fouettes after resting during the audience applause for the first batch. It seems that everyone knew she could do the fouette trick by that time and she was concentrating on executing the "plastique" of the Russian classical style Anyway, what is certain is that Odile's variation was fairly simple when first choreographed and later choreographers like Vaganova increased the difficulty by cramming in more turns to show off her students' technical ability, plus individual ballerinas who liked to turn added in yet more revolutions per turn.

I don't think the actors from that era look "self-conscious" or "unnatural". Recently I've been having this debate regarding a certain TV show from the 70's which was recently remade in a more "realistic" form. I despise the remake and got to wondering why I had such a reaction. I think it has a large part due to the older actors in the 70's version having that training and background in the "classic stage technique" and being able to convincingly pull off stuff that today's actors are embarrassed to do. (It also doesn't hurt that my particular favourite actor in the 70's version just attacks the silliness of certain lines with such glee that it's obvious he's having a good time.) I don't mind the "stagey" look either because it allowed some of the actors with stage training to display exquisite enunciation and vocal range which I don't get to hear in today's stuff due to overdubbing and remixing. I also think the actors and dancers from this era were not so self-conscious about being "exaggerated" or "technically incorrect" because once the performance was over there was no record except the memories of the audience.

Here's some more clues to the "black swan" and the black tutu. In a review of Kshesinskaya in Swan Lake in 1901, it states: "The ballerina was very effective in the second act, in her elegant black dress, which went so well on her, and danced the famous pas d’action with aplomb and great artistic finish.” From Novosti i birzhevaya gazeta (6 Apr. 1901), p. 3. via Wiley, Roland John, The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997, page 179 Maya Plisetskaya notes this: "The division into the “black” and “white” adagios came to the Bolshoi from the West. The foreign ballet troupes that began visiting at the end of the 1950s reinterpreted Odile, the daughter of the evil genius Rothbart, as the black swan. This division took root." From I, Maya Plisekskaya by Maya Plisetskaya (translated by Antonina W. Bouis) Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2000, page 90 Cyril W. Beaumont wrote: "Odile, we are told, is the daughter of Rothbart the magician, but since he makes her assume the likeness of Odette, the expression 'daughter' is more a convenient figure of speech for what is clearly a familiar spirit. That such was the authors' intention is corroborated by the fact that Skalkovsky, describing a performance of Swan Lake at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1899, records that immediately after Siegfried asked Odile - believing her to be Odette - for her hand in marriage, the great hall went dark and Odile changed into an owl." From The Ballet Called Swan Lake by Cyril W. Beaumont, Dance Horizons, New York, 1982, pages 70 & 71 I also saw a teeny photograph in a French book about Swan Lake which showed Legnani wearing a dark tutu, dark tights, and dark pointe shoes and which identified her as in the role of Odile in Swan Lake. So far I haven't found a larger version of this photograph.

It wasn't this CD and I looked for the one I have but wasn't able to find it. (I moved twice since I had bought it. It's most likely still in a box.) I also looked on the Internet, but didn't see any listing, like a lot of stuff I bought in the 1980's. The CD I have is essentially a mish-mash of "light classical music" with an "Egyptian" theme and "The Pharaoh's Daughter" excerpts were either the same or similar to the bits that the Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo was using at the time for their "reconstruction". Sorry I couldn't be more help right now.

I got a CD about 15 years ago that had some excerpts from "Pharaoh's Daughter" by Pugni on it. The CD was called "Egyptian Nights" or something like that and had some other music on it. (I'd dig it out for the specifics but it's in a box about 3,000 miles away.)

Okay, I'll play. I had mixed feelings about the overall production. In general, the costumes were gorgeous, but I felt they looked stiff and heavy for a ballet. I finally got to see the much discussed "Swamp Thing" and spent some time when he was onstage trying to figure out how he fit in with the Tudor-esque/Renaissance-ish set decor and costumes. I had to give up on this one, unless he's a demon or something with those horns. The music seemed to be taken at the slowest pace possible and just about everybody looked like they were more interested in getting perfectly pointed feet and making no errors rather than just dancing full out. The corps de ballet was quite impressive in their synchronization. And their port de bras much better than I expected. The principals did nothing for me. I had seen Corella before in a televised gala doing Don Quixote where he had much more charisma and dash, but here he seemed to be working too hard at it. Part of it may have been the choreography with the anguished, melancholy Prince with the adagio solos. (And couldn't the curtain scene with Siegfried and Benno between Act I and Act II been chopped instead of other bits for the telecast?) I had expected Murphy to come across better than she did as Odile, since it is something that can be effective for a virtuoso who just does it with minimal acting. At one point I thought she was trying to model some of the adagio after Plisetskaya's but I couldn't really tell because the camera work cut out Siegfried's reactions. The high point for me was Swamp Thing's alter-ego (Gomes) in Act III with the thigh-high boots, the audacity in his manner, and the dynamics of his phrasing of the steps. How many guys could get away with a held balance in arabesque or some pretty nifty turns ending in a dead stop on demi-pointe in attitude?