MinkusPugni

I definitely agree about not having adults play children... but isn't infantilizing adults something we do in ballet literally all the time. Aren't some of the great parts in ballet infantilized adults? Swanhilda...? Lise...? Aurora...? Giselle...? Just thought I'd bring up the point.

Does anyone know if any of the ballet scores that are no longer in repertoire still exist? Some that I am particularly interested in are Pugni's "Terpischore" Pugni's "Titania" Pugni's "Two Stars" Minkus's "Roxana" Minkus's "La Fille des Neiges" Minkus's "Mlada" Minkus's "La Nuit et le Jour" Oldenburg's "La Rose, La Violette et le Papillon" Any information would be great! Thanks

I love the ending of Sir Peter Wright's production of the Swedish Royal Ballet where after they drown, Benno fishes Siegfried's body from the lake. The final tableux is very bitter-sweet and incredibly moving.

I was under the impression that each of the fairies were there to give a gift from their season. I can't quite remember but off the top of my head I thought they were Summer - Roses, Winter - Jewels, Autumn - a Dress and I can't remember what Spring gave...

I've tried youtube and following links to the reconstruction on the Wikipedia page but they don't work! Is there any other way I can see the reconstruction?

I've always been confused as to what the different time periods are in the ballet and where the ballet is set? Which productions to what?

I am doing a project at uni on why it is that the Specialist composers are so little respected in comparison to Tchaikovsky and Glazunov. Something that I find incredibly interesting is that Tchaikovsky respected the specialists for their wide variety of melody and even said that had he known of Delibes' "Sylvia" before writing Swan Lake, he wouldn't have written it. Obviously, the Specialists' music doesn't have nearly the artistic or musical merit of Tchaikovsky or Glazunov but it is because such music was in vogue at the time and anything too rhythmically, structurally or harmonically challenging would have been rejected, as was Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. What views does everyone have on this subject?

I know there are lots of posts on the Nutcracker, but I was wondering... ever Nutcracker I ever see seems to disappoint me... none of them seem to fulfil the potential of the music and the setting. The one that has nearest fulfilled my expectations is the PNB's version. Which versions do you all love? Which version should I seek out and see so that I can actually be pleased by the Nutcracker?

Kenneth MacMillan's "Different Drummer" is just absolutely appalling. Never again do I want to have to see that.

I have only found out recently about this ballet and am fascinated by it! What information is available on the ballet? Can anyone answer these questions? a) Is there a recording available of the music? b) Does anyone perform "Cinderella" to this music? c) Does the score still exist? d) How does this ballet differ to Prokofiev's (structurally, not musically. For example, are there still the four seasonal fairies, etc.)? e) I know that the notation doesn't exist in the Sergeyev Collection but is there any other possibility for reconstruction? Thankyou for anyone with information!

I agree! Possibly the weakest version of the Nutcracker I have ever seen. No imagination, no magic, no personality to draw you in! The costumes are hideous (is it really necessary for each and every character to wear a wig??? The snowflakes? The flowers? The sugar plum fairy?) and boring (an all-white second act surely doesn't inspire the children and definitely doesn't bring Tchaikovsky's colorful score to life). The production is very dated and think needs to be updated (by a different choreographer)! The sad thing is that they advertise it as "the definitive Nutcracker". Really...?

The fact that the choreography on "The Company" is quite different to the Kirov production and all productions of the Kirov's seem to have all the Russian affectations put over the top of it makes me wonder how original is the apparent "Saint-Leon" work? Or has it simply evolved into a new work over the years?

Does anyone have any idea which production of Giselle is closest to the Petipa revival? Has anybody ever staged the version notated in the Sergeyev collection?

Does anyone know what music the Royal Ballet School uses for its defile? I know it's Czerny and an etude but which ones from which opus? Thanks.

Not true, Cygnet. Yes Petipa carefully outlined all of what he wanted for Tchaikovsky, even specifying the amount of bars he wanted in each piece. For example, in the Garland Waltz Petipa ordered 16 bars of introduction and 150 bars of waltz, but Tchaikovsky supplied 36 bars of introduction and 261 bars of waltz. As you see, if Petipa had started choreography before the music came he would have had to have changed most things anyway. Also, in any case the score was completed in four weeks. There was no need for Petipa to choreograph before the music was presented. A quote from Petipa's daughter: "Peter Ilyich arrive at our house customarily in the evenings and played trough his work in parts, and father listened and planned his dance fantasies in harmony with the music."

Paquita Saturday, 9th of June 2007 The evening commenced with a new ballet, "Valetta" choreographed by a member of the company, Paul Knobloch set to music by Bruch. The short and simple piece choreographed for one girl and fourteen men fell somewhat short of charming and there was no chance for anyone to shine due to the scattered, unthoughtful and uninnovative choreography which seemed to bore most members of the audience and there is no doubt that the piece will be buried, never to show its head again. Next on the programme was the pas de deux from Le Corsaire. Kirsty Martin danced with Nobuo Fujino. It was with great disappointment that I had to sit and watch these two butcher the pas de deux. Fujino's performance was cumbersome and sloppy and his technique was apallingly weak. Throughout his manege at the end of his variation, his legs were bent and he wasn't even close to achieving a split. The worst thing, though was that Fujino actually dropped Martin, only just catching her, while carrying her off at the end of the adage. I am amazed that he was allowed to step onto the stage in such form. Although nothing was majorly wrong with Martin's technique as Medora, her performance lacked energy and it looked like she was just in class going through her tendus. The most disappointing thing about Martin's performance was the Director's choice to use Gamzatti's wedding variation from La Bayadere as Medora's variation rather than the original one. Following this was Lisa Bolte and Adam Thurlow performing the Black Swan Pas de Deux. Bolte's performance was extremely good for one sole reason: it finally confirmed how over-the-hill she is. Bolte stumbled and fell out of her pirouettes numerous times and even fell over at one point with Thurlow catching her, though this was well covered. Bolte's interpretation of Odile looked more like it should have been in Western Symphony as she overly wiggled her hips whilst walking. Bolte threw herself into each pirouette and lame-duck with excessive force but didn't pull off a single one and in the coda she opted for the easier poses in a circle rather than the thirty-two fouettes. She performed the poses much too slowly for it to look spectacular and it honestly looked like a cop-out. Camilla Vergotis and Tristan Message performed in Messerer's short Spring Waters. This was one of the better performances of the night and a highlight was the section where Vergotis threw herself across the stage, caught by Message. The only problems were that each step was done a little bit tentatively and neither of them threw themselves completely into any situation and neither quite had the Russian showmanship required to pull-off such an intense pas de deux. Miller-Ashmole's La Favorita performed by Reiko Hombo and Tzu-Chao Chou was next on the programme. This was clearly the best performance of the night. Both dancers had amazingly clean and precise technique and they stood out from the rest of the dancers of the night. The spectacular and almost perfect performance captivated the audience. One must wonder why on earth Chou is only in the corps de ballet when it is painfully clear that he is much better than any of the Australian Ballet's male principal artists. Hombo brought both flair and an almost "cute" charm to the performance making her a winner with the audience and Chou's power, strength and amazing flexibility stunned all who were watching. One can only hope that David McAllister has the sense to realise the amazing talent of these two and we get to see more in the very near future. Diana and Acteon was perfomed by Lucinda Dunn and Robert Curran. Their performance was okay but any loyal Russian Ballet followers would have been horrified. Technically, the two were okay. No mistakes were made, all the lifts went well, everything was pulled off (except for Curran completely falling over in a double sissone to the knee), but neither dancer gave anything out to the audience. We did not feel a connection. We felt as though they were dancing for themselves. Paquita was the last performance of the night with Olivia Bell and Adam Bull as Paquita and Lucien. The corps de ballet were not together and after the waltzing section at the very start of the ballet, they were in very non-straight lines. Again with disappointment, only four of the endless variations were performed (plus, of course, Paquita's and Lucien's variations). The highlight of Paquita was definately the variations of Amber Scott and Olivia Bell. Amber Scott performed one of the "harp" variations also seen in the ABT's production of Paquita. Her ethereal performance was both captivating and stunning, her pointe work was immaculate and her arms and body seemed to extend forever. Bell's solo as Paquita was also very good. It seems Bell has a particular talent for slow, pretty variations. This solo was much better than any other part of her performance as Paquita. All in all, it was a fairly disappointing performance, though it was definately worth seeing for Reiko Hombo and Tzu-Chao Chou.

I believe the position originated from the hands being at the front of the shoulders, almost on the pecs. I have a feeling (correct me if I'm wrong!) that at least in ballet this is a sort of middle-eastern sign of humility, where one puts their hands to bow. For example, this is also seen in Fokine's Scheherazade and in La Bayadere (though in La Bayadere when the dancer is standing still, the elbows are down by their sides and when they bow their elbows go out to the side).

Should the second act be set at day or night? Some versions set it at night but I believe this gives the ballet too much of a Giselle feel. I do, however, believe that once Madge offers James the scarf it should become dark as most companies do. What does everyone think?

Very confused... I thought that Cesare Pugni composed "The Little Humpbacked Horse" as the famous 6/8 variation from Paquita apparently comes from that, though I have never heard the rest of the ballet but the Bolshoi's version released on DVD is composed by Rodion Shchedrin so this version of the ballet must be fairly recent as Shchedrin is a fairly recent composer so I'm just wondering - when did this new version come about and why did it replace the old one?

The music for Raymonda's variation in the Dream Scene after the Valse Fantastique is not from Raymonda. It's a slow waltz that gradually gets faster entitled "Valse.Adagio - Piu Mosso - Animato". Where does it come from? I'm under the impression that it comes from "The Seasons". If so, what specific section?

Has anyone seen this Balanchine ballet "Western Symphony"? We are performing two movements of it this year and I was just wondering if anyone knew anything about it? Are there any recordings of it? Also, could anyone clear up what the female characters are? My teacher believes that they are prostitutes but I don't tend to agree. Another question - I BELIEVE that Hershey Kay arranged the music (the music is credited to him, though I believe he was only an arranger) and if this is the case then what are some of the pieces that the themes come from?

I believe this ballet is Lichine's original choreography wherever it's performed...? I may be wrong though. All the things I said above (the differences in the score verses the ballet) are changes in the Australian Ballet's production. And yes, this is a fantastic recording despite some of the tempos being very, very fast and the extra music making it unsuitable to dance to.

Whenever I buy a ballet CD I always run through the ballets in my head but when I bought Graduation Ball I realised there was too much music. The Grand Gallop has many internal repeats which are cut out in the actual ballet, Perpetuum Mobile has a whole chunk cut out in the ballet and ends differently, the Romantic Girl's solo is missing the glockenspiel "ping" where she lets go of her skirt, Pigtails' Solo has a repeat where she does the turning relevees in attitude, there is a whole piece called "Teachers and Pupils" where in the ballet only half of this music is used for the love letters... I think that's it. But yeah my question is: did somebody rearrange Antal Dorati's work? What's the reason for the differences between the performance music and the recording?

The King has always been Florestan the eighth or some other number and now that you mention it, only the Australian Ballet's version has the prince named Florimund. All the others I've seen I believe they've been Desire. Sorry for the confusion.

Thanks for all your help, guys! Especially to you, PerA!