cubanmiamiboy

"She had attended a performance of Ballet Theater’s “Sleeping Beauty,” in which she is to dance Saturday night, at the Metropolitan Opera House and was crossing Amsterdam Avenue on her way home when she was mugged, said the agent, Sergei Danilian. “Two guys just came from her back and they hit her and they took her bag...”

I just got a hold on Dolin's book on Markova and I'm also revisiting Markova's Giselle and I. Considering how close she was to Petipa's rendering of the ballet-(via Sergueeff and Spessivtseva, and even having being taught some of the role's "secrets" by the latter one)-I found important to quote her. Hence, this is what Markova has to say about this particular matter-(Giselle's death). "Giselle, to my way of thinking, is not a suicide. Her brain snaps as the result of a very severe mental shock and an ensuing nervous and emotional collapse. When she sees the sword on the ground, according to Sergueeff, she takes it to be a serpent. She picks it up by the point and presses it to her bosom, like Cleopatra and the asp. Had she wished to kill herself by the sword, she would have picked it up by the hilt and driven it through her body, or fallen upon it in the best Roman tradition. By that time she is isolated from the others because she no longer recognises them. Her strength begins to ebb, and her heartbeats show signs of exhaustion. At this point some ballerinas look at their hands with horror, imagining they are covered with blood from the wound. There is no blood on her hands because the wound was a mere pinprick. Giselle regards her hands and arms with terror because they are growing cold and she is conscious of an increasing paralysis. She rubs them in a futile attempt to restore the circulation. Then her breathing gives trouble. She feels she is choking. It is the end. She collapses on the ground, dying because she has nothing to live for..."

Thanks rg for that clarifying note. (I should definitely get me Beaumont's book). A little searching online-(keywording "Giselle original libretto)-also led me to Balletmet. "The first production included elements rarely seen today, including a mime scene in which Giselle tells Loys that she has dreamt that he was in love with a beautiful noblewoman; the entrance of several members of the hunting party on horseback; and a large and impressive procession for the vinegatherers in Act I. In Act II missing today are the huntsmen playing dice at the beginning of the act; an encounter between the peasants and the wilis; Albrecht witnessing the demise of Hilarion from behind a tree; and Bathilde returning to reclaim Albrecht at the end of the ballet." http://www.balletmet.org/Notes/Giselle.html

Glad you clarified that,bart. The company to perform at Peralada is the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami. SWEEET!!!

Thanks dirac...here he is now...trying to keep his eyes open to watch my old Giselle record playing-(it's an LP and he finds the rotating motion of the device very interesting...until he goes crazy and jumps on top of it... .)

Mm...it would be interesting to see these two ballets danced by a different company. I wonder if my initial reaction to them had to do more with the troupe-(City Ballet)- and not with the choreography itself .

That's exactly how I recall Nelson's dancing back in Havana...okay but not brilliant. Is his wife-(Feijoo)-absent from this program...?

Hi again. Another detail I remember from Alonso's production of Giselle is the opening of Act II with a grouping of huntsmen playing dice in the forest and then being scared away by the willis...all this before Myrtha's entrance. I haven't seen this done in any other production, so I was wondering if this is a liberty taken on the libretto. I would, again, appreciate any clarifying post on the subject. Thanks in advance!

Right there and then!...when she anounces she's getting married...

Revisiting Markova's "Giselle and I" and Joan Brady's "Unmaking of a dancer". Just finished Dostoievsky's "The village of Stepanchikovo"-(what a delicious short novel!)- and revisiting again his "White Nights"...(read it many years ago, but in Spanish..)

My memories of the two ballets are kind of blurry but what I remember the most is that there was a great deal of posing and walking around...

Ah...because you're humming the '95 uninterrupted Drigo's revision...

A litte off topic... When I met Miss Serrano during the last Miami Ballet Festival, she stroke me as a very serious lady...rather severe, so maybe she was better suited for Myrtha than Giselle. And to answer my own question of a probable identification between the first and the most most memorable Giselle, this was not my case. Just as bart, I remember mostly the ambiance and magic of the ballet on that first experience, but many years would pass between that Giselle and the very one that made me believe 100 % in the possibility of keeping the romantic style alive and updated. It was Miss Lorna Feijoo...and oh...was she DIVINE!

Edited: Double post.

An honest answer is always valid...THANK YOU! Also, after reading all the reposts, I wonder how many of these "first Giselles" would also be the most memorable one... I know there can't be a 100%/100% ratio...(starting with my own response, BTW)

Boo to the censors! ...I'm SICK of the censorship...

The above quote from atm711 made me curious about finding out if some of you would remember who was your first Giselle-(live I mean...)-for which in my case it is an unforgettable image. (Miss Lourdes Novoa , ex CNB's dancer and former wife of Jose Manuel Carreno). So.. Who was your first live Giselle...?

...ah, beautiful..so the fast ending was indeed the original one. Thanks Mel! I was just curious, because in every single performance I've seen of Giselle after I left Cuba-(MCB, ABT and those on video, either Russians or those of Makarova and Nureyev)- I get the slow one.

I KNEW I was gonna "get" you here, atm711! . I'm always marveled and, I must confess, a little jealous at all you got to see back then. Yes...you're right...I saw the clips while in NYC...I spent around 4 hours watching a total of 6 entries-(in between VHS and reels). Toumanova's partner in the video was George Skibine. http://catalog.nypl.org/iii/encore/record/...amp;suite=pearl Tell me more about her, pleeeeeeease...!!

Oh...and I also wanted to share the experience of watching some clips of Toumanova, specifically those of Giselle. Wow...what a beautiful ballerina!...but still, she looked too much sophisticated to convince me as being just a peasant girl...she looked more like a princess playing dress-up Still...marvelous to watch.

Yes, Mel...there had been previous discussions about Bathilde's appearance in the final scene of the original libretto, and I even remember listening one time to the number which, if memory serves, also includes the court's characteristic fanfare. Still, I would like to know which current ending music is closer to the original design of the score, if the "rushed" one... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD6i4MsSdIA-(@ 6:40) vs. the "slow" one... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH8pKOqEbmc-(@ 7:00) I have the Zuraitis in two cassetes-(got them on Ebay, just to listen to the rare Minkus Act I PDD)...but my cassette player broke down...(I should have transfer those to CD a while ago). And yes...we've had this discussion before... http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...mp;#entry244120

My all time favorite is the Dutoit-(just because I much prefer the '77 rendition of the score sans Drigo's revisions). For the '95 version I have the Fedotov.

Hi. My experience with the Cuban version of "Giselle" got me used to a rendition of the score in which the very final scene, right after Giselle goes back to her grave, has an orchestral flourish of very fast "Rapido" music in major key which is played while Albretch appears frantic at the realization of her beloved one's disappearance, even managing to do some fast steps-(jumps or chaines)- before collapsing in desperation right before the curtain drops . Now, I realize that in other versions I've seen-(Bessmertnova/Lavrovsky, Nureyev/Seymour)- this passage of music is subtituted to include a soft fadeout of soft, dreamy "Lento" music instead. I've tried to find out which of the two versions was intended to be the original ending of the ballet, but to no avail. Can someone shred some light on this subject...? Thanks in advance!

Marina Semyonova dancing "Boston Waltz" in Konstantin Eggert's 1934 film "Nastenka Ustinova".