innopac

Using google books to follow up on carbo's observation produced this quote from Performance Practice by Roland John Jackson. "In Italian opera during the 1840s and 1850s a form of divided direction was usual: a "director of music" rehearsed the singers and determined the tempos, while the first violinist remained in charge of the orchestra. The director positioned himself at stage right during a performance with his back to the orchestra. By the time of Verdi's middle=period operas (1849-54) the need for a single conductor began to be felt, but this change only came in gradually." Page 100-01 Is this relevant?

I really appreciate your detailed response. Thanks.

Katalina, When you say the quality is not quite the same - did you notice a difference in the clarity of the image... in the sound... or both? Would you prefer watching the Pal version on your computer or the converted to NTSC version on your television?

Thank you both. Your posts have been very helpful. I have paid to have a couple of pal videos (not ballet) converted but have been on the lookout for software to convert pal to ntsc (ballet). I will now stop looking and drop the "project".

The others on BT are much more qualified than I to answer your question, wetherwax. But I will give you my reaction as I have managed to borrow the Seregi Spartacus. And I am afraid after only watching one act tonight I was very disappointed. I think perhaps Seregi was trying to show Spartacus the man but for me it just doesn't work. And they have done something to the music, not sure what, but there are cuts and also short sections that sounded like they were arranged. I haven't managed yet to see the Vasiliev recordings but I have seen both of the Mukhamedov dvds and besides some wonderful dancing and the music I enjoy the Grigorovich Spartacus for its pure dramatic power and spectacle.

I didn't think it was possible to convert a pal dvd to a dvd that was viewable on a television that was ntsc with anydvd from slysoft. Katalina, do you know how to do that with anydvd?

The International Dictionary of Ballet has a discussion focusing on the Grigorovich version. I haven't seen the production by the Hungarian choreographer László Seregi which is the version the Australian Ballet has released on dvd. How do you find the two productions differ, wetherwax?

Vagansmom, I enjoyed your post and your insight into reading being more than just processing the visual cues from the page. I think my favorite environment involve a doona and a cup of tea ;) I can't get into audio books, even those read by wonderful actors. Have tried several times with no success... I have to read the book. But I have lately become like Mr Toad and am wildly enthusiastic about podcasts. In fact, I would prefer to listen to the podcast of a lecture to reading the transcript. So where is the logic in that?

Since musicians are as "portable" as dancers, unlike actors, I would have assumed that there would be many defections from within professional musician ranks. Do you think the numbers would be as high as with dancers? If not, why not?

David Caute in his The Dancer Defects writes István Ráb (Raab) on page 470 .... ?

Norá Kovács (21) and István Ráb (22) -- from the Budapest Opera House dancers, in May 1953 Valery Panov (21) -- Mali and later Kirov dancer was sent home from San Francisco in disgrace in July 1959. After 15 years of escalating persecution he was finally allowed to leave Russia for Israel with his wife, Galina Ragozina, in June 1974. Rudolf Nureyev (23) -- Kirov dancer in Paris, June 1961. Natalia Makarova (29) -- Kirov dancer in London, September 1970. Mikhail Baryshnikov (26) -- Kirov dancer in Toronto, June 1974. Aleksandr Godunov (29) -- Bolshoi dancer in NY, August 1979. Li Cunxin (20) -- in Houston 1981. Rolando Sarabia (24), dancer from the National Ballet of Cuba. in Miami 2005. Who are the others?

This book doesnt exist in Melbourne!. It looks like the State Library of Victoria has it so if you don't live too far away you may be able to read it there or request it from your local library as an inter-library loan. Although to do the latter there would probably be charges. Vaughan, David, 1924- Frederick Ashton and his ballets London : A. and C. Black, 1977. Call Number: 792.8 As3

Just curious... do you like Khachaturian's music? My guess is that you may not. What I have often wondered about is is it possible really enjoy a ballet if you don't love the music.

Are the documentaries subtitled with English as an option?

WOW!! Many thanks!

Thank you very much!

..."when challenged directly once with the question "What keeps you in ballet?" he [John Cranko] answered. 'Well, if it's just steps, it's obviously not worth devoting one's life to. ... There's a limit to the amount of jumping around people can do. You can lift a girl only so high; she can spin around on her foot only so many times. One has to convert this extremely physical image -- a physical way of expressing oneself -- into a spiritual way of expressing oneself.'" Theatre in My Blood: A Biography of John Cranko by John Percival. Page 139

Thanks for the warning, bart. I will see if I can track down a library copy rather than buy it.

I think you will find some of the posts on this thread interesting, Katalina.

Thanks dirac! I also just found the following on google. The Dancer Defects: The Struggle for Cultural Supremacy During the Cold War By David Caute Published by Oxford University Press, 2005 ISBN 0199278830, 9780199278831 824 pages

Neumeier's approach to choreography... "The way the ballet was preserved was quite incredible. But time had not stopped for me as a choreographer, or for the ballet. And living, for me, means I'm going to see the performance tonight and if I don't like something, I'm going to try another way." Talking about Romeo and Juliet in Alexandra Tomalonis's book Henning Kronstam. Page 488 I was wondering if this was very common among choreographers or if most try "preserve" the work in its original form.

There is a new two part youtube (in Russian). Search: makhalina mata hari Haven't had a chance to watch it yet "2 parts with Kirov Mariinsky ballerina, Yulia Makhalina , in a 2008 production of Mata Hari with Ilya Kuznetsov . A very rare clip is shown inside the Mariinsky Theater in 1997 with Natalia Dudinskaya coaching Makhalina in Raymonda. Dudinskaya rarely coached inside the theater in the 90s. Makhalina is shown performing Raymonda with Konstantin Zaklinsy , Swan Lake and Don Quixote with Alexander Korkov , Le Jeunne Homme Et La Morte with Igor Zelensky , Anna Karenina with Konstantin Zaklinsky , Sheherazade with Faroukh Ruzimatov and a solo in Cinderella." Does anyone know anything about the ballet Mata Hari?

From their homepage "Welcome to the International Music Score Library Project! IMSLP attempts to create a virtual library containing all public domain musical scores, as well as scores from composers who are willing to share their music with the world without charge. You can read the full list of goals that IMSLP will try to achieve." The main page for Tchaikovsky.

Here is what Percival does write about the ballet. From Theatre in My Blood: a biography of John Cranko. page 164 John Percival first quotes John Cranko writing about the need for a tragic ending in Swan Lake. Then Percival writes: "By coincidence, Nureyev had a similar idea about the same time when preparing his production of Swan Lake for Vienna, and a while later Yuri Grigorovich tried to do something similar at the Bolshoi in Moscow, but was forbidden on ideological grounds. Obviously it was an idea whose time had arrived, but revolutionary and controversial when John thought of it. He invented, with the aid of Jurgen Rose as designer, a great flood conjured up by the wicked sorcerer, Rothbart, through which the hero Siegfried tries in vain to swim to save his beloved Odette, and the ballet ended with Odette once more transformed into a swan and Siegfried left dead as the waters subside."

I have checked through the index in the book on Cranko and can't find mention of the music. But is this the music you remember?