innopac

Is "Songs of a Wayfarer" available on dvd or vhs? Either with Nureyev or Hilaire and Legris? After the death of Bortoluzzi, Donn and Nureyev – all three died of the same illness – Maurice Béjart didn’t want “Songs of the Wayfarer” to be danced any more. He only permitted it on the occasion of the gala organised at the Palais Garnier to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Nureyev’s death on January 20th 2003. Laurent Hilaire and Manuel Legris – both promoted “principal dancers” by Nureyev – were splendid performers, moving and inspired. Rudolf Nureyev Foundation

Found a review of Graeme Murphy's Nutcracker today and thought someone else might also find this interesting.... All the while Murphy's own eclectic but highly original idiom parallels the tessellation of events and influences in the plot he has so seamlessly grafted on to the music. If I have a slight grumble it relates to the musical consequences of that tesselation.... [The reviewer gives several examples here.] And besides, the brutal cuts and reshufflings are par for the course in much more traditional stagings of the classics, as for example, Petipa's reformulation of the "Black Swan" pas de deux, and the D major skirls that, through the suppression of the G major intrada, usher in the grand pas de deux in Act III of The Sleeping Beauty. And what one allows to Petipa, one must allow to Murphy, a choreographer, in my opinion, of entirely comparable genius. Graeme Murphy's Nutcracker by Rodney Stenning Edgecombe. Brolga. December 2002. Pages 23-32.

"Movement is liberated thought." Charlie Chaplin from Charlie Chaplin and His Times by Kenneth S. Lynn. 1998. page 353.

On this same youtube channel there are two clips of The Little Humpbacked Horse with music by Cesare Pugni. I am really looking forward to watching these. Fingers crossed that one day there will be a dvd!

No need for an apology Bart - I certainly didn't take your question that way. My response was dictated mainly by another post I have read criticizing the taking of a traditional work and "bastardizing" it. I feel in this particular case that the use of the music and references to the traditional Nutcracker give this work another level, partly because the Nutcracker ballet and music already mean something to us. If Murphy had used a newly composed score he would have lost that potential.

This is not a production for someone who wants a traditional Nutcracker danced by POB with young dancers. We see Clara at three different ages and the aging Clara is performed by Dame Margaret Scott who was, at the time of recording, the 69-year-old founding director of the Australian Ballet School. Her Russian friends in Australia are performed by dancers who were 50+. I would describe it as ballet theatre because there are a couple scenes without much dancing, where the dancers speak, where film is used... techniques that you don't find in traditional ballets. Kristian Fredrikson, the designer, was a real artist because the sets and costumes evoke the time and place so beautifully. I would be happy to type out the synopsis if that isn't breaking copyright law. This ballet certainly wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea and because of that I hesitate to recommend it. I can only say that it moved me deeply. Cubanmiamiboy touched the centre of this ballet by writing "when the past and the memories of your homeland hunts you more than ever".

I have just watched a dvd of a wonderful piece of ballet theatre called Nutcracker: The Story of Clara. Nutcracker: The Story of Clara was choreographed by Graeme Murphy with Kristian Fredrikson as the designer. The dvd is of a 1994 performance of the Australian Ballet. It is now available in NTSC format through Qualiton. It is also available in PAL format from Australian sites. Nutcracker: The Story of Clara tells the moving story, though memory and dream, of the life of an aging ballerina. As a child Clara is taken into the Imperial Conservatoire and then as a young woman she is accepted into the Imperial Ballet. Later, after the 1917 revolution, she joins the Ballet Russes and finally in 1940 - as a member of the De Basil Ballet Russe - she arrives in Australia where she is forced to remain when war breaks out. When the ballet begins there is no dancing at all... first we see children playing out in the street on a hot summer's Christmas Eve in Australia, with Clara struggling home with her shopping. Once home she starts to prepare for the arrival of a her Russian friends and turns on the radio to hear Tchaikovsky's music and the memories slowly begin to come. And so it develops from here. I will not comment on the choreography or the the quality of dancing and leave that for others better qualified than I. But I found this ballet a moving memorial to the past from the very beginning with its poignant evocation of the memories of migrants - memories of loss, love and joy. And it is truly a celebration of ballet... a ballet about ballet.

So does that mean an artist would gain more honour than financial recompense from a benefit concert?

Just noticed that it looks like ParisOperaBallet, TheRoyalBallet, AmericanBallet, EuropeanBallet, TheBolshoiBallet and TheKirovBallet now all have channels on youtube and are uploading clips from filmed productions. Maybe I am naive to assume they are uploading their own material. If an alert to youtube material is still problematic please delete this post.

In The Dancer's Heritage by Ivor Guest he writes about the Maryinsky Theatre: "Most of the seats were reserved for the Court, the diplomatic corps, and members of exclusive clubs, less than a third -- and most of those in the gallery and balcony -- being available for the public. A considerable proportion of the audience attended nearly every performance." page 55 Would only the public be paying for tickets?

Sorry - somehow lost the post. During Petipa's life I am presuming that dancers would keep the evening's takings if they were granted the right to have a benefit performance by, for example, The Director of the Imperial Theatres and that the right to have a Benefit would include use of the theatre space. But would the artist granted the Benefit be required to make payments out of the evening's receipts to other dancers and theatre staff involved in the Benefit? What was the role of benefit performances? Were they both an honour and a way of helping an artist provide for his/her financial future? Were they mainly for farewells? Were they an extension of royal patronage or did they develop some other way?

Is there a gallery like this for male dancers?

VAI have put excerpts from these ballets on youtube. I haven't been able to find a review of the dvd and am trying to find out more about the ballets and in particular these productions. Has anyone seen these ballets?

Thanks SanderO. I already have -- just wanted to express my appreciation as well and thought others might too.

I think there should be a warning on Ballet Talk similar to what they use in Germany about smoking. Perhaps this message could be sent to people after they make their first post: WARNING: Ballet Talk is very quickly addictive!!!

Saltarello, I quoted this to an 83 year old friend of mine and she said, "He's a man who sees more than just the dancing. I love him for that comment."

I read the other day a smile is not genuine unless the eyes are involved. And that is true of other signs of emotion as well -- that the eyes are an integral part. In terms of recordings of ballet productions, where you do get closer views of faces, my favorite for eyes is Ekaterina Maximova in Anyuta where Anyuta passes through so many different emotional states. And thanks to this thread I see now how much Maximova's eyes are involved in her wonderful expressiveness which I had never really thought about before.

Thanks for the links to the previous posts! I am not sure how to quote from another thread but in 2005 in Act IV problems rg said, "the following sentence preceeds wiley's discussion of odette's return to the final lakeside scene in the 1895 production of the petipa/ivanov SWAN LAKE, it comes at the end of a paragraph about the choreographic figures in the last act's waltz: 'The rest of the waltz proceeds as sequence of episodes alternating the corps with soloists; the black swans enrich the complexity of Ivanov's figures to excellent effect (one wonders if the rose-colored swan maidens, contemplated by Petipa, would in fact have been any improvement).)' real cygnets, i believe, are a kind of mousy brown hue, thus perhaps this was the color that the intended 'rose' hue was meant to suggest. i suppose we'll never quite know..." If Odile's costume was originally not in black (see wikipedia quote) then having black cygnets would not be about good and evil. However. for me, having them both in black connects the black of the cygnets with the evil of Odile's black. Does anyone else also feel this makes a change in meaning? And on wikipedia Swan Lake 1895 "The character of Odile was not a "Black Swan" at all in either the original production of 1877 nor in the revival of 1895, and she was not performed as such for many years - she was simply Von Rothbart's evil daughter until sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s. As Odile, Pierina Legnani appeared in a glittering multi-colored costume with no feathers to be found - obviously to appear more as an enchantress than as a "Black Swan". Later Performances at the Mariinsky Theatre of Swan Lake used similar costume designs for Odile throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century. It is unknown when the tradition of having Odile performed as a "Black Swan" began, but most historians point to a 1941 staging of the third scene (AKA the "Ballroom Scene") performed by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York." "At the beginning of the fourth scene, after a brief interlude, the second of the additions to the ballet was danced - another Waltz of the Swans to Drigo's orchestration of a piece from Tchaikovsky's Opus 72 for Piano - No. 11 Valse Bluette. This Waltz is still retained by many companies, particularly the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet and the Royal Ballet. Ivanov choreographed this Waltz, based on Petipa's sketches, for both white and black Swans. "

In the swan corps, at the end of the Kirov's Swan Lake with Yulia Makhalina and Igor Zelensky, there are black and white swans. Isn't this unusual? I was wondering about the significance others read into this... presumably the black swans are there for more than just providing a visual contrast?

I love this quote: "I think about Rudolf all the time now," Legris concludes. "Everybody does. It is very strange how we all think so much about Rudolf, now. Every day someone remembers something else. `Oh, you know, Rudolf used to say that this step was . . .' His corrections, the things he tried to get us to do. I don't just mean that I think about him in rehearsal or when I see something that reminds me of him. I mean, when I am just sitting here. When I am by myself. Maybe putting on my makeup before a performance." from Merchant Prince of Ballet by Otis Stuart

After reading this article I wondered if creators of The Bolt had been influenced by Le Pas d'acier.... This is what Scott Morrison wrote in his chapter Shostakovich as Industrial Saboteur: Observations on The Bolt. From Laurel Fay's book Shostakovich and his World page 121. Le Pas d'acier was not staged in the Soviet Union.... Since he [Georgii Iakulov] was regarded as a leading force in the Constructivist movement, it stands to reason that Bruni knew of his work on Le Pas d'acier--although, admittedly, I have not found concrete evidence to this effect. Bruni's decor for The Bolt, featuring a factory workshop, a village chapel, and a factory lounge, is a playful, funhouse-mirror reflection of Iakulov's decor for Le Pas d'acier, which off-sets images of down-at-the-heels peasants in the countryside with images of multitasking in the factory. Article about the 2005 production of Le Pas d'acier--with images

On a high, after watching some old Charlie Chaplin films, I mentioned Chaplin to two undergraduate music students. They both looked at me blankly - neither of them had heard of him. Maybe my reaction is unrealistic but I just felt very saddened.

Many thanks! Off to read the other Sondheim post.... I must confess it didn't even occur to me to do a ballettalk search on this topic....

These quotes are from Conversation with Sir Robert Helpmann [sound recording]. Interviewer: Hazel de Berg. 1974. Tape 773, side 2 #10,057-8 About his desire to learn ballet as a child after moving to Adelaide, South Australia.... ...I wanted to go to real dancing school, so I talked to Miss Stewart and she said ‘But I’ve never had a boy to dance before,’ so I said, ‘That doesn’t matter. I want to come to your ballet classes.’ So she said, ‘Well, all right, you can,’ but of course, never having had a boy pupil, I had to learn all the dances for the little girls, and dance on my points, and of course when it came time for her annual display, I had to dance because I was better than any of them, and so I always appeared as a little girl, on my points, and at the end of the number I would take off my wig, and this was a great success with the audience.” About Anna Pavlova.... “Of course, to me Pavlova was a goddess.... I sat and watched her every night for 15 months, and to me she was just unbelievable, but I learnt from her. I used to go into the theatre at about half past 5, and standing on a barely lit stage, covered in woollen tights and woollen pullovers and shawls would be this lonely figure, practising right up to the moment they called ‘Quarter of an hour’ before the performance, then she would leave the stage and a few minutes later come back, this magic creature, and I realised then the tremendous, hard, gruelling, cruel work the ballet involves. I often wonder, even now today, whether the audience who sit there realise for one second the amount of work that you have to do to become an Anna Pavlova or a Margo Fonteyn.”

There was so much in this article. Thanks kfw! I especially value these sentences: * "'Art's job is not to entertain,' said Attila Bongar of Hungary, a principal Carolina Ballet dancer and guest choreographer. 'It is to speak the unspoken.'" * "...if we lose our capacity for beauty, we lose our humanity." * "'All you have to do is pick up the newspaper or listen to the news at night; it's pretty grim out there,' Weiss said. 'Ballet is an oasis in the desert of human hopes.'"