rg

trying for JAVOTTE portrait card again:

since Mikhail Mikhailovich Fokine has been in these posts lately, mostly regarding the rights to his LES SYLPHIDES it might prove diverting to see something of him, first as a dancer, pre-CHOPINIANA and also to look at a grouping of some of the women involved in his POLOVTSIAN DANCES from PRINCE IGOR. first M.M.Fokine in 1902(?) in Pavel Gerdt's Saint-Saens ballet JAVOTTE, which M.M.F. danced opposite Anna Pavlova (II) in a Pas d'Ensemble. [the card scanned here is not likely an original from the period but a later Russian, or perhaps, Soviet, reprint.]

off the top of my head: pacific northwest ballet in balanchine's MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM san francisco ballet in OTHELLO houston ballet in a mixed bill dance theater of harlem in a few different titles the joffrey ballet in BILLBOARDS i'm sure i'm forgetting something(s) but with any luck others will chime in more thoroughly.

doug could more accurately say how much of the petipa prod. can be found in the harvard/stepanov notations. as i understand it, far more of the old ballet's choreography can be re-staged than what lacotte chose to do. regarding mordkin, if he was in gorsky's prod. it was somewhat changed by the moscow choreographer from what petipa had arranged, and among other things the leading character who was called aspicia in petipa's version was renamed bint-anta in gorsky's. so perhaps that's the role pavlova danced opposite mordkin, unless he was guesting opposite the ballerina in st. petersburg. a good start to retrieving and then staging any of these historic works would be to translate into english the various books in russian that deal w/ them at some length.

i believe the way she spelt her name when at ABT was 'Shelkanova.' I can't recall where she went following her few years at ABT. maybe others will know.

Frederic Burgmuller = composer yes, in place from the premiere, tho' added just before. some background presented on pp.308-09 of my book, where the composer's name is mispelt, but which is given correctly above.

though it's a whole book, as opposed to a 'piece', the following work by ivor guest would be about as sound and thorough a presentation of the material you're looking for, in one place, as any: Guest, Ivor Forbes. Title :The ballet of the enlightenment : the establishment of the ballet d'action in France, 1770-1793 / Ivor Guest. Imprint :London : Dance Books, c1996. Description:xiv, 456 p., [49] p. of plates : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm. Notes:Includes bibliographical references (p. [433]-441) and index. Vestris the father -- Noverre -- Maximilien Gardel -- Pierre Gardel -- Dauberval.

shameless plug: it's this perf/tape that i address in the chapter on GISELLE in my book, BALLET 101. i doubt tho' that there are more bare facts there than those given by dale's post, but otherwise there are many 'thougths' about this particular GISELLE.

someone more knowledgeable than i am will have to confirm (or deny) my sense that to play PAL dvds one needs not only a player that can read these but also a tv monitor that can comply as well. but, long story short, dvds are NOT interchangeable from 'region' to 'region' or 'zone' we here in the US are in region/zone 1; england, etc. i believe is zone/region 2, and the beat goes on. so does the frustration and confusion.

if i get your question correctly, you're asking if any commercial distributors are re-issuing what were videotapes as dvds? good question. alas, as you've already noted and pointed out, the balanchine library that exists on video hasn't been re-issued on dvd. let's hope it's only a matter of time before such a changeover will happen, but until then, the videocassettes are all that's out there. the general dvd range is limited but there seem to be new titles making their way to dvd slowly. if your dvd player can deal w/ PAL format DVDs as well as NTSC ones, which i THINK means also having a PAL-compatible monitor, you'd have an already enlarged range of possibilities.

here's the photo that didn't seem to 'take' previously.

in advance of the upcoming re-staging of SYMPHONIC VARIATIONS, identified by NY Public Library for the Performing Arts as follows: Symphonic variations Chor: Frederick Ashton; mus: César Franck (Symphonic variations for piano & orchestra); scen & cos: Sophie Fedorovitch. First perf: London, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Apr 24, 1946, Sadler's Wells Ballet.//First U.S. perf: New York, Metropolitan Opera House, Oct 12, 1949, Sadler's Wells Ballet. this glimpse of its past comes in the form of an unidentified,undated photograph. though the dancer is unmistakably Anthony Dowell. [my guess might be that dancer in the background could be Michael Coleman (or maybe Gary Sherwood?), but that's only a guess.]

as the reviewer in question being called condescending in FF's post, i would like to clarify: my point in reviewing TB's SF book was that knowing what i knew of farrell at the time, i could not imagine HER saying such phrases - while i hadn't had exentesive exposure to farrell's actual 'voice,' i had some and based my assessment of phraseology in her autobiography on that feeling, i don't recall saying (or thinking) that any/all all-american ballerinas were incapable of using such wording. my point was not to express condescension toward farrell or any other ballerinas, american or otherwise, but to say that to ME such usage rang FALSE as farrell's voice. i've had some little further exposure to farrell's voice since that time and while i MIGHT write a different review today of this book, i don't see that my feelings on this particular point would have changed at all.

for a choreog. who seems so prominent in russia during the early 1900s there is not much in english at the moment on gorsky and/or his ballets. elizabeth souritz's book, in russian, BALETMEISTER A.A.GORSKY, gives 1900 as ther first staging by AAG of don quixote. (his first kitri/dulcinea was L.A.Roslavleva; his basil was V.D.Tikhomirov, mercedes was S.V.Fedorova (II)) my halting perusal of e.s's book finds NO libretto/break-down of DON Q. so i suspect mel is accurate here about how 'close' this AAG stagingof DQ was to petipa's. there are for ex. detailed retellings in e.s's text of ESMERALDA (as GUDULE'S DAUGHTER) & LA FILLE DU PHAROAN, both of which AAG likely re-vamped somewhat from the petipa originals. still if i could read more russian i might be able to tell you what the running text about AAG's DonQ says, alas i cannot. (do you, btw, know of the translation published some years back now in THE DANCING TIMES, of the Moscow ('69) libretto of petipa's first staging? it reads rather differently as i recall from the libretto that was reworked for st.petersburg in '89.)

greetings, j-m, nancy reynolds' REPERTORY IN REVIEW notes that balanchine performed in the petipa HARLEQUINDADE (premiere: 1900) as a boy, and in citing some of suki schorer's recollections of the ballet's creation at NYCB, notes that 'presumably, [balanchine] caught the spirit, if he did not reproduce all the choreography, of the original.' the text then adds that 'he [balanchine] has said that this was precisely his intent.' i know the late 20th c. recension of the ballet in USSR from a maly theater prod. by petr gusev (one of balanchine's contemporaries) on tape, and it compares remarkably similarly in many ways w/ what balanchine staged at NYCB, first in '65 and later expanded in '73. i've often felt that if one knew only the suite of dances for children that balanchine added in '73 one would have a fair idea of his masterly gift at ballet making in general and at petipa-lineage choreography in particular. the work hasn't been revived in a good while now, so i hope when it's brought back for the centenary it can resemble its one-time enchanting self. the pantomime is likely about as close as any other part of the staging to the original as balanchine knew it from petrograd. the designs could use a re-vitalization, since these, by rouben ter-arutunian, were always somewhat make-shift as the scenery dervied in good part from recycling the setting r.t-a. had originiallydone for a '53 NYC Opera prod. of CENERENTOLA production.

might this be the video? if so, i'm not sure it's still on the market but it may well be. as you can see it's not kultur, which so many of these tapes are, such as CLASSIC KIROV, but VAI. good luck. Russian ballet, the glorious tradition. Volume three Telecompany Ostankino [and] Val G. Productions, Ltd. Fort Lee, NJ : Video Artists International, c1993, 1940-1993. (67 min.) : sd., col. and b&w The dying swan (b&w) / recorded in 1940 ; choreography, Michel Fokine ; music, Camille Saint-Saëns ; danced by Galina Ulanova. Don Quixote: Act I, Kitri's variation and pas de deux (b&w) / recorded in 1954 ; choreography, Marius Petipa ; music, L. Minkus ; danced by Maya Plisetskaya and Yuri Kondratov, with ensemble. Chopiniana: pas de deux (b&w) / recorded in 1965 ; choreography, Michel Fokine ; music, Frédéric Chopin ; danced by Natalia Makarova and Vitaly Onoshko. Don Quixote: man's variation (b&w) / recorded in 1969 ; choreography, Marius Petipa ; music, L. Minkus ; danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov. Don Quixote: man's variation (b&w) / recorded in 1974 ; choreography, Marius Petipa ; music, L. Minkus ; danced by Mikhail Lavrovsky. Don Quixote: man's variation (col.) / recorded in 1988 ; choreography, Marius Petipa ; music, L. Minkus ; danced by Irek Mukhamedov. Fountain of Bakhchisaray: Act I pas de deux (col.) / recorded in 1977 ; choreography, Rostislav Zakharov ; music, Boris Asafiev ; danced by Ekaterina Maximova and Aleksandr Bogatyrev, with ensemble. Raymonda: pas de dix and three women's variations (col.) / recorded in 1976 ; choreography, Marius Petipa ; music, Aleksandr Glazunov ; danced by Irina Kolpakova, Vladilen Semenov, and others. Giselle: Act II, pas de deux (col.) / recorded in 1974 ; choreography, Marius Petipa after Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot ; music, Adolphe Adam ; danced by Ekaterina Maximova and Vyacheslav Gordeev. La bayadère: pas de deux (col.) / recorded in 1981 ; choreography, Marius Petipa ; music, L. Minkus ; danced by Nadezhda Pavlova and Vyacheslav Gordeev. Grand pas classique (b&w) / recorded in 1974 ; choreography, Victor Gsovsky ; music, Daniel Auber ; danced by Gabriella Komleva and Yuri Soloviev. The sleeping beauty: Act III, grand pas de deux (col.) / recorded in 1993 ; choreography, Marius Petipa ; music, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky ; danced by Nadezhda Grachova and Andrei Uvarov, with ensemble. Excerpts of stage and film performances, recorded at various locations between 1940 and 1993. Anthology of excerpts from ballets by Russian choreographers, performed by Russian dancers.

warner bros. produced two films in this line: THE GAY PARISIAN and SPANISH FIESTA. the former obviously documenting GAITE PARISIENNE and the latter, CAPRICCIO ESPAGNOL. (Danilova is in this second film, tho' as Dale points out, was not in the GAITE film.) i've never seen the latter ballet live, but i can attest to the fact that the PARISIENNE ballet is truncated in the film. i would have thought the ny pub.lib. for the perf. arts would have copies of these films, but i don't see that to be true, so i can't 'paste' the full credits. here's how the library lists the spanish ballet's credits. if mem. serves argentina aooears in the film too: Capriccio espagnol : Chor: Leonide Massine in collaboration with Argentinita; mus: N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov; lib: Leonide Massine; scen & cos: Mariano Andreu (setting and costumes the same as those originally designed for Fokine's ballet Jota aragonesa, produced in 1937). First perf: Monte Carlo, Théâtre de Monte Carlo, May 4, 1939.//First New York perf: Oct 27, 1939.

my guess is that this can't likely be any other 'royal ballet' film, here are the credits for the full film: The Royal Ballet 1960. ca. 135 min. : sd. color Notes: A J. Arthur Rank presentation. Produced by Paul Czinner Productions for Poetic Films Ltd. in association with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Producer and director: Paul Czinner. Performed by the Royal Ballet, London, starring Margot Fonteyn and Michael es. CONTENTS: Swan lake: Act II excerpts (Valse, pas de deux, pas de quatre, rondo, and coda). Choreography: Frederick Ashton and Nikolai Sergeev after Ivanov and Petipa. Sets and costumes: Leslie Hurry. Cast: Margot Fonteyn (Odette), Michael Somes (Prince Siegfried), Bryan Ashbridge (Benno), Leslie Edwards (Von Rothbart); Ann Howard, Mavis Osborn, Clover Roope, and Antoinette Sibley (Cygnets), and corps de ballet. Firebird. Choreography: Serge Grigoriev and Lubov Tchernicheva after Mikhail Fokin. Music: Igor Stravinski. Sets and costumes: Natalia Goncharova. Cast: Margot Fonteyn (Firebird), Michael Somes (Prince Ivan), Rosemary Lindsay (The beautiful Tsarevna), Franklin White (Immortal Kostchei), and corps de Ballet -- Ondine: Acts I and II. Choreography: Frederick Ashton. Music: Hans Werner Henze. Sets and costumes: Lila de Nobili. Cast: Margot Fonteyn (Ondine), Michael Somes (Palemon), Julia Farron (Berta), Alexander Grant (Tirrenio), Leslie Edwards (Hermit), and corps de ballet -- Ondine (continued): Act III.

to the best of my knowledge, the choreog. for 3 LOVES was done specifically for the movie. I don't think any of the choreog. later created for baryshnikov and collier as RHAPSODY was a re-cycling of this previous work. there might be some information in david vaughan's book, or some comments in kavanagh's. or british readers/posters might have some insights. now if only the dvd market would pick up on things like this and put such films on disk. well, one can live in hope... still it's shown at irregular intervals on channels like the one mention, so one needs to be grateful for small favors.

a photo i have on hand of LE PALAIS DE CRISTAL, 3e mouvement, it's seemingly a rehearsal moment w/ the original cast of leads posing on stage people, casually, by other dancers in the ballet. these are micheline bardin and michel renault.

fyi: i have a photo on hand of LE PALAIS DE CRISTAL, 3e mouvement; it's seemingly a rehearsal moment w/ the original cast of leads posing on a stage casually occupied by other dancers in the ballet. these are micheline bardin and michel renault. i will post this on ballet history.

any number of balletalert readers and posters have seen and even written about this work. some of them here no doubt. meanwhile, there are any number of sites if you do a 'red giselle eifman' search on the web. meanwhile here's what the ardani site says (ardani being the org. that produces eifman ballet tours). the dancers named in the cast information are obviously those for the tour being promoted by the site. as follows: Red Giselle In Tribute to Olga Spessivtseva Music by Peter Tchaikovsky, Alfred Schnittke, George Bizet Choreography by Boris Eifman Set Design by Slava Okunev Cast: Ballerina - Yelena Kuzmina; Vera Arbuzova Teacher - Oleg Markov; Alexander Ratchinski Secret Police Agent (KGB) - Albert Galichanin; Yuri Ananyan Partner - Igor Markov; Yuri Smekalov World Premiere by Eifman Ballet: January 28, 1997, St. Petersburg, Russia Synopsis: Act I Revolutionary Petrograd. A lesson in classic dance in the ballet class of the former imperial theater. The strict and eccentric Teacher picks out from all the dancers one whose perfect dancing and slightly mysterious image embody his ideal of beauty. At a theater sparkling with gilt, the Ballerina's performance delights the audience. Among her admirers is a Chekist, from the secret police, a representative of the new regime. It is not only her art that attracts him. The Chekist's crude violence and powerful embraces force the Ballerina to his will. The Chekist brings the Ballerina into his world, unknown to her, where the wild rampage of the revolutionary mob turns into a mad festival of destruction. She reigns over this festival, forgetting the tenets of her Teacher. However the spiritual values he had instilled in her are stronger than the intoxication of power. The Ballerina returns to the ballet class, to the Teacher. A new, cruel and aggressive regime now reigns in the theater, leveling everything in its path. The white ballerinas must become the obedient weapon of the unjust red idea. The Teacher is in despair. The reality is unbearable, but he can change nothing. The Ballerina and the Chekist are bound by their complex relationship. It is filled with attraction and repulsion, passion and misunderstanding. The Chekist allows the Ballerina to join the émigrés who are leaving Russia forever. Act II Ballet class at the Grand Opera de Paris. A famous dancer and choreographer leads the rehearsal. The movements he suggests are unfamiliar to the Ballerina, but the dance creator's inspired talent leads her on. The dancer becomes her Partner, and triumphant success awaits them. Her feelings for the Partner are not returned. Unrequited love and loneliness in an alien world push the Ballerina toward a nervous breakdown. She tries to lose herself in the merriment of Paris. But the ghosts of the past pursue her here, as well. The red flashbacks of the revolution, appearing as the Chekist in nightmarish inundation, do not give her peace. Nor can she forget herself in her favorite role as Giselle, in which the Ballerina always stunned audiences and won world fame. Giselle's fate - betrayal by her beloved and eventual madness - awaits her, too. Mirrors reflect the morbid consciousness of the Ballerina. Madness seems to hold salvation, in the world beckoning from the other side of the mirror. Music: ACT ONE PETER TCHAIKOVSKY Serenade for Strings, Op. 48 PETER TCHAIKOVSKY "The Tempest " Symphonic Fantasia after Shakespeare ALFRED SCHNITTKE "Ritual" for large symphonic orchestra PETER TCHAIKOVSKY "Manfred" Symphony in Four Acts after the dramatic poem by Byron ALFRED SCHNITTKE Concerto grosso No. 2 for violin, cello and orchestra PETER TCHAIKOVSKY Elegy to the memory of Samarin ALFRED SCHNITTKE Gogol Suite ACT TWO GEORGES BIZET L'Arlesienne ALFRED SCHNITTKE Gogol Suite WALTER DONALDSON "Yes, Sir, that's my Baby" The Charlston Kids HORST AEKERMANN "Golden Nugget" The Firehouse Charleston Band BERT LOSKA - STEFAN LAUBE "Lady in Red" The Charleston Kids ALFRED SCHNITTKE Concerto for viola and orchestra ALFRED SCHNITTKE "No dream in the summer night" PETER TCHAIKOVSKY Francesca de Rimini Symphonic Fantasia after Dante, Op. 32 ADOLPHE ADAM-BORIS ASAFIEV "Giselle" Final

a few footnotes to prev. posts. here are the credits for the PA Ballet's 'dance in america' program: Pennsylvania Ballet / WNET/13 ; directed by Merrill Brockway ; produced by Emile Ardolino. New York, N.Y. : WNET, 1976. (60 min.) : sd., col. Telecast on the Dance in America series on June 2, 1976 by WNET/13, New York. Written by Tobi Tobias. Narrator: Paul Hecht. Members of the Pennsylvania Ballet perform works from the company repertoire. Includes a historical survey of dance in Philadelphia, an interview with company director Barbara Weisberger, class and rehearsal scenes with artistic director Benjamin Harkarvy, and segments on the company school showing Margarita de Saa and Lupe Serrano teaching class. Grosse Fuge: Men's dance / choreography and costumes, Hans van Manen ; music, Ludwig van Beethoven ; sets, Jean Paul Vroom ; danced by Dane LaFontsee, Edward Myers, Jerry Schwender, and Janek Schergen. Concerto barocco: 2nd movement / choreography, George Balanchine ; music, J. S. Bach ; danced by Joanne Danto, Gregory Drotar, and members of the company. Madrigalesco: Prelude and Pas de quatre / choreography, Benjamin Harkarvy ; music, Antonio Vivaldi ; costumes, Nicolas Wijnberg ; danced by Alba Calzada, Marcia Darhower, Edward Myers, and Jerry Schwender. Adagio, Hammerklavier: Third duet / choreography, Hans van Manen ; music, Ludwig van Beethoven ; costumes, Jean Paul Vroom ; danced by Michelle Lucci and Lawrence Rhodes. Concerto grosso / choreography, Charles Czarny ; music, G. F. Händel ; costumes, Joop Stokvis ; danced by Karen Brown, Tamara Hadley, Mark Hochman, David Jordan, Dane LaFontsee, Barry Leon, Gretchen Warren, and Missy Yancey. the only version of butler's 'carmina burana' that seems to have been televised hereabouts is the following one. (the ny public lib. for the pref. arts has some 20 listings for films of butler's work, but most of these are closed and/or rehearsal films of some or all of the ballet.) Carmina burana 1964. 60 min. : sd. b&w. Produced by National Educational Television. Telecast on September 10, 1964 by WNET/13, New York. Producer: Jac Venza. Director: Karl Genus. Narration written by Linda Gottlieb. Videotaped on location in Holland at the mediaeval castle of Doornenburg. Choreography: John Butler. Music: Carl Orff. Music performed by the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Chorale, conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Performed by Glen Tetley, Willy de la Bye, Charles Czarny, Marian Sarstadt, Anne Hyde, Gerard Lemaitre, Martinette Janmaat, and members of Nederlands Dans Theater.

beaumont has some pp. on 'le dieu et la bayadere' perhaps something there would help establish the vows of chasity (or not) for bayaderes. as follows: Le dieu et la bayadère. Beaumont, Cyril William, 1891- Complete book of ballets. London [1956] p 88-94 Bayadère (Choreographic work : Deshayes) Authority Note :Chor: André-Jean-Jacques Deshayes; mus: Daniel-François-Esprit Auber. First perf: London, King's Theatre, May 26, 1831, Marie Taglioni. *MGTB (English) Guest, Ivor. The romantic ballet in England, 1954, p 57, 157. La bayadère is a "compressed version" of Le dieu et la bayadère and was danced in London in 1831 by Marie Taglioni.

'choreodrama' appears one time in the index of Intern'l Dance Encyc. it's in luigi rossi's essay on la scala and the mention concerns salvatore vigano as the form's 'inventor': vol. 5, p. 528. whenever i hear this term, often by scholars and/or detractors of soviet era ballet, it would seem to refer to ballets heavy on narrative - typically enacted by means of silent-movie-styled acting, as opposed to what the reformers of russian ballet called the lanugage of deaf and dumb, i.e. formal, 19th c. pantomime. to point to its chief, early practitioner, i believe soviet ballet scholars often look to aleksandr gorsky. as you once perceptively mentioned, j-m, gorsky's 'gudule's daughter' a reworking of 'la esmeralda' might be a typical example of this form. ditto the much mentioned and little seen 'salambo.' elizabeth souritz's 'soviet choreography of the 1920s' would prob. tell you much of interest. in my bird's eye view of the form, soviet socialist realism embraced 'choreodrama' often referred to in soviet literature as 'dram'balyet,' b/c it could could carry forward the necessary narratives and telescope, poster-art emphatically the 'messages.' i imagine it was embraced as a clear antidote to the no-no formalist tendencies that the soviet authorities so maligned. although it may be hard for some of us to see, grigorovich's ballets were welcomed in their time as something of answer to - or reversal of - dram'balyet methods b/c they used dancing more forthrightly to tell their stories. igor stupnikov's essay in the martha bremser's 2-vol. 'international dictionary of ballet' indicates this if mem serves. (i think this is in an essay about 'legend of love' or about yuri g. himself, i forget which.) probably members more conversant with soviet ballet could explicate this more carefully. as for vigano all one knows i suppose is what's in the books, i've never known of any attempts to recover any of his canon.