rg

these Massentet/"Meditation"/d'amboise leads are much more to the point of this post than mine. i hadn't heard of this work by d'amboise for himself and partner. but now i know of it. if i had done a library search i would have realized this too. but better late than later to get such info. i hope this helps the original query, which was wisely posted here and gained this useful information. perhaps mazzo did dance this. and maybe that too was televised at some point.

i think there is some confusion here. j.d'amboise created the male role in balanchine's pas de deux called MEDITATION (but the music is Tchaikovsky's and not the Thais MEDITATION,which is by Massenet and has some well-known choreography by ashton). i don't think kay mazzo ever danced the balanchine duet, and i know of no filmed version if she did. there is a television kinescope of balanchine's MEDITATION with the first cast: d'amboise and suzanne farrell. this was part of NET dance series (pre-PBS and pre-dance in america), the half hour program called THE NEW YORK CITY BALLET includes the AGON pas de deux, TARANTELLA, TCHAIKOVSKY PAS DE DEUX, plus MEDITATION. (perhaps this is what your friend saw) when it was first aired, 1965 or so. there is a film, tho' i don't think it's complete, of ashton's MEDITATION pas de deux w/ sibley and dowell (the duet's first cast). this was shown and filmed, i believe, for the DANCER series hosted by peter schaufuss. i hope i'm not confusing you myself.

there will likely be more informed posts on this point, but London CDs recently reissued a series of bonynge-conducted discs in a box called DANCEMANIA. one of the discs is called: PAS DE DUEX and includes: DON Q, BLUE BIRD, NUTCRACKER, PAQUITA, ESMERALDA (Drigo), GRAND PAS CLASSIQUE (Auber), FLOWER FESTIVAL, CORSAIRE (Drigo). another is called THE ART OF THE PRIMA BALLERINA, and includes Pas de Deux music from LA BAYADERE, GISELLE ACT 2, LA SYLPHIDE, and BLACK SWAN, among other selections. perhaps you could find the whole set of 5 discs marketed in a box as DANCEMANIA - or the individual discs on-line (or elsewhere) used, according to the separate titles. fyi: the other discs are entitled: HOMAGE TO PAVLOVA, INVITATION TO THE DANCE & BALLET MUSIC FROM OPERA.

for the record what you likely got was a PAL vhs format tape and what you want is an NTSC format for your vhs player. so you're looking to convert a PAL format to NTSC format. as others say here there are a number of places that might do this at fees like those Mme. Hermine notes. if it makes you feel any better this confusion happened to most of us, as the cassettes look the same, so one assumes vhs is vhs. then we learn, as you did, that we can't judge a cassette by its cover. (there are other formats in europe besides PAL, but i trust this one is PAL, tho' it could also be SECAM or some such, whatever it is, coversion is possible to NTSC from all of them.) good luck.

many thanks, jane, for fully refeshing my faulty memory. all your facts are of course correct and mine off all over the place. i trust the clarification helps the post readers here.

p.s. i hope it's still clear from my rambling reply, but now that i read the starting post here more carefully, i realize the initial question was a simple enough one, about the existence of a VIDEO of fonteyn's complete performance as aurora. so, the simple answer here is, alas, no. there is this somewhat historic film by jessen, but the question was about video. so again, no video. the keith money film of much of act one of the royal ballet's messel production led by fonteyn, with david wall among the cavlieres, dates from 1979(?) and was subsequently shown on english tv (in the late 80s(?) after it was thought the footage was lost) and there are excerpts of it in p.foy's docu. about fonteyn, as well as in 'the magic of the dance' (in the segment on tchaikovsky) but all these, except for the foy film - released on both cassette and dvd - are only around as 'of the air' tapes, they are not on the market. some british videophiles could better fill in the facts of the telecast the money film, such as date, title, etc. i rem. distinctly that judith mackrell was the voice-over narrator about finding film in some dusty canister in some barn. the program showing that film was, i believe, entitled "Re-discovering 'the sleeping beuaty'," not 'discovering...' as i stated earlier.

there was a show on british tv called something like: discovering the sleeping beauty. and it showed some footage, thought to have been lost, by keith money of act one of beauty. not complete but w/ a complete rose adagio. furthermore, the factual answer to your question about a complete 'beauty' is yes. alas it is a v. fragile film, by victor jessen - the amateur film maker whose 'gaite parisienne' is on commercial cassette. like that short film this full 'beauty' was taken in small segments over a good number of years illegally filming the sadlers wells ballet. because of all the different performances peiced together, w/ sound recorded and applied afterwards to the silent footage, you see one lilac fairy in one portion of the film and a different dancer performing lilac in the next, i.e. b.grey then s.beriosova, etc. the same w/ the fairy variations, the carabosse role and the others. HOWEVER there is ONE constant and that is fonteyn. so her aurora from this period is indeed recorded. it's kept in the new york public library for the perf.arts in lincoln center but you need very special permission to see it as it's quite a fragile film. i think it may have been loaned to the british for a fonteyn conference (or maybe it was sought and not sent, can't recall and i did not attend the conf). still i did see it, once, at the ny pub.library during a dance critics association conf. some time back. it's quite a fascinating record. ashton is carabosse at some points. i long to see it somehow preserved & put out commercially (on DVD?) as the 'gaite' got done, but i don't realistically see it happening due to cost and approval rights. etc. otherwise on sundry shows telecast in the wake of fonteyn's death there was a b&w t.v. version of her rose adagio, perhaps BBC program footage. still the only complete 'beauty' i know of is the ny pub. lib. jessen one. here's how the library lists it, before noting: permission required. The sleeping beauty [1949-50] 4 reels. 123 min. 4800 ft. : sd. b&w. ; 16 mm. Notes:Filmed by Victor Jessen in 1949 and 1950 during various performances of the Sadler's Wells Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and other theaters during their U.S. tours. Edited, with addition of sound, in 1979 by Mr. Jessen. Choreography: Frederick Ashton and Nikolai Sergeyev after Marius Petipa, with additional choreography by Ninette de Valois. Music: Peter Tchaikovsky. Scenery and costumes: Oliver Messel. Performed by Margot Fonteyn (Princess Aurora), with Robert Helpmann (Act II) and Michael Somes (Act III) as Prince Florimund, Beryl Grey (Lilac fairy), Frederick Ashton (Carabosse), and artists of Sadler's Wells Ballet. CONTENTS. - Reel 1: Prologue (The christening) (24 min., 30 sec.) - Reel 2: Act I (The spell) (28 min., 55 sec.) - Reel 3: Act II The vision) (27 min., 20 sec.) - Reel 4: Act III. (Scene 1, The awakening. Scene 2, The wedding) (42 min., 30 sec.)

well let's not be overly hard on the soviets. the tradition at work here predates the soviet era: petipa himself re-did coralli/perrot's GISELLE to suit himself and his dancers. the tradition was that when a new balletmaster was in place he could more or less restage the 'old ballets' to suit himself and to show off the dancers under his wing. note that the TALISMAN which nijinsky etc. danced in the early 1900s was redone by n.legat, pre-soviet times. and alexander gorsky did much restaging as well, including the swan maiden choreography that sometimes gets called ivanov's in act 1, scene 2 of numerous SWAN LAKEs. musically minded friends of mine w/ great 'ears' can often make very educated guesses as to the composer of a certain highlight number. if the dates of these musical compositions could be discerned then the identification of pugni, minkus, or drigo could be made w/ some certainty as these 'house composers' were called on to work up additional numbers in their compacity as theater employees. (one particular friend of mine, now alas no longer alive, was great at listening to say 'le corsaire' complete. we'd listen to a CD on the phone together and she'd say: listen, doesn't that sound like something in 'giselle'? so that's gotta be adam, or 'doesn't that sound like 'harlequinade' that must be drigo, etc. etc.) in the end much of this can be found out w/ some certainty but one would need to be in the russian archives, reading russian and reading music, etc. etc. and take some solace in the fact that we know more and more as the years go by, and as the russian archives get read and the evidence gets passed along to us here.

the notes i posted are from the linc.cent.lib. for the perf. arts in nyc. they list the library's factual information on these ballets in their original appearances. they do not reflect any of the soviet additions or reworkings since the time of the premiere performances. as we know from numerous examples, the russians and the soviets were well known to add pas de deux (or other dances) from one historic ballet to another. the recent breakdown of dances from maryinsky historians about the recent 'historic' reconstruction of LA BAYADERE is a good example of this kind of thing, as the information noted what dances and/or music was borrowed over the years and put into BAYADERE after Petipa's time. though CDs can be off in their info too, it is perfectly possible that this SATANELLA duet is set to music by pugni that was incorporated somewhere along the way since the 1866 revised version, about which i have no specific information. very often, especially for pas de deux like the one in THE CHILDREN OF THEATER STREET, the current ballet master of the company, or current head of the school, would redo the choreography for showing off special pupils. if the 'origin' of this duet came from the era when vaganova was heading the leningrad academy, it's likely that the choreography is in some measure the work of her hand. maybe jeannie knows some further facts about the history of this particular pas de deux and/or its music. so, i'm afraid the answer from my point of view right now is that i have no firm evidence to identify either the composer of this SATANELLA pas de deux or the choreographer of the dance.

unfortunately as with so many other filmed ballets, RAYMONDA was filmed and shown complete with the kirov, but, if mem. serves, only in the UK. it starred kolpakova and bereznoj, w/ selutsky, i think, as aberrakhmann. alas it has not been released commercially. maybe if enough posts such as these come in a distributor w/ interest in releasing dvd's might get the hint and take the plunge with several of these older films. tho' i would not count strongly on my fantasy coming to pass. there are also kirvo excerpts of the same production from an earlier period led by dudinskaya and sergeyev himself, but this truncated version has been seen only in bits and pieces on a few russian ballet compilations tapes. it seems to be have been made around the time the 'stars of russian ballet' film was put together, but finally that film showed only truncated versions of swanlake, fountainofbakhchisarai and flamesofparis. but i've always suspected that bits of the raymonda with dudniskaya&sergeyev were done at a similar length for possible inclusion in this film and then not chosen for the final cut. but his is only a hunch.

alas i know of no full-DonQ production with the bolshoi on commercial video. a number of compilation tapes have the last act pas de deux and/or solo moments, but no full-production. alexei fadeyechev remounted the most recent bolshoi staging, which was toured to washington, d.c. and the west coast. that production was filmed and telecast earlier in japan but that filming was not broadcast here. with any luck the popularity of DVD will spur some distributors to put some these unavailable films on the market.

of the ballets you mention in passing here, the only ones semi-available commercially are 'apollo' and 'who cares?' both of which are excerpted on the cassettes called 'balanchine celebration parts 1 & 2' that are part of the balanchine library/nonesuch. alas they are not complete and no complete versions of these or the other works you give as examples is now on the market. 'serenade' was shown on PBS/dance in america as part of a program called 'balanchine in america' but this has not been released commercially.

there are two different films mentioned in your post. the one featuring the PasdQuatre is called: THE ROMANTIC ERA, but there was also a docu-drama called THE BALLERINAS, both were once available commercially but to the best of my knowledge are no longer on the market. it's just possible that on ebay or maybe even half.com someone might be selling a used copy, but it's a longshot. as follows: The romantic era 1980. 90 min. : sd. color Notes:Taped during the eighth annual International Cervantino Festival (Cervantes International Festival) at the Teatro Juarez, Guanajuato, Mexico, spring 1980. Producer: Joseph Wishy. Director: Merrill Brockway. Set design: Ed Wittstein. Lighting: Ralph Holmes. Written by Faubion Bowers. Narration: Erik Bruhn. CONTENTS: Cassette 1. Défilé, with music by Chopin, introducing the eight dancers: Eva Evdokimova with Peter Schaufuss, Ghislaine Thesmar with Michel Denard, Carla Fracci with James Urbain, and Alicia Alonso with Jorge Esquivel. Pas de deux from Esmeralda: reconstructed and choreographed by John Gilpin; music by Cesare Pugni, danced by Evdokimova and Schaufuss. Pas de deux from Natalie (La laitière suisse): reconstructed and choreographed by Pierre Lacotte, music by Adalbert Gyrowetz and Michele Carafa, danced by Thesmar and Denard. Pas de deux from La péri: reconstructed and choreographed by Loris Gai, music by Friedrich Burgmüller, danced by Fracci and Urbain. Pas de deux from the 3rd act of Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diable: reconstruction and choreography by Alberto Méndez, danced by Alonso and Esquivel. Adagio from Act II of Giselle: arranged by Anton Dolin, music by Adolphe Adam, danced in sequence by Evdokimova and Schaufuss, Thesmar and Denard, Fracci and Urbain, and Alonso and Esquivel. Pas de quatre: reconstruction and choreography by Anton Dolin, music by Cesare Pugni, danced by Alonso as Taglioni, Evdokimova as Grahn, Fracci as Cerrito, and Thesmar as Grisi. Summary: Alicia Alonso, Carla Fracci, Ghislaine Thesmar, and Eva Evdokimova are shown in various pas de deux from the romantic era and in the Dolin Pas de quatre. Interspersed is a discussion by the four ballerinas on the romantic style and comments by Anton Dolin about his version of the Pas de quatre. The ballerinas c1985. 108 min. : sd. color Notes:Made-for-television drama in two parts, presented by Polivideo-TVE. Distributed as a videotape by Kultur, W. Long Branch, N.J. Directors: Beppe Menegatti, Tazio Tami. Producer: Joseph Wishy. Choreography: Various. Music: Various. Script: Domenico De Martino. Scenery/costumes: Luisa Spinatelli. Cast: Peter Ustinov (Théophile Gautier/Sergei Diaghilev), Carla Fracci (Marie Taglioni/Fanny Elssler/Carlotta Grisi/Emma Livry/Giuseppina Bozzacchi/Carlotta Brianza/Mathilde Kshessinska/Anna Pavlova/Tamara Karsavina/Olga Spessivtzeva), Peter Schaufuss (Joseph Mazilier), Michael Denard (Louis Mérante), Vladimir Vasiliev (Lucien Petipa), Richard Cragun (Pavel Gerdt), Stephen Jeffries (Nicolas Legat), Charles Jude (Vaslav Nijinsky), José Antonio (Felix Fernández Garcia), Virginio Gazzolo (Igor Stravinsky), and others. Music: recording by the Polish Radio National Orchestra of Katowice, directed by Andrzej Straszynski. CONTENTS. - Part I: Gautier and the Romantic ballet. La sylphide, Act II: pas de deux of the Sylphide and James, perf. by Fracci, Schaufuss. La cachucha (choreography adapted by Ann Hutchinson Guest), perf. by Fracci. Giselle, Act II (telescoped version), perf. by Fracci, Vasiliev. Le papillon: pas de deux (chor: Pierre Lacotte after Marie Taglioni), perf. by Fracci, Denard. Coppélia: brief excerpts from Acts I and II, perf. by Fracci. - Part II: Diaghilev and Russian ballet. The sleeping beauty, Act III: grand adagio (chor: Marius Petipa), perf. by Fracci, Cragun. Esmeralda: two variations and coda, perf. by Fracci, Jeffries. Les sylphides, pas de deux (chor: Mikhail Fokin), perf. by Fracci, Jude. The three-cornered hat: the miller's farucca (chor: Leonide Massine), perf. by Antonio. The sleeping beauty: excerpts from Aurora's Act III variation and the Act I Rose adagio (chor: Marius Petipa), perf. by Fracci.

over the years, SFB under Smuin has been televised in TEMPEST, ROMEO AND JULIET, & CINDERELLA were all shown on PBS, alas, as Mme. Hermine has noted, none has been released commercially. as follows: The tempest 1981. 120 min. : sd. color Notes:A co-production of KQED and WNET-TV. Telecast by PBS on April 5, 1981 as a part of the Dance in America series. Taped in performance and rehearsal at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. Executive producer: Jack Venza. Producers: Emile Ardolino, Judy Kinberg. Director: Emile Ardolino. Host: Gene Kelly. Choreography: Michael Smuin. Music: Paul Seiko Chihara after Henry Purcell. Libretto: William Shakespeare. Scenery: Tony Walton. Costumes: Willa Kim. Lighting: Sara Linnie Slocum. Performed by members of the San Francisco Ballet featuring Attila Ficzere (Prospero), David McNaughton (Ariel), Evelyn Cisneros (Miranda), Tomm Ruud (Ferdinand), and Horatio Cifuentes (Caliban). CONTENTS: 1. Introduction by Gene Kelly. The tempest: Act I. Smuin commentary on the dancers and designers he worked with on The tempest, with rehearsals and conferences shown. Kelly interviews Smuin on the making of The tempest. -- The tempest: Act II. Romeo and Juliet 1978. 147 min. : sd. color Notes:Telecast on WNET-TV's Dance in America series on June 7, 1978. Producers: Emile Ardolino and Judy Kinberg. Director: Merrill Brockway. Writer: Tobi Tobias. Introduction: Richard Thomas. Lighting designer: Ralph Holmes. Choreography (reconceived for television): Michael Smuin. Music: Serge Prokofiev. Sets and costumes: William Pitkin. Performed by members of The San Francisco Ballet: Diana Weber (Juliet), Jim Sohm (Romeo), Attila Ficzere (Mercutio), Gary Wahl (Tybalt), John McFall (Benvolio), Dennis Marshall (Paris), Michael Dwyer (Lord Capulet), Anita Paciotti (Lady Capulet), Tina Santos (Juliet's nurse), Lew Christensen (Friar Lawrence), Allyson Deane (Juliet's reflection), with Vane Vest, Betsy Erickson, Robert Sund, Val Caniparoli, Gina Ness, and others. Cinderella / co-produced by WNET/13, New York, and KQED, San Francisco ; produced by Judy Kinberg ; directed by Emile Ardolino and Michael Smuin ; choreography by Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin ; music by Sergei Prokofiev. New York, N.Y. : WNET/13, c1985. (89in.) : sd., col. Notes:Cast: Evelyn Cisneros (Cinderella), Alexander Topciy (Prince), Tomm Ruud and Vane Vest (Stepsisters), Val Caniparoli (Father), Anita Paciotti (Stepmother), Kirk Peterson (Dance master), Katherine Batcheller (Fairy godmother), Nancy Dickson (Spring), Jamie Zimmerman (Summer), Christina Fagundes (Fall), Eda Holmes (Winter), Julian Montaner (Jester), and members of the San Francisco Ballet Company. Narrators: the Muppets. Scenery and costumes, Robert Fletcher ; lighting, Alan Adelman. Telecast by WNET/13, New York, on the Dance in America series on December 8, 1985.

the only footage i know of concerning varna and fukagawa is the '69 comp. documented in 'world's young ballet' and which i believe is still available commercially. as follows: World's young ballet/ Popular Science Film Studios. 1969. (70 min.) : sd. b&w Notes:Motion picture produced in the U.S.S.R. by Popular Science Film Studios. Distributed by Macmillan Audio Brandon Films. Chief consultant, Olga Lepeshinskaya. Dance contents: Cassette 1. Black swan pas de deux, danced sequentially by three couples (Loipa Araújo and Azari Plisetzki, Maria Aradi and Imre Dózsa, Francesca Zumbo and Patrice Bart) -- Alexander Bogatirev in a solo from Paquita -- Lubov Kunakova in a Russian variation (chor: Marat Gaziev) -- Mikhail Baryshnikov in Solor's solo from La bayadère -- Hideo Fukagawa in a solo from Paquita -- Annemarie Dybdal and Peter Schaufuss in the Flower festival at Genzano pas de deux -- Malika Sabirova in variations from Don Quixote and Le corsaire -- Yukiko Yasuda and Jun Ishii in the coda from the Don Quixote pas de deux -- Ludmila Semenyaka and Nikolai Kovmir in the pas de deux from Giselle, Act II, and Us (chor: Genrikh Mayorov) -- Aradi and Dózsa in Spartacus (chor: László Seregi) -- Jorge Esquivel and Araújo in Webern Op. 5 (chor: Maurice Béjart). Hannelore Bey and Roland Havlik in La mer (chor: Tom Schilling) -- Baryshnikov in Vestris (chor: Jakobson) -- Natalia Bolshakova and Vadim Guliaev in Reflection (chor: Kasyan Goleizovsky; mus: Massenet) -- Helgi Tomasson in a classical variation (chor: Anton Dolin) -- Zumbo and Bart in Bhakti (chor: Béjart) -- Nina Sorokina and Yuri Vladimirov in Peace and war (chor: Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Lubovich Vasil'ev) and Esmeralda. Documentary on the first International Ballet Competition, Moscow, held on June 11-23, 1969. Includes numerous brief excerpts from the competitors' performances, as well as brief historical footage of a solo by Anna Pavlova. Galina Ulanova, Alicia Alonso, Olga Lepeshinskaya, Leonid Jakobson, and others also appear among the judges and/or coaches. Titles in Russian with English narration.

to the best of my knowledge irina kolpakova has only danced aurora in THE SLEEPING BEAUTY, soviet ballet, following certain guidelines of russian ballet, classified aurora and lilac as rather different categories. perhaps you are thinking of the tape listed below in which kolpakova is recorded as aurora, late in her career. there is other footage, excerpts only i think, in which kolpakova dances w/ soloviev in THE SLEEPING BEAUTY, but again she dances aurora opposite soloviev's prince desire. as i say, i've never read anywhere where lilac fairy was in kolpakova's repertory. here's are the credits for the complete SLEEPING BEAUTY on video w/ kolpakova: Title:The sleeping beauty/ USSR Gosteleradio and the National Video Corporation (International) Limited ; director, Elena Macheret ; producer, Svetlana Konnonchuk ; choreography by Marius Petipa, staged by Konstantin Sergeyev ; music by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. U.S. : HBO Cannon Video, c1983. (148 min.) Danced by the Kirov Ballet and students of the Vaganova School of Ballet: Irina Kolpakova (Princess Aurora), Sergei Berezhnoi (Prince Désiré), Lubov Kunakova (Lilac Fairy), Vladimir Lopukhov (Carabosse), Gennadi Selyutski (Catalabutte), Vladimir Ponomarev (King Florestan), Angelina Kabarova (the queen) ; Prologue, fairy variations danced by Galina Rinchagova (Candite), Yelena Vorontsova (Coulante), Ludmilla Lopukhova (Miettes qui tombent), Olga Iskanderova (Canari), and Olga Vtorushina (Violente) ; Act III divertissement danced by Gabriella Komleva (Diamond fairy), Natalya Spitsina (Sapphire fairy), Olga Iskanderova (Golden fairy), Natalya Apodyakos (Silver fairy), Yelena Yevtyeyeva (Princess Florine), Andrei Garbuz (Bluebird), Tamara Mirzoyan (White cat), Viktor Fyodorov (Puss in boots), Margarita Zenina (Red Riding Hood), and Vitali Firsov (Wolf). Music performed by the Orchestra of the Leningrad Theater of Opera and Ballet, conducted by Viktor Fedotov. Libretto, Marius Petipa and Ivan Vsevolozhsky, based on fairy tales by Charles Perrault ; design, S.B. Virsaladze ; production directors, A.A. Mironov and L.M. Shamatrina.

try this amazon link: the tape that includes this dance is called KIROV BALLET: CLASSIC BALLET NIGHT and seems still available. the link to amazon shows what i mean but of course it may be for sale or rent in several places. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/630...product-details or see if VIEW VIDEO has a site. when preparing my book BALLET 101 in '97 i listed it as being part of this tape. it's listed on p. 584 of my book. perhaps a VIEW VIDEO site, if it exists, gives the tapes full credits. but it seems still 'in print' etc. good luck

a few follow up comments: firstly, perhaps i hallucinated about the later addition of departure of the little couple in the sleigh. i can't see it listed as an addition in CHOREOGARPHY BY BALANCHINE, so perhaps it was always thus, even in the initial Horace Armistead scheme. secondly, in BALANCHINE'S TCHAIKOVSKY, volkov has balanchine suggesting that 'Marie may have dreamed the whole thing' but this is after he 'states' that 'The grateful Nutcracker brings her to the kingdom of toys and sweets and then marries her.' p. 178. thirdly, wiley's essay appears in DANCE RESEARCH, vol. iii, no. 1, autumn 1984 pp. 3 - 28. the essay is entitled: 'On Meaning in "Nutcracker",' and among other things, in a separate section, called 'Drosselmayer,' notes that 'Drosselmayer's thoughts, moreover, fit nicely into the conceptual milieu of Russian language and culture, which adds strengh to the rational based on the logic of the story. The old man's musings constitute a kind of meditation denoted by the Russian work "duma." A "duma" is not a dream; it is not necessarily a logical progression of ideas. It is a collection of of thoughts and images, freely associated, of the kind that happens when one daydreams and the mind gently wanders. A "duma," however, is inherently serious in aspect; the word conveys precisely the quality of Tchaikovsky's thoughts while crossing the Atlantic.' - throughout the essay wiley weaves in details of tchaikovsky's biography, including recounting his travels during the time he was composing 'casse noisette.' fyi: DANCE RESEARCH is not available to the best of knowledge any way but to members of Britain's "Society of Dance Research." A subscription is part of being a member. i think it may be a quartely, but i'm not positive. so alas, no, it's not readily available for sale in bookstores, but libraries with a serious interest in dance would likely have it.

i think it might prove useful to consider that the intention of the original libretto is to present the journey to the land of snow and the land of sweet as magic, not a dream. marie is 'really' taken there. Tchaikovsky scholar wiley published an essay in DANCE RESEARCH, the british publication, specifically stressing that the action of the ballet beyond the parlor scenes is NOT a dream. and Balanchine has said, and some have observed, that marie marries the little prince in the kingdom of the sweets. the diverts. may therefore been scene almost as a pro-forma wedding divertissement. it was pointed out before i began to think about this that marie is dressed in bridal white,complete w/ veil in the kingdom scene. and in volkov's BALANCHINE'S TCHAIKOVSKY, balanchine is on record saying this for certain. i think the wording the text, not now at hand, is something like 'and they get married' after he tells the story of marie and little prince in the kingdom of sweets. i know the reindeer sleigh was added later, i'm not now positive how the little couple exited the ballet in the original balanchine version. mel's description of hayden's sugarplum demeanor sounds like she too recognized the nuptials of the little royal couple. if anyone really cares to have the full citation, i'll try to locate the wiley essay and post the issue no. and date of DANCE RESEARCH.

and aptly enough the marquis figure in 'russian ark' rhapsodizes at some length while looking over the banquet preparations being made for the guests of a formal court presentation between Nicholas I and the Ambassador of Persia. The prime object of his admiration is the imperial dinner service, sevres, o course, in this instance, cameo pattern that the porcelain connoisseur especially admires.

FYI, all Russophiles: in Alexander Sokurov's haunting and poetic and lavish film about the Hermitage/Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, among other personages, the legendary Alla Ossipenko appears as visitor of the galley standing in front of Rembrandt's great "Danae," before which she gestures her hand in attitudes similar to that of the reclining figure in the painting. In addition, a fact that seems not have pointed out at all in any of the reviews i've read, the central visitor/raconteur whom the camera and cameraman follow for nearly the full 90-min. duration of the film, is meant to be the Marquis de Custine, who wrote a famous (or infamous) memoir of a 3 mo. trip to Russia in 1839, called "La Russie en 1839" (translated a recently as 1989 in the US as "Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia." Though the Marquis was given the Czar's blessing to make his trip around Russia, the thoughts he published about the country, oftentimes critical of the autocracy and character(s) he observed, were considered scandalous by the power-that-be and his work banned from being circulated in Russia during the time of the Czars. Also, the film's final grand segment, a ball during the time of Nicholas II, is graced by a heavenly Glinka mazurka, conducted by V. Gergiev and danced quite beautifully in the work of a choreographer whose name crawled by too quickly in the credits for me to catch. To quote blurb writers, "Russian Ark" would seem a "must-see" for anyone with more than a passing interest in Russia and its ways. If anyone here learns of DVD release of this film, please post the particulars. It would be a "must-buy" on my list.

there is a review of this tape in the January issue of THE DANCING TIMES.

i didn't mean to imply that balanchine meant he was interested in the 'extreme' aspects of hoffmann. just that when you read his remarks about his ballet he refers to hoffmann, not dumas, meaning i suppose that HIS rendering of the original russian petipa/ivanov led him to consider SOME of the details from hoffmann. he seems nowhere particularly to mention dumas. i think he may even have seen his drosselmeier as a kind of hoffmannesque figure. and that his little heroine was in someway related to his reading of hoffmann, not dumas. if i seemed to imply that balachine's NUTCRACKER was a rendering of the darker and weirder aspects of hoffmann's original tale, i did not intend to do so.

please excuse any redundancy here, but if the point hasn't been made, it bears noting that the petipa/ivanov nutcracker took as the basis of its libretto not the E.T.A.H. tale but the retelling of the tale by Alexandre Dumas, pere. ETAH's was called "The nutcarcker and the mouseking" AD's "The nutcracker of nuremburg" the latter being far less dark and/or convoluted than the former. and finally the original libretto certainly simplified matters still further. btw, nureyev's nutcracker prod. is also on tape/dvd(?) (with the royal ballet and also w/ paris opera ballet, though these may not still be on the market), and it does follow the darkish lines, a la hoffman, that have been picked up by others. all this stems in small part from the vainonen production, in soviet russia, 1934(?), which has influenced every nutcracker by a soviet-russian ever since, nureyev's and baryshnikov's included. vainonen's prod. is also on tape, w/ the kirov). but nureyev's further emphasizes the darkness and double-meanings: at one point clara's family turns briefly sinister and spooky and bat-like in a hallucinatory moment. to be sure, tho' his staging doesn't really delve into the dark aspects per se, balanchine has pointed consistently to hoffmann, not dumas, as his source. significantly, he calls his little heroine marie, a la hoffmann, and NOT clara, a la dumas.

the '86 nbc/onegin for film credits: Onegin c1986. 96 min. : sd. color Notes:Co-production of Primedia Productions Limited and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in association with RM Arts. Distributed as a videotape by Home Vision, a Films Incorporated Co., Chicago, Ill. Director: Norman Campbell. Producers: W. Paterson Ferns and Norman Campbell. Choreography: John Cranko, restaged by Reid Anderson and adapted for television by Norman Campbell and Reid Anderson. Based on the poem by Alexander Pushkin. Music: Peter Tchaikovsky, arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze. Scenery/costumes: Jurgen Rose. Lighting: Sholem Dolgoy, adapted for television by Sholem Dolgoy and Ross Viner. Performed by the National Ballet of Canada. Cast: Sabina Allemann (Tatiana), Frank Augustyn (Eugene Onegin), Jeremy Ransom (Lensky), Cynthia Lucas (Olga), Serge Lavoie (Prince Gremin), Victoria Bertram (Mme. Larina), Lorna Geddes (Nurse), and others. National Ballet of Canada Orchestra, conducted by Ermanno Florio.