rg

this is likely the french-made(?) docu. about maximova & vasiliev called, FOUETTE! i have a so-so quality copy of this from some time back and havent watched it since but i recall it was a sound piece of work. the SWANLAKE is probably the kirov film, made in a soundstudio, w/ elena evteyeva and j.m. (v.panov is the jester) if mem. serves this was a filming scheduled for makarova who then 'jumped ship' in london in '70. nypublic library has one ref. to the film but apparently not the film itself, giving indication that the film was directed by vasiliev himself: Willis, Margaret E. Title:Vasiliev through the viewfinder. Dance Magazine. New York. Jan 1988, p. 48-51. ill. Notes: Vladimir Vasil'ev has expanded his career into film directing. Subjects:Aniuta (Choreographic work : Vasil'ev) :Ballet in motion pictures. Fouetté. Names:Vasilev, Vladimir Viktorovich, 1940- here's what the library's listing says about the swanlake: Swan lake [videorecording] / a Lenfilm/Sovexportfilm production ; directors, Apollinari Dudko and Konstantin Sergeev ; camera, Anatoly Nazarov ; choreography by Konstantin Sergeev after Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa ; music by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. Imprint :U.S. : Kultur, 1984?, [c1969] Notes:with members of the Leningrad Kirov Ballet: Yelena Yevteyeva (Odette/Odile), John Markovsky (Prince Siegfried), Valeri Panov (Jester), and Makhmud Esambayev (Baron Von Rothbart). :Scenario, Isaak Glickman, Apollinari Dudko, and Konstantin Sergeev. :Motion picture originally released (?) in 1969 as a Lenfilm/Sovexportfilm production ; distributed as a videotape in 1984 (?) by Kultur. :The first and third acts are shortened in this version. [ January 05, 2002: Message edited by: rg ] [ January 05, 2002: Message edited by: rg ] [ January 05, 2002: Message edited by: rg ] [ January 05, 2002: Message edited by: rg ]

there is at least one CD of the score, more or less complete; the set i have is labeled as follows: Leon Minkus DON QUIXOTE Capriccio 10 540/41 Boris Spassov conducts the Sofia Natinal Opera Orchestra, the date of the recording seems to be 1995. there are a few versions on video. Nureyev's, for the Australian Ballet 1972 was recently re-issued, digitalized, KULTUR. Baryshnikov's for ABT (1984) was televised and recently released on PAL dvd. The Kirov's 1988 staging was also released a while back. Also the Perm Ballet's production, a fairly standard one from 1992 is also on tape, put out by KULTUR. there are also any number of excerpts on tape.

ALSO, 'the sleeping beauty' was recently re-visioned by mats ek. it's on tape too, and v. much in line of his 'giselle' in terms of reworking. i know he's done 'swanlake' too but i'm not aware of this on tape, but that doesn't mean it isn't available in europe. fyi: the dance coll. cat. listing for 'beauty': Sleeping beauty (Choreographic work : Ek) Original title: Dornröschen. Chor.: Mats Ek; mus.: Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (The sleeping beauty, with numbers in rearranged order); scen. and cos.: Peder Freiij. First perf: Hamburg, Staatsoper, June 2, 1996; Hamburg Ballet

as a footnote to much already noted here, perhaps the balanchine role most indelibly connect to verdy is the "first" ballerina in "emeralds" (she created the work for balanchine with mimi paul as the "second" ballerina of this "jewels" segment). especially in the solo that finds v.v. working her arms and in particular her wrists as part of the choreography's mesmerizing fluidity, verdy was incomparable. the late david daniel, a close follower/historian of both verdy's and farrell's careers, put it best when he described the solo as putting one in mind of a woman trying on and admiring her bracelets in private reverie (emerald ones, no doubt!). (i may be paraphrasing d.daniel a little crudely, as w/ so many of his apercus, he rarely got around to putting them on paper in final, published form, so much of what he said, almost all of it trenchant and utterly fascinating [even at its most fanciful], is now left only in the memories of him.) he had numerous conversations and official interviews w/ verdy, one of the finest was on the subject of nureyev, about whom d.d. was preparing a book (which i don't think ever got published, alas). the interview was published tho' and while the subject is nureyev, the voice is unmistakably verdy's (and daniel's): Ballet review. Brooklyn, N. Y. v 5, no 2, 1975-1976, p 45-53: Conversation with Violette Verdy excerpted from Nureyev observed, a book of interviews and photographs by David Daniel to be published next year.

a brochure, which i cannot now put my finger on, arrived recently announcing the showing of this film at nyc's french institute/alliance francaise, on, if mem. serves, march 26th. (or so) one of the screenings with be introduced by a discussion w/ the director, d.delouche and (i think) verdy herself. i can post particulars when i know them for certain. i have not yet heard of the film's being released as a commercial cassette.

i think you are referring to "the baby stork" which is in the bolshoi repertory/catalogue w/ choreography by 3 separate balletmasters as follows: Baby stork--Original title: Aistenok. Chor: Nicolai Popko, Lev Pospekhin and Aleksandr Radunskii; mus: Dmitri Klebanov; lib: M. IA. Pinchevskii; scen: R. Makarov, T. D'iakonov and V. Zimin. First perf: Moscow, Bolshoi Theater Filial, June 6, 1937, graduate examination of Moscow Choreographic Institute.//Revived: Moscow, Bolshoi Theater, Nov. 14, 1955, under title: Druzhnye serdtsa. Scen: V. Zimin. Cyril Beaumonts' "Ballets past and present". London, 1955. discussed the ballet on pp. 181-185. additionally, yuri grigorovich, long associated with moscow's bolshoi ballet, but who began his career w/ leningrad's kirov ballet, also did choreography for this theme. the library lists his version thus: Baby stork--Original title: Aistenok. Chor & lib: IUrii Grigorovich; mus: Dmitri Klebanov. First perf: Leningrad, Gorki Palace of Culture, 1947 or 1948. very likely the Shurale you refer to is this one listed by the dance collection thus: Shurale--Chor: Leonid IAkobson; mus: Farid IArullin with instrumentation by V. Vlasov and V. Fere; lib: A. Faizi and Leonid IAkobson after a Tatar folk tale; scen: A. Ptushko, L. Mil'chin and I. Vano. First perf: Leningrad, Kirov Theater, May 28, 1974, Kirov Ballet (Company). (as you can see, and as you've noted the theme is a tartar folk tale.) i have seen photos of both these works but have not personally seen them on stage or on film or video. rg [ December 23, 2001: Message edited by: rg ]

of these last 2 DVDs mentioned, i'm fairly certain the kirov 'corsaire' is NOT available in USA/region-1 disks, and the bejart MAY be but i'm not sure of that. did i forget to recommend 'the red shoes'? if so it was an oversight, i highly recommend this criterion collection dvd. [ December 19, 2001: Message edited by: rg ]

s.beskow made her debut in 'hot chocolate' earlier this season, in fact the debut was noted in the one review anna kisselgoff filed for the TIMES a few weeks ago. s.b's debut was noted, btw, in a most positive way at the review's end. i forget the actual wording.

p.s. here's the link to the home/search page for the n.y.p.library dance coll. http://catnyp.nypl.org/search~b1o1c1i1p1r1a1

i assume you mean the central pas de deux for columbine and harlequin in act one of the ballet, originally choreographed by marius petipa to a score by riccardo drigo and first presented in 1900 in st. petersburg, russia. tho' there are now a number of versions around since. in russia there's one by alexander gorsky, from 1907, and here in the states there is balanchine's (at new york city ballet) from 1965 (expanded in '73). there is a prominent pas de deux for the leading couple in both acts one and two, but i think it's the first act duet that you probably mean. the new york public library's catalogue on line - catnyp - should provide a helpful guide to the items it has about this work and to the films it has for watching. have you checked the 'balanchine's stories of the ballets'? or its reprint called 'ballet festival' (or something like that)? there is a 'harlequinade' duet on a commercial video cassette called 'ballet legends' featuring ninel kurgapkina. she dances what i think is the gorsky version of the choreography. (her harlequin is nikolai kovmir is i rem. correctly). this same pas de deux is also recorded in black and white as i recall on 'russian ballet, a glorious tradition, vol. 2' with kurgapkina and kovmir (both these tapes have been sold commercially). there are likely entries on the full ballet in the companion/guides written by cyril beaumont, mary clarke and clement crisp, and others. if you know someone with a longstanding video collection, you might find the 1979 telecast of 'baryshnikov at the white house' that includes a little suite for balanchine's 'harlequinade' that shows some of the children's dances and the first act pas de deux from balanchine's full ballet with baryshnikov's harlequin partnering patricia mcbride's columbine.

um, errrrr, no doubt 'bout it, victoria proofs text far better than this robert does: YES suzanne farrell was born roberta etc. etc. sigh. i can see more clearly than ever now how that 'l' found its way into the spelling of ficker!

w/ regard to past stage names, fyi, and i am aware that this was misstated in at least one book w/ regrad to suzanne farrell: her original name was robert sue ficker, that 'l' slipped in once or twice before but it does not belong. good luck w/ choosing a good one for yourself.

to the best of my knowledge most ballet dvd's are, as is the case of the ABT "Giselle" you mention here, are really transfers, digitally, of pre-dvd-digital-era video tapes lately transferred to disk, this means that the 'added/special' features, so understandably popular w/ dvd fans, tend to be minimal. still, given the picture quality and playback ease of play/rewind/fast-forward/freeze-frame inherent to dvd, which is so superior to videocassette, the lack of special features seems negligible for the present. for my part i could recommend: ashton's 'cinderella' w/ ashton himself as the 'shy' 'ugly' sister and sibley and dowell in the leads as a fine disk, ditto 'an evening w/ the royal ballet' and the kirov 'swanlake' w/ mesentzeva & zaklinsky, as well as nureyev's 'don quixote' w/ the australian ballet & nureyev and aldous (all these from Kultur); additionally for a hollywood-movie view of ballet/dancing both "center stage" w/ its special features offering the scripted movie's dance sequences, separately, without dialogue/plot interruptions and 'goldwyn follies' (with the fabled 'waternymph' ballet and the pre-west-side-story romeo&juliet takeoff) are interesting companion disks--one from the 30s w/ its movie aesthetic and the other from the 90s with its own slickness. other 'swanlake's (and there are fewer than one might imagind) include the historica fonteyn/nureyev perf. in nureyev's staging for vienna state op. ballet and makarova's for london festival, which has the wonderous ashton pas de quatre among its highlights. two good balanchines are warner's film of 'the nutcracker' w/ new york city ballet and the bbc filming of 'midsummer night's dream' with pacific northwest ballet. as far as opera is concerned, from this ballet collector's point of view, the bergman 'magic flute' is a real treat, esp. for the old-world staging recorded for the film and, from left field, the 1925/29 lon chaney silent 'phantom of the opera' w/the likely authentic paris opera ballet sequences, with a large corps de ballet number recorded on the (garnier?) stage, neatly concentrated in the chapter called: 'A night at the opera.' (the syberberg 'parsifal' is a handsomely done 2-disk set.) and as alexandra might like me to note, if we buy our dvd's thru balletalert's link to amazon.com, we're all helping ballet even if we buy opera dvd's!

as a fan of the ashton's one-act reduction of his 3-act 'sylvia', which alas i never saw, and of the score, i've done some 'beating of the bushes' for this work in any form on video. as geo. jackson, longtime DANCEVIEW associate and critic, can probably tell more fully, the only one that might be around is the darsonval staging (based on stagings by merante, staats and aveline) for paris opera ballet which was televised on french tv in 1980, w/ n. pontois, j-y. lormeau and c. atanasoff. this was shown to a dance critics association conf. in june of 2001 only after g.jackson moved what seemed like heaven and earth to find a decent copy. eventually, he found one, but had to promptly return it, tho' there might be others around. ashton's was never to my knowledge televised. nor was, i don't think, the newest paris opera staging by j.neumeier from 1997. the 'sylvia pas de deux' that balanchine originally made for maria tallchief and andre eglevsky (and recently restaged by american ballet theatre) is recorded on an a.b.t. tape w/ martine van hamel and patrick bissell but only on the commercial version of the tape, when the program that included this duet was shown nationally on US tv, 'sylvia' was cut for time constraints. UK members of this group might make mention of the version created by david bintley for the birmingham royal ballet in '93, but i don't think it lasted long, and doubt that it was filmed for tv or tape. [ December 02, 2001: Message edited by: rg ]

there seems to be a misunderstanding here regarding the meaning of this sentence. when dunning says 'productions' she means stagings IN GENERAL, i.e. overall, by the troupes in question and not 'nutcracker' productions, per se. but i can see why in an article about 'nutcracker' that this misreading could be made. before posting this comment, btw, i actually checked w/ j.dunning and she confirmed that she was referring to productions overall in these companies' repertories and was not making reference to 'nutcracker' ones. hope this helps clarify a bit. re: the bolshoi and 'nutcracker.' someone more conversant w/ soviet ballet history could enlighten us more fully, but it would seem that gorsky's 1919 'nutcracker' is the earliest bolshoi staging of the work, where i don't THINK children were involved. there is, however, a little footnote to the bolshoi's 'nutcracker' history with regard to children on film. this concerns the kirov-created 1934 vainonen prod., which the bolshoi staged in '39. there is enchanting footage, available on the 'magic of the bolshoi' video tape (and, in the UK, dvd), that documents the incomparable v.vasiliev and e.maximova, as STUDENT dancers, performing vainonen's 'pastorale' choreography to the score's 'merlitons' divertissement. yuri grigorovich's well-known bolshoi staging from 1966 definitely uses adults in the roles of children.

actually the detail of those 'toe tip balances' on a flower's petals, familiar from 19th c. lithos is a good ref. point here. but that 'effect,' which fonteyn calls a 'toe hold' in her good book accompanying her 'magic of the dance' series, is more understandable to me. the little place into which the 19th c. ballerina seemingly fit her 'pointe' is a little shoe-tree-like/toe-cup thing, rather like the little carved place onto which the kirov auroras of the new 'old' 'sleepingbeauty' slip their standing foot for the little pose (atop a seashell) in the vision scene. but that would seem to provide real foot support, which is understandable. this 'reika' thing, so far as i understand it, is not so elaborate, but really only a little flat moving board which provides the effect w/ its gliding movement, but not with any additional support for the balancing ballerina. maybe i misunderstand the design/shape of the 'reika' or maybe it's not really all that hard, but i see the machinery as variable of speed and impetus and when i think of the effectof inertia etc., all i see is some poor ballerina trying to look cool as she's having the rug (in this case the 'veil'!) pulled out from under her feet! ah, the mysterious/magical ways of theater and/or of ballerina's composure/strength/expertise!

thanks for all the observations & thoughts on this 'effect.' what i still can't get my mind around is how, when poised atop a little moving platform, even one guided in a slot in the stage (wiley has a footnote on the device from 19th c. russia), a ballerina can maintain her balance and poise, otherwise unsupported. balanchine's effect works neatly because the sugarplum is being supported by her cavalier's hand as she's drawn along on the little platform. in the imperial yearbook photo nikitina(?) is just standing on pointe, in fifth position, which would seem really hard to hold calmly as a little wooden platform moved underneath a veil. but maybe it's not. certainly the moment as executed by collier and dowell in the royal 'nutcracker' video, which admittedly doesn't involve any 'machinery' (only the veil), looked, as i think the brits might say, a bit dodgy. oh well it obviously worked somehow for the ivanov 'nutcracker' and became something of a tradition. furthermore, from other, earlier imperial ballet photos, it would seem that a similar effect was worked in this era, one notably by petipa in 'niad and the fisherman,' where the male dancer pulled the ballerina along with his net, which is more or less disposed like the veil in the later 'nutcracker' photo. in any case, i'm happy to hear the moment is being variously recreated now more than a century later.

thanks for the picture of these kirov/k.sergeyev/vainonen productions, kevin. i'm especially curious about the detail of using a veil to glide the ballerina along (here in the snow scene but, originally a moment from the ballet's climactic pas de deux for the sugarplum and her cavalier. this has 'effect' fascinated me since reading about it in reference sources, such as r.j.wiley's 'tchaikovsky's ballets,' and seeing historic pictures from the imperial th. yearbooks: is the veil moved while the ballerina stands on pointe? (seems risky to negotiate!) (the peter wright prod. for the royal ballet had a version of this in the last act's pas de deux for sugarplum and her cavalier, and it's recorded on video, but from what i can gather it was a short-lived detail that did not last long in this production.) recently i saw a video of a 'nutcracker' production nikita dolgushin did in st. petersburg. in dolgushin's version the ballerina is pulled on a veil guided by her cavalier as she stands in fourth postition on 'the flat' as dancers sometimes say. it looks somewhat odd, but it is more stable than the seemingly precarious fifth-on-pointe positioning shown in some photos from the original production. (to be sure, photos, esp. from this era, are deceiving, as they were often posed for the occasion of the picture and not necessarily representative of any actually choreographed moment.) still, writing about the sugarplum's pas de deux with her prince, wiley reports the use of a track in the stage called a 'reika,' which i may or may not be spelling correctly here - book not at hand! this is, of course, a similar device to that employed by balanchine in his act-2 pas de deux where the ballerina is drawn along in first arabesque pose her cavalier, as if by 'magic' (no veil; and the devices is a little plate on the stage, not a track in the stage boards). so, if this recent borrowing of the 1892 effect for the st. petersburg ballet theatre production has the ballerina swept along on the veil while on pointe: a) was the path of travel of some duration or rather brief? and, B) did it look secure? (or scary?). also, i wonder if anyone knows whether this sir-walter-raleighlike moment is recorded in the most recently taped performance of wright's 'nutcracker' w/ dowell as drosselmeier and cojocaru as clara? US tv is due to show telecast the performance here later this month, but i know it's been shown in the UK and is already out, i think, on tape and/or dvd in britain. [ December 01, 2001: Message edited by: rg ] [ December 01, 2001: Message edited by: rg ]

a question has arisen (on alt.arts.ballet) about the origin of the sub-title (for lack of a better term) 'le roi soleil' for LouisXIV, mostly because a recent(?) biog. of LouisXIII claims the term was also used for this less famous monarch. thus, does anyone here have some factual info. to offer on the origin of the title, and its application to LouisXIII, and/or on its application to LouisXIV. ballet historians like to suggest that the title for L-XIV stemmed directly from the young king's role as apollo/sun in 'le ballet de la nuit'; other sources claim it is associated w/ le grand louis because of the overall brilliance of his court. any thoughts?

indeed, 'requiem canticles' was done by balanchine in the wake of king's death. it was led by arthur mitchell, and had one official performance, tho' for invited guests only. there is mention of the work in recent volume of e.gorey interviews -- 'ascending peculiarity' -- where e.g. mentions attending the rehearsals as well as the single showing, he brings it up to the interviewer to illustrate that he didn't hang around the new york state theater at rehearsals and such, except in this case, since he knew he'd have no further opportunities to see what balanchine had wrought. i rem. pictures, probably from nancy reynold's 'repertory in review,' of the cast in pointed-sleeve gowns, prob. of white gauze, holding candleabra.

good to hear all the good news from moskva. (and even the not-so-good news about not-so-top-flight new ballets). 'galatea' was for sale (in ntsc) at one point at kamkin here in nyc but the store has since shut its doors and now only operates from down near balletalertland, in VA, i think. now if only DVD would take off bigger than video and digitalize all these video rarities for the open market world-wise! goodness knows the quality of the performing sounds top notch. still, just knowing these things are making their way around russia means they stand a chance of being 'picked up' by our distributors, either as ntsc videos or as dvds. thanks for the window on the ballet happenings taking place in historic moscow. re: napoleon ballets, after seeing julio bocca in eifman's 'russian hamlet' one nyc wag thought it might be apt for eifman to fashion a napoleon ballet just for bocca, since the argentine dancer looked a lot like corsican general as portrayed russia's paul. hope the snowy winter affords you a dashing ride in a cozy troika. on dasher, on dancer, on donner! (oops, should have included rudolf in that trio!) rg

the programs i have from the early tours of 'onegin' by the stuttgart ballet make no reference to the respective ages of olga and tatiana in the ballet's synopsis. nabokov's translation of pushkin says something specific about olga's age, when he states in his synopsis of the poem's second chapter: 'Eighteen-year-old Lenski is in love with a maiden of sixteen named Olga, his childhood playmate.' perhaps further notes in nabakov give tatiana's actual age w/ respect to her sister's, but i haven't come across it in my cursory reading. interestingly in the balanchine/mason 'complete stories of the great ballets,' 'onegin' is not under 'o' where one would expect to find it as 'onegin' but under 'e' where it is mistakenly entitled 'eugene onegin'. even tho' cranko's libretto changes pushkin's occasion for honoring tatiana on her name day to one celebrating her birthday, no age is given in the notes i've seen.

re: alexandra's comment, truth to tell, i did publish the words "total turkey" when reporting on 'the pied piper' well before this thread spun itself out. the designation just popped onto my pages, so i guess i agree w/ alexandra that this a.b.t. creation qualifies somewhat aptly. also re: alexandra's PAMTGG note, besides the little athletic 'turn/role' for castelli, i recall little, except von aroldingen's hippy-fringed costume, which jiggled alot when she did entrechats, if mem. serves. also, in plotting the groupings and pathways for the cast's formations, i recall there was a dancer with those torch-like flashlights that used to guide landing planes into their lanes etc. on stage giving guidance of some kind or other. other little moments may also surface some day again. i don't think i saw it more than once or twice, not that one had much chance. nancy reynold's 'repertory in review' should be an aide memoire.

i do believe there are ways to have the dvd player in one region, such as ours in region 1, 'fixed' to play those of other regions, but if it's not so 'adjusted' the chances are nil. as well, i THINK one needs a monitor capable of 'reading/showing' PAL. i have no answer to whether or not these australian dvds are available coded for region 1, but they may the same AB videos also available on videotape, NOT the same as dvd, i fully understand, but at least viewable on US system tv's etc.

leave it to the ever-innocent and INTELLIGENT estelle to put a sane and sober question into a mix. i don't know what the dictionary of slang (or at least of theater slang) says about 'turkey' officially. but if it's a box-office flop then almost to a one no 'swanlake' can be so classed, as in g.balanchine's wise words: "all ballets should be called 'swanlake' because 'people would come'." so it probably is a personal definition being used here. i think, for ex. that PAMTGG is a convenient thing to poke fun at. to be sure, it was hardly top drawer balanchine, but it was balanchine and he was no slouch/idiot theatrically. i saw it. it was puzzling, i suppose, but it offered victor castelli, for example, a splendid turn as very young dancer (i still remember a circuit of coupe/jetes he had), it was probably more slight than awful. i know in nyc theater lore something called 'moose murders' was said to have been so bad that its audiences were laughing uproariously, at supposedly not intentionally funny moments, so that's a way i suppose to see a turkey in legit theater. if it's just a personal judgement, such as when an audience is having a good, or at least okay, time at a ballet and one is not necessarily having the same experience, then it's a candidate for one's own dud list, but as for this list's being the same as a roster of all-time turkeys, i guess the call is tricky. someone mentioned 'gaspard de la nuit' which had very few perfs. and which incidentally was just named to me last week in a conversation w/ a colleague as one balanchine's lost major works, so one person's turkey is another's .... also, some works i suppose are so surprising and 'out there' they might initially seem duds, when in fact they might just demand more careful viewing, which in cases like 'gaspard' and 'pamtagg' wasn't really possible. any number of people for example also would damn balanchine's 'don quixote' but i'm not sure 'turkey' is an apt description. in somecases today's 'turkey' might just become tomorrow's lost masterpiece. [ November 24, 2001: Message edited by: rg ]