Sacto1654

In my humble opinion, it's just about impossible to find what we can call a "definite" version of The Nutcracker.

However, one interesting version I really like because of my familiarity with the San Francisco area is Helgi Tomasson's version from 2004, which places itself in a motif derived from the 1915 San Francisco Pan-Pacific Exposition. It was recently released on DVD, and I've seen it live myself a few years ago, too.

I for one would LOVE to see a revival of the original Petipa/Ivanov version from 1892, but since the current deputy director of ballet (Yuri Fateyev) at the Mariinsky Theatre is not interested in doing "reconstructions," I wonder will anyone want to do it, epecially with today's poor economy.

I for one would LOVE to see someone film Raymonda in the 1948 Konstantin Sergeyev version with one Ulyana Lopatkina in the lead role. Raymonda (in my humble opinion! ) is perhaps one of Lopatkina's signature dancing roles outside of Medora in Le Corsaire and Odette/Odile in Swan Lake.

It looked like a serious injury, but the fact that he was able to smile and didn't appear to be in pain gives me hope - maybe it looked worse than it was. Here's hoping he recovers quickly and completely.

It sounded like the bad ankle bruise I suffered some 14 years ago--my feet was swelling and looked black for about three weeks, but I was able to be walking normally by the end of three weeks. Sounds like what American football players suffer every now and then.

This was one reason for the changes but I think there were others too. During the mid 20th century the Soviet audiences looked for more bravura dancing from the male dancers. So you have the Jester being thrown into the mix as well as a Rothbart that hops all over the stage. Also Siegfried is made into a more heroic character.

That does jog my memory--I remember reading from a chapter of a Ph.D thesis on Russian ballet saying that during the 1930's, Soviet censors wanted stronger male roles in ballet. As such, in such ballets of the period such as The Flames of Paris offered stronger male roles, and to conform with the edicts of the time they extensively changed Swan Lake for more extensive male roles. Why they didn't expand the role of Siegfried's friend Benno instead of putting in the jester could make for an interesting discussion; I believe the jester was put in originally in the Alexander Gorsky production for the Bolshoi Ballet at the beginning of the 20th Century, and Russian audiences liked it enough that the jester role became part of later Russian productions of the ballet.

But when it coms to Swan Lake I just can't agree with the original poster. The jester (who did come from Gorky's mor enaturalistic staging) is one thing, but as others have said, to me chaning the ending to a happy one is just... It's not Swan Lake. I can't accept a version with a happy ending as an essential version of the ballet. Silly as it may sound, and as much as I actually love a lot of their production.

Has Vladimir Bourmeister's production been released to DVD or video? It sound sinteresting--I have to say I grew up listening to the original 1877 arrangement of Swan Lake so much that when I see the ballet all the re-arranged numbers, and new numbers (from other Tchaikovsky pieces) catch me by surprise. While the Petipa Black Sawn Pas de Deux is unquestionably classic, the music certainly doesn't have the menace and sneakiness that the actual pas de deux Tchaikovsky wrote for the scene had--particularly in Odile's variation which has such a gorgeous strange quality in the original score, but in the 1895 version (which used a Drigo orchestrated piano piece I believe) it's completely missing. Still, as a ballet I probably prefer the '95 score even if to listen to I'll stick with the '77.

I think the reason why the versions of Swan Lake in the Soviet Union changed so much was simple: Soviet-era censors did not like the 1895 tragic ending. That resulted in a lot of reworking of the ballet, and both the Bolshoi and Kirov troupes did extensive changes (the Kirov changed it three times, once in 1933 with Agrippina Vaganona's major changes to Act 1 Scene 2 (As Act II is known in the Petipa/Ivanov version) with the way the corps de ballet moved on-stage and the second time in 1950 by Konstantin Sergeyev in the version we see performed today, and the last time in 1988 by the Oleg Vinogradov version (which was disliked by many Russian balletomanes and was promptly dropped after Vinogradov left the Kirov/Mariinsky company)).

As for the Bourmeister version, we are very fortunate that it has been filmed. This was filmed at the Teatro alla Scala with Svetlana Zakharova as Odette/Odile and Roberto Bolle as Siegfried in 2004, and you can get it from Amazon.com from this listing:

http://www.amazon.com/Tchaikovsky-Zakharov...652&sr=8-32

We are fortunate that there is a complete notation of the 1895 version of Swan Lake Nicolas Sergeyev wrote down that is sitting at the library of Harvard University. As such, we can stage a truly authentic version of this ballet as it looked like in 1895 at the Mariinsky Theatre. Sergeyev's notation were the ones used to stage the "reconstructed" versions of Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadere some years ago at the Mariinsky Theatre.

Several posters here have noted that the closest thing to the "authentic" 1895 version of this ballet performed regularly is the one done by the Royal Ballet in the UK, but there are some changes to the certain scenes so it's not truly 100% authentic.

I want to be at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1947 when Maya Plisetskaya debuted in the O/O role in Swan Lake. I also wanted to be there when Ulyana Lopatkina debuted in the same role back in the early 1990's and at Ekaterina Kondaurova's recent debut in the role, too.

I think the problems with the "reconstructions" are 1) they are very expensive to perform (I can't imagine the cost of doing the original version of Sleeping Beauty with its authentic period sets and costumes) and 2) the dancing style is probably not what most Russian balletomanes alive today are used to, since most of them are used to the Konstantin Sergeyev versions of various evening-long ballets that were first performed in the 1950's.

The Mariinsky is probably the best-known global brand in ballet right now. Perhaps people in charge want to reap the financial rewards even more than they're doing now. An enlarged, younger company -- possibly one NOT attached to a single stage and its routines -- might actually be the goal.

This is my personal opinion, but I think there may be still another reason why Fateev is making the entire troupe younger: they're more able to do a large-scale ballets that demand a large number of physically strong dancers. This could portend the very possibility of new versions of La Bayadare, Le Corsaire and Raymonda some time in the future in true full-length versions but with more "modern" choreography (all three of the ballets I mentioned require substantial numbers of dancers on-stage).

Given the really divided opinions among balletomanes on Somova's dancing style I'm not sure it this DVD sounds like a good idea, though.

But I'll take the one with Obraztsova and Novikova, that's to be sure.

Isn't this a clip of the reconstructed version...?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF-IvqbLEjk

Yes, I recognize it as the "reconstructed" version from the colors of the costume Somova was wearing. If I remember correctly, during the 1980's Aurora's costume in Act I was almost all-pink.

But you are right - it really DOES seem as if every year has a Lopatkina Gala. Hey, she is a lovely, great ballerina in adagio. She is a name in the Russian pop culture, transcending the arts. I say -- let's give her a gala each month. She deserves it!

Wasn't there an article in ballet.co.uk about three years ago that described Ulyana Lopatkina as the "Soul of Russia," whatever that means? Right now, if she were to do the title role in Raymonda again the tickets for that performance will sell out in no time flat.

Which does remind me--I saw online pictures of Lopatkina's recent Odette/Odile performance. Beautiful as ever, but she seems to have a much more "mature" look than before--must be the fact she's not wearing a wig like it was from the 1990's performances or the April 2006 performance that's now available on DVD.

I for one would love to see Lopatkina do something special for the Festival, though. A performance of Raymonda with her in the title role on 16 March 2009 would make a lot of sense, so she'll have four days' rest before performing in her own gala on the 20th.

Sacto, I'd love to see Schklyarov but, in the past, Ivan has usually gone to not-too-tall demi-caractere dancers, rather than Noble Prince types, like Shklyarov. I am almost betting on Leonid Sarafanov and/or Andrei Ivanov sharing the role, although Andrian Fadeev has a wonderful 'comic persona' as we've seen in his Lankedem/Corsaire.

From looking the pages of the 1964 book published in the USSR of this long poem, which you can see here:

http://az.lib.ru/e/ershow_p_p/text_0020.shtml

I think both Leonid Sarafanov and Andrian Fadeyev could play the role of Ivan, given they'll be perfect for this role if the Mariinsky troupe wants to closely match the drawings in this book. But since the poem's Ivan is pretty young character, I wouldn't put it above Shklyarov playing Ivan too.

I have a really interesting question to ask: who's going to play what role in the new Ratmansky production of Little Hunched-back Horse? The role of Ivan is almost tailor-made for one Vladimir Shklyarov, especially since the pictures from the book of the poem published in the USSR in 1964 show Ivan with almost the exact hair color as Shklyarov.

I'd include this as one of the huge hits of 2008: Ekaterina Kondaurova's debut as Odette/Odile in Lebedinoye Ozero on October 30, 2008 at the Mariinsky Theatre. I've read there were RAVE reviews of her performance, and the from the pictures posted on Mariinka.org she was stunning looking, especially as Odile as we can see from this picture.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3233/299177...c70ee72ab_o.jpg

Lepeshinskaya was not only Stalin's favorite dancer at the Bolshoi, she was a flat-out superb dancer that was probably the best female ballet dancer the Bolshoi had from the 1930's to 1950's outside of Galina Ulanova (who tranferred from the Kirov troupe to the Bolshoi troupe at Stalin's insistence in 1944). I saw an online video of an RTR Planeta report celebrating Lepeshinskaya's 90th birthday two years ago and wow, she really had superb dancing skills.

Talented artists, no doubt. Yet it will be some time before they reach the level of personalities like Zhanna Ayupova, Uliana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, Daria Pavlenko, not to mention Altynai Asylmuratova, Larissa Lezhnina, Tatiana Terekhova, Yulia Makhalina, Irina Shapchits etc. Hopefully they will be given the time to prove they are indeed that "awesome"

Actually, I see Kondaurova and Obraztsova reaching the "great" level within a few years--Kondaurova has been dancing a lot of roles that Ulyana Lopatkina is well-known for (her very recent debut as O/O in Swan Lake got RAVE reviews from Russian balletomanes) and Obraztsova has both a Gold medal win at the Moscow International Ballet Competition AND a prestiguous Golden Mask award, not to mention being a huge favorite among balletomanes both East and West (everybody lauded her current performance as Masha in The Nutcracker).

I've seen online a number of Obraztsova's performances in "romantic" roles and she is excellent in these roles.

Alas, I just read she just passed away at the age of 92. Lepeshinskaya was one the best-known female dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet during the 1930's the 1950's, her fame at the Bolshoi only eclipsed when Galina Ulanova joined the Bolshoi in 1944.

Thank you, Cygnet! Three cheers for Yevgenia Obraztsova, Prima Ballerina in the hearts and minds of her many, MANY admirers, worldwide.

Having just seen again the Philips DVD of the Vainonen version of the Nutcracker from 1994, I can definitely imagine Obraztsova looking totally wonderful as Masha in this ballet. She's definitely winning over balletomanes doing "romantic" female leads, that's to be sure.

(A little aside--aren't you glad that the 2001 and 2002 Vaganova Academy graduating classes have produced such awesome female ballet dancers--Ekaterina Kondaurova, Olesya Novikova, Evgenia Obraztsova and Viktoria Tereshkina? )

Wow.

If Amazon is selling the DVD you mentioned, I'm getting it.

Unlike that other video you referenced, this appears to be more a true rotoscoping work or the Bolshoi dancers made a film of the movements and the animators based their drawings on the "live" film--the dance movements are just too natural looking for "pure" animation.

Wow--wonderful cartoon!

I agree with Mel--it doesn't look rotoscoped. But it was beautifully done anyway.

By the way, somebody needs to take a lot of these old Soviet-era animation shorts (many of which are classics that compare to the best of what American animators could do in the same period) and put them on DVD's for release in the USA.

I think we may have to come to terms with the idea that no Swan Lake today is really all that similar to the original 1895 production. Perhaps the general choreographic outline is still there as well as some of the steps, but unless someone takes the notations and reconstructs the ballet à la Sleeping Beauty, what we see today is not a reproduction of Petipa's and Ivanov's work. Even the Royal Ballet's production differs in major ways from what is known about the Petipa/Ivanov version, although it is probably the one that adheres most closely to it.

I believe that the notations used to reconstruct Sleeping Beauty in the original 1892 version could be used to do an almost exact match of the original 1895 version of Swan Lake. Now that Alexei Ratmansky will work for the American Ballet Theatre maybe we might just see such a reconstruction, given that Ratmansky has stated openly in the recent past he does want to do an exact reproduction of the 1895 original.

As such, if you want a version of Swan Lake currently performed that is probably closest to the original, the Royal Ballet version first performed in 1988 is probably the best you can get.

By the way, getting back on topic, I have to make a clarification: what I mean by "modern reference version" of Swan Lake is the version--even with all the changes in choreography since the 1895 original--that has lasted the longest and is still regularly performed today essentially unchanged since its original performance. The 1950 Konstantin Sergeyev version probably meets this criteria, in my humble opinion. (Interestingly, the Vladimir Bourmeister version from 1953 almost qualifies for my definition if the Stanislavsky Ballet is still performing it today.)

As referred to earlier by others, the latest RB choreographic version is closer to the Petipa/Ivanov production and has a greater claim to being a "universal reference" production than any other current production in spite the two clear amendments it contains, as mentioned elsewhere.

As I said earlier, I would agree because other than a few changes here and there, the current Royal Ballet version is pretty much what Petipa and Ivanov envisioned in the 1895 production. I think if Petipa were alive today he probably would recognize the Royal Ballet version easily.

However, ballet fans east of the former Iron Curtain would probably prefer the Sergeyev version, if only because that version has been performed pretty much unchanged all over Eastern Europe since it premiered in 1950. Petipa might not recognize the Sergeyev version, especially since (I believe) it integrated the major changes in the corps de ballet choreography in Act II (or Act I Scene 2 as it's known in Russia) by Agrippina Vaganova introduced in 1933.

Speaking of the "reference" version of Swan Lake, I'm really glad the Mariinsky Ballet doesn't perform the Vinogradov version from 1988. I've had someone describe to me the choreography of the Vinogradov version and the end of the ballet had a scene that looked a bit too much like the average large-scale Las Vegas production. All the more reason why I think the Konstantin Sergeyev 1950 version is the closest thing to the "reference" version of the ballet, with the Sir Frederic Ashton version for the Royal Ballet being a close second (some would say the closest because it's almost identical to the original Petipa/Ivanov 1895 version).

Anyway, in the end there are just as many variants of The Nutcracker as weeds in my backyard in summer. As such, you can't describe the "best" version, because even the two "reference" versions I mentioned (the 1934 Vainonen version and the 1954 Balanchine version) have their own strengths and weaknesses.

By the way, the reason why I mentioned Swan Lake in this discussion is that most versions performed today are pretty much very close to the 1895 Petipa/Ivanov version in terms of plot line, despite all the different versions of the end of the ballet. That's why the 1953 Bourmeister version caused such a sensation when it was first performed because it was so different in many ways from the Petipa/Ivanov version. In contrast, because Balanchine dramatically changed the storyline of the main female character in The Nutcracker (even changing character's name from Maria/Masha to Clara), that's why Europeans like one version and Americans like another version.