Paquita or Don Q?

[Arak]

I took a workshop this summer from a teacher who is a particular favorite of mine. During variations class, he taught us a variation to music that I always identified as belonging to one of Kitri's variations, but he insisted it was from Paquita! The choerograpy was not that normally associated with Kitri (with the characteristic jump), so I wonder: is there a piece of music originally set in Paquita that was "borrowed" for Don Quixote?

[Mel Johnson]

The "Paquita grand pas" that we see today is a pastiche of all different variations from everywhere. Many of them aren't even by Minkus. The original music for the ballet was composed by Deldevez and Nadaud, and when Marius Petipa revived it in St. Petersburg, he had additional pas de deux and divertissements written by Minkus. Likewise, the present Don Quixote is also heavily supplemented with additional music written by god-knows-who and added over the years. Reestablishing either work would be a considerable undertaking, as some of the variations are traded back and forth between the two for years.

(PS. This wouldn't happen to be the Fandango variation in Act I of Don Q., would it? 2/4, fast, ends with a diagonal of pirouettes from 5th that cross the stage?)

[Arak]

Yes, that sounds about right. I think that's the one I'm talking about. It's hard to describe music without using sound though...

[Mel Johnson]

That one's definitely from Don Q. It gets batted back and forth between its source and various versions of the "Paquita grand pas" (Titles like that always bother me. I keep wondering where Paquita's grand mas is) If it's sort of Spanish, or even not, and musique dansant, no matter the composer, it's fair game for somebody's version.

[BW]

Arak, you're not the only one out there who has this sort of experience - I had a similar one and posted on it last year or so - "Music in more than one ballet?" It's nice to know we're not crazy!

Thanks Mel!