GeorgeB fan Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 Has there ever been a biography written about the creator of Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, La Bayadere, Raymonda and in general the style that has become know as classical ballet. I've been looking but I could not find a book about him. I would find it strange that no biography has never been written of this great man of ballet. Link to comment
Alexandra Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 Bellieve it or not -- NO! At least, not in English. There are Russian biographies, and his complete diaries are available in German (and two years, I write from memory, at the end of his career in English, in a monograph by Lynn Garafola published by Dance History Scholars. I don't know of anything else. If someone does, please post! Link to comment
rg Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 tchaikovsky scholar Roland John Wiley has been working on a biography of MARIUS PETIPA for some years now. it was, i believe, in the works before the same author published his book on Lev Ivanov. i haven't heard any guesstimates on the petipa book's arrival in print. maybe others have. the truth is i don't even know of a work sought here in russian either. moscow-located dance critic and writer vadim gayevsky has published a book (in russian) called: DOM PETIPA (The House of Petipa), but there are no plans i know of to translate this book. Link to comment
Mireille Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 Marius Petipa wrote his memoires after being fired in 1904, which were translated into Russian. The French version was eventually lost and a new French version was translated into French from the available Russian translation. It is published by Actes Sud, translated by Galia Ackerman and Pierre Lorrain and is entitled "Memoires". Link to comment
doug Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 "Marius Petipa. Materialy, vospominaniya, stat'i" (materials, recollections, articles), ed. Yuri Slonimsky and others, was published in Russia in 1971 and has since been translated into German. Link to comment
Herman Stevens Posted January 11, 2005 Share Posted January 11, 2005 I have asked myself the same question, too. It's the weirdest thing. Imagine there was no modern biography of Mozart or Picasso... Link to comment
Alexandra Posted January 11, 2005 Share Posted January 11, 2005 It is astounding. If I'm rememering correctly, the late Gennady Smakov was working on a Petipa biography. I remember reading that around the time his "Great Russian Dancers" and Baryshnikov biography were published. And then he died. I've always wondered if he had begun work on it, and if so, what happened to his research. Link to comment
GeorgeB fan Posted January 12, 2005 Author Share Posted January 12, 2005 Y'know when I wrote this post I was sure someone would write and tell me that their is a worldwide biography of Petipa. The reason why it was difficult in finding it was maybe because it was out-of-print and they would be able to direct me or anyone else to a website in possibly purchasing a copy or going on a waiting list. So imagine my surprise in finding out not only is there not a biography but of the few pieces of information written by or about him are in languages I cannot read. I just hope some biographer (Alexandra - ) come along and undo this unjustise. But seriously I do hope that someday someone will write about life of Petipa - a fascinating subject I'm sure would be a fascinating read. Link to comment
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