looking for Esmeralda pdd on video/DVD

[silvy]

hI

The last time ever I saw Esmeralda pdd danced was about 10 years ago, by the ballet of the Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Ever since, I have been dying to get a video of this pdd, and have done lots of searchs but to no avail.

Anyone knows where I can find it?

I do have the pas de six on video, danced by Asylmulatova and Melnikov, but not the pas de deux (in which Esmeralda dances her solo with a tambourine).

[rg]

so far as i can recall, this ESMERALDA PAS DE DEUX is only recently returning here and there after being off the boards for sometime now.

there's a version sometimes done in Paris, by its Jeunes Danseurs group - Nina Ananiashvili recently reintroduced it to NYC for some ABT gala performances.

the paris version, which i believe ananiashvili follows, had the following credits on a jeunes danseurs program in may 2003:

ESMERALDA PAS DE DEUX

music: Riccardo Drigo

choreography after Marius Petipa (1899) adapted by Genia Melikova and Nicholas Beriosoff (1954).

previously, the only version that seems to be on video is John Gilpin's version for the ROMANTIC ERA program organized by J. Wishy, from 1980. (no longer on the market from kultur as a videocassette and never, to the best of my knowledge, released on dvd).

here are the NYPL dance coll. cat. listing for the Paris Op version and for the Romantic Era/Gilpin version - note Paris says its music is Drigo and Gilpin's is credited to Pugni:

The romantic era / directed by Merrill Brockway ; produced by Joseph Wishy ; originally conceived, produced and directed for the stage by Joseph Wishy.

U.S. : ABC Video Enterprises, c1980.

Notes: Taped during the eighth annual International Cervantino Festival (Cervantes International Festival) at the Teatro Juarez, Guanajuato, Mexico, in spring 1980. Musical direction, George Crum ; set design, Ed Wittstein ; lighting, Ralph Holmes ; written by Faubion Bowers. Narrator: Erik Bruhn.

Danced by Eva Evdokimova with Peter Schaufuss, Ghislaine Thesmar with Michel Denard, Carla Fracci with James Urbain, and Alicia Alonso with Jorge Esquivel.

Music played by the Orchestra Sinfonic de Xalapa, conducted by George Crum.

Dance contents: Défilé / music, 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 / reconstruction and choreography, John Gilpin ; music, Cesare Pugni ; danced by Evdokimova and Schaufuss -- Pas de deux from Natalie (La laitière suisse) / reconstruction and choreography, Pierre Lacotte ; music, Adalbert Gyrowetz and Michele Enrico Carafa ; danced by Thesmar and Denard -- Pas de deux from La péri / reconstruction and choreography, Loris Gai ; music, 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, Alberto Méndez ; danced by Alonso and Esquivel ; introduced by Joseph Wishy.

Adagio from Act II of Giselle / choreography, Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, arranged by Anton Dolin ; music, 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, Anton Dolin ; music, Cesare Pugni ; danced by Alonso as Taglioni, Evdokimova as Grahn, Fracci as Cerrito, and Thesmar as Grisi ; introduced by Anton Dolin.

Alicia Alonso, Carla Fracci, Ghislaine Thesmar, and Eva Evdokimova are shown in various pas de deux from the Romantic era of 19th-century ballet, and in Anton Dolin's 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.

Esmeralda . Pas de deux. Chor: John Gilpin after Jules Perrot; mus: Cesare Pugni. Perf: Mexico, Guanajuato, Teatro Juarez, Cervantes International Festival, May 16-18, 1980; Eva Evdokimova & Peter Schaufuss.

[jllaney]

And the Esmerelda pas de deux is different from the Diana and Acteon Pas de deux from Esmerelda?

Thanks

[rg]

yes, the current version of 'diana and acteon' was inserted into the leningrad production of ESMERALDA by vaganova in 1935.

the 'esmeralda pas de deux' from who knows-what-source is for the esmeralda ballerina and a partner (i'm not sure if this is variously meant to be gringoire, phoebus or an unnamed fellow).

'diana and akteon' is a divertissement danced as allegorical characters diana, goddess of the hunt, etc. and akteon, an innocent mortal. (the precedent for this number, which vaganova 'recycled' to one degree or another, is a pas de deux a trois, featuring diana, endymion, and a satyr.