What to Do To/ With / Instead of

[carbro]

We seemed to be on quite a roll on the other thread. Let's continue here.

[oberon]

I have a feeling we might see another full-length ballet at NYCB in the next couple of years. A familiar story & score.

For all the controversy around Peter's SWAN LAKE it's done pretty well at the box office, which is always a consideration. The house has been fuller during the recent run than at some of the NUTCRACKERs I saw, and much fuller than repertory nights. I think the general public sees advertisements for SWAN LAKE or CINDERELLA or ROMEO & JULIET and that means more to them than AGON, FANCY FREE or POLYPHONIA. Also, NYCB had a very nice poster done up for their SWAN which showed very traditional pictures of a couple of Odettes and the swan corps. I've noted many passersby being drawn to this poster, and in fact being photographed in front of it. While NYCB is not a traditional full-length ballet company, a broader public associates names like GISELLE or SLEEPING BEAUTY and most especially SWAN LAKE with "going to the ballet".

Whether the casual ballet-goer liked the SWAN when they saw it could be questioned, but maybe they fell in love with Sara Mearns or Ash Bouder and decided to come back to see more ballet. That is always a good thing.

PS: ...the Robert Wilson SWAN LAKE!! Adagio, anyone?

[Helene]

Whatever I think of individual Swan Lake productions, I also think that a production of the ballet in NYC is different than a production anywhere else, except possibly London and Paris, because there is at least one other permanent company performing the same ballet and numerous companies that tour with the ballet. I wonder about alternate visions of the ballet in cities where that IS Swan Lake for as long as it takes to amortize the costs of all of those sets and costumes. (Ex: Wheeldon in Philadelphia, Kudelka in Toronto).

I haven't seen the Martins version of Swan Lake, live or on TV. I have seen Martins Sleeping Beauty multiple times, though. I loved the sets and costumes and much about it, but what I disliked about the version was the handling of the fairies, the Jewels divertissements in the Wedding scene, and the self-crowning Napoleonic apotheosis. What the fairies and Jewels had in common was breakneck speed and lack of air and perfume. From the reviews I've read here and in the press of Swan Lake, it sounds like Martins extended this throughout Swan Lake.

If I'm going to sit through a multiple act classic story ballet, I don't want it pared down to dance, dance, dance for three hours, just as I don't want to go to see a standard production of Carmen and hear "Habanera," "Seguidilla," "Flower Song," "Quintet," "Toreador Song," and the final scene, without the contrasting scenes and drama in-between. Balanchine knew to limit this approach to a one acter, with a maximum of 40 minutes; I love the Act II version that Balanchine choreographed for NYCB. Peter Brook, when he took a similar approach to Carmen, stripped down the drama to four or five singers and restructured the drama to fit a chamber approach. But it wasn't marketed as the same opera.

The court scenes aren't there just for pretty, endless, boring dancing: they're to set the stage, literally, and also to provide context and tension. The court is the foil to Siegfried, and the delay until he finds what he's yearning. It's what he's up against. But "It" is also a classical convention that spanned the different forms of dancing, from character to classical, and a range of characters, a mini-pagent of sorts.

In a full length Swan Lake, I want to see range of types of dancing that Petipa would recognize, and I want mime. I don't want to cut straight to the "act" and see it over and over again. I want the balletic equivalent of foreplay.

[oberon]

I understand exactly what you are saying and those who want the whole 9 yards with courtiers, tutor, lots of mime, etc can get it at ABT - though their production has its oddities as well. Peter's tells the whole story, without getting bogged down. It really isn't at all like "greatest hits from CARMEN" but it might more reasonably be compared to CARMEN without the spoken dialogue. The ethnic dances are there, and the would-be-brides, the jester, cygnets, black swans in the finale.

It's funny that I have ended up defending this production because I simply loathed it at first. It's the dancers that keep me going back. I could not imagine sitting through 5 performances in ten days of a "traditional" SWAN LAKE with all the mime and 3 intermissions...I'd be exhausted. I guess for me, as apparently for Balanchine, the first lakeside scene is the essence of SWAN LAKE. Peter may have edited but Balanchine discarded, and still calls it SWAN LAKE. Because even there, you really get the whole scenario: the meeting, the tenderness, the parting.

I suppose Peter's SWAN LAKE might be compared to Chereau's RING CYCLE at Bayreuth which drew a very hostile response because there was no Grane and Wotan wore a smoking jacket. Eventually people saw that it was a powerful telling of the tale with a more modern resonance. Timeless, actually.

[Mel Johnson]

Would perhaps the Bayreuth audience have sat still for no Wagner, though? Here we have no Petipa and damned little Ivanov.

[Hans]

In my opinion, it's not Balanchine who discarded, but Martins. Balanchine took a few important parts of the ballet and condensed them, whereas Martins has thrown out much of the heart of Swan Lake.

For all its speed, I find the Martins production tedious (to put it politely) who cares about the jester's endless entrechats-sixes and a whole lot of bourrées by the swans? The story is not communicated via the choreography; rather, the choreography obscures it.

[oberon]

But we still have Tchaikovsky.

The heart of SWAN LAKE is the first lakeside scene. That's all Balanchine gives us, and it also is there - and beating quite strongly - in Peter's version.

[Helene]

But we still have Tchaikovsky.

The heart of SWAN LAKE is the first lakeside scene. That's all Balanchine gives us, and it also is there - and beating quite strongly - in Peter's version.

But what do the other three acts do to justify a full-length production?

[drb]

Act 3 contains the PdQ, an exciting vehicle for a quartet of dancers one might not have expected to find at NYCB. So, it affords the dancers a chance to "stretch." Act 4 for once gives a tragic, really sad ending, not happily-ever-after, nor even happily-dead-together-ever-after. It won't replace the "real" version, but that should be the responsibility of the classical companies.

[atm711]

But what do the other three acts do to justify a full-length production?

I have been asking myself that question for years. For most of my early years of ballet-going I was content to see Act 2 and an occcasional Black Swan PDD. The first full-length I saw was the Sadlers Wells production which they b rought to NYC on their first tour--attributed to Sergeyev. What I gained was the melancholic Act 4 which I loved, and added so much to the Work, and we all know what has happened to that Act in today's productions. When I watch my SL tapes, I FF Act 1, watch all of Act 2, FF Act 3 except for Black Swan, and watch what is left of Act 4. I don't think I have gained much over the years; I would again be contented with Act 2 and a Black Swan.

[bart]

I echo atm 711, and confess to some fast forwarding especially in Act One, where I tend to fall into the Prince's melancholy more than the forced gaity of his courtiers.

Act III I do like, and get my character dancing and courtiers-parading-around fixes there.

We are all products of our experiences. As someone who grew up on mediocre and uneveningly performed full-lengths (Ballet Theater included) and compared them very unfavoraby to the superb Balanchine Act II, I guess I'm prejudiced.

Recently, other than the Martins version and a few new videos, I've been restricted to touring Russian full lengths that are scenically scaled down and competently (rarely more than that) danced. These are the obligatory classics -- good for evoking memories of other, better performances, and for occasional superb surprises.

Full lengths do provide a full evening, however. And it can be a great thing to dress up, have a good dinner, and sink into the seat to get back in touch with an old friend for a nice, long visit.

[Helene]

I think that drb's adroit comment from the National Ballet of Canada thread applies:

It is a droit du seigneur of all Artistic Directors to improve Swan Lake.

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=12511

[Mel Johnson]

But we still have Tchaikovsky.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We do if we buy a CD, too. That's about what I get out of Martins' version.