ballets in Mozart's operas?

[silvy]

AS you may know, this year there had been great celebrations in homage to Mozart.

I was asked to prepare some dance(s) to a Mozart opera, preferably to "The Magic Flute". Do you know if there is a ballet included i n that score? Or in case there is not, what other of his opera contains a ballet? I know that he composed a ballet (Les Petits riens), but it does not inspire me too much...........

[bart]

I was asked to prepare some dance(s) to a Mozart opera, preferably to "The Magic Flute".

Do they want you to interpolate a ballet into the opera -- or just use some of the music?

I'm now in the middle of watching several performances of a run of Magic Flute. I can't think of an expanse of worldless, danceable music within the opera itself that would allow for a ballet. Dance would seem rather distracting in this opera, I would think, since there is already quite a lot of action and significant text. But tonight I'll look again with you in mind.

As to music that could be used for a free-standing ballet, I'll have to leave it to others with more expertise.

Good luck with the project!

Meanwhile, slightly off topic, here's a recent thread that Bill started on the use of Mozart's music in ballet in general.:

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...21545&hl=mozart

[bart]

Back from my Magic Flute research assignment. Sorry -- nothing at all that fits the bill.

There is the dance music in Don Giovanni, I suppose.

I would love to hear what more knowledgeable posters have to say on this one.

[Helene]

It's not really dance music in The Magic Flute, but there is short orchestra music in the opera during Tamino/Pamina's trials that is dance-like in the Bergmann film.

Mozart wasn't writing for Paris, where the ballet-in-opera convention was important.

[Mel Johnson]

No, indeed, and Magic Flute is a singspiel, or musical comedy. In its original usage, the dancing in the production was very much integrated with the singing, there being no real separate dedicated dance music. The librettist Schickaneder, the original Papageno, found this arrangement to his liking, as he felt that he was a better dancer than a singer.

[bart]

Mel, that's very interesting. Do we know what KIND of dancing was performed and how complex or extensive it was? Was it integrated into the piece? Or did it consist of separate dances imposed upon or inserted into the piece as we know it today?

My ignorance of popular choreography and theatrical practices in that period (with the exception of minuets) is close to 100% However, your post made me think of the possibility of rustic character dancing, mostly to the Papageno/Papageno subplot or the Monostatos bits. And, now that you mention it, I can imagine of some sort of stately, sober pavane-like dance to some of the priestly choral numbers. The Three Ladies or the Three Genies might promenade, pose and wave their arms a bit during their numbers. But I can't think of anything classical or contemporary in style that might go with these.

[drb]

  But I can't think of anything classical or contemporary in style that might go with these.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Perhaps Mark Morris could come up with something. He's choreographed an opera (and also large scale choral works), and will take on Mozart for a full-length ballet this August.

[bart]

Thanks, drb. I suspect that Mark Morris could do almost anything. Or, at least, he has an uncanny ability to avoid what cannot be done.

Your note sent me to Google where I came upon an article by Morris himself (Times of London) on Mozart and dance, referring directly to the work commissioned for the Mostly Mozart Festival (NYC) this summer.

This seems directly relevant to silvy's inquiry, including a reference to choreographing to Idomeneo:

--------------------------------------------------------

QUOTE:

"When I hear Mozart I do hear dance. I maintain that Baroque and early Classical music is almost all dance rhythms. What’s more of a dance than Così fan tutte?"

"Is it easy to choreograph to? That’s the reason I didn’t do much of it when I was young: it seemed too simple. Why bother, you think, the music is square, in straight eights, it’s repeating. But it’s not! The hook is that it doesn’t quite match your expectation."

"I haven’t choreographed much Mozart. For the Mark Morris Dance Group I did Fugue and Fantasy, and then for myself I created Rondo. I directed The Marriage of Figaro at the Monnaie in Brussels and choreographed Idomeneo for Peter Sellars at Glyndebourne. But I’m currently immersed in Mozart because I’m choreographing three pieces for the Mostly Mozart Festival at the Lincoln Centre in New York in August. I’m using the Piano Concerto No 11 in F major, the Sonata for Two Pianos and the Piano Concerto No 27 in B Flat major, one of the last pieces he wrote. It’s more Mozart piano music than you would find in a concert."

____________________________________________

Here's the LINK to the Morris article:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/art...2000038,00.html

And here's a LINK to information about the entire festival (July 28 - August 26):

http://www.wnbc.com/lincolncenter/5894034/detail.html

[Mel Johnson]

Apparently, Papageno was supposed to dance while he sang, and I can imagine old Schickaneder doing a sort of schuhplattler while he sings all the "pa-pa-pa" stuff. Song n' dance, the real stuff of musical comedy.

[Helene]

I had forgotten about the little dance when Monastatos and his minions were enchanted, which is how Papageno gets to Pamina.

[bart]

This if off topic, but Puccini is also being used as a composer of new ballet choreography.

Here's a LINK to information about a Puccini evening by the Nilas Martins Dance Company, coming up in NYC in March. ((Thanks, zerbinetta, for posting it.):

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...=0entry176658

[silvy]

Hi everyone, and thanks for the load of interesting info...

The bit about "singspiel" was quite enlightening to me... so it was a musical comedy in the classical period...

Regarding bart's enquiry, I was asked to prepare some dance(s) to one of Mozart's operas, preferably "The Magic Flute". This would be for a sort of gathering (dinner), not for the theatre.

[Paul Parish]

The marriage of Figaro has a little ballet when -- is it Barbarina? and the peasants bring some gifts to the countess -- it's kind of pastoral, and could be very pretty in a Bournonville style.

The dancing to Papageno's magic Glockenspiel is brief but it is a fabulous opportunity to show beasts being brought under hte spell of music - I haven't seen, but I would LOVE to see, the recent Magic Flute in New York with the puppet-theater feel to it. can't remember who the choreographer is, I'm ashamed to say, considering how excited I was by the reports of it I read.

[Ed Waffle]

Apparently, Papageno was supposed to dance while he sang, and I can imagine old Schickaneder doing a sort of schuhplattler while he sings all the "pa-pa-pa" stuff. Song n' dance, the real stuff of musical comedy.

Both Richard Bernstein and Frank Hernandez have sung Papageno although not recently and Bernstein's voice is probably too dark for the role now. We have seen them here in Motown in a few roles. Both of them move on stage very well--we have seen Bernstein as Figaro and as Belcore on "Elixir of Love", both of which required some very dance like movement. Belcore especially--he danced and strutted on a table while recruiting Nemorino into his regiment.

Hernandez, as Ping in "Turandot" was all over the place and even though by no means a small man he moved very gracefully.

There are probably a number of "bari-hunks" who could carry off some well thought out dance steps for Papageno--he generally has to flap his arms and hop about anyway.

Edited March 8, 2006 by Ed Waffle

[dirac]

Good to hear from you, Ed. Thanks to everyone for the illuminating posts!

[bart]

Ballet Biarritz has just performed "Petits Riens" in a version by its AD Thierry Malandain. Here's a Los Angeles Times review, courtesy of dirac and our Links section:

http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/c...oll=cl-calendar

Sounds ... (how shall I put it?) .. interesting:

QUOTE:

"Midway through, Malandain introduced scenic units depicting clumps of brush behind which the dancers could disappear for various romantic or farcical liaisons. There was even a ballet flasher: a dancer in a period coat who looked like a boy but unveiled bare breasts long enough to prove otherwise.

"If you consider this kind of action an outrageous imposition on the music, do your homework: Like Malandain's references to Cupid, this cross-dressing and unveiling scene came straight from the original 1778 synopsis. The title "Les Petits Riens" translates as "The Little Nothings" (or "Bits of Nothing"), and Malandain made his treatment disarmingly irreverent, impulsive and effervescent