Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

Some More 'le Antique Ballet Photos'


Recommended Posts

"Coppelia" @ the Empire Theatre, London - early 1900s?

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/9386/copp...atre19008jn.jpg

Heres a pic of a Ballerina named Pobelanskaya circa 1919, the second link is the back of the postcard. When I got this photo from ebay, the seller had translated a portion of the back for the auction. It was written by the dancer in the photograph, but I dont remeber what was said in the traslation -

front photo - http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/9817/pobe...aya191918zw.jpg

back writing - http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/9201/pobe...aya191929zk.jpg

"Le Corsaire" -I dont know who these dancers are -1844

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/1120/lecorsaire18443ab.jpg

"The Nutcracker" - Vsevolozhsky's design for the costumes for the 'Dance with the Little Fifes' -1892

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/9224/scos...edancewithl.jpg

"Swan Lake" - Act II (or Act I, scene 2) corps -1895, St. Petersburg

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/8076/swanlake18957sh.jpg

"Swan Lake" - Moscow production -1901 (I can make a pretty good guess and say that this is of Act II dancers (or Act I, scene 2). Note the use of children)

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/6586/sw...scow19012ro.jpg

"The Nutcracker" Act II design by Konstantin Ivanov -1892

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/2041/nutc...konstantini.jpg

as well as this one, which one which?

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/6290/nutc...onstantini1.jpg

"Swan Lake" Pavel Gerdt in his costume for Act II (or Act I, scene 2). -1895

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/3027/pa...swanlake189.jpg

"La Fille Mal Gardee" Pavel Gerdt as Colas -this photo looks as though it was taken long before Petipa/Ivanov's 1885 revival

http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/376/pavel...llemalgarde.jpg

"The Sleeping Beauty" Dancers costumed for the Prologue. The center dancer is in a costume similar to that of Marie Petipa's Lilac Fairy Prologue costume. The background is the same as in all of the "Sleeping Beauty" 1890 photos -1890, St. Petersburg

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/7461/sl...ctersfromth.jpg

"The Sleeping Beauty" Marie Petipa costumed as the Lilac Fairy...her 'other' costume -1890

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/636/sleep...petipatheli.jpg

Compare the above photo to Veronika Part in the 'same' costume, below, -1999

http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/2640/ve...airy19990tq.jpg

Link to comment

Wow, Solor! Thanks!

"The Nutcracker" Act II design by Konstantin Ivanov -1892 http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/2041/nutc...konstantini.jpg

as well as this one, which one which? http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/6290/nutc...onstantini1.jpg

Looks like the same set to me, with the arch removed, which may have happened once dancers filled the stage.
"The Sleeping Beauty" Marie Petipa costumed as the Lilac Fairy...her 'other' costume -1890 http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/636/sleep...petipatheli.jpg

Compare the above photo to Veronika Part in the 'same' costume, below, -1999 http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/2640/ve...airy19990tq.jpg

Interesting that Part wears boots, while Petipa appears to be in slippers!
Link to comment

the SLEEPING BEAUTY prologue fairy is likely Anna Johanson, as Canarai. the vikharev staging from 1999 included these same pages, w/ their trumpets decorated w/ pennants saying: CANARAI

re: P.Gerdt in hat and coulottes - i suspect this is more fitting his role as Luke in THE MAGIC FLUTE than Colin, tho' of course he danced both roles.

the 1901 moscow SWAN LAKE, which fails to open in my browser, is likely gorsky's 'after petipa/ivanov' version - the bolshoi premiere of this staging occasioned a number of photos, including the one i assume to be named here with the childern in as little swan maidens, much as such student roles were present in the '95 st. petersburg prod.

here are a few more related scans, two of less than clear quality as they come from a soviet-produced book:

1] a grouping of swan maidens with gerdt ostensibly in '95

2] marie m. petipa as Lilac, in her 'chemise' costume, perhaps for the end of act 1 or act 3, wearing her heeled slippers (if they can be seen in the crude repro.)

3] [scan removed] aleksandr orlov (fokine's first Moor in PETROUCHKA) as siegfried in SWAN LAKE - obviously gerdt's costume prevailed into the early 20th c. (this card itself is likely a soviet era reproduction of an imperial era photo - the embossed stamp of the imperial theater can be seen in the photo's lower right corner where it was originally placed, but the repro blocks out the text from the card's lower edge - probably because it noted the imperial theater name and era; here orlov's name is more crudely written into the new copy-print negative. so the photo itself is obviously pre-1917; the card, post-17.

post-848-1143993905.jpg

post-848-1143993922.jpg

Link to comment

--Now did the Mariinksy make use of that particular Marie Petipa costume for the 1999 reconstruction? I believe that is for Act III, as the tutu was for the Prologue and Act I (i think?) and the "notorious" costume that I offered in the pix at the bottom of my above post, was for the vision scene. I have a photo of Maire in that same costume photographed with Brianza in her Act I costume (lying on the floor) with the king and queen, catalabute, and I think a page or something...I dont have it scanned however.

--now those swan costumes look alot shorter than the pic I provided from the 1895 Swan Lake....hmm? I wonder if the Sergeyev notations for Swan Lake contain parts for children in Act II/IV (aka act 1, scene 2/act III), or for that matter any famous scene that is usually inhabited by all woman.

Wasnt the 1900 bayadere choreographed for 48 woman and some children? I have another photo of Kschessinska and Gerdt in the 1900 Shades scene, interestingly, not all of the Shades ballerinas in the background are costumed the same. I have to get that one scanned to share it.

RG - Do you have any 1900/1877 Bayadare pics?

Link to comment

i think the vikharev reconstruction showed all three versions of lilac's costuming: tutu, chemise and minerva-like dress. (the easiest part of these reconstructions is the visual side - the costume and scenic design sketches are among the most concrete of the original production's remaining documents.)

i think wiley's recommendation to include children in the dowell/sonnabend production of SWAN LAKE comes from his reading of sergeyev's notations. so i assume these childrens' roles are indicated there. apparently tho the royal b. doesn't tour with the children (or include their appearances outside covent garden) that they remain part of the first lakeside scene when the prod. is shown in london. i'm unaware of any children's roles in the final act, but i could be forgetting something here; british balletgoers can say more.

i know of no children indicated in BAYADERE's shades. the panorama photo from 1900 taken on the maryinsky stage set with the shades' scene decor and showing kshessinska with gerdt is i think one of those publicity photos that was arranged more for the occasion of the photograph than as a document of a single moment in the ballet. my hunch is that the differentlydressed dancers in the tableau are from another act, probably the betrothal sc. but perhaps act 1, who were posed by the photographer - or maybe even the stager - to fill out and elaborate the picture. this photo is variously reproduced, sometimes in a retouched version as it likely appeared in the imperial yearbook for 1900, and it's often murky of detail, esp. given the sometimes crude screen/printing of soviet book production.

Link to comment

the following represents part of an email correspondence Alastair Macaulay has kindly given me permission to post here.

his commentary sprang from an exchange we were having about details related to SWAN LAKE. the attached photo, mentioned earlier in this thread, is a scan in my possession of a photocard i don't own. it shows mordkin and giuri (gorsky's first cast siegfried and odette/odile in 1901) posed in a grouping that includes two student dancers. my question to macaulay was if he recalled whether or not the royal's dowell/wiley-advised staging included pointes for the student dancers. he said he couldn't recall that detail then provided me with the many details given below.

here then is what macaulay's email said:

"What is interesting is that these two photographed swan-girls are around Odette in something like the proximity that the Royal's ring of girls takes (or used to take - it has been revised more than once).

"As staged in '87, if I recall aright, the eight girls used to run in with her as she made her second entrance, run run run run run bang No Please Prince Do Not Shoot My Flock - and while she mimed, they had arrived kneeling around her feet. As you see in the photo, really, but with more space between him and them, and all eight girls kneeling as one.

"Then they stayed onstage while she departed, and as the swans re-formed, they became the central line for the big valse, in which they did just the basic simple steps (on pointe or not, I just forget, or rather I have begun to imagine it both ways). Gradually they valsed forwards and around the sides, becoming later a horizontal line along the back, eight of them.

"Then when Odette re-entered for the great adagio, there were moments when they would again re-form around her in a ring. Maybe just one moment, actually, but this is indelible: at the great moment when Odette breaks away from Siegfried's arms, retreats towards Rothbart's corner (except more like stage centre) while he, for once, does not follow her, these girls all arrived around her feet in that ring again - folded over in the dying-swan position like suppliants. (She then had to step over them to return to him, which was a little tricky.)

"The last time I saw it, they had turned this ring into a U shape, to make her return to him easier. But some kind of ring must be choreographically right, because it prepares one for those wonderful protective rings the swans make in Act Four, out of the last of which she again steps to rejoin him when he has abandoned hope."

NB: i would ask that tho' this is posted on BT that it not be quoted or printed elsewhere w/o macaulay's expressed permission.

post-848-1144160765.jpg

Link to comment

WOW - very cool RG! That is the same pic I provided above. In fact I should tell everyone that the pix I have posted in the past are NOT ALL MINE........I have found them here and there on the web (most of them), as well as scans of stuff I have from my own modest collection and books, etc. Many of the postcards I actually got from ebay (check it out - there are lots up for grabs.......and always out of Isreal?). I like to share these photos for those who have not seen them, as they are so wonderful.

Now is the Royal Ballet Dowell/Wiley informed staging of Swan Lake available on DVD/video? I did not know of this production.

by the way, how is it that you are able to put up photos like that RG with the thumbnail?

Link to comment

i meant to note that when i posted the gorsky swanlake grouping that i was doing so because the one said to be posted above would not open in my browser, while all the others given in links did.

but i was aware of a previous intention to post this. sorry for the confusion.

moderators are able, if i understand the process correctly, to post photos on specific threads, this permission allows for the presence of thumbnails to the posted scans.

so far as i know, the dowell/wiley/sonnabend prod. of SWAN LAKE has never been filmed 'officially' by the royal ballet. when wiley was given an award for his Ivanov book in nyc a few years ago, the award presentation included showing a royal ballet/covent garden house tape of the first lakeside sc. that included the student dancer swan-maiden section. this private archive tape however was brought over after much red tape and shown only once before being returned to the royal ballet. i don't think the nypl has any such films in its collection. the following nypl dance coll. entry indicates an article wiley wrote around the time of his participation in dowell's staging. i believe it was included in one (or more) ABT press kits for background material to its staging(s) of SWAN LAKE.

Wiley, Roland John.

The revival of Swan lake.

The dancing times. London. Mar 1987, p 492.

On the revival at Covent Garden.

Swan lake (Choreographic work : Dowell after Ivanov and Petipa, M)

i also forgot to note in my macaulay post that he recommended checking wiley's TCHAIKOVSKY'S BALLETS for further information on the notations of the lakeside scenes including the participation of the younger dancers.

Link to comment

Moderator's note:

moderators are able, if i understand the process correctly, to post photos on specific threads, this permission allows for the presence of thumbnails to the posted scans.
Just as a point of clarification, I believe only Board Moderators and Editorial Advisors have this permission.
Link to comment
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...