The Little Humpbacked Horse

[MinkusPugni]

Very confused... I thought that Cesare Pugni composed "The Little Humpbacked Horse" as the famous 6/8 variation from Paquita apparently comes from that, though I have never heard the rest of the ballet but the Bolshoi's version released on DVD is composed by Rodion Shchedrin so this version of the ballet must be fairly recent as Shchedrin is a fairly recent composer so I'm just wondering - when did this new version come about and why did it replace the old one?

[leonid17]

Very confused... I thought that Cesare Pugni composed "The Little Humpbacked Horse" as the famous 6/8 variation from Paquita apparently comes from that, though I have never heard the rest of the ballet but the Bolshoi's version released on DVD is composed by Rodion Shchedrin so this version of the ballet must be fairly recent as Shchedrin is a fairly recent composer so I'm just wondering - when did this new version come about and why did it replace the old one?

The original composer of the score for the 1864 production by Arthur Saint- Leon was Cesare Pugni and was premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre (some sources say Maryinsky Theatre), St. Petersburg.

Two years later Saint-Leon staged the ballet at Moscow's Bolshoi theatre with new costumes and sets.

In 1901 at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Alexander Gorsky staged a version of this ballet (after Saint-Leon) which included music by, Glazunov, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Anton Yulievich Simon (1850-1916) a conductor and composer who assisted Gorsky in other production of ballets at the Bolshoi Theatre. This production was staged at the Maryinsky on the 16th December 1912 which Feodor Lopukhov later revived(after Gorsky) in 1945

The Gorsky version was revived in 1928 at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow and at the same theatre a revised version was given in 1948 (after Gorsky).

It is assumed given the style of the music, but I can find no confirmation, that the composer Schedrin had revised and re-orchestrated at least some of the earliest score rather than creating an entirely original score.

The direct attribution of Rodion Konstantinovich Schedrin (b 16th December 1932) as composer arose from the production staged on 4th March 1960 at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow in which his wife Maya Plisetskaya played the leading role which she shared with Rimma Karelskaya during its early performances that were conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

Schedrin's Opus 7A is "The Little Humpbacked Horse", First suite from the ballet for symphony orchestra (1955) and his Opus 7 is "The Little Humpbacked Horse", ballet in four acts (1956). There are two audio recordings of the score conducted by Georgi Zhemchuzhin and Yevgeni Svetlanov.

The full score was written by Schedrin two years before his marriage to Plisetskaya. Was it a proposal?

[Ostrich]

When did the Bolshoi last perform Little Hunchbacked Horse? I remember once seeing a video clip of Lunkina performing a dance from it in what looked like a full ballet setting, however I can find no other evidence of such a recent performance at the Bolshoi.

[Natalia]

...It is assumed given the style of the music, but I can find no confirmation, that the composer Schedrin had revised and re-orchestrated at least some of the earliest score rather than creating an entirely original score....

Schedrin's 1960 score is 100% original. I'm familiar with both scores and I can assure you that no single passage of the Schedrin score remotely sounds like Pugni.

The Gorsky/Pugni-et-al version of the ballet was a staple of the Vaganova Academy until the early 1990s but hasn't been performed in its entirety in ages, although isolated pieces (such as the Frescoes Quartet or the Lizst Hungarian Dance) pop up in school performances every now and then. Kurgapkina staged a one-hour condensed version for Soviet television around 1988. Also, a ballet troupe in Japan staged the Enchanted Island scene in the year 2000. Maybe one of these days Pierre Lacotte will be inspired to revive the full ballet.

[leonid17]

...It is assumed given the style of the music, but I can find no confirmation, that the composer Schedrin had revised and re-orchestrated at least some of the earliest score rather than creating an entirely original score....

The Gorsky/Pugni-et-al version of the ballet was a staple of the Vaganova Academy until the early 1990s but hasn't been performed in its entirety in ages, although isolated pieces (such as the Frescoes Quartet or the Lizst Hungarian Dance) pop up in school performances every now and then. Kurgapkina staged a one-hour condensed version for Soviet television around 1988. Also, a ballet troupe in Japan staged the Enchanted Island scene in the year 2000. Maybe one of these days Pierre Lacotte will be inspired to revive the full ballet.

Igor Belsky staged a version at the Maly Theatre in 1963 using the Schedrin score which to my ears hardly sounds like a mid 1950's composition as the themes sound traditional and emanating from the past.

As much as I enjoyed La Fille du Pharoan as a romp, it was not an authentic re-construction and I would therefore be pleased if Lacotte's hands were 'kept off' the Saint-Leon/Petipa original 'Konyek Gorbunok'.

[Natalia]

Sorry, leonid, but the Schedrin sounds sharp and edgy to me. None of the enchanting waltzes and galops of the sort heard in the other Pugni masterworks, such as Pharaoh's Daughter, Ondine or Esmeralda. Had it not been for Lacotte's creations, we never would have heard many of Pugni's historic scores. For that alone, he has done an incredible service to today's balletomanes!

The two-act Belsky version at the Maly is cut for the attention span of children; for ex., it omits the entire underwater episode that is so famous in the fairy tale.