The Indian Dance / Act II of La Bayadere

[JosBiviano]

Greetings All! I just recently purchased a complete recording (Audio CD) of the Paris Opera's 3-Act La Bayadere. While the program notes list Minkus as the "complete composer" to the ballet, I can't help but notice that a few dance numbers seem out of character for Minkus. Cheif amongst these is the tempestuous Indian Drum Dance from Act II. Did Minkus compose this number? It's seems more in the style of Soloviev-Sedoy, a modern-day Soviet composer. I know that Soloviev-Sedoy did compose some interpolations for Don Quixote, which can be heard in Boris Spassov's recording for the Capriccio Label. Did he do the same for La Bayadere? Any information I could get would be gratefully appreciated. --Jos

[rg]

i can't recall if this has been discussed here previously.

i believe the dance appears in the recent kirov 'reconstruction' of the ballet, leading one to suspect that it was in place in the early 1900s.

a film from the turn of the 20th c. by shiryaev includes a rendering of this dance, much as we still see it today, as rendered by puppets of shiryarev's making, also in a choreographic rendering close to today's versions of the choreography.

likewise there is a legat caricature of vasilii nikolaievich stukolkin, who danced at the maryinsky from approx. 1899 -1911) in the lead male drum-beating dancer, again closely resembling what we see nowadays in russian/soviet stagings.

all that the stagers of the new/old kirov BAYADERE say in their 2002 notes about the "Indian Dance" is that "lost choreographic elements" "have been restored" - in so saying there is no mention of the music as having been reworked later than the 1900 choreographic notations from which this production was said to be fashioned.

it's possible the muic was reworked after petipa's time but the notations to the new/old BAYADERE, which sometimes refer to musical changes, etc. do not, as noted, offer any information in this direction.

[Mel Johnson]

To the best of my knowledge, Minkus was the "complete composer" of La Bayadere. I mean, he had both arms, both legs, He had a toenail that kept falling off, and did get a little thin on top as he got older, but apart from that, yes, he was complete.

[doug]

This dance is included in the 1900 choreographic notation of Bayadere. Surprising, but there it is.

[JosBiviano]

thank you all for the info!

[Mme. Hermine]

Anna-Marie Holmes staged a complete Bayadere for Boston Ballet in 2000 that included this dance.