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New 'Le Corsaire' at Bolshoi


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So many good ideas! Many thanks to everybody. We could invent a personal phrase for each of three ballerinas according to their appearance and temperament. Why not? Just to see how adequate we understand our ballerinas.

Do you think "bottoms up" fits better Masha Alexandrova than Sveta Zakharova?

I like also Anchors aweigh and even consulted in Moscow - people think it would be difficult to pronounce for Russian ballerinas. This is a point we should not forget.

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Medora could shout, 'Yo ho ho!' and then everyone could reply, 'And a bottle of rum!'
In the US there would be a sponsorship deal with Bacardi or Mt. Gay They would provide the booze for the opening night party and require the dancers to appear in publicity photos holding up the bottles.
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Well, there is an opera by Bellini, which starts very much like Corsaire, but ends badly for the hero (he gets executed for murder). It's called Il Pirata.

But it's very much in the spirit of the ballet to discuss a spoken cue. Le Corsaire has always seemed to me to be like a "buddy movie" like Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Romancing the Stone. One of the buddies is a good-looking woman, so there's an added sexual tension, but it doesn't destroy the core friendships. Indeed, doing the pas de deux à trois reinforces this impression. And of course, the good guys get away at the end, even if it is into more trouble! This kind of show, with its melodramatic spikes, is leavened with neat little comical touches like "Au bord", or whatever is to be said. This has been one of the most entertaining and challenging threads we've had in a long time, having to do with what is called on Broadway, "scene doctoring".

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Medora will shout in Russian.

According to my info, Ratmansky suggested two variants of the war-call at the rehearsal of “Le Corsaire” last Thursday. Namely, the first was in English - “all aboard”, the second one was in French - “au bord”, exactly as it was in Emperors time. He declined “bottoms up” without further explanations. But our ballerinas were not enthusiastic and finally Ratmansky decided to keep the Russian text - “na abordage” (whic is actually in French, but this word was accepted by Russian language long ago).

Thanks to everybody for the constructive discussion.

Bolshoi company started to London today early in the morning. Svetlana Zakharova who opens the tour tomorrow flew yesterday. Good luck and great success to all of them!

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Medora will shout in Russian.

According to my info, Ratmansky suggested two variants of the war-call at the rehearsal of “Le Corsaire” last Thursday. Namely, the first was in English - “all aboard”, the second one was in French - “au bord”, exactly as it was in Emperors time. He declined “bottoms up” without further explanations. But our ballerinas were not enthusiastic and finally Ratmansky decided to keep the Russian text - “na abordage” (whic is actually in French, but this word was accepted by Russian language long ago).

Thanks to everybody for the constructive discussion.

Bolshoi company started to London today early in the morning. Svetlana Zakharova who opens the tour tomorrow flew yesterday. Good luck and great success to all of them!

I am looking forward to the production but have been overwhelmed with information about the various productions past and current, the source of the music(some contradictory accreditations) and a mish mash of choreography from various sources. I am hoping the production will have the cohesion that it needs to be successful.

The video clips I have seen look vibrant with the corps de ballet work, but the principals seem unable to have a polished finish to their variations. I am hoping tomorrow will be life enhancing and will brighten up the gloom of the dreadful weather we have had in London during July. The Coliseum is a wonderful theatre for ballet and I have a good seat in the stalls(£85.00).

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Medora will shout in Russian.

Didn't we know that from the start? :rofl: Why did you ever make us try, Mikhail ? :tiphat:

I doubt that you will find anything "life enhancing" tomorrow, Leonid, but you may enjoy it nonetheless... Hopefully the principals will have "polished" their variations for the London show!

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Medora will shout in Russian.

Didn't we know that from the start? :rofl: Why did you ever make us try, Mikhail ? :tiphat:

I doubt that you will find anything "life enhancing" tomorrow, Leonid, but you may enjoy it nonetheless... Hopefully the principals will have "polished" their variations for the London show!

I used the term "life enhancing" merely as the opposite of "life debilitating." Enjoyment is of a much lower order of experience as you suggest. You have the advantage of having seen this production and I have only so far, seen video clips in which the principals strive for effect and not art and when they failed to finish enchainements and variations cleanly, I would say they failed on both accounts.

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I'm opening a new topic to discuss news and post reviews on the big new 'Le Corsaire' by the Bolshoi Ballet. Following four performances at home, the production will be packed-up and shipped to the London Colisseum for the August '07 tour. The only announced set of principals thus far consist of Svetlana Zakharova and Denis Matvienko.

According to the Bolshoi website (bolshoi.ru), this will be a very traditional production, based on the Harvard notes, restoring the original score and reviving the late-1890s costumes from the Mariinsky. Sounds promising! A bit of information directly from the Bolshoi web:

*****

Will be premiered on June 21, 2007.

Presented with two intervals.

Use is made in the production of music by Leo Delibes, Cesare Pugni, Pyotr von Oldenburg, Riccardo Drigo, Albert Zabel, Julius Gerber.

Music dramaturgy conception – Yuri Burlaka

Score restored by Alexander Troitsky

The original score by Adolphe Adam/Leo Delibes for Le Corsaire has been made available by L'Opera national de Paris from the archives of La Bibliotheque nationale de France

The choreographic notation has been made available by the Harvard University Theatre Collection

Evgeny Ponomaryov's costume sketches (1899) used in the production have been made available by the St. Petersburg State Theatre Library

****

I'll be in London in August & hope to report what I see at that time. In the meantime, I hope that some of our Moscow-based members will be able to report on next week's premiere performances.

Saw the London opening night and was fairly disappointed on a lot of counts. Zakharova was lack lustre in Act I but redeemed herself somewhat in the other two acts. I did'nt realise she had such a problem with turns. Great audience I was sitting amongst four ambassadoes who were friendly, the Duke of Kent, Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana's stepmother and more importantly Wayne Eagling and Michael Corder. Alistair Macauley was in attendance in what I would describe as his usual less than elegant attire. Perhaps he needs a salary rise. I am seeing second cast with Alexandrova and Tsiskaridze tonight(It is now past midnight and I will write more.)

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Thanks, Leonid. Is it true that Natalia Osipova 'stole' the greatest applause of the night as one of the three Odalisques? That's what all of my friends are e-mailing me. An odalisque garners more applause than Medora & Gulnara, combined. Osipova even beat Ivan Vasiliev (Pas d'Esclaves, with Kaptsova) on the applause meter. Amazing!

I'm looking forward to attending performances in London on the week of August 13 (two Corsaires, two mixed bills and one Bright Stream). In the meantime, I'm getting my 'fill' of Bolshoi-in-London through these reports. Keep 'em comin'!

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Leonid, thank you. And what did Medoras cry in Le petit corsaire?

Natalia,

you were interested in the music of Pas des eventailes. Here are mp3-files – the live record which is not prefect, of course. Anyway it gives an impression. Gulnara’s variation is by Zabel, all others by Drigo.

1. Entrée

2. Adagio

3. Variation for six soloists

4. Gulnara’s variation

5. Male soloist’s variation

6. Medora’s variation

7. Coda

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This is awesome, Mikhail! Thank you. :wink:

The Zabel Gulnare variation is the usual Gulnare Var. from Jardin Anime in other productions...but what an odd-sounding orchestration! Ditto the Medora variation here, which most of us know as the Kirov Medora Jardin Anime variation which, I thought, came from an earlier ballet called 'Pygmalion which, I thought, was by a composer other than Drigo. Oh well...who has time to follow these things?

Interesting, too, to hear Drigo's Enchanted Forest adagio -- what I mentioned earlier as the lovely melody in the 2nd Igor Zapravdin CD -- as the adagio here. Do you know if other parts of Enchanted Forest have been borrowed for the Bolshoi-Ratmansky Pas Des Eventails?

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came from an earlier ballet called 'Pygmalion which, I thought, was by a composer other than Drigo.
Prince Trubetskoi. Yes, that’s what Marc told some time ago. Bolshoi started to sell the booklet on Le Corsaire just at the last dressed rehearsal with Lunkina. And then I asked Burlaka why Trubetskoi was not mentioned between the composers and referred to Pygmalion. He answered that indeed Prince Trubetskoi composed the ballet but this variation belonged to Drigo. The other day, at the premiere, I met him again and asked where from Drigo music came to Pas des eventailes. And he told about Enchanted Forest. I suppose he meant not only the variation but all the rest too.

Yuri is in London now. Soon he is back and I hope to interrogate him in more details. During the premiere it was not possible to talk in a normal way.

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can anyone confirm/deny a 'trubetskoi' connection to lubov egorova?

if mem. serves the title/credits to L'ADOLESCENCE a 1960s french film that includes footage of egorova in her little ballet studio, teaching some french students, refers to egorova as the 'princess trubetskoi' or some such.

is there any connection between this and the compose/librettist known as prince trubetskoi?

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Thanks for the additional info, Mikhail. This is really wonderful.

Like Mikhail, I'm dying to find out if the ballerinas shouted "All aboard!" or "Ahoy, mates!" or whatever-else in London. I guess that I'll find out for myself on 15 August .

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thanks, Mme. Hermine, it would seem that egorova's husband was nikita, son of sergei, whereas the prince of PYBMALION fame was.as shown below, one I. Yu. Trubetskoi, so one can be sure of the connection(s).

Pygmalion :Original title: Kiprskaia statuia ili Pigmalion. Chor: Marius Petipa; mus & lib: Prince I. IU. Trubetskoi; scen: Mikhail Bocharov, Matvei Shishkov and Heinrich Wagner; cos: Grigoriev. First perf: St. Petersburg, Bolshoi Theater, Dec 11, 1883 (O.S.).//First perf in Moscow: Bolshoi Theater, Jan 20, 1891 (O.S.)

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They shouted in Russian - "na abordage". Somebody at Ballet.co asked already what did this mean.

They did, all three of them. As was expected nobody in the audience had any clue what they were saying. I could hear people around me gasping and whispering "Huh??? What did she say??" In the interval I overheard several discussing the thing, with one person even suggesting (very seriously) that they should introduce surtitles to ballet performances... Anyway, it's not that vital and even if it would have been in English still many wouldn't have understood, as like Mikhail mentioned, it's totally unexpected.

Comments in the theatre were generally mild, but hardly ever enthusiastic. "Nice, but too long". Many disliked the costumes and wanted more dancing.

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