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"Theme and Variations" on commercial video?


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I'd appreciate hearing of commercialliy available videos of the complete "Theme and Variations."

I have the lovely but oddly lifeless excerpts of Kistler and Zelensky, plus corps, on NYCB's Balancine Celebration video. I've also recently seen a 5-minute snippet of a thrilling but rather fuzzy YouTube video of a stage presentation by ABT, with Baryshnikov and Kirkland. The ABT version is so high energy -- the corps as much as the pincipals -- that I would love to see that, but find no reference to a commercial release of what I remember being a Live from Llincoln Center or Dance in America presentation.

I'm looking for commercial releases rather than bootleg or tape trading. Thanks in advance for any information.

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as usual the story goes the same:

the following program was telecast but not subsequently released commercially.

ABT: Live from Lincoln Center 1978. 165 min. : sd. color.

Telecast on WNET-TV's Live from Lincoln Center in May, 1978.

Executive producer: John Goberman. Producer: Emile Ardolino. Director: Kirk Browning. Intermission director: Robert Schwartz. Writer: Tobi Tobias. Host: Robert McNeill. Performed by American Ballet Theatre.

Les Sylphides. Choreography: Michel Fokine. Music: Chopin (Orchestrated by Benjamin Britten). Lighting: Nananne Porcher. Scenery: Alexandre Benois. Leading roles danced by Eleanor D'Antuono, Rebecca Wright, Marianna Tcherkassky, and Ivan Nagy. Don Quixote: Grand pas de deux. Choreography: After Marius Petipa. Music: Ludwig Minkus. Danced by Natalia Makarova, and Fernando Bujones. Interviews with Natalia Makarova, Fernando Bujones, and Erik Bruhn. Theme and variations. Choreography: George Balanchine. Music: Tchaikovsky. Costumes: Desmond Heeley. Lighting: Jennifer Tipton. Leading roles danced by Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Interview with Gelsey Kirkland. - The firebird. Choreography: Michel Fokine. Music: Stravinsky. Costumes: Nathalie Gontcharova. Lighting: Nananne Porcher. Leading roles danced by Cynthia Gregory, John Meehan, Marcos Paredes, and Leslie Browne.

over the years a now-deceased opera/ballet lover with a BetaMax used to say that his cassette with this telecast was the cassette most people wanted to borrow from him, primarily, i gathered, for the THEME segment.

At some point, i forget the occasion, there was a screen on the met. op. house on which this THEME was projected during a summer season.

When Kirkland was given her DanceMagazine Award the presentation included a clip of her solo from this ballet's telecast.

Of course, the NYPL for the Perf. Arts has a copy for viewing on the premises.

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I think it's interesting that you find the Kistler/Zelensky from the Balanchine Celebration lifeless, bart. It may be that having been there live enhances my viewing, but of all of the NYCB principals and soloists, apart from Stephanie Saland, who was retiring after hers and had other emotions to contend with, Kistler was the only one I felt who during this full day Celebration was truly dancing not only in tribute to him, but for him.

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Perhaps "lifeless" was too extreme a word. I did not mean to give the impression that this is primarily a problem with the principals. They dance beautifully. I prefer, however, the Baryshnikov-Kirkland approach, which seemed to have more energy, more urgency, across the board.

I also preferred the darker color/tone palate of the ABT decor and costumes. The light blue on white of the NYCB production came across as insipid, on the video at least. This may have been an unintended effect of the especiallly bright lighting for the video-taping. For whatever reason, the corps -- or the bits and pieces of it you could see -- did not show up well.

I saw Kistler on stage only at the early stages of her dancing but never in this. Was Theme and Variations a specialty of hers? Was Zelensky a regular partner during his time at NYCB?

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To my best recollection, Kistler's Theme on that occasion was unique. If she ever did it before or since, I did not know of it. It was something I hoped to see again. She never had the whiz-bang technique that we associate with most ballerinas who've danced the role, and given that, I was happily surprised by the security of her performance.

I do not remember Zelensky as a regular partner of hers -- or of anyone's. For much of his NYCB career, his performances were few and far between. :)

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I once spent a very informative afternoon at the NYPL collection viewing: (1) the Balanchine Foundation(?) tape of Alicia Alonso coaching Herrera & Corella in "Theme", followed by a VERY insightful informative interview with Mme Alonso; and (2) a viewing of the Baryshnikov/Kirkland video. To see both tapes back to back really helped me analyse what I was seeing much better than my aging memory (and muscle memory) allowed.

I had seen the PBS production when first broadcast, and subsequently live in Los Angeles many times over a 3wk run, but viewing it in CU on tape really helped.

Unfortunately, as noted many times before, there are decades of broadcasts and probably more of "DinA" or "LFLC" that have never been released commercially. It could be a rights issue, or simply the obtuseness of the current administrators who can't see a revenue source when it's in front of them.

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To my best recollection, Kistler's Theme on that occasion was unique. If she ever did it before or since, I did not know of it. It was something I hoped to see again. She never had the whiz-bang technique that we associate with most ballerinas who've danced the role, and given that, I was happily surprised by the security of her performance.

I do not remember Zelensky as a regular partner of hers -- or of anyone's. For much of his NYCB career, his performances were few and far between. :clapping:

Zelensky used to partner Kistler a lot before she went out on maternity leave (and some other injuries). I remember a lovely performance of Raymonda Variations.

The Balanchine Celebration video of the T&V pas and finale is often criticized, but I've always really liked it. There's a lovely fluid quality to it, eschewing the pose-to-pose style and balance-holding. And Kistler is still in good technique.

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I have a copy of the Kirkland/Baryshnikov 'Theme' which I dearly cherish and watch often. Kirkland surely has the 'whiz-bang' technique for the role which I find admirable. But what I find missing is the grandeur that Alonso brought to the role; and many years later I was to see Asylmuratova who also had this quality.

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... what I find missing is the grandeur that Alonso brought to the role

"Please, tell Alicia that many years have passed but so far nobody has ever danced "Theme and Variations" the way she did"

George Balanchine

I felt that way for many years; it was a different ballet with those who performed it after her. Balanchine might not have seen Asylmuratova..... I saw her during a Kirov visit to NYC; not sure when, but it was after Balanchine was no longer here. Asylmuratova evoked my memories of Alonso; especially the way they looked when promenaded 'en attitude' by their respective partners.

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