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Don Quixote


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Two questions for the history buffs...

(I was watching the ABT version by Baryshnikov with Cynthia Harvey as Kitri, and got to wondering.)

1) I don't know how close this version is to the original, but it looks to me like the original was made to showcase Italian technicians... I suppose everything back then was, but this with all it's "hard" pointe work really seems like it.

2) With the buffoon like role of the nobility here mixed with the flirtatious glamour among the [young] common people, it seems like it would have been the perfect vehicle to convince the soviet government after the revolution to preserve the ballet. Does anyone know if this particular ballet played any part in that?

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i can't speak authoritatively to your question amy, but i remember looking at an original score and noting that don q originally had five acts according to the plot summary in the beginning! if i ever get back to the library i'll try to summarize them as i can't imagine what they would have covered! smile.gif (unless on second thought it meant five scenes). however there were characters on stage we don't normally see now.

[This message has been edited by Mme. Hermine (edited April 03, 2001).]

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Don Q probably has the most checkered past of any ballet. Petipa originally made it for the Bolshoi, then set another version for the Maryinsky more suited to court than popular tastes (I think this is where the vision scene went in). Then Gorsky, at the Bolshoi, fiddled with it a great deal to make it more populist. Bits from all versions have gone back and forth over the years -- I'm sure this is a simplified version.

I think many of Petipa's ballets were intended to showcase Italian technique, which would have been considered the most advanced technique of its day. Like Twyla, I guess Petipa wanted "the best technique available."

Interesting question about whether this had anything to do with convincing the Soviets to allow ballet to continue -- I can't answer that, although someone else may well be able to.

On Baryshnikov's verison, it's very streamlined -- or butchered, depending on your point of view -- version. Scenes cut, scenes reordered, a small-scale version of a much longer ballet.

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"Soviet Choreographers in the 1920s" by Elizabeth Souritz is a great resource for learning about early changes to the full-lengths we know today. I believe a Soviet official named Lunacharsky is thought to be responsible in great part for the continuing of ballet during the early years of the Soviet Union.

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Doug Fullington

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Doug, I don't have the Souritz, unfortunately (it came out at the beginning of my Personal Poverty period). Question: I've heard/read that Vaganova was the one who persuaded Lunacharsky to allow ballet's continued existence, saying that while before, this great art form had been kept from the Masses by the elites, under the Soviets, there was the opportunity to give the people ballet. Is this apocryphal, or does Vaganova deserve at least as much credit as Lunacharsky for Russian ballet's salvation?

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Alexandra, my knowledge of the early post-Revolution era in Soviet Russia is pretty limited. Souritz deals with the ballet "to be or not to be" crisis on pages 42-50. According to Souritz, Lunacharsky was the main leader involved in championing the ballet, first in Moscow, then in Petrograd. She doesn't mention Vaganova in this section. In fact, Vaganova is mentioned only once in the entire book, re her 1930s redaction of Swan Lake.

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Doug Fullington

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Originally posted by doug:

Alexandra, my knowledge of the early post-Revolution era in Soviet Russia is pretty limited.  Souritz deals with the ballet "to be or not to be" crisis on pages 42-50.  According to Souritz, Lunacharsky was the main leader involved in championing the ballet, first in Moscow, then in Petrograd.  She doesn't mention Vaganova in this section.  In fact, Vaganova is mentioned only once in the entire book, re her 1930s redaction of Swan Lake.

I've read of Lunacharsky as well, but don't remember where... I seem to think it was in Bernard Taper's biography of Balanchine [which I sadly do not own], but was it perhaps in "Choura" Danilova's memoires [which sadly I did own but lent out and now seem to have lost]? I don't remember any answer to my question in the mention, but perhaps if someone owns the Taper here they might post the pages that reference Lunacharsky from the index.

It seems there should be a book on Lunacharsky, doesn't it? Is there?

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Lounacharsky was komissar of culture in Lenin's gouvernement, the person of high education , the autor of several books. Because of his defence Bolshoi and Nariinsky never were closed. I doubt that Vaganova was a major player in this situation because she became the head of the company in 1931 and the question about closing both companies came up in 1921-22, after Civil war, when State didn't have any money to pay artists.

Amy, your idea about the social orientation of "D.Q." sounds interesting, but then why "Sleeping Beauty", "Swan Lake" and "Raymonda" were always in the repertoire?

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Amy, Lunacharsky is mentioned on pages 53, 53 and 64 of Bernard Taper's "Balanchine." Taper states that Lunacharsky convinced Lenin that opera and ballet were not inherently decadent.

From my readings, I've not gotten the impression that a particular ballet influenced the decision of the early Soviet government to support ballet. Doesn't mean it wasn't the case, of course. There is a parallel story in the history of early music that Palestrina's "Missa Papae Marcelli" (Pope Marcellus Mass) saved polyphony in the wake of the Counter-Reformation. This story is regard as apocryphal today, but it sure has made that particular mass setting famous.

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Doug Fullington

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While we're still on the topic of Don Quixote, can I ask about the Act II variation of Mercedes? I just saw Moscow Festival Ballet's version. All those backbends looked to me like how Fanny Essler's performances were described. I've not seen anything like in the flamenco performances I've shot (I haven't seen a lot of flamenco, but have worked with 4 different companies across the country)... Is it a throwback to Fanny Essler or have I just not seen enough Spanish dance?

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Amy, I don't think that Petipa (or Bournonville's) Spanish dancing is supposed to look like flamenco.

I can't speak to Don Q, but I just read something about Bournonville's Spanish dancing that's worth repeating. A critic was defending his Spanish-flavored choreography (La Ventana) against comments she'd heard that it wasn't "authentic flamenco," and said, "at the time Bournonville choreographed this, flamenco hadn't yet emerged from the caves." So perhaps the "ballet Spanish" refers to an earlier form, or more classical Spanish dancing (I believe flamenco is the popular strain?)

I'd never thought of Elssler inventing the backbend (or bringing it in to classical performances). I don't mean to say that I think someone else did, just had never thought of its history.

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I believe, this dance was made by Alexandr Gorsky. Besides, Petipa spent few years in Spain before come to Russia and he was very angry when somebody tried to accuse him with "unauthentic" Spanish dances.

Amy, now a little surprise. Olga Radchenko is the daughter of Sergey Radchenko and she is not a proffessional dancer ! ;)

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Right now, I don't have the time to elaborate on Spanish dancing, but I will categorically say that flamenco is NOT the modern type of Spanish dancing. Flamenco is only danced in Andalucia, in the very south of Spain where it is danced by everybody - more or less well according to ability. Also it is performed in theaters and cabarets by flamenco groups (I had such a group when I lived there)all over the country and abroad, and it is performed by professional dancers. But the north of Spain has its own dances, such as the jota etc.

I will write at length on the different kinds of Spanish dancing, classical, folk and otherwise, when I get the time.

But, needless to say, Andalucia was not the inspiration for Petipa, rather the middle of Spain or thereabouts.

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I don't think anyone said flamenco was modern, Pamela, but that it was, as you said, a folk form that came into theaters in relatively recent times.

I think andrei's point about Petipa being angry that people found his dances "inauthentic" is interesting -- I'm sure he would be. He was known as an excellent Spanish dancer. This is probably because different people have an idea of what is "authentic," depending not only on what they've seen, but there they had traveled or lived.

[ 04-11-2001: Message edited by: alexandra ]

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Originally posted by alexandra:

I'd never thought of Elssler inventing the backbend (or bringing it in to classical performances).  I don't mean to say that I think someone else did, just had never thought of its history.

I thought her backbends in a Spanish Dance was what she was primarily famous for (along with her earthy style opposed to Taglioni's)... (oh, and of course for the US Congress going into recess to pull her carriage through the street or something)...

I didn't mean to imply that I thought she invented them (I seem to recall Egyptian tomb paintings of dancers doing backbends).

[ 04-11-2001: Message edited by: Amy Reusch ]

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Originally posted by Pamela Moberg:

I will write at length on the different kinds of Spanish dancing, classical, folk and otherwise, when I get the time.

But, needless to say, Andalucia was not the inspiration for Petipa, rather the middle of Spain or thereabouts.

When you do, could you talk a little about "Spanish Classical Dance"? I'm a little unclear about whether it still exists, is a historical form, and what it's relationship is to what we see in ballet and in flamenco. (Please?)

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Originally posted by Andrei:

Amy, now a little surprise. Olga Radchenko is the daughter of Sergey Radchenko and she is not a proffessional dancer !   ;)

Thank you Andrei! :) I was wondering why her bio was missing from the program! She had the most interesting presence on the stage that evening. Is she perhaps an actress?

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"Spanish Classical Dance" other than flamenco is yet alive and well, but mostly (surprise) in Spain. I've never understood why it has remained so localized, as the few examples I've seen of it look perfectly exportable to me. An odd thing about ballets like Don Quixote, or even Napoli is that it often reflects a lot of the choreographer's expression of "Where I went on my winter vacation".

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I realise that this is quite an old thread, but I have a question regarding Don Quixote as a ballet, so I am adding it on here. I hope that is all right.

Here goes:

Does anyone know who was responsible for the libretto, so-to-speak, of the ballet version of the story?

I have read that Petipa (and later many others) did the choreography, and worked (perhaps) closely with the composer/s, but who decided which scenes from the very long book by Cervantes to put into the ballet as we know it?

....Or was that work generally also done by the choreographers and composers?

(nowadays I believe most choreographers do that sort of work by themselves, largely, if they want to use a literary source for their ballet; but I am not sure if this was always the case)

We would like to give credit where it is due, that is why I am asking. :excl:

-d-

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Petipa is usually given full credit for the libretto of Don Quixote, although I'd almost be willing to bet that he had a couple of "ghosts" and scene doctors helping, who don't get no respect! Out of that great, thick book, he took just the story of Quiteria and Basilio, and not all of it that's in the book.

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the May, 1993 issue of THE DANCING TIMES published the following on pp. 801 -805 (note that the pagination of this publication, if you aren't familiar with it, is per yearly volume not per issue!):

PETIPA'S DON QUIXOTE

THE 1871 LIBRETTO

TRANSLATED BY ROLAND JOHN WILEY

the insert of the credits read as follows:

DON QUIXOTE

Ballet in 5 acts, with prologue and epilogue, in 11 scenes.

(The story taken from episodes of the poem of Cervantes, 'Don Quixote').

Composed by the balletmaster

Mr. Marius Petipa

Music by Mr. L. Minkus

Publication of the Bookseller M. O. Wolf, Typographer of the IMPERIAL Spb. Theatres.

[etc.]

so as you see, the libretto is credited solely to Petipa, which does not mean that Mel's suggestion of 'other hands' isn't also true.

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the May, 1993 issue of THE DANCING TIMES published the following on pp. 801 -805 (not the pagination of this publication, if you aren't familiar with it, is per yearly volume not per issue!):

PETIPA'S DON QUIXOTE

THE 1871 LIBRETTO

TRANSLATED BY ROLAND JOHN WILEY

the insert of the credits read as follows:

DON QUIXOTE

Ballet in 5 acts, with prologue and epilogue, in 11 scenes.

(The story takend from episoodes of the poem of Cervantes, 'Don Quixote').

Composed by the balletmaster

Mr. Marius Petipa

Music by Mr. L. Minkus

Publication of the Bookseller M. O. Wolf, Typographer of the IMPERIAL Spb. Theatres.

[etc.]

so as you see, the libretto is credited solely to Petipa, which does not mean that Mel's suggestion of 'other hands' isn't also true.

I believe Petipa was quite capable of writing his own libretto for the following reasons:

1. It is highly likely he was familiar with the Cervantes original as it was one of the most widely read books in Europe.

2. The subject matter had already been tackled by seven choreographers before him and thus was a traditional ballet subject.

3. His more than 30 years of experience of creating ballets.

4. His not so lonely sojourn in Madrid where he certainly learnt theatrical Spanish dances, possibly witnessed traditional Spanish dancing, quite likely to have learnt more about Cervantes and created ballets on a

Spanish theme. for the Madrid Theatre.

5. He had greater influence in the choice of subjects for ballet in 1871, as he was not so impinged upon by Directors of the St.Petersburg Imperial Theatres of that time, as he was by Vsevolozhsky in his later

creative life.

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