Oldest ballet production still running?

[Lidewij]

I was just wondering about this.. What's the oldest ballet production still running?

My first guess was perhaps Vainonen's Nutcracker at the Mariinsky, but I'm far from sure about that, so I thought I'd ask the BT'ers who know more about this than me

[cubanmiamiboy]

Tricky question! At first I thought "What about Alonso-after-Nijinska-after-Gorsky's "Fille..."?, but then, what about the warhorses...? The Kingdom of the Shades seems pretty untouched since Petipa's times, I would guess....

[Lidewij]

That's a good one too, perhaps.

About the Shades scene, I was thinking of productions (perhaps 'stagings' is a better word?), not about bits of choreoghraphy (even though they may be very interesting historically ;) )

[Mel Johnson]

And then there's "The Whims of Cupid and the Balletmaster" (1786).... Cupid was put on pointe, but Galeotti's material is still known to some of us. (Only I don't know of anyplace that has a production currently up. It was last heard of with the Royal Danish Ballet.)

[richard53dog]

Well, I don't think any of the "afters" are really all that pertinent here. Particularly since Lidewij modified his/her original post to refer also to stagings. That seems to me to exclude all the things, like Fille for instance that passed through several hands. Those things are like snowballs rolling down a hill, they pick up ALL KINDS of things on the way, and in general end up looking very different when they reach the bottom of the hill than they did on the top.

Maybe some of the Fokine pieces that have had modern revivals carefully patterned after the originals. I thinking perhaps of the MT stagings of Sheherazade, Petroushka, and Spectre del la Rose which were revived with settings patterned after the originals.

Also along these lines I guess would be the reconstructions which the MT did and then seemed to ditch. And I would guess the reconstructions now being done by the Bolshoi.

[rg]

in recent-ish times WHIMS/CUPID was said to be the one. tho' and Alexandra, etc. would be more knowledgeable here, i think i recall that this was much touched up by...Lander? or someone earlier?

as for SHADES, and Doug would be more authorititative here, i believe the Soviet-lineage version owes a number of would-be Petipa details to later hands, if the notations which Doug has read and put on stage are any indication, and this includes even the opening sequence(s) for the corps de ballet.

as for the recent Bolshoi 'reconstructions' - neither Burlaka nor Ratmansky claim they only reconstructed, but that in fact at serveral turns (no pun intended) the changed or departed from the supposed 'original' text.

in any case, can we be certain that what passes for Vainonen's NUTCRACKER nowadays has not been tinkered with along its way through Soviet ballet history?

[Lidewij]

Thank you for all of your replies. This question just bubbled up in me today, but now I realise that it's a difficult question to answer. I understand that it's pretty much impossible that a production of the 1930's, like said Nutcracker, would be the same now as it was on its premiere..

[sandik]

My first thought would be something from the Royal Danish rep, since they've been in more or less continuous production since the start, but as far as an actual work that hasn't been tinkered with, that's a much more difficult question. Mary Skeaping did some really interesting reconstructions of early work (some of which you could see on that Magic of Dance series narrated by Fonteyn) but they certainly weren't in continuous production...

[cubanmiamiboy]

Since we're discarding everything that's being "touched" or "re-touched"..then what's left...?

[sandik]

Since we're discarding everything that's being "touched" or "re-touched"..then what's left...?

That is, of course, the tricky question. It's hard to create landmarks on a continuum, so that we can all agree what is fundamental to the authenticity of a work, and what is a negotiable element. When Pacific Northwest Ballet commissioned new sets and costumes for their production of Balanchine's Midsummer, they sought the permission of the Trust for a kind of change that is made blithely and regularly by straight theater companies. But when Balanchine and Danilova created their pastiche version of Coppelia there were no permissions to be asked, and nothing other than their own memories to be consulted.