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What productions of "Coppelia" have you seen?


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Thanks, MinkusPugni, for reviving this thread.

I saw the original Balanchine/Danilova revival in the mid 70s with Patricia McBride. I admired her enthsusiasm and was interested to see this old classic revived. But I think I was not young enough (not a kid) or old enough (not at that time concerned about re-vivifying the 19th century tradition) to care much for it.

I've seen it several times recently (over two seasons) in Miami City Ballet's performances of the Balanchine version. Beautifully danced by well-coached young dancers who fall into the spirit of the thing perfectly. But it still doesn't charm me. Act III has all the wonderfully dansant Balanchine additions, but I get distracted by all the other stuff going on (including the busy-ness of set and costume). Maybe the modern Balanchine -- with his typically simple staging and costume-less costumes -- spoiled me for it.

Act II goes against my grain, no matter how much I try to go with the flow of it. It's rather the way I feel when NPR gives time to a commentator who's introduced as a "humorist": the dogged effort to be cute and funny pours icy water over the true possibilities of comedy. For me, at least.

But, on the whole, I do agree with much of what Paul says:

But my favorite version is NYCB's (I only know the tape). McBride is simply a riot in the part. All her geekiness, those brittle cabrioles, who cares -- it fits the role completely, and she's SO willing to DO THE MIME -- she's really enjoying it, trying to get Coppellia to come down from that balcony and dance with her, come play with us!!

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What puts it over the top for me, however, is Balanchine's character dances -- nothing tops his mazurka. The new stuff he added to the last act, esp Swanhilda's variation, with its flying assembles to pointe, is wonderful, but nothing tops his mazurka. I've showed it to a class of children who immediately made me stop the tape and started doing pas de bourrees on their heels and -- we had to study it and  just turn them loose for a while, we're talking about 12 year-olds. And I was totally with them -- it is an enormously satisfying dance, to ENORMOUSLY satisfying music.

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His czardas is pretty great, too.....

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Alexandra:

IYou reminded me of just how wonderful the Danish Coppelia was that I saw back in the '60's when they first came to NY. Frantz was Frederik Bjornson Swanhilda was Inge S. (I've forgotten the spellings and the names) but it was really great

I don't remember writing this. but I agree with what's written.

the two best Coppelias I've seen were 1)the Royal Danes when they first came to NY and the ABT version many years later with Erik Bruhn and Carla fracci.

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My first production of Coppelia was Ronald Hynd's for London Festival Ballet (now ENB)

Northern Ballet had a charming production set in a caravan by (I think) Robert de Warren

I saw a production at the Edinburgh Festival by an American Company with Rudolf Nureyev as Coppelius

The Royal Ballet's revival of their 1950s production

And ..... Sir Peter Wright's for BRB

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My first ever production was the Bolshoi Ballet Blu-Ray with Margarita Shrayner as Swanhilda (she is very funny in that role!), Artem Ovcharenko as Franz, and Alexey Loparevich as Dr. Coppélius (also quite goofy). Currently this is my favorite version with beautiful sets and costumes; the Waltz of the Hours especially wins out here, I like the patterns they make a lot and the variety of colors is exquisite.

The second production I saw in full was Patrice Bart's version for the POB (Paris Opera Ballet) with Dorothée Gilbert as Swanhilda, Mathias Heymann as Franz, and even José Martinez as a younger and more handsome Coppélius (who splits his character traits with a new character, Spallanzani). One of my preferred Patrice Bart choreographies and interesting narrative change, but the pacing of Act I drags later on and I miss seeing the Act III divertissements.

Third full performance I saw was by the Royal Ballet with Gary Avis as Coppélius and Marianela Nuñez. More traditional like the Bolshoi and good sets + humor (I particularly prefer the costume for the Prayer soloist), but I prefer the Bolshoi for its 3rd act specifically.

Edit: I almost forgot the fourth performance video which I just saw - the DVD of the Kirov Ballet/Vinogradov version; overall, probably my least favorite/weakest Coppélia that I've ever seen. It's got good ideas + dancing and stands out in interesting ways, but I feel the rearranging of the music order and the sets to be a bit much and the story unclear in places (notably in the festival act, which is now the second act {the workshop scene is the second scene of Act 1}).

Edited by Ray Boucher
Added in discussion/opinions of another "Coppélia" production I saw.
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I had a moment with this earlier in the week, reading through an essay about the early days of Pacific Northwest Ballet.  Melissa Hayden, who was the artistic director for about a year in the mid-seventies, set a version of the ballet on the young and small company.  When Kent Stowell and Francia Russell arrived to take over the ensemble, he made a version of the work that was a bit more complex and offered some great opportunities for dancers to move up (Julie Tobiason had one of her first big successes as Swanhilda in that production.)  And now the company dances the Balanchine/Danilova production.  The essay mentioned all three, but didn't really make the differences clear -- it needed a bit more editing.  There are so many heritage works in the ballet repertory that exist in the same way -- multiple versions made for different groups at different points in their development -- sometimes I wish for the dance equivalent of Ancestry.com, to help trace all the ins and outs!

Edited by sandik
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On 4/23/2023 at 8:17 PM, sandik said:

I had a moment with this earlier in the week, reading through an essay about the early days of Pacific Northwest Ballet.  Melissa Hayden, who was the artistic director for about a year in the mid-seventies, set a version of the ballet on the young and small company.  When Kent Stowell and Francia Russell arrived to take over the ensemble, he made a version of the work that was a bit more complex and offered some great opportunities for dancers to move up (Julie Tobiason had one of her first big successes as Swanhilda in that production.)  And now the company dances the Balanchine/Danilova production.  The essay mentioned all three, but didn't really make the differences clear -- it needed a bit more editing.  There are so many heritage works in the ballet repertory that exist in the same way -- multiple versions made for different groups at different points in their development -- sometimes I wish for the dance equivalent of Ancestry.com, to help trace all the ins and outs!

That sounds very interesting. I would like to see a dance equivalent of Ancestry.com too.

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i seen Coppelia 2019 from Royal Ballet and is great ,the first Coppelia was from Bolshoi (i don't remember what year was the production) and i thought was great but seeing from Royal Ballet for me is the best version i seen , Marianela Nunez and Vadym Muntagirov are amazing , i think Marianela adds that expresive dimension and Vadym too and both complement each other to the perfection and Coppelia bring to life really along this ballet 

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5 hours ago, jorge said:

i seen Coppelia 2019 from Royal Ballet and is great ,the first Coppelia was from Bolshoi (i don't remember what year was the production) and i thought was great but seeing from Royal Ballet for me is the best version i seen , Marianela Nunez and Vadym Muntagirov are amazing , i think Marianela adds that expresive dimension and Vadym too and both complement each other to the perfection and Coppelia bring to life really along this ballet 

Hello and welcome to Ballet Alert! I've seen that Royal Ballet Coppelia (on video) and agree that it is terrific and Nunez and Muntagirov amazing.  Temperamentally the roles very much suit their sunny personalities. (I know they can do tragedy, too, but the comedy does seem to come naturally to them.)

My favorite two productions--which are ones that I have seen live in the theater some years back--are the Bolshoi Vikharev production and the Balanchine/Danilova production for NYCB. One thing that made the Bolshoi so extraordinary to my eyes when I saw them dance the ballet over a decade ago was the quality of the character dancing in Act I. But I loved every aspect of that production--and have since enjoyed it on video. If you can find the video with Osipova as Swanlilda and Gennadi Yanin as Coppelius then that is the performance I would recommend over the later broadcast they did.  (I enjoy the Balanchine/Danilova version too, and especially the grand finale which just builds and builds.)

(Of course, one can't really compare video to live performances; but certainly I am very glad to have seen the Royal's production in any fashion.)

 

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4 hours ago, Drew said:

Hello and welcome to Ballet Alert! I've seen that Royal Ballet Coppelia (on video) and agree that it is terrific and Nunez and Muntagirov amazing.  Temperamentally the roles very much suit their sunny personalities. (I know they can do tragedy, too, but the comedy does seem to come naturally to them.)

My favorite two productions--which are ones that I have seen live in the theater some years back--are the Bolshoi Vikharev production and the Balanchine/Danilova production for NYCB. One thing that made the Bolshoi so extraordinary to my eyes when I saw them dance the ballet over a decade ago was the quality of the character dancing in Act I. But I loved every aspect of that production--and have since enjoyed it on video. If you can find the video with Osipova as Swanlilda and Gennadi Yanin as Coppelius then that is the performance I would recommend over the later broadcast they did.  (I enjoy the Balanchine/Danilova version too, and especially the grand finale which just builds and builds.)

(Of course, one can't really compare video to live performances; but certainly I am very glad to have seen the Royal's production in any fashion.)

 

Thanks you for the welcome.

Yes, is another world see a live performance , feel the emotions; something that watch a video haven't.

I'll search the video and watch it.

 

Edited by jorge
Forgot add something
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