SB's Entr'acte symphonique for violinist Leopold Auer

[cubanmiamiboy]

I know this number did not survive into the standard versions of SB in the west. Every time I listen to it in B's Nut, I wonder if it has ever been used where it was supposed to.

Has anybody here see it in its original balletic context..?

[DanielBenton]

Does it go between Act II and Act III? (Somewhere I have the complete score on a CD-Rom but I cannot find it).

At the end of Act II, after Aurora wakes up, Peter Wright (Dutch National Ballet) choreographs a pas de deux to this music for Aurora and her new beau.

[rg]

Ashton used the 'Symphonic entr'acte, Act II' for the 'Awakening Pas de deux,' created for Sibley and Dowell's Aurora and Florimund, to conclude the second act of Peter Wright's 1968 staging for the Royal Ballet.

[DanielBenton]

That is interesting. The Het Nationale Ballet DVD of 2004 (with Sofiane Sylve) credits the choreography to Marius Petipa and Peter Wright (only) so I guess Wright did his own version of the entr'acte?

[rg]

probably so. i doubt Wright, who was on hand for Sarasota Ballet's recent Ashton celebration(s) to speak lovingly and admiringly of Ashton, leading one to presume he'd not have used what Ashton created w/o crediting him.

Ashton's version has been filmed, in some measure, over the years.

[DanielBenton]

Thanks rg. Doing a little sleuthing - the entr'acte music in question is no.18, which comes in the middle of Act II, before the Panorama..

[volcanohunter]

Not in its original context, but Nureyev used it for an extended solo for the Prince in Act 2, replacing the music for the initial scene between him and the Lilac Fairy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqWVYie0c3s

I have also seen it played between Acts 1 and 2, so that one can follow the other without a break. That's not the original context either, but it does a pretty good job of suggesting the passage of time, and at least the music for the mime scene between the Prince and the Lilac Fairy is left intact.

[rg]

re: the placement of Ashton's AWAKENING, if mem.serves his pas de deux ended the second act of it's production and picked up, presumably for the start of act 3 w/ the panorama.

or??

[DanielBenton]

In it's original position as No.18, the entr'acte does seem to be kind of an action-stopper and one can see why various artists chose to reposition it. In Solomon Volkov's book Balanchine's Tchaikovsky, Mr. B. says "if I do Sleeping Beauty, that entr'acte will definitely be in it". I speculate idly if he would have included it as music only at its original position, or move it, or choreograph it....

[volcanohunter]

Ashton's pas de deux ended Act 2. It replaced the Prince's grandiose introduction to his future in-laws. Skip ahead to the one hour, 31-minute mark.

[DanielBenton]

I can't figure out how to paste a YouTube video here but the Peter Wright version is available by searching

"Peter Wright Awakening Sleeping Beauty" on YouTube. Very interesting to compare with Ashton.

[cubanmiamiboy]

I can't figure out how to paste a YouTube video here but the Peter Wright version is available by searching

"Peter Wright Awakening Sleeping Beauty" on YouTube. Very interesting to compare with Ashton.

[DanielBenton]

Thanks for posting CubanMiamiBoy - db