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ABT 2017 Corsaire


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2 hours ago, maps said:

Byron did not write Corsaire in a vacuum and it sold 10,000 copies the first day. 

 

There are no slave market scenes in Byron's version. Just about the only plot element that remains from Byron is the bit about Conrad gaining entrance to Seyd's palace with a ruse. The Bolshoi's staging alludes, but only slightly, to Conrad being tortured in Seyd's dungeons when he appears in the last act shackled and wearing a torn and bloodied shirt. When Byron's Conrad sets fire to the palace he realizes that there are women inside and sets about trying to rescue the harem, and that's how he's caught. Ultimately it's Gulnare who rescues Conrad, by murdering Seyd in his bed. Conrad's wife Medora never appears on the other side of the Aegean. She spends the entire story at home, eventually despairs of Conrad's return and commits suicide. There is no character named Birbanto and no pirate mutiny over booty. There is also no one named Isaac or Lankendem or Ali.

 

Verdi's Il corsaro is a lot closer to the original story. In any case, I don't think we can explain away anything we dislike about Le Corsaire by appealing to Byron.

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42 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

 

There are no slave market scenes in Byron's version. 

 

...Verdi's Il corsaro is a lot closer to the original story. In any case, I don't think we can explain away anything we dislike about Le Corsaire by appealing to Byron.

  My post was referencing how history and events are/were used in theatre and literature.  The Turkish scholarly article is very interesting.  Of course I know Byron doesn't equal the Corsaire libretto.   

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4 hours ago, maps said:

 

Balanchine's Don Quixote in 1965 had a publication  including essay by Auden, excerpts from the 1605 Miquel De Cervantes Saavedra novel, photos, illustrations [woodcuts by Gustave Dore from the 1869 French edition].  

 

Sounds wonderful...

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