Guest pinkpixiedust Posted December 4, 2002 Share Posted December 4, 2002 However you like to spell it! I haven't been here for a while, sorry! I'll try to remember not to abbreviate! Anyway my question is, Is there any ballets about faeries or with faeries in them? I would like to do faeries for one of my art projects but it has to link to my first project, mostly about ballet so i was thinking I could use ballet to link them! Thanks Link to comment
dirac Posted December 4, 2002 Share Posted December 4, 2002 Well, since it's the holiday season, perhaps the Sugar Plum Fairy of The Nutcracker would suit your purposes? She even has a wand. Link to comment
Guest pinkpixiedust Posted December 4, 2002 Share Posted December 4, 2002 Omy goodness!I can't believe I didn't think of that! Oh! and a wand! Link to comment
Alexandra Posted December 4, 2002 Share Posted December 4, 2002 A Midsummer Night's Dream has lots of fairies. There's one version by George Balanchine, still in repertory at the New York City Ballet, and another by Frederick Ashton, in the repertories of both American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Ballet. Sleeping Beauty has six (sometimes 7) fairies in its Prologue and the Lilac Fairy has a big role throughout. This sounds like a terrific project! There were a lot of 19th century ballets with fairies in them -- different kind of fairy life, like La Sylphide (sylphs) and Giselle (wilis), and various naiads and dryads. I don't want to name them all -- others will have their favorite fairies Link to comment
Calliope Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 I'm partial to the Sleeping Beauty fairies Carabosse, is she a fairy gone bad?! Cinderalla has a Fairy Godmother Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 I've always had the feeling that Carabosse was just an old fairy who had been forgotten on the invitation list, and so she felt abused! Apparently, I was onto something, as in the original procession to the Wedding scene, she is included, this time with invitation. Since Cecchetti was the Bluebird in this scene, they got a very regal character dancer of a certain age, and dressed her up right smart. Moral: "Good manners make everybody beautiful!";) Link to comment
Mme. Hermine Posted December 6, 2002 Share Posted December 6, 2002 wasn't carlotta brianza the original aurora? because i thought it very interesting that when diaghilev produced the 'sleeping princess' in 1921, carlotta brianza was his carabosse! Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted December 6, 2002 Share Posted December 6, 2002 Yes, that's correct. Although she could still do all the things required of Aurora, Brianza herself figured she was a bad candidate to portray a twenty-year-old, as Diaghilev had asked her. She therefore gracefully accepted the part of Carabosse. Link to comment
Mme. Hermine Posted December 6, 2002 Share Posted December 6, 2002 In a rather rare opportunity i have the program for those performances in front of me and thought this might be interesting: cast list: King Florestan: M. Leonard Treer The Queen: Mme. Vera Sudeikina Cantalabutte, Master of Ceremonies: M. Jean Jazwinsky The Fairy of the Pine Woods: Mme. Felia Dubrovska Her page: M. Errol Addison The Cherry Blossom Fairy: Mme. Lydia Sokolova Her Page: M. Leon Woizikovsky The Fairy of the Humming Birds: Mme. Nijinska Her Page: M. Nicholas Zvereff The Fairy of the Song-Birds: Mme. Lubov Egorova Her Page: M. Nicholas Kremneff The Carnation Fairy: Mme. Vera Nemtchinova Her Page: M. Tadeo Slavinsky The Fairy of the Mountain Ash: Mme. Lubov Tchernicheva Her Page: M. Anatol Vilzak The Lilac Fairy: Mme. Lydia Lopokova Her Page: M. Stanislas Idzikowski The Wicked Fairy: Mme. Carlotta Brianza Her Two Pages: Mm. Fedorov and Winter Her Four Rats: Mm. Savitzki, Karnecki, Yalmoujinsky, Lukine Royal Nurses: Mmes. Allanova, Krassovska, Majcherska, Komarova Ministers of State: Mm. Semenoff, Singaievski, C. Stepanov Royal Pages: Mm. Mikolaichik, Bourman, Ochimovski, Patrikeeff The King's Herald: M. Kosiarsky The Royal Physician: M. Pavlov Maids of Honour: Mmes. Klementovicz, Bewicke, Moreton, Sumarokova Ladies in Waiting: Mmes. d'Albaicin, Coxon, Damaskina, Plotnikova, Savitska, Rosenstein, Antonova, Evina, Gostelmilova, A. SUmarokova, L. Nemtchinova, Grekulova, Poplavska, Astafieva And that's just Act 1, Scene 1! The Princess Aurora, in the foreword, is said to be 16 years old at the time of the action, so I can imagine Brianza not wanting to try it! (noble of her, even with the wicked fairy being a meaty part!) Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted December 6, 2002 Share Posted December 6, 2002 Actually, in the original libretto, she's twenty: http://www.balletalert.com/ballets/Petipa/...ty/Libretto.htm Link to comment
Mme. Hermine Posted December 6, 2002 Share Posted December 6, 2002 i understand, mel, just that in diaghilev's program it says: "In sixteen years the little Princess Aurora had grown into a lovely maiden, the fame of whose beauty had spread far and near. There came to woo her four princes, from Spain, from England, from India, and from Italy, and the King and Queen prepared festivities in their honour. All the villagers were invited, but when they came, the master of ceremonies saw, to his horror, that four of them had spinning wheels and spindles. This was contrary to a law that had been enacted sixteen years before, making it a criminal offence to bring a spindle within a mile of the Palace." do you know why they would have made her sixteen? even then that must have seemed young. Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted December 6, 2002 Share Posted December 6, 2002 I think you may have hit on the operative word, if that is one of the changes worked by Diaghilev on the original work - "maiden". The guarantee upon the virginity of a bride seems to be very important in British circles of the post-Edwardian era; recall that Princess Diana had to get a physical before she married Prince Charles, part of which was a certification of virginity! Never mind that she's asleep for a hundred years, and by the time she gets married, she'll be either 116 or 120 years old! After all, at that age, what's four years? Link to comment
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