Jump to content

Recommended Posts

On 05/11/2018 at 14:47, FLOSS said:

As far as the costumes are concerned you need to remember that Ratmansky has asked his designer to create an impression of what the original designs were like. The expectation at the time when La Bayadere was first staged was that ballerinas wore ballerina appropriate costume which were not affected by the idea that setting a ballet in ancient Egypt or somewhere in central India ought to result in their costumes reflecting the time or place in which the action was set. No leading ballerina would have expected to be required to lower herself by wearing costumes similar to those worm by specialist character dancers .To require that of the ballerinas would have been seen as the gravest insult They would all have been mortally offended if it had been suggested that their costumes should do more than subtly allude to when and where a ballet was set. The inappropriateness of ballerina's costumes exercised Fokine a great deal. You really should read his manifesto it will give you an insight into what was deemed appropriate in ballet design at the time that these ballets were created. We have to remember that as ballet goers we still live in a world in which Fokine's views on ballet aesthetics continue to have considerable influence on what we see or expect to see on stage in many twentieth century ballets. in  !877 harem pants would have seemed perfectly indecent and I doubt that they would have been deemed respectable enough for the Imperial stage even at the point at which the ballet was notated which assume was soon after Petipa was forced to retire. I think that harem pants probably entered the world of ballet design with the Ballet Russes and Scheherazade which is another piece of Russian orientalism. Interestingly it seems to owe a debt to Le Corsaire in places.

 

FLOSS, it would appear that they were not quite so prim in 1877 as you have suggested. According to her memoirs, Ekaterina Vazem did indeed wear “harem pants” in the first production of La Bayadere. I hope it is in order to quote a couple of sentences:-

 

In the third scene the bayadere Nikiya performs a dance with a basket of flowers in a comparatively slow tempo. For this number they made me an oriental costume with flimsy trousers and bracelets on my legs. Petipa first composed this dance out of batteries – so called cabrioles – the throwing forward of one leg to meet the other. I pointed out to him that such steps were here in complete disagreement with the music and the costume. How, in fact, could one perform cabrioles in wide pants?”

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that video Bluebird and so glad to see they keep the ending to that dance which the RB now cuts out. I don't think it's inappropriate as at this point she is still believing that Solor cares for her ( perhaps will even run away with her!!) and so is feeling joy at this prospect of continued love.

And Amelia thanks so much for that info on the ballet. I've always felt the Idol role is a bit strange especially as performed with the Royal as it looks so isolated from everything and this sort of explains why. I love the dance as a piece of dance though....so don't mind it having been added on ....but probably not entirely fitting in an artistic whole sense!! 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, LinMM said:

Thanks for that video Bluebird and so glad to see they keep the ending to that dance which the RB now cuts out. 

 

Yes, that now definitely wakes the snake up and makes it dizzy and cross!

 

On a serious note, I am so pleased to see that this wonderful artist, who I remember from ten years ago as primarily a supreme technician, has matured into a dancer of great expression. Hope we see more of her in Britain soon. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ha ha Geoff now have two reasons to keep the fast ending to this dance....her ( deluded) joy ....and the snakes wrath!! 

The very first time I saw this ballet I knew Nikiya died at the fangs of a snake so when she did this frenetic bit I wasn't sure if the snake had already bitten her and I just hadn't seen the snake!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Geoff said:

For those who haven't seen today's Guardian, here is their review (today's paper):


www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/nov/13/la-bayadere-review-ratmansky-staatsoper-unter-den-linden-berlin

 

And was, of course, included in Today's Links this morning:

 

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm now in possession of a nice Bayadere ticket in Berlin and the only date that worked out for me has Ksenia Ovsyanick as Nikiya - seeing that Ksenia was one of my favourite ENB dancers, I was clearly meant to go :)

 

*does the dance of joy**

 

*I admit that's only amusing if you used to watch Angel

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 10 months later...

Two snakes for the price of one

 

Having seen two performances of La Bayadere in Berlin in September, although enjoying them, I was left wondering whether this Ratmansky reconstruction was as revelatory as his versions of Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake which I have also seen.

The extensive mime passages particularly in the first scene, while interesting, added very little more to the narrative that we already know.

As in the previous reconstructions there is more demi pointe work for the female corps de ballet.

And the Final scene of the destruction of the Temple was little different from the Markarova version for the RB, albeit better staged and with high tech projections.   Also interpolated in this scene was music from Don Quixote which was used  for the variations of Gamzatti.

The only reinstated scene I found in  any way revealing was at the beginning of act 2 after the death of Nikya and before the shades scene.

Solor returns home deeply distressed and his servant sensing this, makes 2 attempts to distract him. Firstly he summons 2 women to dance for Solor. This is interrupted by a vision of Nikya seen only by Solor who attempts to reunite with her as she quickly disappears.  He then angrily dismisses the dancers.  The servant then brings in a snake charmer (yes, really) who proceeds to play his pipe and charm the snake out of the basket in an endearing piece of old fashioned stagecraft. Nikya appears again and Solor rushes towards her as she disappears again. In anger he dismisses the snake charmer. How could his poor servant know? Dancing women and a snake were probably the last things Solor needed to see at that point. 

But the thing about that scene is that it sets up  Solor's increasing distress before he goes for the opium which induces the dream/shades scene instead of rushing to the pipe as soon as he arrives. This also improves the pacing of the narrative at that point.

The sets and costumes by Jerome Kaplan were adequate and offered nothing new but there were some unfortunate colour combinations of bilious green and faded orange in some women's costumes.  I assume that the framing of the set with borders was to create the effect of looking at an Indian miniature.

 

I had hoped to see 2 different casts but it was the same for both perfs.  Salenko who was extremely good  and invested in the drama, and Daniil Simkin also very good but weaker on the acting side of things.  There was quite a bit of wobbling in the shades scene on the Friday night but the company generally performed very well and with great commitment. The story was clearly communicated throughout.

 

So I am left with the feeling that over the years and various different productions, La Bayadere has not suffered too badly from the various  revisions and changes and that while interesting to see the reconstruction for me it has a certain antique charm but is not the revelation I had hoped for. 

 

 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • alison changed the title to Ratmansky's La Bayadère reconstruction, Berlin State Ballet

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...