Katharina

The Nutcracker recording with Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra is among the fastest I have heard and I think overall quite close to Tchaikovsky´s suggestions. There is a recording of excerpts from the ballet with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Evgeny Mravinsky (c. 1981) that I like a lot. This conductor (born 1903) startet his career as a ballet repetitor and conducted for the Kirov Ballet during the 1930s, he has a reputation for "cleansing of tempo". With a metronome you can compare: for example the waltz of the snowflakes according to the composer is to be played at 72 bpm for a dotted half note (in 3/4 time signature). Online metronome here (or in Google): http://a.bestmetronome.com/

We don´t, because Tchaikovsky didn´t write down any metronome markings for Swan Lake (he did for Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker). Take, for example, the first act waltz in Swan Lake. Tchaikowski didn´t prescribe a tempo as such, he merely wrote tempo di valse. He apparently assumed that there was an agreement among conductors, orchestras and audiences on what is the "right" tempo for a waltz, and while he used metronome markings in Sleeping Beauty, he did not suggest any for the Grande valse villageoise (The Garland Waltz) in this ballet. In Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky wrote the coda of the first act pas de trois as Allegro vivace, this is a fast tempo and according to the consens of today means it would be played at around 172-176 bpm (beats per minute). However in Sleeping Beauty he prescribes for the Allegro vivace in Aurora´s act 1 solo a metronome marking of 184 (this is right after the violin solo, the chainé turns if I remember correctly?). Of course that is just a random example (and tempo is obviously not just robot bpm), but from my listening experience and reading about this topic I find that hardly anyone performs Tchaikovsky´s ballet or symphonic pieces at the tempo he suggested (nearly all performances and recordings are slower). Tchaikovsky was not a regular ballet composer and wrote his ballets from the symphonic perspective, but maybe perfomance practice has changed in other ways as well. Some musicologists assume that strings in orchestras of the late 19th century did use little or no vibrato, and would maybe not have produced the thick sound textures we usually hear today in this repertory.

Not from decades, but centuries ago : - ) Here is a quotation from the published conversations of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe with J. P. Eckermann, 1830 (translation by John Oxenford) about applause in Italian opera houses: "What I had been told in Germany about the loud Italian public I have found confirmed; and, indeed, the longer the opera is played, the more does the noise of the public increase. A fortnight ago I saw one of the first representations of the “Conte Ory.” The singers were received with applause on their entrance; the audience, to be sure, talked during the less striking scenes, but when good airs were sung all was still, and general approbation rewarded the singers. The choruses went excellently, and I admired the precision with which voices and orchestra always kept together. But now, when the opera has been given every evening since that time, the public has totally ceased to pay attention; everybody talks, and the house resounds with the noise. Scarcely a hand is stirred, and one can scarcely imagine how the singers can open their lips on the stage, or how the instrumentalists can play a note in the orchestra. There is an end to zeal and precision; and the foreigner, who likes to hear something, would be in despair—if despair were at all possible in so cheerful an assembly." (this is about Milan)

Here is the one about Empress Elisabeth, English translation: https://www.amazon.co.uk/reluctant-empress-Brigitte-Hamann/dp/3548354793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469533913&sr=8-1&keywords=brigitte+hamann (Hope it is ok to post a link to the evil amazonian bookseller.)

I think it might have been Vienna, considering Balanchine intended to use music by Arnold Schönberg who was one of the three most prominent members of the so called Second Viennese School (with Alban Berg and Anton Webern) and like Balanchine himself one of the most influential and innovative creative artists of the 20th century. Since the ballets and composers of the three parts of Jewels seem to be identified with a city, that would be logical for me. Also Balanchine had made several ballets on Waltzes (Vienna Waltzes, Liebeslieder Walzer, La Valse) before and after Jewels. edited to add: I don´t know what Schönberg piece Balanchine thoght about, but recently I heard his Variations for Orchestra (op. 31) which I liked very much. There are quotations of the B-A-C-H motive and allusions to various genres, including the Waltz (fourth variation). So maybe a modern, post-Habsburg, 1920s take on the Waltz!

Hello Fiz, I don´t know any English language book about Crown Prince Rudolf´s wife Stephanie but (in case you don´t know it already) there is a very good big biography about his mother the Empress Elisabeth that has been translated, I think the English title is The reluctant Empress, by Brigitte Hamann. The author is a historian and expert for the time and place. I read this in German and thought it was very well written, comprehensive, accessible but profoundly researched. edited to add: Brigitte Hamann also wrote a similarly good and well-reviewed biography about Rudolf himself that I believe to be the best one there is. Unfortunately it has not been translated yet.

After reading all those interesting comments on this thread I couldn´t wait to see this in the cinema. I disagree that Mary Shelley´s "Frankenstein" is a horror story, or rather I disagree that horror is what it is about. I don´t think it is about love either - at least not about the love relationship between Victor and Elizabeth. The way I understand the novel, it is about hybris, and I would like to tell you what I associated with it: The story is set in the 18th century which was a time of great scientific discoveries and optimism. I remembered a line from Mozart´s Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), "den Göttern gleich" ("like the Gods"). Since this was also the era of the Enlightenment, there was a tendency to remove God as a central point of focus and replace him with science and rationality (Romanticism later tried to reverse this, which is why it is sometimes called a reactionary movement). So Victor tries to create life, then turns away and runs, and his creation becomes his nemesis. That seems to me to be a timeless issue, "if God exists, why does he allow ..." I think it is called the theodicy question. The horror aspect in my opinion is what trivial literature has extracted from it, so in our time the Frankenstein novel can be seen as the source of inspiration of the genre of horror fiction. I was surprised that Liam Scarlett´s ballet has so many opportunities for Victor - Elizabeth pas de deux, and such a lenghty household description - the most conventional part of the story. I don´t think any great novel or play is ever about the plot - it is about ideas and their appropriate expression, the plot being just the frame, the skeleton: the plot of Romeo and Juliet could just as well be that of a soap opera. Therefore a ballet or opera does not need to follow the plot of a literary source in such a literal way as Liam Scarlett has done. In fact new theatre and opera productions have been moving away from this approach for quite some time now.

Oh I wouldn´t say I have much "knowledge" of the Russian school But I think you are right, the "sauté method" is probably especially stressful and requires strong feet and ankles, which is where we return to your previous post #101. Maybe one of the dancers/teachers of this forum can explain better? Sorry, off-topic I know.

The original libretto tells us at first that Giselle is "his beloved, the object of his unique affection" (celle qu’il aime, l’objet de son unique tendresse). Later, when Hilarion tells Giselle that "Loys" is not who he claims to be, Loys/Albrecht insists that he is "a simple peasant, her lover, her fiance" (un simple paysan, son amant, son fiancé). But already two sentences later, the narrator calls Albrecht "perfidious" (dans les bras du perfide Albert). When Bathilde shows her engagement ring, he tries to stop her and tries to avoid further revelations (Albert s’approche de Bathilde et veut en vain l’empêcher d’achever ce terrible aveu). He continues to deny everything when it is clear that he has deceived both Giselle and Bathilde. In the second act, Albrecht is in tears (son cœur se déchire, il fond en larmes), but there seems to be no mention of regret or contrition. In the end, he returns to Bathilde (et faible et chancelant, il tombe dans les bras de ceux qui l’entourent en tendant la main à Bathilde !) Maybe the audience is supposed to think and feel along with Giselle (he loves her - there are accusations against him - she is doubtful, then hopeful - finally Loys´ true identity and dishonesty is revealed - she dies from the shock and her weak heart (enfin epuisé) - she also tries to stab herself but is stopped by her mother. Then Albrecht at first must appear to be honest, because he actually thinks he is. On the other hand, the libretto lets us know from the beginning that he is a duke pretending to be a peasant, and that Wilfrid tries to convince him to give up "a secret project". According to that, he is a deliberate deceiver. So he is being taught a lesson that will turn him into a better person (it is all about him - he is the dynamic character - ?) The last scene of the first act has Berthe holding Giselle (Berthe soutient le corps de sa malheureuse fille) while Albrecht is being lead away. Bathilde is kind and generous (bonne et généreuse) and likes Giselle (Giselle, qui semble lui plaire de plus en plus).

Hello Kameliendame, I enjoyed reading your post very much! But I always thought that there are different ways of rising onto pointe (relevé, piqué, sauté) ... in Russia it seems the "sauté method" is more common (in allegro choreography)? So maybe it was not incompetence that this particular dancer did not do the transition via the relevé, but it was appropriate for her at that moment. - That is just what I would suspect (I am just a recreational dancer but my teacher who is Russian trained explained it that way, if I understood her correctly). One of my favourite ballerinas is Aurélie Dupont - always when I saw her I thought I was seeing the whole history of the art form, back to the ballet de cour, the court ballets of the baroque era to the romantic era, Petipa and beyond (she is also my favourite Aurora on that POB dvd, filmed c. 1999). She, M. Legris and D. Hallberg are my favorite "nobles" And then Natalia Osipova, because of her range and fearlessness in trying new things.

Sorry I wanted to add something to my prevoious post but was too late ... About Jens Andersen´s biography, I would have liked from a Danish author more about H. Chr. Andersen´s years in the Royal Theatre´s Ballet School, maybe even an excursus into that institution´s history up to that time, but there is not so much. But all in all it is a very comprehensive book with many details of his life and environment. "Life of a Storyteller" by Jackie Wullschlager tends to have more literary analysis and historical / literary context. Chapter 3 is about Copenhagen and the Ballet School years (but not exclusively). Oh I see you have already replied :-) The Wullschlager biography has had great reviews, too ("the standard life for years to come", Literary Review). Edited to add last line.

Yes they do, but not in great detail. I´d say that the biography by Jens Andersen is more about the person, maybe has more details of his life (and more pages, about 700). As far as I remember the one by Jackie Wullschlager tends to have more literary analysis and historical context. It is also originally in English, whereas Mr Andersen´s book would be a translation (unless you can read Danish of course).

Hans Christian Andersen apparently for a time was very fond of Harald Scharff, a principal dancer in August Bournonville´s company and maybe the inspiration for his fairy tale "The Snowman". I can recommend two comparatively recent biographies of Hans Christian Andersen, one by Jens Andersen, the other by Jackie Wullschlager.

Here is the website (English language version) of Palucca University of Dance (= Palucca Hochschule für Tanz) in Dresden, Germany. This school also offers Bachelor/Master programmes and has many international students. http://www.palucca.eu/en/degree_programmes.html From the FAQs: "The Palucca University of Dance Dresden is a public body. It is a university of the arts with an integrated secondary school as a special feature." (...) "The Palucca University of Dance Dresden does not charge tuition fees for first degree courses."

There ist also a new DVD of Maurice Béjart´s "The Ninth Symphony" (Beethoven), danced by the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and the Tokyo Ballet. Date of release apparently october 2.

Have just watched this! It was about Louis XIV (who died september 1st, 1715) and the artists working for him, how the Roi Soleil used them and their work to cultivate his own image and glory. Examples were Molière, Racine, painters, architects, and of course Lully. There was quite a lot about the King´s fondness of dancing, about the ballets de cour, also about the Ballet de la nuit and how it related to the fronde, the uprising of members of the aristocracy against the crown and its centralised power (night/the fronde ends with the arrival of the sun/le Roi Soleil, who danced himself in this ballet). Also discussion of Lully, his life and personality, how he was a dancer himself, not just a composer, and inspired the King to dance. A little bit about the Académie royale de Musique/Conservatoire de danse which was the first school training professional dancers (now L'École de danse de l'Opéra national de Paris = POB school). The documentary used interviews wth historians, excerpts from the film Le Roi danse (by Gérard Corbiau, 2000, recommended!) and some other period films, plus it showed boys (POB school, I think) learning choreography in the style of that time. It was also stressed how ballet up to the 19th century was mostly a man´s art. I loved this! (Have to admit that one of my favourite scenes in The Flames of Paris is the Rinaldo and Armida court ballet ... not completely authentic - pointe shoes etc - but catches the spirit well, I think).

Katharina sits glued to the tv watching the Bolshoi´s recent Sleeping Beauty. Enter The Boyfriend. B: What´s that? K: A ballet from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow! Sit down! B: [sits down] K: It´s the Sleeping Beauty, based on Perrault´s fairy tale. B.: Fairy tale? Aren´t we too old for that? K.: But it´s not really aimed at children. The location is Versailles and here are the King and Queen and their courtiers ... B. [taking in the insanely opulent décors]: Whoever made this was clearly a fan of the ancien régime. Isn´t it rather anachronistic? K.: Well maybe they saw themselves as part of the old legitimist camp, but it´s not really about politics ... the plot and location provide the ambience for the choreography, which itself is rather abstract ... [ watching the fairy variations] you see these dances each represent a virtue expressed through choreography. B.: ... virtue? K.: Yes. The classical vocabulary itself is linked to the idea that goodness can be expressed through the harmonical movement of the human body ... and in the end the good Lilac Fairy triumphs over Carabosse, who is not given any harmonious classical steps, and the threat to their kingdom is averted ... B.: ... and the status quo is maintained. K..: It´s about form and structure! Not via psychological realism, or a political statement. Like the Brandenburg Concerti or a Haydn symphony! [enter David Hallberg. On the screen, I mean.] K.: You see? You see? Isn´t he beautiful? B.: Beauty of form just for the sake of it? K.: Yeeees ... why not? The Haydn symphonies do not point to anything beyond themselves either ... you can appreciate The Sleeping Beauty without agreeing with the principles of the ancien régime ... B.: All art is political, even when it is not. The Haydn symphonies do not have characters pretending to be absolutist princes, but Haydn was employed by one and many of his works wouldn´t have existed without his prince Esterházy von Galantha. K.: [gives up] (Am now planning to drag him in front of some Wayne McGregor next. And Rite of Spring. And the POB´s Picasso and Dance dvd.)

Thank you, Alison and Ellie :-) Ellie, maybe I am moving in the wrong circles ... It is generally true that Germany is pro arts so I probably shouldn´t complain, but I know lots of otherwise intelligent people who are prejudiced about ballet. For example a so called "cultured person" in Germany would read books, go to the museum, attend concerts and theatre/opera performances, but might never have seen a ballet. Do children learn about ballet in academic schools in Britain? At my school in Germany I learned history of music and music theory, but nothing about dance. I think the "pro arts attitude" here and elsewhere is closely related to subsidies that theatres and concert halls etc receive from the city or federal state*, and these institutions funded by public money are obviously not as threatened by a production that sells badly as a private enterprise would be. Such theatres can take risks with interpretations of opera/theatre. But if you begin an "interpretation" of Swan Lake" it can happen that only the music and the basic outline of the plot remain ... or you go half way like the Berlin State Ballet did in the late nineties with their Swan Lake production by the POB´s Patrice Bart (Rotbart the evil minister conspiring with the Queen, Benno has feelings for Siegfried etc. but most of the iconic choreography is there). The core repertoire is small anyway, and the best known ballets are the narrative ones that are based on well-known literary texts. Even recently, Stuttgart had a great success with "Krabat", a ballet based on a novel by Otfried Preußler (there is also a successful German film). So people recognised the title, and maybe that is the way to do it (if there is a good dramaturg) ... ____ * Also important is the fact that in past centuries Germany consisted of lots of kingdoms, duchies, principalities ... and each of them had their court theatre, musicians, etc. Plus there were the merchant cities with their theatres built by the bourgeoisie. Many of those theatres have remained and people sort of take them for granted.

As a child my "entry" to ballet was classical music. I play the violin and used to spend a lot of time in the local library, and next to the music shelf there was the dance shelf ... I then wanted ballet lessons but my mother was against it. The more obvious reason was that we could not afford both violin and ballet lessons, but she also opposed ballet for another reason: she thought that ballet was a superficial leisure activity for girls who live in pink bedrooms, play with barbie dolls and like to look at themselves in the mirror - not serious art (as opposed to classical music). I think this view is quite widespread in Germany. There seems to be - especially in the media - a general distrust of an art form that involves technical skill and dedicated hard work from an early age, because that depends to quite a large degree on decisions taken by parents when the child is very young and is therefore "unfair". (With classical music it is similar but:opera houses and symphony orchestras are better rooted in Germany, and there are lots of them :-) and music in Germany = cerebral whereas dance = sensual?) Of course in elite sports you also have to start early and work hard but that is more acceptable because it is more popular ... and therefore it is relevant. In discussions about the performing arts in Germany, I get the impression that what is not relevant is not acceptable, and in order to be relevant the art form or performance must have a political side to it. Sort of journalistic art, I sometimes think. Also operas can take "updating" and the so called "Regietheater", because the music and libretto can still stay intact (and are well notated and documented in the first place). Ballet is not so good at that, so in Germany it is getting not as much attention, there are fewer knowledgeable critics, and so the perception remains that it is ... dusty, especially the heritage pieces (of course there are exceptions - Ballet on the Rhine - but they don´t do any 19th century works and only partially correct the dustiness-prejudice). So I think the problem to some extent sociopolitical, a Zeitgeist thing and difficult to solve for a marketing department. Most of the education/audience building attempts that I know of are either about preaching to the converted/giving-to-those-that-already-have or they are one-off activities without a lasting effect (but they do decorate the house). Sorry about the confused rambling ... also am a German native speaker ... getting a little cynical about it all. When I was a student not very long ago I used to have a little job helping out at the box office of one of the larger German houses. Between the category of people who bought tickets for performances aimed at children/teenagers/newcomers and those who attended mainstream repertory performances there was next to no overlap.

I´m sure R. Nureyev had a big influence on the POB´s performing history and and appreciation of the 19th century classics but the POB did not aquire all their 19th century ballets because of him: they had been performing Bourmeister´s Swan Lake production since 1950 (according to French wikipedia & famous disagreement with POB dancers about which version to perform), Sleeping Beauty (complete version) was danced by POB since 1974 (ok that´s late but was a decade before Nureyev´s arrival as a direcor). During the 19th century they also danced the premières of La Sylphide (1832, but was danced till the later 19th century, there are photos), Giselle (dropped in 1868), Le Corsaire, and, as you said, Coppélia. And so on ... (they had the original "Les Deux Pigeons" (1886), and original "Sylvia"(1876)). Of course some of the later 19th ballets from Paris are not so well known outside of France, but the decades after Giselle weren´t entirely empty ... some of those ballets are still perfomed, although in new productions (La Source, Paquita, Sylvia). POB did acquire the complete La Bayadère and Raymonda because of Nureyev. Sorry to divert from Sylvie Guillem, but couldn´t resist ... being a fan of POB.

Thank you for the kind words! Yes, the Semperoper is really very beautiful. It was originally built around 1840 by Gottfried Semper and since then has been restored twice (after a fire c.1870 and after 1945). The theatre is part of a whole baroque ensemble and people in Dresden are understandably proud of it (it is like their Crown Jewels). The Semperoper Ballett is a classical company performing the 19th century repertory, also Balanchine, Forsythe, Neumeier, Kylian etc. Their director is Aaron S. Watkin from Canada, who was a dancer with ENB, Dutch National Ballet and Forsythe´s Frankfurt Ballett. Here are some pictures of the Semperoper from Wikipedia Commons:

Hello, this is my first post. I´ve been reading around this forum for some time and it has become the first website I look at whenever I switch on my computer, so I finally decided to become a member. Some words about me: I´m a musicology student from Germany (so English is not my first language and I apologize for any mistakes I might make) and noticed this forum after a visit to London (to see some ballet, of course!). I know a German forum which is part of tanznetz.de and was looking for English language websites about ballet. So now I have found and love the balletcoforum and also the dancetabs website, because of the international scope and the many kind and knowledgeable people contributing here! My ballet-going experiences are comparatively limited as of now: I have only seen performances in Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Leipzig and Dresden) and London. Recently I discovered the Ballett am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Germany, which is a medium-sized company of about 50 dancers, directed since 2009 by the Swiss choreographer Martin Schläpfer and performing in the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. They dance mostly neoclassical/20th and 21rst century ballets by choreographers such as van Manen, Balanchine and Mr Schläpfer himself. Last season they also danced in a new production of Castor et Pollux, a French baroque opera by Rameau that has extensive ballet scenes. This year is going to be very interesting I think, because they are going to do ballets such as The Leaves are Fading, Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan (coached by Lynn Seymour) and Concerto Barocco (coached by Patricia Neary, who also rehearsed Agon and Serenade with them), also Afternoon of a Faun by Jerome Robbins. So I´m excited to see more performances of the Ballett am Rhein; their calendar is here, in case anyone is planning to travel to the Rhine region: http://www.rheinoper...E/events/ballet Goodbye for now Katharina