CHazell2

Hi

Sorry if this topic has been done before but with the current run of Sleeping Beauty has set me thinking.

What should be considered the best production of Sleeping Beauty ever done and why do you think that? Was it the dancers, the choreographical text or the scenery? Please feel free to give your thoughts on this. I do realise that for most people on here, the Messel production is considered to be the best ever - if so, why is that. Should the Royal Ballet keep that production for ever?

Also one final question - if you ever got the chance to produce the ballet yourself - how would you do it? 

Good to know someone else has earworm problems! And SB my favourite of the Tchaikovsky Big 3

Sleeping Beauty is my favourite too. I love the glorious music and whilst I agree that the story is sparse, without not much room for character development - it is still a pretty good story. One thing I will say though - I think that the Awakening Pas de Deux should be restored as it addresses the problem of Aurora and the Prince quite admirably.

Hi, is row H in the amphli any good. I got the last ticket in that row.

The Sleeping Beauty: A Legend in Progress by Tim Scholl is about the Kirov reconstruction, well worth reading.

Indeed it is.

There were cameras at the performance last night.

That sounds great - but I wonder whether they are filming for their archives or for commercial purposes. I would so love to have a DVD of this production. I don't really fancy the Khan production

Thanks. I just hope that my ankle will last the day.

Thank you so much for this article Irmagard. Very informative. I wish the ENB would film it as it is a very good production.

Hi, I was just wondering how much the programmes are at the Coliseum as I will be going to the evening performance.

My list of Classics are

1) The Sleepng Beauty.

2) Swan Lake.

3) The Nutcracker.

4) Coppelia.

5) Giselle.

6) Le Corsaire.

7) Cinderella.

8) Romeo and Juliet.

9) Mayerling.

10) La Fille Mal Gardee

11) Ondine

Anybody want to add to my list?

With regard to Sir Peter Wright's Swan Lake for the Swedish Royal Ballet, I may be imagining this as it was a few years ago. I am sure I recall this ballet being on tv one Christmas, introduced by Deborah Bull and starring Natalie Nordquist, who was then very young as mentioned by Miss Bull. She is only 37 now I believe.

Anyway, I am sure Natalia Markarova had something to do with the choreography in this version, but I can find no reference to it now and the dvd is currently unavailable.

I remember it being a particularly good production, with much more being made of Prince Seigfried's role in events, plus the dancing by the corp was stunningly good in the final scene, with the score used to maximum effect.

Did I imagine Markarova's involvement? I would be most grateful if someone could help me out with this one!

It is still available - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Swan-Lake-DVD-NTSC-Tchaikovsky/dp/B00007M5JZ/ref=sr_1_20?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1482954295&sr=1-20&keywords=Swan+Lake

You are right - it is a very good production. In my view one of the best currently out there along with the Royal Ballet's version. It was on telly and I distinctly remember recording it.

Janet was right - it was Galiina Samsova who helped with this production, not Natalia Makarova

Undeserved! With all the cuts plus the competition from big money the BBC is fighting for its existence and increasingly is thrown back on its archives, not just with dance but right across the range. In response it is showing considerable imagination in creating interesting programmes out of its past recordings. I for one am delighted and hope we shall see the Corporation delving deeper and deeper into its archives across the whole range of the arts. Meanwhile this Xmas, in spite of all its problems the Corporation has produced a wide variety of first rate programmes covering all sections of its audience - including us - that I doubt any broadcasting network across the world for all their bucks can begin to match.

 

I say well done to the BBC and on the same note well done Darcey Bussell who also comes in for far too much undeserved stick!      

Well said David

In fact I want to see the whole Sleeping Beauty with Sibley and Dowell. Those extracts only whetted my appetite for more

Sibley and Dowell in the Awakening pas de deux - I'd love that to be restored! (Even if it makes Beauty even longer...).

Seconded, I think that it is a essential part of the story - and the Pas de Deux is so beautiful in its own right.

 

Also I think that Sergeyev Vilkhav possibly misread the notations and also there were some confusion about which steps to use.[/quote

 

Sorry I meant Sergei Vilkharav

Also I think that Sergeyev Vilkhav possibly misread the notations and also there were some confusion about which steps to use.

You are absolutely correct FLOSS, there were other factors involved and if I had more time than I did last night, I would have said what you said.

I think that it is sad when politics play a toxic role in ballet, as I think that fanaticism make people callous. The Kirov ballet had a wonderful opportunity to go back to the original text but they chose to create a mishmash instead because they couldn't bear the thought that Nicholas Sergeyev had preserved the choreography instead of Konstantin Sergeyev.

It is assuredly not a duffer in my opinion. The dancing and the acting is superb. The story can be a bit confusing if you don't know the life of Mata Hari. Nevertheless it is a story worth telling.

That's extremely interesting to read. I have laboured under a misapprehension for too many years it would seem...

Thanks, unfortunately it is one that most people have. I think it came about because Marie Petipa who created the role in 1890 was not thought to be a extremely good dancer technically, but she was considered brilliant as a character dancer (She also danced Cinderella in the 3rd Act as well).

According to Tim Scholl, whose book on the 1999 reconstruction of the Sleeping Beauty, I wholly recommend - it was one of the key areas of controversy that surrounded the reconstruction - because the people opposed to the reconstruction, which included almost everybody, old timers, ballet coaches - considered Marie Petipa and Nicholas Sergeyev to be persona non grata- chiefly because they got out of Russia and so were considered open to slander. Marie was written by Soviet historians to be a lazy dancer and the Lilac fairy as a mimed role who only got the variation that she deserved when Fedor Lopukhov re-choreographed the role for a later production (I think that it was the very first Soviet production in 1922). Lopukhov and Soviet historians had to justify this by vilifying Marie and Nicholas Sergeyev 

Also because there are two Lilac fairy variations that are notated, one is the one that the Royal Ballet dances, and is very, very technically demanding. Another has Marie's name written across the top and was thought to be not so demanding, indeed according to some people, Marie didn't dance en pointe. Now thanks to Alexei Ratmansky's reconstructon - we can see that this is absolute nonsense - you can see here -     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4EP3R8zcFQ. Also I think that the famous picture of Marie in her Valkyrie like costume that she wears in the 2nd Act has played a huge part in creating the legend that the Lilac fairy was a mimed role in the first 1890 production.

Here is Marie in the costume that she wears in the Prologue.

Marie Petipa in the famous photo of the Lilac Fairy.

Hope that this has been helpful.

That's a common misconception. The Lilac Fairy did dance in the Prologue but her role is mostly mime.

Hi there

Merry Christmas everybody. May you all enjoy whatever you do today and may we ever enjoy watching and discussing ballet in the years to come.

Thank you for welccoming me onto the forum, I feel that I am learning a lot here andd I hope that I have managed to contribute as well.

Best wishes everybody

Chris (CHazell2)

I enjoyed it too and the point was made that these stories go back a very long way indeed.  Although the programme concentrated on the Grimms, SB in its balletic incarnation harks back to Perrault and therein lies the intrinsic problem for a lot of ballet goers.  There is an entrenched belief that Beauty can only be set in the court of Louis quatorze which means ugly wigs and costumes as a backdrop.  I'll admit to being upset when so many here voted SB as a least favourite ballet, but can't help thinking if a little imagination could be employed as to settings it would be a lot more enjoyable.  Best of all those beauty productions listed was the Wright/Ashton version that was set in the medieval period, it was sublime.  A recording exists and probably the original designs and models too:  revive it.  

I would love to see that recording although I suspect that it was erased from the BBC archives - hopefully it wasn't. 

If you have time, then it would be great to hear more about this--I admit I'm especially curious what he had to say about Ratmansky's approach and/or how he sees his own approach as differing from it.

Me too. It would be interesting to compare the various approaches that both men used to do the reconstructions.

It all sounds very good to me. I am hoping to catch it in Norwich when it comes here. I hope that they film this and Cinderella for DVD

I will be quite happy to take them. If you don't mind waiting until January for me to collect them.

Me too. In fact I love Act 3. So powerful and intense