Sebastian

PS Just discovered your message box says you can’t receive messages. Are you able to message me? Sorry Sebastian

I would like this, will PM you now. Thanks Sebastian 

I have a spare ticket for the last “The Sleeping Beauty and Me” Insight this coming Wednesday 4 December at 6pm (timed so people can comfortably get to Coppelia that evening).

The participants are not announced in advance but have tended to be starry (earlier in this run we had for example Gary Avis, Darcey Bussell, Monica Mason and conductor Simon Hewett). 

£11. Please PM as well as posting here if interested. 

On 19/11/2019 at 07:13, Sebastian said:

The question of what constitutes “the original” is an interesting one and not entirely straightforward. Vsevolozhsky said he was setting the Perrault tale: in this there is no kiss (that appears in the later version from the brothers Grimm) but, as one translation has it, “the princess awoke, and bestowed upon him a look more tender than a first glance might seem to warrant”. 

On 19/11/2019 at 09:28, Sebastian said:

And here is the relevant section from Joan Lawson's authoritative 1942 translation of the working documents for the ballet (a shortened version of which appeared in the programme for the first night in 1890)  --

 

>>"He [Prince Desire] goes up to the Sleeping Beauty and kisses her on the brow - the music rises to a crescendo. Then a pause. The spell is broken. Aurora and the entire court awake...The music expresses: astonishment, wonder, happiness and joy. Everyone embraces at seeing each other again."

However if one goes back earlier, to the story which inspired Perrault for his 'La Belle au bois dormant' of 1697, one does indeed find sexual violence. As Jeanne Morgan details in her comprehensive account, Perrault drew on Basile's 1634 story 'Sole, Luna e Talia' in which

"a king, who is already married, finds Talia unconscious in her locked room and ravishes her. Nine months later she gives birth to twin children...(But in Perrault) there is no rape of the sleeping princess; instead, she awakens when the Prince approaches her"

(from 'Perrault's Morals for Moderns', Jeanne Morgan, 1985)

54 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

It’s a 2 star review...

I wonder what's up. I have accessed the piece via a professional online news source (as used by the city, lawyers etc) and there this is shown as a 3-star review. Maybe there was a computer glitch or a revision? Not that the difference really matters. 

2 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

That's interesting, Sebastian. The current RB synopsis says it's her 16th birthday, and I've always had that age in my head. I don't know, but perhaps 20 was some sort of coming-of-age age in Russia at the time, whereas 16 wasn't?? And now 16 does still have some of that connotation whereas 20 doesn't? Just speculating. (And 16 - or even earlier in some eras - would be an age when a princess would have been expected to be married off in past ages, whereas by 20 she would have been positively middle-aged!).

Thanks Bridiem (our posts crossed: as you were writing, I was updating my post!) That's a good suggestion: maybe there is a Russian member of the Forum who knows about pre-revolutionary birthday celebrations?

1 hour ago, Xandra Newman said:

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/uk/culture/arts/a29823773/royal-opera-house-sleeping-beauty/

Many thanks for drawing attention to this Xandra. Just one addendum: the writer says Aurora pricks her finger on her 16th birthday, which is what it says in the programme (and so presumably reflects the 1946 production, does anyone know?) But there is some confusion: the original Perrault tale does indeed say "fifteen or sixteen years" (Grimm later said fifteen) but the libretto for the 1890 premiere of the ballet clearly specifies she is twenty years old. 

Does anyone have any ideas as to why they choose a 20th birthday in 1890 (the manners of the Imperial court perhaps or the taste of the censor)? And why this was changed again in 1946 or more recently?

2 hours ago, Sebastian said:

The question of what constitutes “the original” is an interesting one and not entirely straightforward. Vsevolozhsky said he was setting the Perrault tale: in this there is no kiss (that appears in the later version from the brothers Grimm) but, as one translation has it, “the princess awoke, and bestowed upon him a look more tender than a first glance might seem to warrant”. Which sounds pretty consensual to me.

 

Incidentally the French text also has a sly little joke about the young couple not needing a lot of sleep. 

And here is the relevant section from Joan Lawson's authoritative 1942 translation of the working documents for the ballet (a shortened version of which appeared in the programme for the first night in 1890)  --

>>"He [Prince Desire] goes up to the Sleeping Beauty and kisses her on the brow - the music rises to a crescendo. Then a pause. The spell is broken. Aurora and the entire court awake...The music expresses: astonishment, wonder, happiness and joy. Everyone embraces at seeing each other again."

7 hours ago, alison said:

Not exactly.  I'm guessing you haven't read the original   

The question of what constitutes “the original” is an interesting one and not entirely straightforward. Vsevolozhsky said he was setting the Perrault tale: in this there is no kiss (that appears in the later version from the brothers Grimm) but, as one translation has it, “the princess awoke, and bestowed upon him a look more tender than a first glance might seem to warrant”. Which sounds pretty consensual to me.

Incidentally the French text also has a sly little joke about the young couple not needing a lot of sleep. 

7 hours ago, FLOSS said:

Richard Buckle writes about Karsavina showing him lengthy  mime passages from the old ballets and her demonstrations coming as a revelation of how expressive and moving those mime passages could be. We know that she gave lectures to students at the school because Mason mentioned one when she attended an Insight Evening and yet no one bothered to record them in more permanent form for future generations. 

Indeed FLOSS, it is a great pity we don’t have a filmed record of these (or any) lectures by Karsavina. However some of her manuscripts of the talks have turned up, which is why I was recently able to write here with authority about what she said at White Lodge in 1967.

(Just bumping this up)

Yes please - I'll send you a DM now!

Many thanks, Sebastian

May I buy Friday 15th? Sent you a DM.

10 hours ago, MargaretN7 said:

I read somewhere, forgotten where, that this electrical variation is celebrating the theatre where it was performed being newly lit by electricity.

Thank you MargaretN7. As I indicated in my original post, one does indeed read this all over the place, asserted as if it is established fact. I have tried to find proper sources - it is such a nice idea one wants it to be true - but without success.

One problem is that the dates don’t really fit. The Mariinsky Theatre was indeed electrified by 1890 but, contrary to some claims, electricity was not that season’s sensation. Electrification was completed some years before Sleeping Beauty and indeed Petipa and Vsevolozhsky had done a fair number of other ballets in the interim. So if the variation celebrates electricity - and as yet no document has emerged from Petipa’s papers to support this - it does not do so because the theatre had just fitted new lights. 

Incidentally, there are interesting differences as to where or how high this fairy points, depending on whose performance tradition is being followed. Perhaps Ratmansky has found a good source for this (the notation does not include arm movements). Sadly although Karsavina - when speaking to the Royal Ballet School in 1967 - did at one point refer to electricity in relation to Manzotti’s 1881 ballet Excelsior, she said nothing about Violente’s fingers or arms. 

One final tidbit. The original costume for this fairy - as designed by Vsevolozhsky - features a turquoise salamander over the dancer’s heart as well as a crown of flames, which might lead one into further speculation.

21 hours ago, Odyssey said:

This is a a really helpful, and readable, explanation to the various adaptations  to the original Petipa ballet and the 
Perrault fairytale.
https://petipasociety.com/the-sleeping-beauty/

This website is indeed a marvellous compendium of secondary sources and some lovely visual material (including much which is hard for the casual reader to find). However one can’t rely on it, as I discovered when doing some research around the history of the Sleeping Beauty. To give one example, the site asserts - as if established fact - that

>>The purpose of the Fairy Violente pointing her fingers during her variation in the Grand Pas de six of the Prologue is that she is zapping electricity, which was new in 1890.

I very much hope this is true, as it is a most entertaining idea and the Prologue Fairies are somewhat mysterious. However nowhere does there seem to be a 19th century source for this observation, in any language, although it pops up, unsourced, in some speculative writing after the Second World War. More than happy to be corrected by those who know more but I can’t find where this comes from. 

I would be grateful for an affordable (SCS or such like) ticket for this evening. 

2 hours ago, JNC said:

I do sometimes find on this forum a little bit of confirmation bias (we generally only book casts we have a preference for and hence most of the reviews are always positive, so I always find it interesting to see more critical ones!). 

A very good point JNC, thank you. 

On 06/11/2019 at 12:23, Two Pigeons said:

However, the whole performance was remarkable for the truly tremendous Laura Morea as Lady Elgar.  I am so pleased to have seen her in an Ashton role, and one she so obviously understood.  I never saw Beriosova in the role but I felt, accurately or otherwise, that I had seen the nearest thing.  She was Alice Elgar as she would like to have been, to partially quote the bon mot about Monica Mason being Alice as she actually was.  It should never be forgotten that Elgar had all his major successes during the time he was married to her and that they ceased with her death.  She was his true inspiration and I really felt that with Morea.

Completely agree

I would be interested in Dec 7 if Thalia doesn’t take the ticket for some reason - have sent a PM

The ticket has now gone. 

I booked for this fascinating-looking film screening back in August but will now be away so can't use my ticket:

https://www.pushkinhouse.org/events/the-brothers-karamazov

Next Sunday, 10 November, 3.15pm, Pushkin House in London (unreserved seating): £12. The screening is currently sold out. I have an eticket so can send it by email.

Please PM as well as posting here if interested.

20 hours ago, HelenLoveAppleJuice said:

I also did some research yesterday and found this article on nytimes in 2016 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/25/arts/dance/review-mariinsky-ballet-in-raymonda-searching-about-for-a-perfect-suitor.html It says "The creaky story line of the 1898 “Raymonda” was shaped by Countess Lydia Pashkova and Petipa along the lines of the Romantic historical fiction popularized a century earlier by Ann Radcliffe (the novelist satirized by Jane Austen in “Northanger Abbey”)."...Searching Russian sites, I see info like this one http://www.pro-ballet.ru/html/r/raymonda.html attributes "scenes. L. A. Pashkova (on the plot of a knight's legend)". 

To add a little more about Lydia Pahkova. The always impeccable Roland Wiley, who never goes beyond his voluminous sources, writes this of Pashkova in "The Ballets of Lev Ivanov":

"A Parisian bohemian and occasional correspondent for Le Figaro who (as rumour had it) was related to Vsevolozhsky, Pashkova wrote...libretti for St Petersburg, one of which - Raymonda - brought her such recognition as she enjoys in the history of the ballet."

A footnote: the claim that Pashkova was Vsevolozhsky's wife - repeated this Sunday during the live transmission of Raymonda by the delightful and multilingual head of press at the Bolshoi, Katerina Novikova - is not correct.

Just sent you a PM Wendy

Ticket now spoken for.

No comment on the dress rehearsal today, for the usual reasons, but did anyone happen to catch the pre-show announcement about two (I think) cast changes? I missed this as my neighbour arrived rather noisily at exactly that moment and so I am puzzling as to who we saw who isn't on the cast list.