Sebastian

Thanks annamk. However my problem was not one of overlooking the links: for a couple of weeks each time I made a booking I would look very carefully for the link, but not find it. So then I made the booking as if for paper tickets but then contact the box office to ask them to change it for an e-ticket. This was getting tiresome, hence posting here to find out if there was a more general problem. However my last booking was fine - the link was back - so I hope the problem has been fixed now.

Might I ask if other people have had trouble getting e-tickets for Covent Garden? A couple of times recently I got to the end of the booking process but no button for choosing the e-ticket option was provided. Both times I had to contact the box office to ask them to change my order to e-tickets (which they helpfully did). Am I the only person to suffer this issue with the booking process?

Most interesting. Do you happen to have any information on where this important paper is to be published? I would very much like to read it.

I will do a test and report back! But my antique opera glasses (which are pretty big) are as much about being decorative as functional.

I inherited a gorgeous pair of opera glasses from my family but have not brought them to the West End for many years, for fearing of losing or damaging them. Recently I have been relying on a "monocular" which, though it is good for some kinds of show, doesn't give everything one would like. So, having just purchased what seem to be very good and compact opera glasses (for under £7) I thought I would pass on the tip: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Compact-Roof-Prism-8x21-Foldable-Pocket-Binoculars-Birdwatching-with-Carry-Case/302608331982 Other ebay sellers seem to be offering the same product but I can only vouch for this supplier (with whom I have no connection, I should add). I tried out the different lighting conditions of yesterday's Giselle matinee and was very pleased: these glasses are a practical small size and the price seems pretty much unbeatable. The only concern I have is that the magnification is almost too strong. The focussing - I used the most helpful though not really English instructions - taught me a trick I never knew in decades of using binoculars. Hope this helps someone.

An interesting writer who has tackled related questions is Clair Hughes. Her "Dressed in Fiction" (Berg, 2005) covers the development of dress in some, primarily, novels of the 18th and 19th century. To my particular question Hughes has little to add about origins - indeed she writes "The source of this stereotype has not been traced, as far as I know" - and says little about this particular white image before the 1819 "Bride of Lammermoor". But in her concluding chapter - The Missing Wedding Dresses - she writes (quoting Fiona Robertson's introduction to the 1998 Oxford edition of the Scott novel): I like that phrase about emotional liberation!

A week ago there was an interesting interview with Sadler's Wells boss Alistair Spalding on the Radio 3 programme "Private Passions". It is still available here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09p2fdz

Pas de Quatre, you might like this quote from the co-author of Giselle, Theophile Gautier, in his "Histoire de l'Art Dramatique" of 1859 (cited in Cyril Beaumont's classic "The Ballet Called Giselle", one of the sources I drew on for my original post, above; for my admiring comments on Beaumont's scholarship see the links on the Wilis): "After La Sylphide...(t)he new style led to a great abuse of white gauze, tulle, and tarlatan, the shades dissolved into mist by means of transparent dresses. White was the only colour used." Incidentally Beaumont later makes the interesting comment that the other author of Giselle, Vernoy de Saint-Georges, "probably adapted" that ballet's "mad scene" from the opera Lucia di Lammermoor. Rather than a history of costume as such, it is tracking such cross-fertilizations - by tracing stagings back to their inspirations - which most interests me. But any comments welcomed, as I am eager to learn more!

Just as an aside on the bridal dress question, an authoritative recent book from the V&A ('The Wedding Dress', Edwin Ehrman, 2011) summarises as follows: "From the final decade of the the eighteenth century through to 1840...a white dress gradually became the garment of choice for a well-to-do young woman marrying for the first time...The fashion for wearing white and silver wedding dresses, which was popular in aristocratic circles in the eighteenth century, did not disappear immediately, but became less popular and by the 1830s white and silver had ceded to white...From 1790 to 1810 white was the dominant colour for women's fashions for informal day and evening wear, and bridal clothes followed suit." However my original posting was about stage costume and so maybe there is somewhere with knowledge of theatrical customs who can add a little. I was particularly taken by Pas De Quatre's observation:

And we (probably) know what Fanny Persiani, the first Lucia, wore in 1835 - 1839, see Chalon's famous watercolour of Persiani in the role (from the V&A): So I can't help thinking, we can guess where Queen Victoria may have got the idea for her dress!

We do in fact know what Lucy was wearing in the Bride of Lammermoor in 1819, see this extract from the novel:

A friend sends this rather interesting picture: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O17815/the-ballet-scene-from-meyerbeers-oil-painting-degas-hilaire-germain/

As Giselle is about to return to Covent Garden, might this be an appropriate time to ask a related question? The history of 19th century performers and "white acts" is presumably part of the first course every student of dance history takes. May I therefore draw on collective expertise? Listed below are a few works which seem significant, and I wonder if someone might be so kind as to fill in the inevitable gaps, particularly for the "pre-history", i.e. the years leading up to 1825. 10 December 1825: First night of Boïeldieu's opéra comique “La Dame Blanche” (based on a number of works by Walter Scott, but as regards the White Lady, specifically “The Monastery”) In the course of the action a young woman dresses in white to represent herself as a ghost. Adolphe Adam helped Boïeldieu prepare the orchestral parts, Adam of course later going on to write the music for Giselle. 6 March 1831: First night of Bellini’s opera "La Somnambula". A female sleepwalker in a white nightdress is mistaken for a phantom. 21 November 1831: First night of Meyerbeer’s opera "Robert le Diable". The so-called "ballet of the nuns" has unfaithful nuns coming out of their graves (dressed in white) to tempt the hero. This scene starred the choreographer's daughter, Marie Taglioni. 1832: Marie Taglioni appears in the title role of "La Sylphide", a ballet telling the story of a fairy - dressed in white - who tempts a man to abandon his sweetheart (the scenario was written by the tenor star of “Robert le Diable”). This sylph and her “ethereal sisters” are all dressed in white, and so Act 2 of “La Sylphide” may be thought of as the first "ballet blanc", the white act. 1835: "Lucia di Lammermoor" (Donizetti) and "I Puritani" (Bellini) are first performed, both starring women who get into a state while wearing white wedding dresses. 1836: La Sylphide is restaged to new music by the Danish ballet master Bournonville 1842 onwards: White acts in Giselle, Swan Lake and so on. Incidentally, as to Giselle itself, I wrote about the history of the Wilis in earlier postings, e.g. http://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/14339-english-national-ballet-mary-skeapings-giselle-london-coliseum-2017/?do=findComment&comment=197609 http://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/14339-english-national-ballet-mary-skeapings-giselle-london-coliseum-2017/?do=findComment&comment=200100

According to this page there is also to be a conference in June in Moscow, organized by the Bakhrushin Museum : http://www.gctm.ru/en/2017/11/21/a-year-of-marius-petipa-theatre-museum-s-programme/

Here is a New Year quiz question, to which I however do not have the answer. Past postings show there are fans of the wonderful Nicholas Brothers on this Forum. In their film Tin Pan Alley, at the beginning of the brother's (might one call it ball-breaking?) routine, an exotic girl does an exotic dance. She is credited as "Princess Vanessa Ammon" but who was she? There is is no point in trying the Internet as there is apparently nothing online about her. I would love to know more. Perhaps those in the US familiar with the history of African American dance entertainers know something? Happy New Year!

FLOSS, I recently had the opportunity to consult the papers of Cyril Beaumont held by the V&A. There is indeed clear evidence Beaumont was flirting with the idea of doing a successor to his books on Giselle and Swan Lake, and that he had begun to encourage his collaborator/s in Russia to send him relevant material. However beyond a few translations of key texts - and some detailed notes on the history of the choreography - there is little which could be considered a work in progress. The collection seems to hold no drafts by Beaumont himself - except for the Sleeping Beauty sections of his earlier "Complete Book of Ballets" and some sleeve notes for a recording of the SB music - which suggests he didn't get much further. As you say, a great pity.

Many thanks FLOSS. On those two points: * I think you mean "Sleeping Beauty": A Legend in Progress by Tim Scholl (not Schott) * Your note has helped me locate a link (in Russian) to the March event:- http://vaganovaacademy.ru/nauchnaya/seminari/hommage-a-petipa-iv.html

If you click on the link and chose the tab for "Participation conditions" one finds this:- Official Congress languages: English, French and Russian.

As everyone knows next year sees the 200th anniversary of the birth of Petipa (on 11 March 2018). There will no doubt be celebratory events all over the world but I am particularly interested in academic conferences. For example here is one: http://www.congress2018.cid-spb.ru/index.php/en/ Do people know of other such events either in the UK or Russia? For example I have heard a conference is planned at the Bakhrushin museum for next spring but can't find where this is listed.

Westminster Reference Library, just off Leicester Square in London, has long been a happy secret for those interested in researching the performing arts. Their holdings, covering many aspects of performance including dance and ballet, are impressive, comprising a collection of some 15,000 books, a third of which are available to borrow if one joins the Library (which is free). The collection includes Anna Pavlova's personal library of books, which has recently been taken out of storage. Some are only available for consultation in the reference section; but many others were added to the Lending Library. More about the Library here: https://www.westminster.gov.uk/library-opening-hours-and-contact-details#westminster-reference-library https://trib.ent.sirsidynix.net.uk/client/en_GB/wcc/?rm=PERFORMING+ARTS0|||1|||0|||true&dt=list To search the catalogue online: https://trib.ent.sirsidynix.net.uk/client/en_GB/wcc/

Cyril Beaumont, in his excellent and detailed book "The Ballet Called Giselle", has the history slightly differently. In chapter 2, footnote 1, he says the French text came first and was published in 1833. So to try and clear things up I have gone back to probably the most authoritative source, the academic edition of Heine's complete works (sixteen volumes, published between 1975 and 1997). In vol 9, published in 1987, there is a full and scholarly discussion of the somewhat confusing history of the various versions. Not only, as I suggested in my original post, are the sources somewhat incomplete and unclear, but (see page 533) Heine wrote first in German but published first in French, only later issuing a revised German version. So my original post was not complete although the dates seem to stand (it is not clear where Beaumont, writing somewhat earlier - 1944 - and without the benefit of the German scholarly apparatus, got his information, which seems not to be quite right). Hope this helps, if anyone is tracking down the history of the Wilis. Incidentally Beaumont has a most interesting alternative source for learning a little more about Wilis, Meyer's Konversations-Lexikon (first produced in 1839 and going through many editions until finally being subsumed in the massive German encyclopaeida Brockhaus in 1984). Unlike Heine's essay, this source stresses their vampiric nature which, Beaumont says, "is a far more logical explanation of the Wilis than that of Heine". The 1897 edition of Meyer is happily online, see the reference to Wilis here: http://www.retrobibliothek.de/retrobib/seite.html?id=116128 (one needs to spin down to the entry for " Vampir")

An amusing aside: I have just been reading the article A CONTEXT FOR PETIPA by Roland John Wiley (in Dance Research, 2003) which begins:- For a person quite so celebrated, Marius Petipa remains something of a mystery. Most accounts of him suffer deficiencies of fact or context, and provide a salient detail or two amidst the broadest generalisations.

Jane S, you are of course correct: I was condensing a friend's offhand comment about changes between 1946 and Sir Peter's version of 1968. Incidentally, following another RB production in 1973, 1977 saw Madam have another go, at what was called at the time a "back to the grassroots" production, which made Carabosse less of a witch (among other changes to 1946). This returns us to my original question about the "magical" (witch-like) disappearance of the spindle in or around 1963/4. Ongoing thanks to everyone: Douglas Allen, thank you in particular for some most interesting leads, which I will certainly follow up.

Apologies: "thimble" should of course also be "spindle" (must have been autocomplete doing its best with my terrible typing!) Thank you for your most interesting suggestions. I am lucky to have access to a university library at the moment so obscurity / expense are not obstacles. I look forward to reading into why Petipa made the choreographic choices he did.

Many years ago, when ROH Insight events were rather more in-depth than they are now, there was a wonderful talk by Giannandrea Poesio on the history of the Sleeping Beauty. He mentioned in passing that he hoped one day to do a book about that ballet. Much to my disappointment this book has yet to appear, so, while we wait, does anyone know of a detailed account of the history and symbolism of Sleeping Beauty (in English, as sadly I don't read Russian)? There are of course various short summaries all over the place but as we are about to start another ROH run I feel the need to read something more substantial. This forum is great for hints of the intricacies but the clues are widely dispersed across many posts (so far as I know there isn't a topic just on the history of this most interesting and complex of ballets). I would love to know more (the breadcrumbs, the in-jokes about people at court and so on) so any clues on where to start would be most welcome. Incidentally, clicking around looking for online research, I discovered a rather nice page about Tchaikovsky's work on the ballet (it looks like Wikipedia but isn't):- http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/The_Sleeping_Beauty Finally, a small question about ROH performance history which maybe someone on here knows the answer to. I saw a ROH production in the 1960s (not the classic one but the one which followed it and was then superseded by Peter Wright's 1968 production) and wonder about what I think I saw. After Aurora pricked her finger on the thimble, my memory is that they somehow engineered the spindle on to a trap door, so that at a suitable point, the trap descended and the spindle was made to vanish. Did I really see this or is it a false memory?