Which rarely-staged ballets would you like to see return to the repertory?

[Lindsay]

You're right DaveM, I think it was on a mixed bill with the Firebird 5 or 6 years ago.  I think it was one of the years Cojocaru was injured as I seem to recall she was scheduled to dance it but Yuhui did it instead.

[bangorballetboy]

When was the last time the RB did Les Sylphides? 

 

 

 

2009 (took me all of 5 seconds to find this on google)

[bangorballetboy]

You're right DaveM, I think it was on a mixed bill with the Firebird 5 or 6 years ago.  

 

Yes, and the premiere of Sensorium (which I'd like to see again).

[MAB]

Lindsay, thanks for making mention of wonderful Myriam Ould-Braham, I saw her dance Casse-Noisette with Nikolai Tsiskaridze exactly six years ago this month.  They made the whole thing look as easy as stepping off a bus.  The Paris version is different in places to the London one as Nureyev was famous for having second thoughts about his productions.  Despite some choreographic oddities I still preferred that version to the present RB one.

 

Les Sylphides is available on DVD danced by the RB in three different performances, the earliest features Alicia Markova (and Beriosova) with an introduction by Tamara Karsavina, though strictly speaking Sadlers Wells rather than RB.  A version with Nadia Nerina, and the most recent recording is of Margot Fonteyn with an admirably well behaved Rudolf Nureyev.

 

Also available is a rather enjoyable Bolshoi version with Natalia Bessmertnova, possibly a Kirov version too.  The earliest (Markova) DVD comes with one of the best Giselles on film in the shape of Nadia Nerina, though sadly cut in places.

[FLOSS]

The problem with the 2009 revival of Les Sylphides is that it was not that well danced. I am not saying that anyone danced the wrong steps simply that it had no life to it.Instead of being a beautiful evocation of the Romantic ballet and of the pure, elegant style of the French school of the early nineteenth century unadulterated by the bravura display of the late nineteenth  century Italian school, it was lifeless. The cast did not seem to understand the style or the mood they were supposed to create.Some of them looked as if they would rather have been in another ballet and some of them danced as if they were in another ballet. Apart from the RB's recorded performance with Nureyev and Fonteyn Les Sylphides has never been one of the jewels in the RB's crown.

 

At a time when a large part of the audience equate male dancing with jumping and multiple pirouettes and female dancing with high extensions and Olympic style feats of endurance, with poses held as long as possible it is difficult to make the audience fully aware of what they are seeing.They watch the ballet but don't see what the choreographer is doing. It is meant to look effortless and elegant and because the dancers  make it look as if anyone could dance it the audience does not think that the dancers have done anything. During the interval at a performance in 2009 I overheard  two women discussing what they had  just seen. If they had said that it had not been that well danced I would have agreed with them but what they said was that it was a waste of good dancers because" no one had done anything". I think that Emeralds in Balanchine's Jewels presents the audience with the same problem. If there are no fireworks then nothing has happened. I think that many people see these works as ballets in which nothing happens at great length.

 

I think that I am brave enough to suggest that the RB should try it again as long as the coaches can make the dancers understand that  they are  supposed to be evoking the world of Taglioni.Is the way to persuade the audience to see the work as a response to bravura display to place it second in the programme after a ballet that is little more than a display piece? Although I generally dislike ultra slow renditions of ballets I think that the best production that I have seen of  Les Sylphides was the one that Markova mounted for LFB/ENB. It was very slow but incredibly beautiful. I think that fact that Markova had been coached by Fokine helped as did the fact that the cast was led by Evdokimova and Nureyev. Les Sylphides is no longer a staple of the repertory so anyone interested in seeing it is going to have seek out a recording,

 

The recording with Markova,Beriosova and Elvin on ICA  is a gem.It is one of those recordings that make you wonder why everyone finds it so difficult to get it right? Then you read the cast list and you realise that all three lead female dancers were Russian trained, Markova and Beriosova by dancers from the Imperial Company and Elvin at the Bolshoi school. Then you see that Lydia Sokolova coached the corps. So perhaps you have the answer two of the people involved in this recorded performance Markova and Sokolova had worked in a company one of whose house choreographers was  Fokine and at least one of them, Markova, had been coached by Fokine.The RB recording with Fonteyn and Nureyev is lovely because as a former Kirov dancer Nureyev treated the choreographic text with a degree of reverence which he did not extend to nineteenth century ones. Also of interest the DVD Markova la Legende which has some very interesting footage of Markova coaching senior members of POB in Les Sylphides. I am not going to comment on specific Russian recordings but I think that the ballet is treated with a degree of reverence which it is not accorded here.

Edited December 15, 2015 by FLOSS

[alison]

My wish for today's RB is for slightly less "equitable" or "novelty" casting and a recognition that audiences at EVERY performance deserve dancers who are able and READY to perform a role.  So if you can't find a reliable lilac fairy/queen of the wilis for every performance, rather than letting 3 or 4 soloists or artists "have a go", cast another principal.  I still don't understand why Nunez, Morera, Yanowsky or even Lamb (who certainly has the technical chops for it) couldn't have danced Myrthe in the last run of Giselle.  Is it really beneath the dignity of a ballerina who dances Giselle to dance Myrthe also?

 

I quite agree about the first part.  On the second point, Yanowsky is on record as saying that there's too much jumping in Myrtha now for her, but I quite agree about the "doubling up".  But then the RB's history over the last decade or two indicates that doubling-up is no longer a practice at the top level - to such an extent that I wonder whether rehearsal time is an issue.  You don't get the men doubling up on Des Grieux/Lescaut, or doing two out of Romeo/Mercutio/Benvolio/Tybalt/Paris any more, either.  That's why I was surprised to see that Alexander Campbell was cast in both leads in Nutcracker.

 

I could have sworn that Les Sylphides was on with the second showing of Sensorium, which I'd have placed around 2011/12 - certainly before Leanne Benjamin retired.  But yes, the RB's recent(ish) record on the ballet is not good.  I remember it being scheduled back in about 1991 - autumn, I think - when Michael Nunn was cast as one of the scheduled Poets, which always struck me as not very obvious casting.  Then there was a huge gap, I think, until one run earlier this century, plus the 2009 one?  ENB's record is rather better.

[stucha]

Mary - Paris Opera Ballet still do the Nureyev Nutcracker/Caisse Noisette ...

 

Not any more.  Although if you wish to see it, the Vienna State Opera ballet still does it and can be seen on Youtube as well as bits and pieces of the POB performance as well.

 

POB has a new version (or will have in the New Year) with multiple choreographers including Arthur Pita and Liam Scarlett.

 

Subject of a cinema broadcast too next year.

[Bluebird]

Re Les Sylphides, English National Ballet also danced it in 2009 and, in my opinion, their performances were vastly superior to those of the Royal.  When I asked a member of the ENB staff about this, she told me that Maina Gielgud had been responsible for the coaching and that she, herself, had been coached by a dancer from the Ballets Russes.  If my memory is correct, that dancer was Tamara Karsavina.

 

I believe that Maina Gielgud is a reader of this forum.  Maybe she could confirm or ask someone else to confirm on her behalf?

 

I’ve just done a search and have found the following two extracts (from Barcelona performances that year)  on YouTube.

 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2015 by Bluebird

[Ian Macmillan]

The January Dancing Times is out and, touching on an issue that has popped in and out of this thread, Gerald Dowler has the first of a series of articles on "Preserving the Legacy."  It sets out the general problem - "what happens to a dance work after the death of its creator," whilst the next article will investigate the legacies of Balanchine, Robbins and Tudor.  There is an indication that another will deal with the role of notation in 'establishing an ur-text,' and my inference from elsewhere in this introductory piece is that there will certainly be yet another on Ashton, MacMillan and Cranko.  

[jmhopton]

I would like almost anything by Ashton. Les patineurs is a huge favourite though I don't think it's been done any favours by recent coupling with the Tale of the Tales. I think this ballet attracts younger children than those who would appreciate Patineurs. if it was coupled with The Dream or A Month in the Country (a wonderful double bill coming up by Birmingham Ballet I'm really looking forward to seeing)or Enigma Variations that would be fabulous. or even a selection of Ashton shorts. Incidentally, I think if the autumn two Pigeons had been coupled with Patineurs it would have sold better and could have been seen as an alternate 'winter' programme to the Nutcracker.

 

I can't remember the last time I saw Graduation ball though I don't know if it has ever been in the Royal rep. I think the only time I saw it it was English National or probably still London Festival Ballet.

[Duck]

In the event that a most recent performance in 2010/11 counts as "rarely staged", I am putting forward Voluntaries and Still Live at the Penguin Café.

[Jamesrhblack]

Posted 05 December 2015 - 03:08 PM
" I could not agree with you more Fonty. I was lucky enough to see Merle Park dance Aurora in the early 80s and the moment of her arabesque at the start of the act 1 variation is one of those freeze frame instants that has remained in my memory ever since. I also have very happy memories of Collier, Penney and Whitten in the role. They all danced with such a wonderful combination of great foot work, musicality and attack. Just because they were not 5'9" with extensions past their ears does NOT make their performances anything less than superlative."

I saw Park a little too late in this role (1980, although her Giselle from that year with David Wall is one of my happiest memories) but do remember how beautifully fluid Penney was in that exquisite Ashton variation in the Vision Scene, Whitten's dazzling almost off balance renversés in the Act 1 Coda (I think people forget what a brilliant combination she was of technique and musicality) and, of course, Collier's effortless accomplishment. I was very sad that she did not dance her London performances with Mukhamedov but treasure the clip of the Pas de Deux available on an ROH DVD. There is a moment towards the end of the first section where Mukhamedov gazes at her with what can surely only be described as adoration.

[Jamesrhblack]

Sorry, that should be "almost" not "al.out." Editing on dodgy river wifi didn't work; if a moderator could oblige I'd be grateful..."

[alison]

Done

[FLOSS]

 Of the four great twentieth century choreographers Balanchine is better served by the Royal Ballet than the others as a greater variety of his works are programmed regularly than those of the other three.Antony Tudor's works are ignored, the limited number of Robbin's works which the company had acquireded went without revival  for years while Ashton has frequently been treated more like a jobbing choreographer than a major one with a limited number of his works revived regularly and the rest completely ignored.

 

There are Ashton ballets which, as far as I know, have never been performed at Covent Garden such as Capriol Suite and plenty of his ballets which have been out of the active repertory at Covent Garden for years such as Jazz Calendar last performed in 1979, The Walk to the Paradise Garden last performed in 1982, Facade last performed in 1995.Daphnis and Chloe was  last staged there in 2004 and Les Rendezvous in 2005.

 

While at first glance the number of Ashton revivals since 2000 suggest that his works are holding their own in the repertory I think that the number of his ballets which have been revived since the turn of the century is attributable to three events, the Ashton centenary in 2004; the seventy fifth anniversary of the company's foundation in 2006 and.Mason's retirement in 2012.They each boosted the figures and without them the number of revivals would have been very much smaller..

 

As far as MacMillan is concerned while Romeo and Juliet, Manon and Mayerling each seem to be timetabled for revival once every three years perhaps in part because  Covent Garden acts as a shop window for them and his drama-ballets are revived from time to time we rarely see the works of MacMillan the classical choreographer. I cannot decide whether this is a deliberate omission or not.

 

The Diaghilev repertory is a real problem. I think it is in some cases going to be a case of performing some of the ballets to keep them alive until the ideal cast comes along.Of Fokine's works Les Sylphides is a must, Firebird,Petrushka and Polovtsian dances which it has been suggested are heavily reliant on Ivanov's choreography for Prince Igor . Of Nijinska's works both Les Biches and Les Noces. Of Massine's works Le Tricorne,La Boutique fantasque and while it is not strictly Diaghilev repertory Mam'zelle Angot.

 

I also think that the company should make a more determined effort to revive La Fete etrange because the 2005 revival was so bad.Dim lighting to hide the damage to the back cloth and some really odd casting. Perhaps everyone involved should have read the book on which it is based.It might have helped.

 

Has anyone read the suggestions made to stage Scherezade and Parade? I can't help thinking that the company should be working on the  Diaghilev repertory the first two directors acquired rather than setting out to acquire a work that is little more than  a piece of titillating orientalism or one which, without a compelling demi character dancer to take the Massine role of the Chinese conjuror, is simply an opportunity to see the cubist designs.It was once in the LFB repertory and in the absence of  a compelling conjuror it was only enlivened by the little American girl who types and fires a pistol for no apparent reason

Edited December 24, 2015 by FLOSS

[betterankles]

 

Re Les Sylphides, English National Ballet also danced it in 2009 and, in my opinion, their performances were vastly superior to those of the Royal.  When I asked a member of the ENB staff about this, she told me that Maina Gielgud had been responsible for the coaching and that she, herself, had been coached by a dancer from the Ballets Russes.  If my memory is correct, that dancer was Tamara Karsavina.

 

I believe that Maina Gielgud is a reader of this forum.  Maybe she could confirm or ask someone else to confirm on her behalf?

 

 

Yes - Maina Gielgud was responsible for coaching Les Sylphides in that production.

She studied with Tamara Karsavina, both classical technique and mime classes, and was coached by Lubov Egorova in a number of classical solos, in particular from The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake.

 

In her dancing days, she performed Mazurka, Prelude and Pas de deux in Les Sylphides, for which she was mainly coached by Rosella Hightower who had been coached by Fokine in his latter days.

 

During her directorship of The Australian Ballet, Maina invited Irina Baronova, who worked with Fokine during the Ballets Russes days, to stage the ballet.

[RuthE]

Ashton: I want to see Sylvia revived with Morera and Muntagirov as first cast and Birthday Offering with more care taken than last time around.

 

I seem to recall that the last time they did Birthday Offering they happened to have an awful lot of principals out with injuries, and that had that not been the case the result might have been more satisfactory.

 

I've never seen Sylvia so am completely with you on that one, and I'll go along with your casting proposal seeing as I just love Morera in Ashton.

[FLOSS]

I don't think that the presence or absence of principal dancers in the cast was the problem as far as the last revival of Birthday Offering was concerned. In order to dance Ashton really well you need to be able  and prepared to dance at the speed at which he expected  the solos to be danced, you have to be able to dance quickly and you need brilliant footwork a very flexible upper body, good arms,the willingness to modify your normal classroom style to his and the willingness to dance dangerously. If you read the comments made by the dancers who worked with the company when his style was the dominant one you will read the same thing over and over again "we were always off balance";"if you bent as much as he wanted you to do  you would have fallen over". Markova once described the essence of Ashton's style as Cecchetti from the waist down and Duncan above the wais

 

Of the principal dancers involved in the revival there are only two who are prepared to dance dangerously Nunez and Morera. Nunez was very good in the Fonteyn role Rojo was not,. Nunez played with the music and gave her solo the dynamic variety it required she looked right although I think that her solo was too slow.Rojo was ramrod straight and danced as if she were counting rather than listening to the music for me there was a disconnect between the music and her dancing. It was almost as if she was disconcerted by the lack of variety in the steps, the solo  has been described as a hymn of praise to  the pas de bouree. It, was boring when she danced it not when Nunez did. It did not look as if anyone had given real thought as to appropriate casting for each solo. I seem to recall that Morera was given different solos in the two casts. The real problem is that if you slow these short solos down, and they are all danced far more slowly than they should be, they cease to have any real meaning.I thought that it might have been better if the second cast led by Nunez had been composed of younger dancers who might have been prepared to try to dance at the correct speed and to dance the solos rather than merely reproducing the steps unmodified by any sense of the appropriate style.Ashton's style requires a flow of movement rather than dance which is like a series of poses.

 

If you want some idea of what I am talking about then you should try to see the early recording of the Royal Ballet in La Valse  filmed in the 1960's where to quote Elizabeth McGorian "The cast go whoosh" and the first recording of Peter Wright's Nutcracker  from the mid 1980's with Collier and Dowell and watch how they dance in a flow of movement . Collie;s SPF may come as a shock to some because of its speed and the continuous flow of movement in her solo. Both recordings give an insight into what some  think is missing from current performance style.

Edited December 24, 2015 by FLOSS

[Jan McNulty]

I've been meaning to ask a question on this thread for a while now about the speed at which roles in the classics are danced.

 

Numerous examples have been given about how much faster variations were danced in days gone by.  I was wondering, however, if current producers of traditional versions of the classics are happy with the speeds as they are currently danced or if the dancers have more influence in that these days?

 

I know that, for example, Sir Peter Wright is still actively involved in revivals of his classic productions such as Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.

[FLOSS]

Janet,I know that Sir Peter remains actively involved in the revivals of his productions but it seems to me that if I compare the dancing on the first recording of his Nutcracker with Collier as SPF and Dowell as her cavalier with what I see currently at Covent Garden that I am seeing two different approaches to classical dance,In the old recording I see dancers whose dancing is concerned with producing a flow of movement clearly connected to the music and its tempi.Their steps are lighter. faster and less grounded than in current performances.Their steps are less deliberate and emphatic than is currently fashionable. They  seem far less concerned with demonstrating that they have danced the steps correctly and with holding poses. In their performance technique seems to be a means to an end rather than the purpose of the performance . I think that because the change in performance style has taken place before our eyes we have not noticed it. It's a bit like not noticing how much your parents have aged until you stop seeing them regularly..

 

The music on the earliest DVD has a range of tempi very similar to what you would expect to hear in the concert hall .It is far less regular and measured than in current performances. What has changed? Well neither Collier or Dowell were Vaganova trained,most of the dancers at Covent Garden today are, and their conductor was a Russian concert conductor of considerable renown not a specialist ballet conductor.

 

I have read Donald MacLeary's comments about conductors who indulge the dancers with slow tempi. He singled out Emmanuel  Young as one of the worst offenders during his time. He said that when the conductor played slowly for a dancer he wanted to shout "Get on with it". But he was dancing long before the Royal Ballet's ADs thought it necessary to engage Russian ballet conductors for the Petipa/Ivanov/Tchaikovsky repertory. He was dancing at a time when dancers were expected to adjust to the music rather than expecting the music to be adjusted for them. Current Russian performance practice seems to favour slow stately dancing in the big choreographic set pieces of the Tchaikovsky ballets so that is what we get on the stage

 

Barry Wordsworth once explained that as a ballet conductor he set the tempi for a series of performances with the cast in the opening performance of the run. He said that you could not have different tempi for each cast because the orchestra needed to know what was going to be required of them each night they played a particular score.It is not clear to me whether the Russian conductors who are engaged by the Royal Ballet adjust to each cast or whether they too set an overall tempo for the performances.They certainly allow the dancers time to display their technical skills but whether Ivanov would recognise the relationship between the steps danced and the music as now performed, is a moot point.

 

I am not saying what we are seeing is better or worse  merely that it is different from older performance practice and it causes problems in performance. In Act 2 Swan Lake.for example Odette and the corps now look as if they are appearing in two completely different ballets. The corps dance at a speed which retains the effect of the choreography but Odette's  choreography is now taken so slowly that there are occasions when it it is almost static and would most certainly not be recognised by its choreographer. Benjamin said in an interview that one reason why she never took the solos ultra slowly was because having danced in the corps she knew how difficult it was for the dancers who were framing the Principal's performance if Odette's choreography was performed at the standard speed. She made it sound as if the ultra slow performance style was "cruel and unnecessary punishment" as far as the corps were concerned. 

Edited December 29, 2015 by FLOSS

[alison]

... Odette's  choreography is now taken so slowly that there are occasions when it it is almost static and would most certainly not be recognised by its choreographer. Benjamin said in an interview that one reason why she never took the solos ultra slowly was because having danced in the corps she knew how difficult it was for the dancers who were framing the Principal's performance if Odette's choreography was performed at the standard speed. She made it sound as if the ultra slow performance style was "cruel and unnecessary punishment" as far as the corps were concerned. 

 

That's interesting: I never heard that before.  So if someone missed out on being in the corps for any reason, they would presumably be totally unaware of this.

[Fonty]

 

 

Barry Wordsworth once explained that as a ballet conductor he set the tempi for a series of performances with the cast in the opening performance of the run. He said that you could not have different tempi for each cast because the orchestra needed to know what was going to be required of them each night they played a particular score.It is not clear to me whether the Russian conductors who are engaged by the Royal Ballet adjust to each cast or whether they too set an overall tempo for the performances.They certainly allow the dancers time to display their technical skills but whether Ivanov would recognise the relationship between the steps danced and the music as now performed, is a moot point.

 

 

So Mr Wordsworth was saying that the opening night Principals set the speed for everyone else?  That might explain why I have seen many performances of Swan Lake where the ultra slow speed of the music did the Odette on stage absolutely no favours at all.  And also takes away any chance of somebody who is not cast on the first night from putting their own interpretation on the role.  As the first night cast is usually the Big Star, that seems very odd to me.  If I had been a principal then, I would certainly have had something to say about that.  Apart from anything else, the Big Star could deliberately set a pace that made her look wonderful, and everyone else slightly less than wonderful.  If Big Stars were that way inclined, of course.  And if I was a really naughty dancer, I might have said, "Ok, you got first night for Swan Lake, and you made me dance it at such a slow pace, I was struggling.  Now, I've got first night for Sleeping Beauty, and I am going to do it as fast as I can.  See how you manage those Rose Adagio balances!"

 

I hope things have changed since Mr Wordsworth's day.  I've never played in an orchestra, but is it really impossible for the conductor to say to them before each performance, "Miss Y prefers a slightly faster pace than Miss X, so please note that tonight we will be taking the solos in the white acts (or whatever) a little quicker then we did the last time we played.  Keep your eyes on me"  Which I assume they do anyway. 

Edited December 31, 2015 by Fonty

[Jan McNulty]

I've seen different conductors conduct the same production at different speeds in the same week!

 

I once saw a performance of Coppelia at the Lowry that was taken at such a fast pace it was breath-taking.  I saw the young lady who had danced Swanilda in Costa the following morning and asked her if she had asked for it to be played so fast because she was a particularly fast, deft dancer.  The answer that came back was a resounding No!

 

I was under the impression that conductors watched (or were supposed to watch) the stage to see what was happening and perhaps adjust accordingly.

[Fonty]

Talking of slowing things down, I saw a snippet of Pavlova doing the Dying Swan on tv.  (I think it was in Darcey's Ballet Heroes, but I am not absolutely sure.)

 

Anyway, I was struck by the speed with which she was moving, so I went away and looked it up on Youtube.  Then I watched Makarova doing the same dance and was astonished.  The speed was much slower, and I am not sure at all sure when or why it was thought that slowing it down that much was a good idea.  It didn't enhance the performance in any way, and in fact Pavlova's is far more moving than Makarova's.  If anyone should know what speed a piece should be performed at, it is the person for whom the piece was created.

Edited January 3, 2016 by Fonty

[Ellie]

This article gives a little insight into the relationship between dancer and conductor - at least in the USA

 

http://dancemagazine.com/inside-dm/play-me-the-music/

[loveclassics]

Thank you, Ellie.  A really illuminating and interesting article.

 

Linda

[Pas de Quatre]

Lovely article - thanks.

[Fonty]

Yes, a great article. 

 

It seems to be totally different to what Barry Wordsworth was saying.  Unless I have misunderstood? 

[Ellie]

I'm glad that the article was interesting for you. Fonty, I think that the art of conducting an orchestra for ballet is probably (rightly or wrongly) a very personal one. Some may feel they should remain faithful to the score, others may want to have more interaction with the dancers.

 

We recently saw a production of the Sleeping Beauty and my husband (a conductor- but not of ballet) felt that the maestro should have been more attentive to the personal needs of the soloists and principals, which surprised me (a former dancer - but not soloist or principal) as he is usually so protective of the original score and the orchestra !