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Bolshoi Ballet: Le Corsaire, Royal Opera House, August 2016


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I like the Ratmansky "revived" version a lot (in particular the gorgeously "floppy" tutus for the Jardin Anime - but then I usually like that style), although I can see why someone would have felt the need to "tidy up" the original production: it does feel odd for Gulnare not to appear until the harem scene (and gives Medora a huge amount of work to do as a result), and for Conrad to have so little dancing to do.  I could see why you might, for instance, introduce Gulnare in Act I and give her the pas d'esclave, rather than have it danced by two people who take no further part in the proceedings.

 

What I did find particularly strange is all the Birbanto business: firstly why we should have all the business about Medora recognising him by the cut she inflicted on him when he attacked her unmasked (if it was dark in the cave, why did the other pirates bother with cloaks to hide their identity?), secondly that Birbanto suddenly decides not to murder Conrad after all when the latter starts to wake up (where are you, Ali?), and thirdly that Conrad in turn doesn't actually get around to shooting him before being captured himself, but then later allows the treacherous bleep to sail away with him on the ship as if nothing had happened!  Plus I found the whole onboard fight scene rather confused - it wasn't clear to me what had started it.  I know dramatic logic was by no means top priority, but it still grates ...

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I saw the 3 evening Corsaire's and although I thoroughly enjoyed them all, Saturday night had the edge due mostly to Ekaterina Krysanova and Igor Tvsirko, who repeated their Flames of Paris triumph, Tsvirko isn't a danseur noble, nor does he have bravura or clean technique, but dances everthing with his heart and soul and looks set to become a particularly powerful "Bolshoi" dancer, bit like Irek Mukhamedov or Ivan Vasiliev? Spartacus springs to mind.

 

As for the season, not sure why but it wasn't as spectacular as the 2010 and 2013 ones, glad I went to so many though, that's the only way to see different casts, I have noticed that the same dancers are used a lot on these tours and must be feeling exhausted, Denis Rodkin in particular who after dancing Conrad at the matinee, had to dance again in the evening in the last act, glad he did though, the pdd with Krysanova was beautiful!

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If I recall correctly Karsavina wrote that Le petit Corsaire was the first role which she danced professionally so at some point it must have been a solo for a young dancer which actually makes more sense to me than giving the solo to Medora.  However as Medora dances it in the reconstruction I assume that is how it was done in 1899.

 

The dancer is not holding a trumpet but a sort of megaphone for use on ships. You may have noticed it is a role where the dancer breaks the first rule of ballet and actually speaks or rather shouts. The character is issuing orders and shouts all aboard or words to that effect. As I understand it the choreography for the solo was not recorded in the Harvard collection but on film which is something of a fluke. In the early years of the twentieth century, at about the same time as the Danes filmed tiny snippets of Bournonville, a member of the Mariinsky company became interested in the possibility of using film to record dance. The powers that be at the Mariinsky were not very keen on the idea of recording ballet but they were happy enough to send the individual concerned off into the vast Empire to collect ethnic dances presumably for use in future ballets requiring local colour and settings. How or why the film was preserved was not explained.But it is good that it was as it provides a link with the story of ballet in this country during the twentieth century.

 

Karsavina wrote articles for the Dancing Times and I have never understood why no one has taken the trouble to collect them together and publish them. She wrote about technical matters but she also wrote articles of more general interest about the old ballets. I know that there would be issues over copyright but she is such an important figure in the history of ballet in this country and in Russia that it is surprising that no one has thought of going through the material with a view to publishing it as a book or republishing some of it in the magazine for which it was written. I should be happy to know what, if anything, she wrote about ballets such as Giselle and Le Corsaire.

Edited by FLOSS
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In a Facebook post Ratmansky comments on le petit corsaire, which he describes as being "en travesti" and includes photos of various dancers including Karsavina in the role.  https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=ratmansky%20night%20of%20le%20corsaire.  The object each holds has a horn shape (and Ratmansky describes it as a "horn") but   

perhaps that's just a bad translation for "megaphone".  Megaphone certainly makes more sense as it's needed for the shouting.

 

I"m also curious about the mime in the middle of this number where the dancer seems to twirl imaginary mustaches on her way to retrieve the megaphone from the pirate who's been holding it for her.   Can anyone interpret this?

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Interesting that you put dancers in boxes and stick labels on them, or are you saying the Bolshoi does.

 

I am not putting dancers in boxes or stick labels on them, far from it, I employed those "shortcut" expressions as differentiating references to each dancer's particular strength that others don't possess or possess to a significantly smaller degree.

 

 

Surely ballerinas should be all-rounders, capable of dancing roles across the board, Certainly that is the case elsewhere, though admittedly few companies have the large numbers that the Bolshoi has.

 

This is entirely new to me. Perhaps it applies to average principals at average companies. It certainly does not apply, and never did, to exceptional ballerinas at exceptional companies. Many outstanding dancers, in fact, decided to never dance (or danced just a few times) some, even most celebrated, parts because they considered them unsuitable to their own particular style. It would never occur to me, by the way, to linearly order such artists, especially exceptional ones, as if ballet was some sort of a sport competition with winners and losers.

 

 

As for Tsvirko his technique was clearly superior to the other three that danced the pas de deux in Corsair last week, almost on a par with Kimin Kim in the role.  Are you saying what he did on Saturday night was a fluke?

 

I don't agree. Technique involves precise feet, positions, sharp legs. None of these is given to this artist whose primary strength lies in an entirely different area: strong role characterization. You cannot have virtuoso technique on one evening and not to have on others. Fortunately for him, Conrad in this version of "Le Corsaire" is a demi-character role with little lifting and a lot of acting.

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Corrections to several comments:

Ekaterina Krysanova was promoted to principal dancer in 2012, the same year that Nina Kaptsova and Ekaterina Shipulina were promoted to principal.

Igor Tsvirko was promoted from the corps de ballet to soloist in 2013, first solist in 2014, and leading soloist in 2015. He is not a principal.

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I saw Le Corsaire the last time the Bolshoi performed at the Coliseum and unfortunately felt it was very slow and overlong.  It felt like it would benefit from a good editor. 

 

To be honest, I was rather dreading seeing ENB's production because of this previous experience but I have to say that enjoyed it much more.  Perhaps the Bolshoi's is for a more sophisticated ballet audience but for me ENB's is much more entertaining and enjoyable.  It didn't feel as though there had been any compromise in technique expected from the dancers.

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Thank you, I had to let Google translate, and it offered some very interesting options! When he came out of the theatre after Swan Lake, he was such a beautiful young man, and he hung around for 20mins or so, so everyone could have their pics taken with him, even though he had two friend waiting for him, so a really nice person too!

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I am not putting dancers in boxes or stick labels on them, far from it, I employed those "shortcut" expressions as differentiating references to each dancer's particular strength that others don't possess or possess to a significantly smaller degree.

 

 

 

This is entirely new to me. Perhaps it applies to average principals at average companies. It certainly does not apply, and never did, to exceptional ballerinas at exceptional companies. Many outstanding dancers, in fact, decided to never dance (or danced just a few times) some, even most celebrated, parts because they considered them unsuitable to their own particular style. It would never occur to me, by the way, to linearly order such artists, especially exceptional ones, as if ballet was some sort of a sport competition with winners and losers.

 

Did you ever see Nadia Nerina?  There was the perfect all rounder.  Not sure what is meant by "average principals at average companies", but of course as a Londoner I'm most familiar with the Royal Ballet, a company with a far wider repertoire than most, I've never seen the ladies there fail to rise to any challenge.  Worth mentioning that AD's refuse roles to the starriest of dancers, it's not always a personal choice .

 

 

 

I don't agree. Technique involves precise feet, positions, sharp legs. None of these is given to this artist whose primary strength lies in an entirely different area: strong role characterization. You cannot have virtuoso technique on one evening and not to have on others. Fortunately for him, Conrad in this version of "Le Corsaire" is a demi-character role with little lifting and a lot of acting.

 

I wasn't familiar with this dancer before this visit, so haven't had the advantage of seeing him in all his roles, but I stand by what I said regarding the performances I saw,  the pas d'esclave was very precise. 

edited to correct a spelling error.

Edited by MAB
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If I recall correctly Karsavina wrote that Le petit Corsaire was the first role which she danced professionally so at some point it must have been a solo for a young dancer which actually makes more sense to me than giving the solo to Medora.  However as Medora dances it in the reconstruction I assume that is how it was done in 1899.

 

In Karsavina's account of her debut in Corsaire she makes it quite clear that the  Petit Corsaire solo was very much a part of Medora's role and was danced by her to cheer up a sombre Conrad. Karsavina's partner on that occasion was Pavel Gerdt who was - believe it or not! - her godfather and must have been around 50 at the time. I don't think that in 1899 the well known Corsaire Pas de Deux {or Trois) existed, and I have read somewhere that it was interpolated in 1915 and danced by Kschensinskaya , but perhaps Floss can offer some enlightenment on this.

 

 Also apropos of Corsaire, how many of you noticed that the music for the entrance of the pirates into their den in Act1 scene 2 was a fugue? Adam was not just a composer of nice melodies but was perfectly capable of handing academic musical forms. There is also a fugue in the music for the second act of Giselle, but this is seldom used in modern productions although Mary Skeaping did use it in hers.

 

Finally, on the subject of reconstructions, for those with the time and patience to spare there is a wealth of material to be found on Youtube with comparisons between the current and notated versions, mostly of Sleeping Beauty, but with one clip of the pd3 of the Odalisque's in Corsaire. There is also an hour-long lecture -  not for those with limited attention span ! - by Tim Scholl, professor at Oberlin College Ohio, in which he compares the reconstructions of Sleeping Beauty Act 2 by Ratmansky and Vikharev. Other noteworthy subjects are comparisons of performing styles over the last 60 years or so. It's only when you see a clip of Kitri's entrance in Don Q in the 1940s that you realise how much has changed.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am not sure that anyone is entirely sure about how the music for the Corsaire pas de deux was actually used in 1899. I say that because unlike some of Ratmansky's later re-constructions there is very little written material about this production in English or French except the introductory essay in the Bolshoi programme which, while it is interesting, does not go into any real detail about what is in the Stepanov notation and which sections are missing and have had to be created to fill those gaps.In addition there is the question of compromise. Compromise is inevitable in current attempts to restore original texts to the stage as the stager has to take audiences and performers with him.

 

It is clear that Ratmansky was not asking for period performance style from the dancers in this production and some of the choreography such as the male variation in the pas des esclaves looks far too athletically inspired to be Petipa or even pre revolutionary in style. Having said that I think that the whole move to re-create and restore a choreographic text which Petipa might recognise is a worthwhile exercise as it reveals Petipa's true greatness.It comes as something of a shock, after all those Soviet period revisions of the choreography and narrative, to discover how musical a choreographer Petipa was and how nuanced and finely detailed his choreography is.

 

As far as the Corsaire pas de deux is concerned, my understanding is that the jury is still out. Doug Fullington who worked with Ivan Liska on the production staged in Munich has said that the notations for the ballet were made between 1894 and 1906. He says that the notation does not include a pas de deux to the music by Drigo which dates from 1899. He has said that his current belief is that the 1899 production did include a pas de deux and that he hopes that what was actually danced in the 1899 production supervised by Petipa will finally be clarified.

 

He believes that the " pas de deux a trois" was made later. It seems to be clear that Karsavina's 1908 performance of Medora  with Gerdt as her Conrad was a break through for her.  In 1916 the ballet was given a new production with sets and costumes designed by Korovine, Karsavina danced Medora and Samuel Andrianov was Conrad. According to Andrew Forsyth Karsavina was returning to the stage after injury while Andrianov, her regular partner, was returning to the stage after a long illness. He quotes someone who was present at these performances saying of Andrianov  "He danced Conrad but was not up to strength and limited himself to the most basic partnering". Perhaps Andrianov's physical weakness after illness explains why the choreography,which I understand is attributed to him, is a pas de deux a trois? The fact that Andrianov died of TB in 1917 may put these performances into context.

 

It seems that Corsaire was dropped from the Kirov's repertory in 1928. When it was next staged in 1936 it included a slave figure and it is this production which is said to have included Vaganova's revision of the Corsaire pas de deux. As the slave was danced by Chabukiani it should come as no surprise that the role of the Rhab (slave) became a bravura one. Perhaps Conrad had already been sidelined by Vaganova when she revised the pas de deux for Dudinskaya's graduation in 1931? The slave did not get a name until Gusev's 1955 production for the Maly theatre. This production abandoned the original score and narrative and gave us the character Ali .The music for this production. which was taken into the Kirov repertory and is still danced by the Mariinsky, was taken from another score by Adam and adapted to give all the characters Leitmotifs. The version most commonly danced in the West derives from a version devised by Konstantin Sergeyev first staged for the Kirov in 1973. It was dropped after nine performances and replaced by the Gusev version. In 1992 the Sergeyev version was staged by the Bolshoi but it did not stay in the repertory for more than a few performances.However it is the short lived Sergeyev version which we are probably most familiar with in the West as it has, I understand, been staged on a number of occasions by Anna Marie Holmes, for Boston Ballet in 1997, for ABT in 1998 and ENB in 2013.

 

As far as the non dancing Conrad is concerned I am not sure that it is entirely attributable to Pavel Gerdt's age. The first Paris production devised by Mazillier was a melodramatic ballet d'action culminating in a spectacular shipwreck in the third act.Created at a time when spectacular theatre was all the rage and the male dancer had all but been banished from the stage the original Conrad, a good dancer, was cast for his skills as an actor and mime.When Perrot staged the ballet in Russia for the first time there were complaints that Conrad, Marius Petipa, had been given insufficient to dance because he had no solo. Each of Petipa's revivals would have been structured to display the talents of the dancers cast as Medora. The restructuring of the narrative in the original 1856 production had placed Medora, who is a peripheral figure in the poem, centre stage. Subsequent restagings in Russia did not seek to redress the balance between the male and female characters. The ballet was never intended to be anything other than an opportunity to display the talents of the female dancer and the theatre's designers and machinists. Petipa's 1899 production was no exception. This version was intended to display the talents and skills of the great technician Italian Legnani. I am quite happy with this version and as danced at the last performance of the tour it fully justified its presence in the repertory which the company brought to London. 

 

It would be interesting to know what light, if any, the Justament archives can cast on this ballet. Henri Justament staged somewhere in the region of a hundred ballets and it is difficult to believe that he did not stage Le Corsaire at some point in his career. Research on that material might reveal how much of what we now see can be traced back to Mazillier's original version. Ivor Guest believes that the version staged by Perrot in St Petersburg in 1858 was essentially Mazillier's ballet as Perrot did not include it in the list of his ballets which he compiled. It would be interesting to know where Mazillier/ Perrot stops and Petipa begins.

 

As Doug Fullington has pointed out the more research is undertaken on ballets like Giselle and Corsaire the clearer it becomes that ballets which did not originate with Petipa are a patchwork of choreographers' ideas. 

Edited by FLOSS
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  • 3 weeks later...

But what has happened to Andrei Merkuriev he's disappeared off the list of ballet dancers?

 

He's now a "soloist under contract".  http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/persons/people/838/.  This page does not link to the company list, but it may just be that the webmaster has yet to catch up with the various changes.  Or perhaps Merkuriev decided he didn't like the new status after all and quit.  Stay tuned.

Edited by Lexy
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  • 1 month later...

 

At the Saturday matinee I got my first look at Margerita Shrainer, who I understand is being fast tracked  for the heights and she is clearly a very polished performer as was her partner Artemy Belyakov, another new name. 

 

I've just discovered that Belyakov is appearing in a performance at Sadler's Wells this coming Sunday: http://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/2016/london-russian-ballet-school

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