Ratmansky SLEEPING BEAUTY for ABT, Bastille Opera House, Paris

[LinMM]

Thanks Don Q fan

I did google it to see if it premiered in Russia first but not absolutely sure I think it did and then went to California in America for ABT.

 

Diana Vishneva said that it was very difficult to adapt to the new style( no showy extensions etc) and also the more rounded arms( seems a bit more Cechetti then) and slightly more bending of the body. It took her a while to get used it but assume Ratmansky liked her enough to have as Aurora in this production.

 

I've seen some bits on YouTube and like the music up to speed and I did love the costumes but then I'm not a great tutu fan!!

[toursenlair]

no, it premiered in California. It was created by Ratmansky for ABT.

[FLOSS]

LinnMM.

 

I think that you will find that the Paris performances were the first outing of this production anywhere in Europe. Given the negative response of the St Petersburg's ballet establishment to Vikharev's far less radical reconstruction of the ballet in the 1990's  I feel sure that we will all hear a great deal about any Russian performance of this production if it is ever seen in that country. In St Petersburg in particular there is a strong emotional attachment to Konstantin Sergeyev's 1952 production of the ballet and for dancers, coaches and audiences there it IS Petipa's Sleeping Beauty.

 

I remember years ago reading that in 1961 when the Royal Ballet visited Leningrad some of the older ballet goers  told some of the dancers that they had once had a  Sleeping Beauty very similar to the Royal's version. At the time I was surprised to read this because I did not realise that Beauty had received its Soviet transformation so late in the day. You need to remember that all the nineteenth century classics were reworked during the Soviet era to accommodate changes in aesthetics and technique. Now I leave it to you to decide whether the heroic Soviet style of male dancing was deemed more appropriate for princes and heroes because it was more readily accessible to a less sophisticated audience or whether the new style was imposed on these ballets  because the original choreography with its concern with petite batterie was considered too effete for such characters. The end result was that petite batterie ended up being the province of demi caractere roles such as the Bluebird and Princes and heroes ended up jumping and spinning heroically and doing the steps for which Chabukiani was most famed.

 

No one should be surprised that the "new" old Sleeping Beauty requires a performance style which is to all intents and purposes Cecchetti. Brianzi the star dancer for whom this Petipa/ Tchaikovsky ballet was created was Italian and, like the other Italian stars who visited Russia and danced in Petipa's late works had been taught by a pupil of Blassis who was the source of so much of the modern technique which Petipa showcased in his late ballets. Towards the end of his life even Petipa began to express concern that the emphasis on technique for its own sake in these works was in danger of destroying the beauty and elegance of the old French school.

 

After Cecchetti retired from dancing he became a renowned teacher and taught in St Petersburg. When Diaghilev established his touring troupe the senior dancers are said to have asked, if not insisted, that he should employ Cecchetti as his company's ballet master. He came to London and appeared in the 1921 London production of the Sleeping Princess and taught a large number of people who were later of great importance in the development of ballet in this country, including de Valois herself. .She said that Cecchetti had made her understand how beautiful epaulement could be and described him as a fanatic for grace in female dancers. Ashton said that he would insist that dancers were taught Cecchetti's epaulement and certainly during Sibley's time at the RBS the pupils received classes in his technique as well as classes in other methods.

 

So you might ask why does the Royal Ballet's own version look so different today? Well part of the difference is attributable to the way in which the music has been allowed to slow down over the years.The 1978 performance is pretty close to concert hall speeds for the fairy Variations, in fact Collier disposes of the Canari qui Chant variation a whole second faster than Previn's recording. The recording of Dowell's production is slower than de Valois production but then as I understand it,she demanded that legs were to be kept low in performance..The current production is performed at an incredibly sluggish speed in large part to accommodate " improved modern" technique and extensions.Performance style has altered a great deal since 1977 let alone 1946 or prewar. As currently performed by the RB  we see a Sleeping Beauty which has had its choreographic text and performance style modified over the last fifty years to accommodate and satisfy the whims of a few star dancers  such as Nureyev, Guillem and Rojo  All of this has made it look less and less like a ballet imbued with the Italian style which we associate with Cecchetti's method. 

 

I seriously wonder what the response of those posting on this site, let alone the average ballet goer, would be to a revival of the RB's Sleeping Beauty  performed at the speed indicated in the score. A Beauty without  balances of Olympic style duration and high extensions would it be positive or would they feel deprived of the familiar text? Would they be happy about restoring the ballet to a form that at least de Valois. and Ashton, and possibly Nicolai Sergeyev might recognise ?

Edited September 13, 2016 by FLOSS

[SwissBalletFan]

not quite the first Time in Europe, Floss, Ratmansky's Sleeping Beauty was a co production with La Scala who had the piece in their repertoire last season. The premiere cast with Zakharova as Aurora, Jiacopo Tissi as Prince, and Nicoletta Manni as Lilac Fairy.

 

People from the forum may remember the issues with the Prince casting as it was supposed to be Hallberg, then Polunin who had a strange neck problem and pulled out.

Edited September 13, 2016 by SwissBalletFan

[LinMM]

Well I would love to see the ABT perform this Sleeping Beauty in the UK.

 

As a Company generally they don't seem to come to the UK that often .....is this production a good opportunity to invite them....sorry not sure how inviting other companies over to UK works.

[assoluta]

It is a difficult decision where to begin when there is so much to say about "reconstructing Petipa" and a staggering amount of confusion about it circulating on various internet fora and YouTube. I hesitated for several days with my response to the questions posed in FLOSS' thoughtful postings, to the point of whether I should respond at all, in view of how much I would need to clarify first.

There are three choreographers involved in reconstructing original staging of the grand spectacles of the Russian Imperial ballet: Sergei Vikharev, Yuri Burlaka, and Alexei Ratmansky. All three are former classically trained dancers, the latter two were classmates at the Moscow State Choreographical School (together with Vladimir Malakhov), Vikharev received his classical ballet training at the Vaganova Academy in Petersburg. Vikharev and Burlaka are the pioneers and enthusiasts of "seeing how it was", Ratmansky joined later, he also has greater opportunities and much greater media coverage than the other two.

I said "reconstructing original staging of the grand spectacles of the Russian Imperial ballet" instead of "reconstructing Petipa" on purpose. Those splendid productions were a brainchild of Ivan Vsevolzhskoy (whose name is usually spelled "Vsevolzhsky"), he was responsible for the general idea, at least partly responsible for the libretti, was designing the costumes, he dispensed with the institution of a 'ballet composer' and brought into his projects Tchaikovsky and Glazunov. Yuri Burlaka has nothing but praise for Vsevolzhskoy's role in creation of those grand spectacles, he credits him, in particular, with sharing with Tchaikovsky his vision and passionate love for the luminous world of Louis XIV. Concerning what is essential in a successful restoration of Vsevolzhskoy-Petipa-Ivanov classics, Burlaka stresses how important it is to meticulously restore the original costumes and the decorations, it is they that create the decorative harmony and splendour of those grand spectacles, most of Petipa's or Ivanov's choreographic text having been preserved anyway. When Nikolai Sergeev replaced the original costumes and decorations, his 1914 re-staging of Sleeping Beauty was viewed by many to be a fiasco. Tsar Nikolai II wrote in his diary under 16 February of 1914: "Marie and Anastasia returned after the lunch to T[sarskoe] S[elo]. While three of us went to the theatre. 'Sleeping Beauty' was shown, unfortunately in a new and ugly production. Returned to T.S. at 12½." Critics were complaining that Sleeping Beauty in Nikolai Sergeev's new production lost much of its charm. It's worth to remember that Ratmansky's aim was to restore an even later production, the one with a new set of costumes and decorations, prepared for the London 1921/22 season of Diaghilev's entreprise. The expectations among the critics and the London public ran high yet the reception afterwards was anything but what Diaghilev hoped for. It is illuminating to read the criticisms levelled at the production Ratmansky aimed to restore, they remind me of the recent criticisms of the Burlaka-Ratmansky reconstruction of Le Corsaire shown at the Royal Opera House. Susan Reimer Sticklor evaluated the reception of the 1921 production of Sleeping Beauty in her article The Sleeping Princess: An Analysis of Her Failure to Charm, published in Dance Research Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Autumn, 1975 - Winter, 1976), pp. 18-22. I could fill several postings with eloquent quotes.

Any discussion of the reconstructions must take into account that some staging decisions made by Vikharev, Burlaka, or Ratmansky, may indeed be questionable, some may be mistakes resulting from misunderstanding or insufficient knowledge of the sources. The successes and possible failings, the difficulties and limitations inherent in reconstructing those grand spectacles of Russian Imperial era is a subject, however, better left to scholars and experts possessing a thorough command of all sources; dilettantes, no mater how well meaning, only add to confusion with their proclamations. The majority of materials (voluminous sources as well as scholarly analyses and discussions) is in Russian so ability to read in this language is essential for anybody interested in pursuing "private studies" of the subject.
 

[FLOSS]

assoluta,

 

I suspect that the different approach taken by Vikharev, Burlaka and Ratmansky in endeavouring to restage Petipa's late nineteenth century works has as much to do with the possibilities created by the companies with which they were working at the time as it has with their own particular interests and tastes.Knowing what is possible with a particular company, and the response to the efforts of others working in the same field will inevitably affect what subsequent stagers choose to do. Very few companies have the human and material resources available to them which would enable them to try to restage an imperial ballet with a cast the size of the one available to Petipa. But I don't think that should condemn us to seeing "after Petipa" productions  with ever slower tempi in perpetuity.

 

Trying to restore the choreography and floor plans will be easier with some companies than others. Trying to restage a ballet  which recaptures something approaching Petipa's musicality by adopting an older performance style which makes the relationship between choreography and music clearer is more controversial with some companies than with others. I don't think that it is chance that has led Ratmansky to stage his attempts to see what Petipa's ballets really look like with companies which have neither a long performance history of the ballet concerned nor emotional attachment to a particular text. It can't be chance which led him to conduct his experiments in period appropriate performance style with companies such as Bavarian State Ballet and ABT. We seem to be at a point comparable to where the early music movement was about sixty years ago so there is a long way to go. What we have seen so far is simply work in progress. It's a case of "Ever tried.Ever failed.No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." I look forward to the next reconstruction.

 

Perhaps some of the specialist writings and studies on the reconstruction movement will find its way into the wider world in a language other than Russian in 2018. I can hope.

Edited September 17, 2016 by FLOSS

[assoluta]

assoluta,

 

I suspect that the different approach taken by Vikharev, Burlaka and Ratmansky in endeavouring to restage Petipa's late nineteenth century works has as much to do with the possibilities created by the companies with which they were working at the time as it has with their own particular interests and tastes.

 

You are right about the differences being largely due to what was possible. Vikharev was in fact from the start very much concerned with the proper manner of executing the choreographic text. He instructed the Mariinsky dancers in it but in the end had to accept that some were more, others were less responsive to his requests. Saying that Vikharev was content with reviving the flour plan is certainly not correct. He revived the whole libretto and the sequence of dances, filling the rest with his own solutions (Doug Fullington provided a detailed analysis of Vikharev's 1999 "Sleeping Beauty" in light of what is contained in the Harvard notebooks). Individual differences between Vikharev, Burlaka, Ratmansky, may demonstrate themselves more in their respective readiness to accept “compromises” and in the form those compromises can take. I suspect, for example, that Burlaka would not like to produce a “hybrid” staging of "Sleeping Beauty", like Ratmansky, with costumes and decorations taken from the London 1921 production for Diaghilev, instead he would make every effort to revive the original staging, the one that acquired in the memory of those who saw it a truly legendary status.

 

Concerning available recordings, the list includes a recent recording of the revelatory reconstruction of Ivanov's "Nutcracker" in Berlin. The production was an initiative of Vladimir Malakhov who approached his former classmate, Yuri Burlaka, saying he had full trust in him. I own that recording and my only regret is that incompetent camera image switching by somebody who had not a clue about how to film ballet ruined much of the the effect. There is a much better internal "company" recording, but that one of course is unfortunately available for consultation only on premises of Staatsballett in Berlin. While watching the recording, please pay attention to the Dance of the Snowflakes. There are only 24 on stage in Berlin, much to regret of Burlaka who points out that in the original Ivanov production there were 68 (!!) . One of those unfortunate compromises.

 

Then there are high quality recordings of reconstructed "Esmeralda", "Le Corsaire", "Raymonda". Recently, thanks to the initiative of Tsiskaridze, a lovely "reconstruction" of "Rosaire" has been performed (and recorded) multiple times by students of the Vaganova Academy. I am certain that recordings of Ratmansky's own efforts will be released as soon as he himself is more or less content with the results of his work.

[FLOSS]

assoluta

 

I bow to your greater knowledge of the Mariinsky reconstruction of Sleeping Beauty. We got the "edited highlights" version in London. I  can't say that I recall too much effort to adopt a period appropriate style in the performances I saw, but that was some time ago. I assumed that Ratmansky had chosen the 1921 London production as his starting point for the general look of the ballet because it was the point at which the ballet was introduced to western audiences. I interpreted his decision to include a couple of minor elements of the western performing tradition as an acknowledgement that the tradition exists. However I thought it was a pity that he has given the dancers the option of choosing between fish dives and the original choreography in act 3 as all the casts I saw chose the fish dive option.

 

Do you know if any of the recordings that you have referred to are available, or are likely to become available to the general public? As far as tricksy camera work is concerned did not Balanchine take his company to Berlin at some point on the understanding that his ballets were to be filmed as records of his works and their performance only to have the whole project ruined by the director and cameramen using clever camera angles and unnecessary close ups? 

[FLOSS]

assoluta,

 

My question should have been which reconstructions apart from the Berlin Nutcracker are available on DVD ?

[assoluta]

assoluta

 

I bow to your greater knowledge of the Mariinsky reconstruction of Sleeping Beauty. We got the "edited highlights" version in London. I  can't say that I recall too much effort to adopt a period appropriate style in the performances I saw, but that was some time ago. I assumed that Ratmansky had chosen the 1921 London production as his starting point for the general look of the ballet because it was the point at which the ballet was introduced to western audiences. I interpreted his decision to include a couple of minor elements of the western performing tradition as an acknowledgement that the tradition exists. However I thought it was a pity that he has given the dancers the option of choosing between fish dives and the original choreography in act 3 as all the casts I saw chose the fish dive option.

 

I think Ratmansky's decision to revive the 1921 London production was due to the fact that the complete set of costumes and some decorations were available for inspection. They were preserved and went on sale in 1968 at a legendary Sotheby's auction. A beautifully produced catalogue fills around 60 pages (I am writing this from memory) with the description and numerous photographs of the Royal Ballet School students in those costumes. It was possible to track many, perhaps most, of those items.

 

 

assoluta,

 

My question should have been which reconstructions apart from the Berlin Nutcracker are available on DVD ?

 

FLOSS,

 

On DVD (to be precise, on Blu-ray) La Scala's Raymonda and Berlin's Nutcracker may be the only ones. All the other items on the list I provided were and some still are available for download from a variety of sources. For example, complete recordings of lavish Bolshoi reconstructions of Esmeralda and Le Corsaire were available for download from the Bolshoi YouTube account immediately after the respective live broadcasts. Later they were reappearing at various download sites, sometimes in fantastically good visual and sound quality. What is available on YouTube is usually of inferior quality. The only recording of excerpts of Vikharev's Mariinsky Sleeping Beauty known to me to be available on YouTube, with Vishneva and Part, is of dismal quality. There is also an infinitely better recording with Novikova, Kondaurova, Merkuryev, but that is not available anywhere except for an on-site consultation at the Mariinsky Theatre. To inspect the costumes and the decorations of Vikharev's Sleeping Beauty now one must head for Vladivostok on the other side of globe.

[assoluta]

Those who made it yesterday to the St.Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music were treated to incredibly revealing thoughts by Sergei Vikharev about “reconstruction” - its past and present, about Ratmansky's approach, about the (lamentable) state of classical dance at the Paris Opéra after 20 years of Brigitte Lefèvre's rule, about his plan to commemorate the 200-th Anniversary of Marius Petipa by staging complete Paquita in Ekaterinburg, and a number of other equally interesting things.

[DrewCo]

Those who made it yesterday to the St.Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music were treated to incredibly revealing thoughts by Sergei Vikharev about “reconstruction” - its past and present, about Ratmansky's approach, about the (lamentable) state of classical dance at the Paris Opéra after 20 years of Brigitte Lefèvre's rule, about his plan to commemorate the 200-th Anniversary of Marius Petipa by staging complete Paquita in Ekaterinburg, and a number of other equally interesting things.

 

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.

[CHazell2]

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.

Edited December 13, 2016 by CHazell2