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Petipa Bicentenary - Celebrations at the Mariinsky and elsewhere


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The  Petipa celebrations at the Mariinsky begin on 8 March 2018 with a performance of the Vikharev reconstruction of The Sleeping Beauty. On 11 March there is a Petipa Gala, perhaps rather perversely featuring only one actual piece of choreography by Petipa himself (Act 3 Sleeping Beauty - Vikharev); a new ballet by Konstantin Keikhel and Balanchine's  A Midsummer Night's Dream. Unusual choices, you may think..

 

The gala will be broadcast live on Mezzo TV:

 

http://www.mezzo.tv/nos-programmes/soiree_hommage_a_marius_petipa_theatre_mariinsky_11032018

 

No casting available as yet, but an educated guess for Act 3 SB might be Tereshkina/Shklyarov, who dance the first night on 8 March. 

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21 hours ago, BeauxArts said:

Update on casting for the Gala on 11 March:

 

https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/playbill/playbill/2018/3/11/1_2000

 

(not such an educated guess after all!)

 

Am I right in assuming the third act of Sleeping Beauty is the Vikharev reconstruction again?  If so the casting of Aurora is beyond belief seeing as those dancers that actually worked with Vikharev are mainly still dancing.  Petipa would turn in his grave at the thought of Somova's six o' clock extensions destroying his choreography.

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Hello MAB: you are indeed correct that the third act in the Gala programme is the Vikharev reconstruction.  As an aside, I have read comments on another forum (BalletAlert) in which it is reported that there is in effect only a passing mention of Vikharev in the SB programme...if true, a very sorry reflection on the Mariinsky management of this very important celebration,which just compounds some of the casting madness and the very odd composition of the Gala itself... 

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Up until his untimely death I always considered Sergei Vikharev a living treasure of the dance world.  I was mightily disappointed that a western company never saw fit to utilize his unique talent in staging Petipa's work from notations as it would have been possible to bring long forgotten Petipa masterpieces back to glorious life.  Of course he flourished under Vaziev but never found favour with his successor: a great pity.  For the gala they should have given his wonderful Awakening of Flora, admittedly not by Petipa but far more fitting than Balanchine.

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MAB: the Awakening of Flora was on the original Gala programme but was replaced in the last week or so by the third act SB - I have found out what explanation was given - if any! I would very much like to have seen Vikharev's reconstructions of Coppelia and also the Raymonda for La Scala (this was danced at his and Vaziev's instigation by Novikova).

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If we are talking about Marius Petipa "turning in his grave", then according to the number one authority on Petipa's ballets, Professor Roland Wiley, Petipa would be turning in his grave in protest against "reconstructions" like the one that is being glorified here. This is an essence of his talk on Harvard Sergeev's collection and "notation", read yesterday, in his absence, during the opening session of the "Hommage to Petipa" conference at the Vaganova Academy.

 

A disquieting amount of disinformation and fallacies is being spread by well meaning if ignorant people all over the internet about the subject of reconstructions and the "authentic Petipa." Most of this has little or no bearing to facts.

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3 hours ago, assoluta said:

This is an essence of his talk on Harvard Sergeev's collection and "notation", read yesterday, in his absence, during the opening session of the "Hommage to Petipa" conference at the Vaganova Academy.

 

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.

 

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15 hours ago, BeauxArts said:

MAB: the Awakening of Flora was on the original Gala programme but was replaced in the last week or so by the third act SB - I have found out what explanation was given - if any! I would very much like to have seen Vikharev's reconstructions of Coppelia and also the Raymonda for La Scala (this was danced at his and Vaziev's instigation by Novikova).

BeauxArts, Vikharev's wonderful Coppelia, which was danced by the Bolshoi on a previousLondon tour (2010), will be revived at the Bolshoi next month, and will also be cinecast in June. It was never in the Mariinsky's rep.

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6 hours ago, assoluta said:

A disquieting amount of disinformation and fallacies is being spread by well meaning if ignorant people all over the internet about the subject of reconstructions and the "authentic Petipa." Most of this has little or no bearing to facts.

 

Once again you choose to insult people that don't share your views as "ignorant".  When you were so rude about the dancer Emmanuel Thibault, you were challenged to give details of exactly what you do in the dance world that makes you such an authority, but you never replied.  Once again would you care to give that information so that we understand why your opinions should be considered so superior to the views of so many others.

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  • alison changed the title to Petipa Bicentenary - Celebrations at the Mariinsky and elsewhere

I don't know enough about ballet to comment on the accuracy or otherwise of the reconstructed choreography, but I have to question the wisdom of spending a fortune on recreating the original costumes.  Most of them, to my eyes at least, are hideous. And there really should be a law against men with muscly thighs wearing striped tights!

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  I think some of the costumes worked better than others, for example the Lilac Fairy costume (shoes et all) is rather lovely. I think both Shklyarov and Askerov were ..overwhelmed, shall we say, by the large-brimmed hat and ringlets in the vision scene...

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On 3/10/2018 at 23:24, Sebastian said:

 

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.

 

It will be published in the proceedings of the conference. Many participants (choreographers, former dancers, ballet historians) were very bitter about the scandal with the so called "Petipa gala" at Mariinsky, several refused to attend it. I did, and in the end the only "good" that came out of it was witnessing Mr. Gergiev's arrogant slap in the face of the ballet community (the exact words used by one of the senior ballet critics present) and the sorry state of the Mariinsky ballet. The orchestra sounded dreadful, Mr. Gergiev's total lack of attention to what was happening on the stage was astonishing, this was seconded by three wooden favourites of Mr. Fateev cast in principal roles, matched by the chaotic corps de ballet in Keichel's monotonously repetitive long choreographic exercise that bore no relation to Petipa. This was Mariinsky totally "deconstructed". Literally nothing remaining of its former glory.

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