Happy 90th Birthday, Ronald Hynd

[Jeannette]

English choreographer Ronald Hynd celebrates his 90th b’day today! Cheers to the gentleman who created a number of full-evening traditional narrative ballets, most notably The Merry Widow. It’s quite an output, including his own versions of Diable a Quatre, Le Papillon, Rosalinda (Fledermaus story) and Nutcracker. Several of these might be found online, with a bit of Youtube sleuthing. 😉 

 

https://www.houstonballet.org/seasontickets/2018-19-season/merry-widow/ronald-hynd/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Hynd

[alison]

Many happy returns to him, then.  I had spotted this somewhere in passing, but it had slipped my mind again.

[Jeannette]

Very interesting that many of Hynd’s  biggest triumphs have taken place in the Southern Hemisphere, such as Australia, South Africa, Argentina & Chile. We can thank Chile, Uruguay & Argentina for much of his work currently on Youtube...for ex, to find the complete Diable a Quatre, search the Spanish title Las Desventuras del Diablo...which follows the scenario of the original 1845 Mazilier version, with music by Adam, to a T...page 215 in Beaumont’s Complete Book of Ballets.

 

What gorgeously produced and designed ballets! All crafted the old-fashioned way. The real deal, not dependent on projections.

[jmhopton]

Yes, his Merry Widow is one of my favourite ballets and the only favourite full length ballet I haven't seen live. If only Kevin O'Hare would consider acquiring it instead of being so in thrall to modern choreographers. Oh well, I'll just have to hope that if Canadian and Australian ballets make future visit to the UK they bring it with them. In the meantime I'll have to trawl YouTube and see what I can find.

Happy birthday Mr Hynd and many more of them.

[Guest oncnp]

9 minutes ago, jmhopton said:

Yes, his Merry Widow is one of my favourite ballets and the only favourite full length ballet I haven't seen live. If only Kevin O'Hare would consider acquiring it instead of being so in thrall to modern choreographers. Oh well, I'll just have to hope that if Canadian and Australian ballets make future visit to the UK they bring it with them. In the meantime I'll have to trawl YouTube and see what I can find.

Happy birthday Mr Hynd and many more of them.

 

You've probably seen this but if you haven't https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fABK9D5eRrs

 

[Jeannette]

The Colon in Buenos Aires completely redid (restored) sets & costumes after the originals! How many institutions have the wherewithal and personnel to do that? After COVID, with national coffers running low?

 

I’m afraid that future generations may not see this sort of luxury on stage. As costumes & sets crafted in the ‘70s/‘80s/90s are falling apart, they’re often replaced with budget-friendly options...as we saw, say, with ABT’s newer version of Cranko’s Onegin at the Met four seasons ago...a shadow of the magnificence of the old sets & costumes.

 

Newer audiences will never know what they’ve missed. We’ll treasure our old films of the 3-act ballets by Hynd...and Cranko, Stevenson, Prokovsky, etc, etc...the authentic-style sets/costumes of the Sergei Vikharev-Petipa recons. Good grief, those all deserve professional filming.

[Jeannette]

FYI, subscribers to Medici can watch another famous (shorter) Hynd ballet- The Sanguine Fan, to Elgar’s score. It’s half of a double bill by London Fest Ballet/ENB that also includes Lichine’s Graduation Ball. 

 

https://www.medici.tv/en/ballets/sanguine-fan-graduation-ball-elgar-strauss-london-festival-ballet/

 

I have this from an old VHS traded tape...so it’s great to now have the opportunity to see this sharply.

[jmhopton]

50 minutes ago, Jeannette said:

FYI, subscribers to Medici can watch another famous (shorter) Hynd ballet- The Sanguine Fan, to Elgar’s score. It’s half of a double bill by London Fest Ballet/ENB that also includes Lichine’s Graduation Ball. 

 

https://www.medici.tv/en/ballets/sanguine-fan-graduation-ball-elgar-strauss-london-festival-ballet/

 

I have this from an old VHS traded tape...so it’s great to now have the opportunity to see this sharply.

 

Yes I noticed this and considered subscribing to Medici for a month (I think that's possible) just to get it. Like Jeanette my recording is very old, videoed from the old Performance channel over 20 years ago and transferred to dvd. The double bill has an added attraction of being introduced by Margot Fonteyn and also containing Graduation Ball, another short Ballet that seems to have fallen through the ballet net of short ballets no one performs anymore, possibly because it's fun, attractive and undemanding and traditional. Things that don't always seem to be at the top of many artistic directors lists of priorities.

Similarly my first recording of The Merry Widow (Canadian Ballet and the fabulous Karen Kain) was transferred from video. Its only recently I managed new recordings from Australian Ballet and Argentina. However I look forward to checking out the various suggestions here. Thanks Jeanette and oncnp.