capybara Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 Please could Forum members help me. Prompted by thoughts of Mayerling, I started to make a list of ballets based on real life people or events. I got as far as: Sweet Violets (Jack the Ripper) No Man’s Land, Second Breath and Dust (all related in some way to World War 1) Flight Pattern (refugee crisis) The Cellist (Jacqueline du Pre) A Simple Man (LS Lowry) Cyrano (although the real man’s story was fictionalised) Edward II Strapless (the story of a woman in a painting which caused a scandal) and then dried up. I’m sure I’m missing many obvious examples but I’m stuck on works which seem real but aren’t. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizbie1 Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 (edited) Anastasia (kind of). Also, though there's not much we know about him, Spartacus. Edited August 9, 2022 by Lizbie1 Adding Spartacus 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
news2me Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 Can I add John Neumeier's "Nijinsky" and Vladimir Varnava's "Isadora"? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaddieRose Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 MacMillan’s Isadora as well. Enigma Variations perhaps? Ashton’s Nursery Suite. Boris Eifman’s Red Giselle and Musagète are based (loosely?) on the lives of Spessivtseva and Balanchine respectively. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 Woolf Works (sort of) Victoria Casanova The Unknown Soldier (Marriott) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 The Brontes (by Gillian Lynne for Northern Ballet) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 Victoria, for Northern Ballet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 Sorry, I see @bridiemhas just posted this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pulcinella Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 The Grand Tour by Joe Layton based on an imaginary cruise but featuring Noel Coward, Mary Pickford, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas among others. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 (edited) Rasputin (Polunin) Ivan the Terrible (Grigorovich) Diana The Princess (Schaufuss) Nureyev ☺️ Edited August 9, 2022 by bridiem Ballets added 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 Cathy Marston's first ballet when she took over Bern Ballet years back was a Firebird based on Rasputin's interaction with the Romanovs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estreiiita Posted August 9, 2022 Share Posted August 9, 2022 (edited) In Denmark we have a ballet " Blixen" created by the principal of RDB Gregory Dean about the life of Karen Blixen (well known if not because of her books, then at least because of "Out of Africa" film). By the way, there'll be several performances of this ballet in the autumn and the approximate cast can be seen on Det Kongelige teater web page. I hope I'll get Astrid Elbo as Karen Blixen, she should be amazing in this role! Also, some of us surely watched "Sibelius" of the Finnish ballet, about the famous composer from Finland. Alexei Ratmansky's " The flames of Paris" is also based on the real events. " Come fly away" of Twyla Tarp is based on the life and songs of Frank Sinatra. Edited August 9, 2022 by Estreiiita 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Does the Enigma Variations count? The people in the ballet were based on real people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted August 10, 2022 Author Share Posted August 10, 2022 This growing list is terrific. Thank you everyone! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RosiesDream Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Mayerling, Anastasia... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane S Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Mary Queen of Scots - by Peter Darrell for Scottish Ballet 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophoife Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Broken Wings (Frida Kahlo). Eugene Loring's Billy the Kid. Agnes de Mille: Fall River Legend (Lizzie Borden). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanja Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 What about John Neumeier's version of Swan Lake - Illusionen wie Schwanensee? (King Ludwig II) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawnstar Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 13 hours ago, Ian Macmillan said: Cathy Marston's first ballet when she took over Bern Ballet years back was a Firebird based on Rasputin's interaction with the Romanovs. This has reminded me of Peter Schaufuss's The Nutcracker production from the 1990s with Tchaikovsky's family as the party guests. I can't recall if he extended the concept into Act II as well, since I was only about 7 when I saw it so only have very hazy memories of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm365 Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 (edited) Bejart also made a ballet based on Nijinsky: Nijinsky Clown of God. Also one on Charlie Chaplin. And Elizabeth of Austria: Sissi. edited for typo Edited August 10, 2022 by jm365 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 The King Dances - David Bintley/BRB (based on the court of Louis XIV) 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 2 hours ago, jm365 said: Bejart also made a ballet based on Nijinsky: Nijinsky Clown of God. Also one on Charlie Chaplin. And Elizabeth of Austria: Sissi. Bèjart? Vous avez dit Béjart? "Baudelaire" "Le Molière Imaginaire" "Malraux ou la Métamorphose des Dieux" - based on the French writer André Malraux "M comme Mishima" – based on the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima "Zarathoustra – Le Chant de la Danse" - based on Nietzsche "Tod in Wien” – based on the death of Mozart "Sissi, L'Impératrice anarchiste" "Brel et Barbara" "Le presbytère n'a rien perdu de son charme, ni le jardin de son secret" – or "Ballet for Life", based on the life of Freddie Mercury and also a bit on Mozart "Piaf" "Mr. C" - based on Charlie Chaplin "Divine" - based on Greta Garbo "Isadora" "Njinsky, Clown de Dieu" "Ciao Federico" and "Soirée Fellini" – based on Federico Fellini "Mère Teresa et les Enfants du Monde" – based on the life of Mother Teresa I think we have a winner 🙃 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amelia Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Apart from ballets based on Nijinsky’s life by Bèjart and Neumeier there were two more: “Nijinski” by Marco Goecke - Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo “Nijinsky’ by Mikhail Lavrovsky - at Lavrovsky Gala You will laugh but there was even a dancing Lenin in the ballet production of "Falcons of the Revolution” by Bulat Ayukhanov in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 2013. Other characters in that ballet were: Marx, Stalin, and the Kazakh President Nazarbayev! In one of the scenes Lenin inspires the workers to volunteer for unpaid work on weekends and himself carries a log. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Meo2E9qVgw 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mummykool Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Will Tuckett's " Elizabeth" 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 (edited) Scarlett's Sweet Violets, I suppose. And Sylvia Plath, by Heidelberg Dance Theatre (1980s) Perhaps Berlin Requiem (Bruce) Edited August 11, 2022 by bridiem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted August 11, 2022 Author Share Posted August 11, 2022 Dances with Death - Matthew Hart’s AIDS-related ballet 1996 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 "Lili, The Danish Girl" by Reginaldo Oliveira, Salzburg Ballet 2022 - inspired by the German painter and transgender person Lili Elbe "Anne Frank", also by Oliveira, Karlsruhe Ballet 2016 1 hour ago, bridiem said: Sylvia Plath, by Heidelberg Dance Theatre That was by Johann Kresnik - if you go to the German dance theatre or Tanztheater, Kresnik did many pieces about real people - about the German terrorists Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin, about the Chancellor's wife Hannelore Kohl, about Nietzsche, Ernst Jünger, Frida Kahlo, Picasso, Brecht, Francis Bacon, Goya etc. etc. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annamicro Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 Neumeier's Duse (Eleonora of course), Purgatorio (Alma Mahaler) and Le Pavillon d'Armide (Nijinsly) Bugonzetti's Caravaggio (I don't remember if it's narrative or not) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophoife Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 Kader Belarbi: Toulouse-Lautrec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynette H Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 Cathy Marston made a piece quite some time ago about TS Eliot's relationship with his wife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane S Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 (edited) Also, Peter Darrell made a Mayerling ballet (long before Macmillan's) - for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1963. And the RDB's Caroline Mathilde (chor. Flemming Flindt) is based on the life of the English Princess of that name. Edited August 11, 2022 by Jane S 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 I should have mentioned these earlier, but Cathy Marston's work as Director of Bern Ballet included: Clara, based on the Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms triangle. Witch Hunt/Hexenhatz, based on the story of the last witch condemned to death in Switzerland. There may be others, but these I recall from company visits to the Linbury ... especially Witch Hunt! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amelia Posted August 13, 2022 Share Posted August 13, 2022 (edited) Ballet “Pushkin” — Kirov Ballet, 1979. Music by Andrei Petrov. Choreography by N.Kasatkina and V.Vasilyov. Ballets by Boris Eifman: 1993 - "Tchaikovsky" to the music by Tchaikovsky. 1999 - "Russian Hamlet" ("Son of Catherine the Great") to music by Beethoven, Mahler. 1997 - "Red Giselle” (based on life of Olga Spessivtseva) to the music by Tchaikovsky, Bizet and Schnittke. 2011 - "Roden. Her Eternal Idol" to music by Ravel, Saint-Saens, Massenet. 2021 - “Passion according to Molière” to music by Mozart, Berlioz, Lully. Edited August 13, 2022 by Amelia Corrected layout. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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