A new production of The Pharaoh's Daughter

[Sebastian]

Not sure how tactful it is to point this out but those interested in Petipa might like to know that the Mariinsky is about to premiere The Pharaoh's Daughter (the Bolshoi have a production, available on disc) See here:

 

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by Sebastian

[LinMM]

Has this ballet ever been performed outside of Russia 🤔

[Bruce Wall]

Just now, LinMM said:

Has this ballet ever been performed outside of Russia 🤔

 

Certainly the Russians presented the Ratmansky take in London at the ROH.  

[LinMM]

Thanks Bruce …I’ve never seen it so wondered if it is rarely shown abroad. 
So is it only performed by the Mariinsky or do other Russian companies have the rights to perform it? 

[jonac]

I have Bolshoi's DVD and saw it at the ROH. Enjoy the DVD and enjoyed performance.

[Jane S]

1 hour ago, Bruce Wall said:

 

Certainly the Russians presented the Ratmansky take in London at the ROH.  

Wasn't that the Pierre Lacotte version, Bruce? (2004 -ish)

 

Ratmansky was due to make a reconstruction with the Mariinsky last year but pulled out for obvious reasons.

[MaddieRose]

The Bolshoi brought Pharaoh to London in 2004 and 2006 I think? 

 

The Marius Petipa society has a page on the ballet and its history: 

 

https://petipasociety.com/the-pharaohs-daughter/

[Jeannette]

As Mr. Ratmansky understandably backed out of his Russian projects a year ago, this new reconstruction at the Mariinsky was taken over by Italian choreographer Toni Candeloro, about whom we have this short bio:

 

https://petipamarathon.com/speakers/toni-candeloro/

 

I know of his Diaghilev-era ballet reconstructions but not of 19th-C work. Candeloro has staged Petipa works via the Stepanov notes, I’ve read. I guess that we’ll soon find out…or whoever will be there watching.
 

The Bolshoi’s circa-1999 edition is mostly of new choreography by Pierre Lacotte, although there was an attempt to reconstruct the River Variations via documentation by Doug Fullington. In the end, it didn’t work out & Lacotte staged three River variations.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by Jeannette

[Bruce Wall]

1 hour ago, Jane S said:

Wasn't that the Pierre Lacotte version, Bruce? (2004 -ish)

 

Ratmansky was due to make a reconstruction with the Mariinsky last year but pulled out for obvious reasons.

 

Sorry, of course you are right.  ...... Thanks for that, Jane.

[FionaM]

I’m guessing the new production for Marinsky is largely going to be as envisaged by Ratmansky, irrespective of Candeloro’s subsequent contribution.  Being a reconstruction of the original, it cannot be that different!  The costumes and sets would have been largely completed for the ‘Ratmansky’ version which was due to premiere in May 2022.  And the Mariinsky would understandably not want to abandon a project that must have been considerable cost for them. This seems like a reasonable compromise. 
 

Credits for the new premiere:

Music by Cesare Pugni
Libretto by Jean-Henry Saint-Georges and Maurice Petipa after the story Le roman de la momie by Theophile Gautier 
Choreography by Marius Petipa 
The choreographer of the reconstruction is Toni Candeloro 
Set and costume Designer: Robert Perdziola 
Lighting Designer: Egor Kartashov

 

A video of the creative process with Ratmansky and designer Robert Perdziola in October 2021. 

 

 

[Jeannette]

Robert Perdziola worked with Ratmansky on the reconstruction of ABT’s Petipa’s Harlequinade, also seen at the Australian Ballet. It was a very traditional and luxurious production, following the original designs of 1900.

 

Perdziola also designed the ABT Ratmansky The Seasons.

 

I’m sure that these Pharaoh’s Daughter designs will be outstanding, just from the bits seen in the film. It would’ve been very difficult to withdraw the designs, as most were constructed before the troubles. The current situation is too bad on many fronts.

 

I feel sad about not being able to go - or not wanting to go anytime soon. It is what it is.

 

p.s. Unrelated but due to potential principal casting: Alina Somova seems to have gone…retired? It’s been about 20 years since her graduation.

https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/ballet/soloists/

 

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Jeannette

[LinMM]

Would a Company outside of Russia be able to put on a Production of this ballet if they wanted to? 
Im just not well up on the more business side of ballet and Rights of who can perform what etc. 

[Jeannette]

3 hours ago, LinMM said:

Would a Company outside of Russia be able to put on a Production of this ballet if they wanted to? 
Im just not well up on the more business side of ballet and Rights of who can perform what etc. 

 

Maybe in China? Not in the US or other capitalistic-economy countries, given today’s economic challenges.  Thinking about the high production values - true scenery rather than projections, for starters.  
 

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Jeannette

[FionaM]

13 hours ago, Jeannette said:

Unrelated but due to potential principal casting: Alina Somova seems to have gone…retired? It’s been about 20 years since her graduation.

https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/ballet/soloists/

 

 

 

 

Alina Somova is in Georgia I believe.  Now describing herself as Alina Somova Avsadzhanashvili.   She has been performing in new Carmina Burana of Georgian State Ballet created by fellow Mariinsky exile Ilia Jivoy. 
 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkYd-6WDxVL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Edited March 6, 2023 by FionaE

[Jeannette]

30 minutes ago, FionaE said:

Alina Somova is in Georgia I believe.  Now describing herself as Alina Somova Avsadzhanashvili.   She has been performing in new Carmina Burana of Georgian State Ballet created by fellow Mariinsky exile Ilia Jivoy. 
 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkYd-6WDxVL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

interesting…similar to Lizi Avsadzhanishvili (now in Berlin)….tenth letter for Lizi is an “i” instead of an “a”. Different, I know. Just curious.

 

Glad that Alina’s career is working out & moving on successfully.

[zxDaveM]

Pharoah's Daughter - is that the one with the soggy cloth tiger strung over a poll, that makes Bugpuss look like a psycho killer? (Qu'est-ce que c'est)

[alison]

That's Bayadere, isn't it?

[zxDaveM]

2 hours ago, alison said:

That's Bayadere, isn't it?

 

Quite probably - but I think there is some sort of menagerie in PD, or I really am badly misremembering! lol

[jmhopton]

Isn't it a lion in Pharaohs Daughter? The hero saves the Egyptian Princess from this lion (which makes the Bayadere tiger look fierce and realistic, and always reminds me of the 1960s ventriloquist puppet, Lennie the Lion. I keep looking round for Terry Hall!)

[zxDaveM]

17 minutes ago, jmhopton said:

Isn't it a lion in Pharaohs Daughter? The hero saves the Egyptian Princess from this lion (which makes the Bayadere tiger look fierce and realistic, and always reminds me of the 1960s ventriloquist puppet, Lennie the Lion. I keep looking round for Terry Hall!)

 

Oh yes, that’s what I was thinking of. That lion always made me think of the Monty Python sketch, with Michael Palin ‘fighting’ a very obvious and poorly stuffed beast, thrown at him from someone behind the camera

[Jeannette]

PD also has a cobra’s head popping out of a standing basket.  🐍  Petipa loved to repeat certain effects. 

[Angela]

On 06/03/2023 at 10:57, LinMM said:

Would a Company outside of Russia be able to put on a Production of this ballet if they wanted to? 

 

Any ballet company could use the story and the music, if they have the partitura(s) - normally, there is no more copyright after 70 years. They could even use Petipa's choreography for a new production if they had a notation, the copyright ceased.

 

Wouldn't it be nice if Ratmansky staged his production somewhere in Europe or the US? I wonder if he got paid for it by the Mariinsky, before he left or after he left - is there any statement from him? If they just take his work and stage it under a different artist's name, no other choreographer would ever want to work again in Russia. If they really steal Ratmansky's work, why not steal the whole production and show it somewhere else? I just don't think there is a big demand for such ballets in Western companies...

[Amelia]

17 hours ago, jmhopton said:

Isn't it a lion in Pharaohs Daughter? The hero saves the Egyptian Princess from this lion ...

 

Among the amusing theatrical incidents, there was one that happened at the opening night of "The Pharaoh's Daughter." Petipa explained to a super, who impersonated the lion, how, after being shot, he should jump off the bridge into the Nile. 
When this moment came during the performance and a shot rang out, the "lion" hurriedly crossed himself from right to left and jumped down. The audience erupted in laughter: an Orthodox lion in Ancient Egypt!

[jmhopton]

I remember attending a performance at the ROH when  just having saved the PD from the lion our hero is chariotted offstage by this lovely black horse pulling the chariot.  Unfortunately in the time taken by him and the PD to mount the chariot the horse deposited a large pile of poo on the stage and there was no convenient young man with a basket and shovel following behind as in La Fille. Then the young man's friend comes racing across the stage, waving his arms in a 'wait for me' gesture,  looking ahead at the chariot not down at the stage. Right at the last second he saw it and did this soaring jete right over it and everyone clapped and cheered.

[Jeannette]

Somewhat related, coming up -

 

The Mariinsky programmed an all-Ratmansky-choreographed triple bill on 30 March 2023, with Seven Sonatas, Pierrot Lunaire and Concerto DSCH.

The evening is titled “Ballets of the 21st Century” and no choreographer is cited. Hmmm… 🤔 

 

https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/playbill/playbill/2023/3/31/1_1900/

[LinMM]

This not naming the choreographer is just so petty. Either don’t perform the works at all or if going to give the choreographers credit!! 

[Borzoi]

Always uncertainty when incorporating animals into stage productions! Here in the US Borzoi hounds are frequently used to lead in the hunting party in Act I of "Giselle". I imagine by now everyone has heard of the fiasco which took place several years ago when the San Francisco Ballet was doing their seasonal run of this ballet. The two stately white hounds (brother and sister) were overcome with passion and proceeded to act out their infatuation right there in front the 3000 + audience. I believe it was the Duke who led them off. I do have a video clip of that. It is hilarious and the audience got an unexpected belly laugh. The dancers carried on like the pros they were and act II supposedly went seamlessly (except for the muffled snorts of laughter which erupted from time to time).

[Sim]

4 minutes ago, Borzoi said:

Always uncertainty when incorporating animals into stage productions! Here in the US Borzoi hounds are frequently used to lead in the hunting party in Act I of "Giselle". I imagine by now everyone has heard of the fiasco which took place several years ago when the San Francisco Ballet was doing their seasonal run of this ballet. The two stately white hounds (brother and sister) were overcome with passion and proceeded to act out their infatuation right there in front the 3000 + audience. I believe it was the Duke who led them off. I do have a video clip of that. It is hilarious and the audience got an unexpected belly laugh. The dancers carried on like the pros they were and act II supposedly went seamlessly (except for the muffled snorts of laughter which erupted from time to time).

Someone posted a video of that somewhere on the forum a few months ago.  It was hilarious!!

[Buddy]

On 05/03/2023 at 10:47, Jeannette said:

As Mr. Ratmansky understandably backed out of his Russian projects a year ago, this new reconstruction at the Mariinsky was taken over by Italian choreographer Toni Candeloro, about whom we have this short bio:

 

https://petipamarathon.com/speakers/toni-candeloro/

 

I know of his Diaghilev-era ballet reconstructions but not of 19th-C work. Candeloro has staged Petipa works via the Stepanov notes, I’ve read. I guess that we’ll soon find out…or whoever will be there watching.
 

The Bolshoi’s circa-1999 edition is mostly of new choreography by Pierre Lacotte, although there was an attempt to reconstruct the River Variations via documentation by Doug Fullington. In the end, it didn’t work out & Lacotte staged three River variations.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Jeannette, for the added insight into Pierre Lacotte’s Pharaoh's Daughter. I didn’t know about the Doug Fullington attempt. In any case, I’ve always enjoyed and greatly respected Pierre Lacotte’s creation, where in addition to the choreography (did he have a lady assisting?) he also designed the beautiful sets and costumes. I saw a few fine Bolshoi performances and although no one could touch Svetlana Zakharova, overall, Svetlana Lunkina handled the more graceful passages wonderfully.

 

I have seen pictures of the new sets for the Mariinsky production and they are also quite beautiful. I would think, or at least hope, that because of much of the advanced publicity and what’s been written most ballet goers inside and outside of Russia are aware that this is essentially Alexei Ratmansky’s creation, which it does indeed seem to be.

 

[Jeannette]

1 hour ago, Buddy said:

….I’ve always enjoyed and greatly respected Pierre Lacotte’s creation, where in addition to the choreography (did he have a lady assisting?) he also designed the beautiful sets and costumes. I …..

 

Yes, Buddy. Anne Salmon was his Assistant Choreographer. 

[Buddy]

1 hour ago, Jeannette said:

Yes, Buddy. Anne Salmon was his Assistant Choreographer. 

 

Thanks so much, Jeannette. Since you’re an instant wealth of knowledge, is she still associated with the Bolshoi and are any of these other works connected to Pierre Lacotte besides Ondine ?

 

“Promoted ballet master, Anne Salmon contributed to the creation of The Pharaoh’s Daughter at the Bolshoi Theatre, of Ondine at the Mariinski, and was equally involved when Coppelia was staged by the Shanghai Ballet, The Daughter of the Danube by the Tokyo Ballet, La Sylphide by the Scala in Milan and by the Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow, La Vivandière and The Butterfly by the Berlin Opera. She also restaged Petrouchka and The Afternoon of a Fawn at the request of the Tokyo Ballet. In 2011, she was engaged by the Paris Opera as a rehearsal assistant, for the creation of Jean-Guillaume Bart’s La Source.”

 

https://bolshoi.ru/en/persons/anne-salmon

 

Added:

 

In 1971 Lacotte was appointed teacher at the Paris Opera and began to specialize in staging new versions of lost 19th century ballets, particlarly those from the romantic era:[4]

 

• 1972: La Sylphide (1832)

• 1973: Coppélia (1870)

• 1976: Pas de six from La Vivandière (1844)

• 1976: Pas de deux of Le Papillon (1866)

• 1978: La Fille du Danube (1836)

• 1980: Nathalie, ou la Laitière Suisse (1821)

• 1981: Marco Spada (1857)

• 1982: Le Papillon (1866)

• 1993: La Gitana (1838)

• 1993: L'Ombre (1839)

• 1995: Le Lac des fées (1840)

• 2000: The Pharaoh's Daughter (1862)

• 2001: Paquita (1846)

• 2006: Ondine (1843)

 

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

Edited March 9, 2023 by Buddy

[Jeannette]

6 hours ago, Buddy said:

 

….are any of these other works connected to Pierre Lacotte besides Ondine ?

 

“Promoted ballet master, Anne Salmon contributed to the creation of The Pharaoh’s Daughter at the Bolshoi Theatre, of Ondine at the Mariinski, and was equally involved when Coppelia was staged by the Shanghai Ballet, The Daughter of the Danube by the Tokyo Ballet, La Sylphide by the Scala in Milan and by the Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow, La Vivandière and The Butterfly by the Berlin ….

Buddy, all of the ballets listed (bolded) in the above segment of the paragraph are related to works by Lacotte. Much of Ms Salmon’s staging career has been affiliated with Lacotte.

 

[The Sitter In]

Pretty disgusting that Candeloro and Perdziola have taken Putin’s Penny to work in Gergiev’s stronghold no less.  But then, as Jooss shows us in The Green Table, in times of war, there are always profiteers.  There will be plenty of claims about ‘art being above everything’, but for these two to travel to Russia at this time is nothing less than reprehensible.