Preserving Ballets

[FLOSS]

As the ballet season has quietened down I thought that it might be interesting to ask members of the forum the following question. If you could only save five ballets from the Royal Ballet's twentieth century repertory which would you choose to save and why?

[Coated]

Oh, this is like asking which one of your pets should be put down. Are we talking about ballets that originated with the RB, or anything that was in repertoire in the 20th century?

 

I haven't seen enough ballets to give a comprehensive answer, but Mayerling and Fille are the first thing that spring to mind.

 

Mayerling for the maelstrom of emotion and for being the ballet that converted me from casual visitor to rather too regular attendee.

 

Fille for its happiness and the beauty of small moves and gestures

 

It would probably take me weeks to pick the rest. If this were my desert island ballet and the only ballet I could see for the rest of my life, I'd start thinking how I'd way up a short pieces against a full-lenght, but how do I chose between Gloria, Rhapsody, Months when I also want Wright's Giselle, and maybe Manon, and ....

[Vanartus]

I agree with above list. I'd also throw in Voluntaries, Symphonic, Scenes de B, Requiem, Apollo...(Balanchine is tricky with RB)

[Dance*is*life]

Well I am so thrilled that they have resurrected one of my favourites - Two Pigeons - it would definitely be on my list together with Fille, Romeo and Manon. Oof how can you narrow it to just 5!!!! Would I save Les Patineurs or Enigma Variations or The Dream???? Aaaagh!

[Duck]

The top three ballets came to mind quickly, filling the remaining two spots was a lot more challenging based on the number of contenders ...

 

So the top three for me

• Mayerling - the emotions and the stunning PDD, all within a historic setting that is captured so vividly through the costumes and characters
• Song of the Earth - its serenity, the sense of loss and longing and renewal, the music
• Requiem - its serenity, the sense of loss and acceptance, the music

The other two

• Four Temperaments - the display of the four medieval characters through movement, the music ..., both in particular in the "Melancholic" part 
• Monotones - it's just otherworldly

 

Really close to the top five, and in no particular order: Gloria, Voluntaries, Concerto, Manon, Romeo & Juliet.

 

I started to watch the Royal Ballet in 2006/07 so my experience is still limited, and each season brings new discoveries e.g., The Four Temperaments this year. Thus, just as the list would have looked different a year ago, it will probably look different again a year from today.

[Ian Macmillan]

Les Noces.

[Two Pigeons]

I think I would go for ballets not danced by other companies. So Ashton's Cinderella and Ondine would be on the list. Rhapsody I agree, and Gloria. I think my last one would be Les Noces.

 

These are not necessarily my favourites but the ones that should be preserved. Lots of the Ashton and Macmillan rep are danced by BRB so I would regard those as in safe hands. I have chosen ballets that do not fall into that category.

[Melody]

A Month in the Country and Symphonic Variations would be at the top of my list.

[J_New]

Onegin

[FLOSS]

My choice excludes works protected or do I mean embalmed by the Balanchine Trust?and the Cranko works made for Stuttgart which I feel would be more than adequately guarded by the Powers that be at Stuttgart.

 

The five ballets that I would preserve are:-

1. Symphonic Variations which for me is a perfect synthesis of music,choreography and design. Calm serenity made possible by the restraint inherent in classical ballet.Every movement is perfect and absolutely suited to the music and its mood.

 

2. Scenes de Ballet which is an extraordinary variation on a theme of Petipa's Aurora. It is always seen at its best when danced by a ballerina with plenty of performances of Aurora under her belt who has the sort of musicality which allows her to play with the music and the sensitivity to show the difference between the diamond section and the pearl section.All the dancers on stage need to dance with total precision.It is atypical Ashton and when danced well it takes on the mood of a mysterious ritaul.

 

3,La Fille Mal Gardee the greatest comic ballet and a strong contender for the greatest ballet created for the Covent Garden company. Masterly choreography throughout and unlike MacMillan,Ashton knows what to do when he has his full corps on stage. There is no padding.Every time I see it I see something new.Looking at a comparatively small section of the work such as the opening of the harvest scene which is merely preparatory to the arrival of the principal characters the audience is presented with the perfectly contrived movement of the corps combining ballet movement and natural movement the patterns and repeats do not out stay their welcome.

 

4. The Song of the Earth MacMillan's masterpiece.Perfect in its austerity.It does not follow the text slavishly but the images linger in the memory.Its references to the Chinese origins of the text are subtly done. When the boys up end themselves to echo the reference to the porcelain pagoda's reflected in the water they also manage to suggest incense burners.Each section provides images of the transitory nature of life so that the ballet manages simultaneously to hint at the medieval dance of death while providing striking images that reflect the text being sung.In the last section the inevitability of death is accepted and the three figures the man , the woman and the eternal one achieve a beautiful serenity as the music draws to a close.

 

5. Les Noces. A quite extraordinary work musically and choreographically. Nearly a hundred years old it still feels incredibly modern.Diaghilev is said to have wept when he first saw the ballet.It is the last of the Diaghilev ballets with a Russian theme. Everyone involved in it knew that they would never return home. Perhaps it is that knowledge with gives the work its power. Stravinsky is aid to have been reluctant to have his score used in a ballet. What a good thing that he finally agreed

 

Diaghilev's original idea was to try to repeat the pre-war success that the company had experienced with Le Coq d'Or. As originally envisaged the ballet, which accompanies a score incorporating a fragmentary text containing songs and phrases associated with traditional peasant weddings, was to have been brightly dressed in traditional peasant costumes.It was the choreographer Bronislava Nijinska who insisted that all the dancers should be dressed simply in what amounts to a brown and cream uniform. Noces is concerned with the community and its rituals not the individuals who are to be married.

 

In the first scene the bride has her hair plaited by her friends as the chorus sing about her bright shining tresses. She is blessed by her parents. In the second scene the bridegroom is blessed by his parents and the Archangel Michael is invoked.This section is far more energetic than the first one with grooms friends stamping and swirling around him.The next section shows the bride leaving her parents and her mother mourning the loss of her child. The final scene shows us the communal response to the wedding.The bridal couple and their parents sit on a bench on an inner stage raised above the dancing villagers.At the back of the raised stage is an open door with a clearly visible bed. The villagers dance.The bride and groom stand and walk across the front of the raised inner stage and return to their seat. For the villagers it is a time for drinking and rejoicing. The villagers dance in a mass. The women dance neatly while the men stamp vigorously.Two of the villagers a man and a woman step out of the crowd and each dances a solo. At one point the man faces the audience as one of the singers calls on everyone to raise their glasses.The groom leads his wife into the bedroom. the door is closed behind them and a curtain is drawn across the inner stage. The dancers form a final pyramid.

The greatest of the ballets from the Diaghilev repertory the choreography is the equal of one of Stravinsky's greatest scores.

Edited June 18, 2015 by FLOSS

[Sim]

Well you have certainly convinced me, Floss! Although four of the five were already on my list. I have only seen Les Noces a couple of times so don't know it well enough to make any kind of lucid comments about it, save to say I liked it very much. Probably about time it were revived...

[Sim]

I would also add the three MacMillan full-length ballets. Yes, they each have their flaws, but for their dramatic innovation and the wonderful pdd, both of which bring huge challenges to the interpreters of the main roles, they are a must to preserve for future generations.

[Bruce Wall]

On my list would be (i) MacMillan's Concerto and Song of the Earth - for my money his most consistently sublime works in terms of the arc of their balletic drama; (ii) Ashton's Symphonic Variations - no question - [THAT should be preserved as a RB mainstay much as Serenade, Concerto Barocco and Symphony in C exist, for example, for NYCB.  All are vehicles helping to (i) teach the dancers to dance and (ii) the audience to appreciate the finer points of the ethic at hand] - plus Fille and Month and Rhapsody plus - (probably a lost cause) - Balanchine's Liebesleider Waltzer - for my money probably the Balanchian work most suited to the RB such as has already been in their rep - and Jewels.  

I also think Wheeldon's Winter's Tale and McGregor's Chroma (and perhaps Parts I and III of Wolf Works for a touch of something different) need to be cherished to clearly show the achievements/tastes/developments of our own early 21st Century.  It is crucial I think that the latter two be well harboured in an age of all too easily disposable delights.  I would add the Cranko suggested here above but that would be churlish knowing it is already strongly supported at its point of original source.  

Edited June 19, 2015 by Bruce Wall

[Douglas Allen]

Might I suggest the following (in no particular order):

 

A Wedding Bouquet and Scenes de Ballet - Two great ballets by one of the greatest of twentieth century choreographers and both works are not to be found in many other companies' reps.

 

Les Biches and Les Noces - Exactly the same reasons as for the Ashton.

 

Dances At A Gathering - A great ballet which in the Royal's interpretation (at least when first performed) showed considerable differences in nuance and emphasis to NYCB's performance.

[Bruce Wall]

A delightful review by the ever lucid and distinct Deborah Jowitt colourfully recounts a varied programme by New York Theater Ballet (now lodged in the paradigmatic St. Mark's Church of that City's Lower East Side).  Included on this bill was Ashton's 1930 Capriol Suite, Richard Alston's Such Longing and Tudor's seminal Dark Elegies.  All appear to be suited to this more intimate setting than would be available, say, on an opera house's main stage.  This also appears to be an effective manner in which to celebrate the preservation of such historic dance entities given that they are additionally mixed in with two new short creations, one here being choreographed by Gemma Bond, a British dancer who moved from the corps of the Royal Ballet to that of ABT where she remains currently employed.

 

http://www.artsjournal.com/dancebeat/2015/06/chamber-ballet-in-a-church/

Edited June 22, 2015 by Bruce Wall