November / Month of the Sonata – 27
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Category: ballets to ponder
December 7, 2019
“Orfeo ed Euridice” – Christoph Willibald Gluck
“Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld“ (1861)
Camille Corot
_________
the question of the afterlife comes up
in several places in art history, from
very Homer to the present, my very
favourite is Gluck‘s opera “Orfeo ed
Euridice“, 1762
Orpheus, because of the sweetness
of his music, his ability on the lyre,
is granted, by the rulers of the
Underworld, the return, among the
mortals, of his recently deceased
beloved, Eurydice
the condition is that he not turn back
to look at her as he leads her back
to the world of the living, our
sensate world
it’s a journey I’ve taken often for its
utter enchantment and inspiration,
you’ll find it irresistible
watch, listen
you won’t want to not go back,
I didn’t
R ! chard
February 1, 2019
Swan Lake / Swan Lake Suite – Tchaikovsky
from a 2008 production of “Swan Lake“ at the Royal Swedish Opera
_________________________
did you know that the girl in “Swan Lake“
is called Odette, my mom asked when I
told her I’d been looking it up, my mom’s
name is Odette
I’m the one who told you, I said, and
incidentally, I continued, she’s not a
girl, she’s a swan, which left my mom,
of course, flummoxed, indeed mum
a day later, we watched it
there she is, I pointed out, when Odette
made her appearance, fluttering in on
tiptoes from the wings, every single
inch a swan
as was equally the prince, in this
magnificent production of the Kirov,
every single inch a prince
watch
here’s the “Swan Lake Suite“, however
how is it different
listen
R ! chard
psst: if you said the Suite is a collection
of miscellaneous excerpts from
the ballet strung together but with
instruments only, no sets, no
costumes, no dancers, you’re right,
the Suite can give you a taste of
the complete work, though it
stands magnificently enough,
thank you very much, on its own
enjoy
January 24, 2019
the Nutcracker Suite – Tchaikovsky
original costume sketch for “The Nutcracker” (1892)
Ivan Vsevolozhsky
__________
it didn’t take me long, after wondering
about precedents for Debussy’s nursery
piece, Children’s Corner, to ferret out
Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, a work
with a similar theme, childhood
fantasies
but the Nutcracker Suite
l. Miniature Overture
ll. Danses caractéristiques
a. Marche
b. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies
c. Russian Dance
d. Arabian Dance
e. Chinese Dance
f. Reed Flutes
lll. Waltz of the Flowers
is not to be confused with the complete
ballet, from which it had been excerpted
to great acclaim before the ballet itself
was presented, but to much less
enthusiasm, until George Balanchine
revived it in the 1960s
note that Tchaikovsky’s Suite, in 1892,
contains still the traditional elements
of the suite – see above – a prelude, or
overture, followed by a series of
dances, only a few years before
Debussy’s Children’s Corner, 1908,
redefined the form, made the
movements indiscriminate, not
confined to dance rhythms
note also that Tchaikovsky sounds
a lot more like the Strausses, father
and son, Romantics both, than he
does like Debussy, an Impressionist,
a generation later only
here’s the orchestral Nutcracker Suite,
a suite, in other words, is not limited
to one instrument
here’s a riveting version of it for two
pianos, not to be missed
R ! chard
March 12, 2016
“The Afternoon of a Faun” – Vaslav Nijinsky
Program for “L’après-midi d’un faune” (1912)
_______
though the reference to Pan is not direct
rendition of Debussy‘s 1894 symphonic
classic, itself a musical transposition
of Stéphane Mallarmé‘s 1876 poem,
“The Afternoon of a Faun“, the
connections are unmistakably implicit,
not only in the story which is told, but
also in the elements of the dance, which
borrows heavily from Grecian urns, their
static, angular poses
also Mallarmé makes specific allusions to
Syrinx herself, among other nymphs, in his
seminal work, not to mention to the deity’s
eponymous flute
the only change to the original production
in this particular presentation is in the
dancers, here, Rudolf Nureyev performs
Russes in the show that made history,
the sets and costumes by Léon Bakst
remain also unchanged, this is what the
audience saw May 12, 1912, at the very
Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris
the piece shocked even irreverent Paris,
of course, for its overt and unapologetic
eroticism, it‘ll probably even shock you,
still
I thought, this is what happened to Berlin
after the First World War, a reconstructed
chthonic* resurgence at the death of an
old order, the Age of Aquarius after the
nuclear scare, “Hair“
famously, Auguste Rodin loved it
Richard
* chthonic: of what makes you snort, grunt,
instinctive forces, the ones which make
a young man’s fancy turn to, well, love
or worse
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