@balletnut - good to hear from you - i had in the notes that the ballet was indeed 'The Lady and the Fool' with Ronald Hynd, Ray Powell and David Shields - with Beriosova as La Capricciosa, Ronald Hynd as Moondog and Ray Powell as Bootface. the reason i've been a bit mysterious in the titling of uploads is to avoid the copyright police - probably ineffectively! cheers
hi debhig - very highly rated in mine too - almost my favourite ballerina - i don't think she got the general recognition she deserved and not the roles created for her, like fonteyn. cheers
Wonderful to see this. Thank you. I wonder why the end of the ballet was changed for television? Onstage the trio just walk off and the curtain falls. I don't like that Footface wanders off at the end here.
hi Buondelmonte123 - i agree about the ending - goodness knows what the requirements are for TV and what is insisted on. the Nerina 'Giselle' is truncated in a way which makes it seemed rushed and puts the drama out of shape - i guess it had to fit a time slot. cheers
@nickwallacesmith Yes, and there was a union clause that prevented the Royal Ballet from using their own sets, they all had to be re-designed and re-made for television.
hi Buondelmonte123 - ok, that's very interesting - and the TV studios were often so small (the one for 'les sylphides with markova, elvin, berisova is a postage stamp) that it would have been hard to make pre-existing sets fit. and there was the union constraints as you say. cheers!
@nickwallacesmith You are right about the studios, but then, the cameras could only move forward and back, with limited movement from right to left and they were fixed on 'dollies' and in the Sylphides it's ridiculous because a third of the studio has been lopped off to provide a pathway for Elvin in the Mazurka so she doesn't leave the shot at all.
hi Buondelmonte123 - thanks for that about the movement in those days of studio cameras - i had no idea of the technicalities - helps explain some of the strange changes ballets underwent getting onto film. i did notice in the 'les sylphides' that sometimes the dancers dance on the spot where normally they'd be moving forward or backwards in the steps - with the accompanying strangeness of effect!
@nickwallacesmith Years and years ago I read an article in a ballet book, [The Girl Book of Ballet, I think - off shoot of Girl comics], where Felicity Gray even mentioned that sometimes the colour of the costumes had to be changed in order to 'read' on screen, even in black and white, so for all we really know those Sylphides may be glad in bright yellow.
hi Buondelmonte123 - look, i had a similar experience - i was reading a book by maria riva - a rather definitive biography of her mother, marlene dietrich, and she mentions that to get the right contrasts in black and white film very strange colours needed to be used on set. cheers
hi Buondelmonte123 - yes, the book gives the impression (true i suspect) she was the empress wu reincarnate! sometimes i have a bit of trouble sleeping and i've always been a night owl anyway. what time is it in your part of the world now?
hi Tamara02031919 - lovely to hear from you again. and very pleased you liked the upload of 'the lady and the fool' with the beautiful Sveltana Beriosova - a very unappreciated dancers - one of my absolutely favourite ballerinas - i loved her in Ashton's 'Cinderella' - so incredibly touching as the cinder girl and magic when she arrived at the ball - made you hold your breath. very best, nick!
I can't really find the right words to express that I'm feeling after watching this. Beriosova has always been one of my favourite dancers because as well as being a superlative dancer she was also such a good actress. Who played the Fools - the lovelorn one at the end nearly had me in tears. I felt so very sorry for him.
All three of them were wonderful, and so was Cranko's choreography.
I think that facially Beriosova is one of the few most beautiful women I've ever seen.
hi Pearlaceous - yes, so often in a pas de deux it's just two individuals dancing separately together - or just individually mugging the audience, with no connecting with the partner. and yes she communicates so powerfully - you receive the feelings and meanings quite directly. cheers - good to hear from you.
She's marvelous,but it wasn't just her,I loved the whole performance!I believed and continue to believe that those characters are real.I don't think I've ever really felt a performance so much after watching a video of it,as I'm normally of the opinion that videos do ballet no justice.Cliche,but words really cannot describe.
I really appreciate this so much! Thanks for sharing this with us!:)
hi again theMONSTERYNSAiD - yes, it's the palpable sense that you were deeply involved in a real drama and not an exercise in chocolate box decoration - which i think is partly due to Cranko's choreography, and partly the at times touching score. and yes you are right the power of the performance is of the kind you normally only get in the theatre - not on film. happy holidays too. cheers
I've heard the name Sveltana Beriosova before but I never thought to look into it,being just so in love with the dancing of Pavlova.I'm very hard to win over as I am always looking for more than just beautiful dancing,more than just the obvious show of emotions.
Beriosova has now become one of my favorites just after watching that.I can hardly believe what I have just seen.I feel as though I just experienced the performance,not only was I there but I was part of it.....
hi theMONSTERYNSAiD - i'm so very glad that that you found the dancing of Svetlana Berisova moving and beautiful. i had a similar experience to yours in this respect. a family friend told me about her and encouraged me to see her 'cinderella' - and for me the rest was history. she has a grown up persona on stage - rather than that of a little girl which is so common - and so she's able to convey all the mature and subtle nuances of feeling and expression in this ballet. cheers!
Once again, thank you! A friend of mine was totally in love with her and he always talked to me about the beauty of her dance, her radiance... wonderful clip from a lost work!! I didn't know there was a recording of Lady and the Fool!!
I wish there were clips of her in Prince of the Pagodas or La Fete Etrange...
hi carles03 - very happy you liked this upload of this extraordinary but not 'showy' ballerina - i'll upload the first part of this ballet soon - yes, it's great it exists - i only found this out recently. cheers
hi Mika - i'm very pleased you like svetlana beriosova - she had such doubts about herself that it held her career back a bit - i'm glad to have been able to a few of her wonderful things ... and then i found this film - joy. yes, it's the totality of her performance (acting and dancing as one) that impresses. cheers!
Such sweetness! Wonderful old footage!
SufitMusic 3 weeks ago
@SufitMusic - isn't it - she's one of my favourite ballerinas. cheers
nickwallacesmith 3 weeks ago
She really is the most exquisite being and her dancing was so beautiful too.
Who is her partner (the fool) in this and was the ballet 'The Lady and the Fool'?
balletnut 1 month ago
@balletnut - good to hear from you - i had in the notes that the ballet was indeed 'The Lady and the Fool' with Ronald Hynd, Ray Powell and David Shields - with Beriosova as La Capricciosa, Ronald Hynd as Moondog and Ray Powell as Bootface. the reason i've been a bit mysterious in the titling of uploads is to avoid the copyright police - probably ineffectively! cheers
the date was 3 May 1959
nickwallacesmith 1 month ago
Under-rated? No, no, no.....always highly rated in my book!
debhig 1 month ago
hi debhig - very highly rated in mine too - almost my favourite ballerina - i don't think she got the general recognition she deserved and not the roles created for her, like fonteyn. cheers
nickwallacesmith 1 month ago
@nickwallacesmith
caspa1951 2 months ago
hi caspa1951 - your coment doesn't seem to have come through ?
nickwallacesmith 2 months ago
Wonderful to see this. Thank you. I wonder why the end of the ballet was changed for television? Onstage the trio just walk off and the curtain falls. I don't like that Footface wanders off at the end here.
Buondelmonte123 3 months ago
hi Buondelmonte123 - i agree about the ending - goodness knows what the requirements are for TV and what is insisted on. the Nerina 'Giselle' is truncated in a way which makes it seemed rushed and puts the drama out of shape - i guess it had to fit a time slot. cheers
nickwallacesmith 3 months ago
@nickwallacesmith Yes, and there was a union clause that prevented the Royal Ballet from using their own sets, they all had to be re-designed and re-made for television.
Buondelmonte123 3 months ago
hi Buondelmonte123 - ok, that's very interesting - and the TV studios were often so small (the one for 'les sylphides with markova, elvin, berisova is a postage stamp) that it would have been hard to make pre-existing sets fit. and there was the union constraints as you say. cheers!
nickwallacesmith 3 months ago
@nickwallacesmith You are right about the studios, but then, the cameras could only move forward and back, with limited movement from right to left and they were fixed on 'dollies' and in the Sylphides it's ridiculous because a third of the studio has been lopped off to provide a pathway for Elvin in the Mazurka so she doesn't leave the shot at all.
Buondelmonte123 3 months ago
hi Buondelmonte123 - thanks for that about the movement in those days of studio cameras - i had no idea of the technicalities - helps explain some of the strange changes ballets underwent getting onto film. i did notice in the 'les sylphides' that sometimes the dancers dance on the spot where normally they'd be moving forward or backwards in the steps - with the accompanying strangeness of effect!
nickwallacesmith 2 months ago
@nickwallacesmith Years and years ago I read an article in a ballet book, [The Girl Book of Ballet, I think - off shoot of Girl comics], where Felicity Gray even mentioned that sometimes the colour of the costumes had to be changed in order to 'read' on screen, even in black and white, so for all we really know those Sylphides may be glad in bright yellow.
Buondelmonte123 2 months ago
hi Buondelmonte123 - look, i had a similar experience - i was reading a book by maria riva - a rather definitive biography of her mother, marlene dietrich, and she mentions that to get the right contrasts in black and white film very strange colours needed to be used on set. cheers
nickwallacesmith 2 months ago
@nickwallacesmith I remember that book. MD must have been the Mutti from Hell. Why are you up so late?
Buondelmonte123 2 months ago
hi Buondelmonte123 - yes, the book gives the impression (true i suspect) she was the empress wu reincarnate! sometimes i have a bit of trouble sleeping and i've always been a night owl anyway. what time is it in your part of the world now?
nickwallacesmith 2 months ago
@Buondelmonte123 Thank you for providing this information!! :)
carles03 3 months ago
@carles03 You are very welcome, it's always a pleasure to share knowledge here.
Buondelmonte123 3 months ago
Nick, so lovely performance and and beautiful Sveltana Beriosova... Thank you, dear... You make people happy...
Tamara02031919 3 months ago
hi Tamara02031919 - lovely to hear from you again. and very pleased you liked the upload of 'the lady and the fool' with the beautiful Sveltana Beriosova - a very unappreciated dancers - one of my absolutely favourite ballerinas - i loved her in Ashton's 'Cinderella' - so incredibly touching as the cinder girl and magic when she arrived at the ball - made you hold your breath. very best, nick!
nickwallacesmith 3 months ago
Hi Nick,
I can't really find the right words to express that I'm feeling after watching this. Beriosova has always been one of my favourite dancers because as well as being a superlative dancer she was also such a good actress. Who played the Fools - the lovelorn one at the end nearly had me in tears. I felt so very sorry for him.
All three of them were wonderful, and so was Cranko's choreography.
I think that facially Beriosova is one of the few most beautiful women I've ever seen.
balletnut 3 months ago
hi balletnut - it's the combination of acting and dance that makes her performance so satisfying, yes.
and Cranko's choreography with that music - so powerfully touching ... and not at all mawkish
the other male dancers are ronald hynd and ray powell - and yes their performances are very moving and powerful too
someone once described beriosova as 'womanly' and i think this captures some of her appeal
nickwallacesmith 3 months ago
Above all, this clip exemplifies the art of communication in a partnership. She is Garboesque. Beautiful!
Pearlaceous 3 months ago
hi Pearlaceous - yes, so often in a pas de deux it's just two individuals dancing separately together - or just individually mugging the audience, with no connecting with the partner. and yes she communicates so powerfully - you receive the feelings and meanings quite directly. cheers - good to hear from you.
nickwallacesmith 3 months ago
(tbc)
She's marvelous,but it wasn't just her,I loved the whole performance!I believed and continue to believe that those characters are real.I don't think I've ever really felt a performance so much after watching a video of it,as I'm normally of the opinion that videos do ballet no justice.Cliche,but words really cannot describe.
I really appreciate this so much! Thanks for sharing this with us!:)
Happy Holidays o^ - ^o
theMONSTERYNSAiD 3 months ago
hi again theMONSTERYNSAiD - yes, it's the palpable sense that you were deeply involved in a real drama and not an exercise in chocolate box decoration - which i think is partly due to Cranko's choreography, and partly the at times touching score. and yes you are right the power of the performance is of the kind you normally only get in the theatre - not on film. happy holidays too. cheers
nickwallacesmith 3 months ago
Hello.
I've heard the name Sveltana Beriosova before but I never thought to look into it,being just so in love with the dancing of Pavlova.I'm very hard to win over as I am always looking for more than just beautiful dancing,more than just the obvious show of emotions.
Beriosova has now become one of my favorites just after watching that.I can hardly believe what I have just seen.I feel as though I just experienced the performance,not only was I there but I was part of it.....
theMONSTERYNSAiD 3 months ago
hi theMONSTERYNSAiD - i'm so very glad that that you found the dancing of Svetlana Berisova moving and beautiful. i had a similar experience to yours in this respect. a family friend told me about her and encouraged me to see her 'cinderella' - and for me the rest was history. she has a grown up persona on stage - rather than that of a little girl which is so common - and so she's able to convey all the mature and subtle nuances of feeling and expression in this ballet. cheers!
nickwallacesmith 3 months ago
Once again, thank you! A friend of mine was totally in love with her and he always talked to me about the beauty of her dance, her radiance... wonderful clip from a lost work!! I didn't know there was a recording of Lady and the Fool!!
I wish there were clips of her in Prince of the Pagodas or La Fete Etrange...
carles03 3 months ago
hi carles03 - very happy you liked this upload of this extraordinary but not 'showy' ballerina - i'll upload the first part of this ballet soon - yes, it's great it exists - i only found this out recently. cheers
nickwallacesmith 3 months ago
Thank you for introducing this fine, refined and soulful dancer and actress to me!
Best from Mika in Helsinki
mickimm100 3 months ago
hi Mika - i'm very pleased you like svetlana beriosova - she had such doubts about herself that it held her career back a bit - i'm glad to have been able to a few of her wonderful things ... and then i found this film - joy. yes, it's the totality of her performance (acting and dancing as one) that impresses. cheers!
nickwallacesmith 3 months ago