Pharoah's Daughter w/ Ananiashvili -Pas des fleuves 1/2

Here is a clip of the 'Grand pas des fleuves' taken from the premiere of the Bolshoi Ballet's revival of the Petipa/Pugni "The Pharaoh's Daughter", with the great Nina Ananiashvili as the Princess Aspicia. Filmed May 5, 2000.

Aside from a few roles for soloists & for the Prima, the cast of the premiere was also used in the commercially available DVD with Zakharova.

Princess Aspicia - Nina Ananiashvili
King of the Nile - Vladimir Moiseyev
the River Guadalquivir - Marianna Ryzhkina
the River Congo - Ekaterina Shipulina
the River Neva - Elena Andrienko

1. Entr'acte
2. Le Nil
3. Entrée d'Aspicia
4. Le Guadalquivir
5. Le Congo
6. La Néva

Although Ananiashvili might be a little past her prime here technically (but who really cares?), she dances in the true style of a Russian grand ballerina. The soloists are all remarkable, particularly Marianna Ryzhkina as the River Guadalquivir, & of course, Mlle. Shipulina.

I don't think that many people are aware of how heavily edited Pierre Lacotte's revival of Petipa's "The Pharaoh's Daughter" is (mind you, this production, as a whole, is a revival, NOT a reconstruction). The first few performances of the revival presented a few more numbers which were later trimmed or taken out (I am not sure why). This clip from the premiere shows one such passage which was tastelessly removed - Pugni's wonderful and very effective passage for harp that accompanies Aspicia's descent to the bottom of the Nile. Unfortunately the commercially available DVD omits all of the introductions/entr'actes which start each scene.

With the regard to the changes made to the so-called 'Under-water scene', there are many. The Imperial Ballet's production contained 6 variations for the rivers, all of which were performed in the context of a 'Grand pas de six' of sorts. After Aspicia's descent to the bottom of the Nile, there followed the 'Grand pas des fleuves'. It began with the 'Grand andantino' for the six soloists, after which came the variations: the Guadalquivir, the Thames, the Rhine, the Congo, the Neva, & the Tiber, followed by a tarantella, and the final coda. Before production began Lacotte arranged to have these variations reconstricted from the Stepanov notation of the Sergeyev Collection, held at Harvard University (Petipa's final revival of "The Pharaoh's Daughter", staged for Mathilde Kschessinskaya in 1898, was notated around the turn of the 20th century in the Stepanov method of choreographic notation). In the end, 5 variations were reconstructed, but Lacotte chose not to use any of them, & opted to arrange them himself. He went even further by omitting the 'Grand andantino' which began the pas, & cutting 3 of the river variations (the Thames, the Rhine, & the Tiber). Lacotte utilized the music for the variation for the River Thames (being a gigue), as a comic variation for John Bull/Passifont in the previous scene of the fishermen.

Originally, the music that Lacotte uses for Aspicia's variation was the 'Entrée des naïades' - a dance for a gouping of naiads (under-water nymphs). Lacotte omits the variation Aspicia danced originally.

The 'Pas de six' which follows Aspicia's variation (which I do not include in this clip) was originally the 'Pas de la vision', a 'pas de deux' for Aspicia & a vision of her beloved Taor.

Lacotte really spoiled a historic opportunity by not recreating as much of Petipa as possible, & I hope one day Petipa's true "Pharaoh's Daughter" is able to be resurrected from her sarcophagus!

But, in spite of my usual nitpicking, I find the scene to be lovely nonetheless. Enjoy!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Pharaoh's
• Pharaohs
• Daughter
• Ananiashvili
• Shipulina
• Pugni
• Petipa
• Bolshoi
• Ballet

[SaxonBiggy]

That harp cadenza that accompanies Aspicia's descent isn't actually in the original score. After "Le Nil" (the entr'acte) comes the Miu Mosso (the fanfare) before the Grand Pas des Fleuves. Also, the end of the Miu Mosso here is a straight arpeggio whereas in the Zakharova DVD and in the score it ends with a Dm7 chord. Why so many changes? Who arranged this music as it's obviously not original Pugni? Very confusing!

[mrlopez2681]

Its nice to FINALLY have someone who knows about the music as well!! One must remember that the Imperial editions of ballet scores only stayed the same for the very first performances (not always, however).....for revivals, changes were always made. By the time Petipa presented his final revival in 1898 the score has been much revised, mostly by Drigo. I'll email you, as I dont have enough room for more!!

[guilhermejunioM]

linda!!!

[palubob]

Very nice indeed!! Who were the Three Rivers girls? The film isn't very clear. I think that I recognized Shipulina and I am sure that Yatsenko wasn't there.

[Bal65]

Where did you get DVD? I would like to have both versions... and music on CD too. Do you have any information where can I buy it? Thank you

[danscze]

wonderfull! thanks a lot for posting this! I have Lacotte's version in dvd and I'm really happy to be able to "compare" with this one! thank you so much!