The Awakening of Flora (2/4) - Entrée & Grand adage of the Pas d'action

Taken from the Mariinsky Ballet's reconstruction of "The Awakening of Flora". VII International Ballet Festival. Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg. April 12, 2007.

Choreography by Marius Petipa (reconstructed by Sergei Vikharev from the choreographic notation of the Sergeyev Collection. The programs produced by the Mariinsky for this ballet credit Lev Ivanov jointly with Petipa for the choreography, which is not correct). Music by Maestro Riccardo Eugenio Drigo.

1. Entrée d'Apollon
2. Entrée de Zéphyre
3. Entrée de Cupidon et des Amours
4. Pas d'action - Grand adage

Unfortunately Eugenia Obratzova never really allows herself to "be the ballerina" while performing here. One element of the genius of Petipa's choreography for the character of Flora can be seen here by his ability to allow the ballerina to add her own touches. Mathilde Kschessinskaya, who created the role of Flora in 1894, was one of the greatest virtuosas of classical choreography that has ever lived, & surely milked it for all it was worth. For some reason Obraztsova merely executes the steps here, & at no point does she really ever give any panache to the choreography. In some places she is even off the music to an odd degree. But this was the first time this ballet had been performed at the Mariinsky Theatre in almost 100 years, & I have no doubt she was nervous performing true Petipa in "Petipa's house" in front of the most distinguished persons of the Russian ballet. Also, she may have strove to merely present the choreographic text unembellished for the sake of demonstrating true "pure Petipa" to the audience.

Here we have Eugeniia Obraztsova as Flora, Goddess of the Flowers; Vladimir Shkliarov as Zephyr, God of the west wind, Maxim Chaschegorov as Apollo, God of the day; & Valeria Martynyuk as Cupid.

**History -
This ballet was originally created for the celebrations held at the Imperial Theatre of Peterhof in honor of the wedding of the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna (daughter of Tsar Alexandr III & sister of Tsar Nicholas II) to the Grand Duke Alexandr Mikhailovich. Premiered 9 August [O.S. 28 July] 1894, with the Prima Ballerina Assoluta Mathilde Kschessinakaya as Flora.

I would like to share with all my fellow balletomane-youtubers excerpts from this beautiful little ballet, set to Drigo's magnificent music.

Enjoy!!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Awakening
• of
• Flora
• Mariinsky
• Kirov
• Ballet
• Obraztsova
• Marius
• Petipa
• Riccardo
• Drigo

[BalletBabyBoy]

What a lovely production.I am glad that they work has been reconstructed. I, as a choreographer would love to recreate it in a modern version. This would be put on a program with the original so as to preserve it historically and yet see how modern day dancers could handle a new dramatic version. It is beautiful though and how I wish other ballets would be recreated. For example, Minkus' La (Le) Poisson D'Or.

[professorrapport]

Welcome back Pantomime! This pantomime is beautifully in sync with the music.

Why does the main dancer perform the movements with an open hip? As long as someone went to all the trouble to restage a rarely seen Petipa ballet, the dancers could at least perform the movement in a way that is stylistically appropriate to the time period the ballet was created. While an open hip is suitable for a Balanchine work, it looks peculiar in a Petipa work.