"Sleeping Beauty" reconstruction 1/17 The Mariinsky Ballet; Obraztsova/Korsakov

Dedication to my friend ketinoa (RussianBalletVideo), may your account rest in peace!

Sergei Vikharev's controversial reconstruction of Marius Petipa & Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's original 1890 production of "The Sleeping Beauty" for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet.

I have read that the company's new director Fateyev is not fond of any of the recently staged reconstructions (i.e. "La Bayadère", "Le Réveil de Flore" & "The Sleeping Beauty"), & they have been sort of "unofficially" removed from the repertory.

The worse crime is that the company has not filmed any of these productions & released them commercially to DVD, & instead has sort of wasted or time with yet another film of "Swan Lake" & "Don Quixote". There is a documentary on DVD called "Sacred Stage" that features part of the vision scene from the reconstruction of "The Sleeping Beauty", but it was filmed from a very poor vantage point in the theatre.

**Cast -
--Princess Aurora - Eugenia Obraztsova
--Prince Désiré - Anton Korsakov
--The Lilac Fairy - Anastasia Kolegova
(other cast credited in subsequent clips)

--Choreography by Marius Petipa (reconstructed by Sergei Vikharev; some soviet-era steps have been retained)
--Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (with minor revisions by Riccardo Drigo)
--Décor restored by Andrei Voitenko, Boris Kaminsky & Andrei Sevbo from the original designs of Heinrich Levogt (prologue); Ivan Andreyev (Act I); Mikhail Bocharov (Act I, Act II-scene 1 & Act II-scene 2-panorama); Konstantin Ivanov (Act II-scene 3); & Matvei Shishkov (Act III & apotheosis)
--Costumes restored & adapted by Elena Zaitseva from the designs of Ivan Vsevolozhsky

**Résumé of pieces for this clip -
1. Introduction
2. March
3. Entrée des fées


**Notes -
In the late 1990's, the Mariinsky Ballet decided to present a reconstruction of the Imperial Ballet's original 1890 production of "The Sleeping Beauty". Immediately, many in the Russian ballet world were appalled at the notion, as they felt that the company's traditional production (staged by Konstantin Sergeyev in 1952) was just fine. Among the many arguments against the "new/old" production concerned the evolution of not just ballet in general but of the ballet itself. The prologue was one passage that many people felt "needed work" - in the Mariinsky's traditional production the choreographic text was almost entirely by Sergeyev (&, in my opinion, is ghastly to say the least). Restoring the décors, costumes, props etc. would be the easiest part. Reconstructing the choreography, the most fallible yet important element of a ballet, would be the most difficult.

In the late 19th century the Imperial Ballet began documenting thier repertory in the Stepanov method of choreographic notation. Several ballets were notated, primarly by the company's régisseur Nicholas Sergeyev & his team of notators (who, it seems, did most of the work). Among the ballets that were notated were Petipa's "La Bayadère", "Harlequinade", "Raymonda" & "The Sleeping Beauty"; as well as the Petipa/Ivanov "Swan Lake" & "The Nutcracker", the Petipa/Cecchetti "Coppélia" & Petipa's definitive "Giselle". After the Russian revolution of 1917 Sergeyev took the notations with him to the west, & used them to stage "Giselle", "Coppélia", "Swan Lake", "The Sleeping Beauty" & "The Nutcracker", primarily for the Vic-Wells Ballet (precurssor of today's Royal Ballet). It is from these stagings that all modern versions are now based. A list of the collection of notation, etc. can be viewed here - http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uni...

Although it has been sited as being a "to the letter" reconstruction, this production presents a choreographic text that is an odd mixture of Imperial & Soviet-era steps. There are even passages in the notation that were ingnored & even mis-read (according to the Stepanov notation expert Doug Fullington). Even some of the musical alterations done for the original production have not been restored. I'm not sure what the company's m.o. was behind such things.

But, all my nit-picking aside, the production is glorious. It is typical of the Imperial Ballet - a lavish production with marvelously detailed décor & costumes. For most of the 19th century, narrative took precedence over dancing, but as ballet technique began to evolve & improve the dancing essentially swallowed up all else, & ballets became big excuses for dances (Petipa's original "Raymonda" is one such work). I firmly believe that this is why ballet - at least as a theatrical presentation - started to die a sort of "slow death" over the course of the 20th century, & today we now have what has become, in many ways, a circus, or a sport. In our pursuit for perfection of academic technique I really feel that we have lost something. I think this is why the ballet world was so suprised by this production. Perhaps we had almost forgotten what a ballet IS.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Sleeping
• Beauty
• kirov
• Mariinsky
• ballet
• Tchaikovsky
• Petipa
• Obraztsova
• Korsakov
• Imperial
• Russia

[vaganovaballerina]

Thank you for this video and the detailed commentary as well. I agree with your position on ballet becoming more of a circus. I think the Russian tradition still preserves ballet as an art form much more than the U.S. does, though. I feel that we need today's equivalent of Petipa or Tchaikovsky, if such greats could ever happen again, but I don't know if our culture is such that we could produce genius like that anymore.

[mrlopez2681]

Modern day culture may prevent us from creating such genius, but we also need the environment (& LAVISH funds) Petipa & his contemporaries had - he staged a behemoth grand ballet EVERY YEAR from 1862 until 1903, he also staged countless revivals & small-scale works. By the time 1890 rolled around, he had honed his craft IN SPADES. People don't put on ballets like this anymore (save perhaps the obvious few), nor is there the environment that retains a Maître de ballet for so long anymore.

[EricMontreal22]

From watchign this and other clips I've seen it seems to me that where the K Sergeyeve Kirov production nmost differs from the original is in the Prologue--so much of it (the formations, etc) are completely different, whereas in other acts you recognize much of the same basic choreograpbhy

[mrlopez2681]

I recall watching that drab Sergeyev production for the first time and thinking how awful the choregraphy for the prologue was.

[watcher6262]

I have always found the K. Sergeyev Beauty very beautiful, especially the prologue. I also like what he did with the first act. I don't really care to see Bournonville turns for the ladies on demi-pointe even though that was how they were executed in Bournonville's time. Art is for the people and the advances in technique should be utilized otherwise the theater becomes simply a museum and art dies.

[mrlopez2681]

Where do you see turns on demi-pointe? I must've missed it! :) Today's Bournonville style is essentially the french manner of the 19th cent. in an unfiltered form. Advances in technique dont necessarily mean that the art has improved. On the contrary, I think the opposite has occured - Ballet has evolved, in many ways, into sport mathematics. Please dont take my comment negatively - I would LOVE to have an in depth discussion about it with someone knowledgable, as you seem to be! :)

[BeautytifulTina]

may I ask when this is filmed? thx :)

[Royalbrettania]

this is nothing short of spectacular !!!!! it is amazing the mime especially ...its so telling what a difference "small"characters like Catabulutte and even the queen make when performed with such aplomb !

[thaliyall]

Good God! I had NO idea that this was a ballet, let alone the fact that Disney had copied the music for the cartoon. No wonder that was my favorite Disney movie/princess as a little girl. Thank you so much for posting! Absolutely beautiful.

[mozartman2000]

where can I buy a DVD of this?

[osabee]

not sure my previous comment went through - bad internet, so I apologize if it appears multiple times.

Thanks so much for posting this! I just have one question: do you know what the gift is that the fairies are presented with? Is it the case like in the Perrault story or is it something else? I can't quite see from the video.

[rudik1988]

Thank you for sharing this wonderful ballet in his entirety!

I love the reconstruction of Vikharev ... The costumes, the decorations are spectacular ... seems to be a really old fairy tale ... I prefer that version, rather than the best know by Sergeyev!!

At this point I wanted to ask, if you know some books that speaks specifically of Petipa's Sleeping Beauty, and if you have the reconstruction of Sleeping Beauty with Vishneva of some year ago ...

[fanpiresara]

@CubicalGirl trueee!

[jengirl2]

thank you for posting this in its entirety and glory...what a beautiful production!!! I just love the sets and costumes. The dancing is wonderful too...tells the story and draws you in as any fairytale should. Your descriptions are really great also...I love learning the history behind productions, companies and daners. thank you again.

[jengirl2]

Thank you for posting this lavish production. Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorite ballets and I love to see it produced by different companies with different ideas. This is wonderful to watch.

[vaganovaballerina]

I agree with you that the environment is lacking. Ballet doesn't have the same popularity with the public or receive the same amount of respect that it used to. I believe this is partially because in many places proper technique is no longer taught, nor are dancers taught how to give their soul and express themselves in dancing. It's an interesting point you make about funding. The funds are technically there: think of how much we spend on the movie industry! But they're not spent on ballet.