THE BOLSHOI BALLET: "LE CORSAIRE", 2007. 6/18 - Le Corsaire Pas de deux

The Bolshoi Ballet's spectacular 2007 revival of ''Le Corsaire'', which premiered on June 21, 2007. Production staged by Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka. This performance was filmed on June 23, 2007. See part 1 of this upload for details on the production. **Cast for this clip: -Médora - Maria Alexandrova -Conrad - Nikolai Tsiskaridze **Pas d'action (a.k.a. "Le Corsaire Pas de deux" or "Le Corsaire pas de deux à trois"): 1.Nocturne (Riccardo Drigo, set to his composition "Rêves de printemps") 2. Variation de Conrad (Yuli Gerber. Taken from Petipa's 1870 ballet "Trilby") 3. Variation de Médora (Boris Fitinhof-Schell. Taken from the 1893 Petipa/Ivanov/Cecchetti ballet "Cinderella") 4. Coda (Riccardo Drigo) -History of the "Le Corsaire pas de deux" - In 1915 "Le Corsaire" was given a new production at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. For this revival the Ballet Master Samuil Andrianov—who performed the role of Conrad—arranged a new Pas d'action for the second scene of act I. The opening adage was staged by Andrianov for three dancers—the characters Conrad, Medora (performed by Tamara Karsavina) & an additional suitor (performed by Mikhail Obhukov). Then followed variations for the each of the two principal characters, with the piece ending in a rousing coda. As was the custom of the time, music from various sources was selected in order to serve as accompaniment: the adage was choreographed to a nocturne composed by Riccardo Drigo titled "Dreams of Spring". The variation in triple time performed by the character Conrad was taken from the composer Yuli Gerber's score for Marius Petipa's 1870 ballet "Trilby", while Tamara Karsavina performed a variation in polka rhythm taken from the composer Baron Boris Fitinhof-Schell's score for the 1893 ballet "Zolushka" (or "Cinderella"), originally staged by Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov & Enrico Cecchetti. The origins of the music for the coda is unknown, though it is typically credited to Riccardo Drigo, but I suspect the music is by Cesare Pugni. In 1931, Agrippina Vaganova revised the choreography of the 1915 Pas d'action. She transformed the piece into an athletic duet for the graduation performance of her pupil, Natalia Dudinskaya, who was partnered by the danseur Konstantin Sergeyev. The piece was now referred to loosely as the "Le Corsaire Pas de deux" In 1939 Vaganova's version was found its way into the Kirov Ballet's 1936 production of the full-length "Le Corsaire", with the dancers Galina Ulanova & Nikolai Zubkovsky in the principal roles. It was the noted 'Premier danseur' of the Kirov Ballet Vakhtang Chabukiani who had the most influential hand in refashioning the male dancing of the "Le Corsaire Pas de deux". During his performances in the pas during the 1930s he gave the male role more athletic & virtuoso choreographic embellishments. His interpretaion of the male role became, in essence, the standard, and it has remained so to the present day. When the Ballet Master Pyotr Gusev staged his 1955 revival of the full-length "Le Corsaire" for the Maly/Mussorgsky Theatre Ballet in Leningrad, he restored the "Le Corsaire Pas de Deux" to its original form, with the opening adage being performed by three persons. Its was now formally called the "Le Corsaire pas de deux". On 5 November 1962, Rudolf Nureyev performed the "Le Corsaire Pas de deux" with Margot Fonteyn for the first time at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London. Nureyev called upon John Lanchbery to create a new orchestration of the music, which is still in use by many ballet companies. It is Nureyev's staging of the pas de deux that helped make it a major repertory piece with ballet companies all over the world. --ENJOY!!

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YouTube | July 24, 2008

Tags:. .loosely. .athletic. .trois. .unknown. .referred