La Source, Act 1, No. 8: Scène Dansée

Minkus-Delibes: La source - Drigo: La flûte magique Richard Bonynge & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden La source, Act I No. 2, Introduction fantastique. 3. No. 3, L'ephemère. Scène dansée 8, Pas de la guzla.
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Besides composing Lake of the Swans , Tchaikovsky had to attend to a number of other tasks. Besides a ballet, which I am rushing to finish as soon as possible so that I can start on an opera, I have a mass of proofs and—worst of all—a commitment to write some musical articles" [10].

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In order to do the job properly, I need two weeks away from here otherwise nothing will get done" [13]. In the same letter he reported that he was going to see Konstantin Shilovsky at Glebovo. I want to get away from all the bustle and clamour of the festivities in Moscow , and to work properly on the ballet, which has to be finished as soon as possible.

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Yesterday in the hall of the Theatrical School there was a rehearsal of a few numbers from the first act of this ballet". And below he added: The author's date at the end of the manuscript reads: Glebovo 10 April ". Evidently the full score of Act I was in the hands of the theatre before Tchaikovsky left on his foreign travels. In a report from the inspector of music, Yury Gerber, to the Directorate of the Moscow Theatres, we read: After finishing the ballet, Tchaikovsky was asked to write two supplementary numbers.

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The first of these pieces is described on the manuscript score as: This dance was performed by the principal ballerina in all productions of the ballet during the composer's lifetime. The origins of this Pas de deux are described in Pavel Pchelnikov 's recollections of Tchaikovsky [16]. The former was told the story by the conductor Stepan Ryabov. Without naming the ballerina, Pchelnikov reported that she went to Saint Petersburg to ask the balletmaster Marius Petipa if he could furnish her with a Pas de deux.

The number was set to music by the composer Ludwig Minkus. Not wanting to allow music by others in his ballet, Tchaikovsky wrote his own Pas de deux , preserving the length and divisions of Minkus' piece [17]. The Introduction alone was arranged for piano solo by the composer in or , and this was published with Nikolay Kashkin 's arrangement of the rest of the ballet, which had been made at the request of Tchaikovsky himself.

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Albrecht will be there as well" [19]. Nikolay Kashkin wrote about his work on the arrangement in his memoirs: When he came to review it, the author simplified a few places of little musical importance, while elsewhere he even added a few grace notes.

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These additions could not be played on the piano, but, probably imagining the printed orchestral score of the ballet, the composer inserted these details simply because he took it into his head that the music would read better that way" [20]. In Tchaikovsky considered creating a suite from the music to Swan Lake , but it was only seven years after his death that such a suite was finally published, and it is unknown who made the selection of numbers.

There are few surviving accounts by Tchaikovsky concerning his ballet. None of Tchaikovsky's other stage works were subject to such changes and misrepresentation in productions as Swan Lake.


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Unfortunately, up to the present time it is still not possible to find materials which would show conclusively how the ballet was performed during the composer's lifetime. Some information can be gleaned by comparing posters from the first three productions of the ballet on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Judging by the list of dance numbers, Julius Reisinger did not introduce any significant changes to the full score. It is impossible to tell from the titles of the individual dances whether the music was authentic.

Nevertheless, bearing in mind the history of the Pas de deux , we might suppose that at the first production the music was performed in accordance with the author's full score, apart from small changes in the order of numbers and, possibly, some cuts evidently a Pas de cinq and Pas de dix dances replaced the Pas de deux discussed above. When the ballet was revived in , the choreographer Hansen took greater liberties with the score.

It is not known whether he introduced new music, but in any case much of the music was cut, including the Pas de six in Act III. It seems that the plot of the ballet was also changed, judging from some annotations to the list of dances performed. Thus, Odette was transformed from a good fairy in the original version into a Queen of the Swans, and the appearance of the magician Rothbart in Act IV was not preserved from the first version. At the time of the third production, in , Hansen introduced further changes, and added a new dance in Act III for the ballerina Lydia Geiten— Cosmopolitan , to music by Cesar Pugni, which had no relevance whatsoever to the ballet.

This was the first production of a Russian ballet outside its native land, and it was repeated at the National Theatre a further seven times before the end of April [24]. Although the version of the ballet widely promulgated in the 20th century originated after the composer's death, it still played an important part in popularising Tchaikovsky's music and revealing the musical dramaturgy of his first ballet. In the same year, Ivan Vsevolozhsky decided to produce the complete ballet, and asked Modest Tchaikovsky to rewrite the libretto [25]. I hope that you have managed to leave out the flood in the last scene All this is confusing.

I cannot order the scenery until the story is decided upon, but there is plenty of time" [26]. For this production, three piano pieces by Tchaikovsky were inserted into the ballet, namely Nos.

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As in the production, and in all subsequent ones, Swan Lake was never performed in its entirety i. Nikolay Kashkin 's piano arrangement of Swan Lake appeared in an edition by Pyotr Jurgenson in February for the premiere. In Jurgenson published the full score of the ballet corresponding to the composer's manuscript score, with an appendix containing the Russian Dance Act III, No. Le Corsaire - Act 2 - Action. Le Corsaire - Act 3 - Scene 1.


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    Le Corsaire - Act 3 - Scene 2. Le Corsaire - Act 3 - Scene 3. Invitation to the Dance, Op. Les Sylphides - 1. Les Sylphides - 2. Les Sylphides - 3. Les Sylphides - 4. Les Sylphides - 5. Les Sylphides - 6. Les Sylphides - 7. Les Sylphides - 8. Sylvia - Act 1 - No. Sylvia - Act 2 - No. Sylvia - Act 3 - No. Dance of the cock and hens. Lise and the Ribbon. Off to the harvest. The Fanny Ellsler Pas-de Deux.