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Subject: "Petrushka"     Previous Topic | Next Topic
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Conferences BRBTalk - official Birmingham Royal Ballet Forum Topic #294
Reading Topic #294
RobLindsay_BRB

19-06-08, 02:14 PM (GMT (BST))
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"Petrushka"
 
   Hi everybody,

Has anybody seen Petrushka?

I've heard it's a great deal of work for the wardrobe department due to the vastness of the crowd scenes, but having only seen black and white photographs of it I'm having trouble imagining the impact.

What have people thought of it?

Rob.


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  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
  RE: Petrushka Essex Girl 19-06-08 1
     RE: Petrushka JMcN 19-06-08 2
     RE: Petrushka pmeja 19-06-08 3
         RE: Petrushka RobLindsay_BRB 19-06-08 4
             RE: Petrushka pmeja 19-06-08 5
                 RE: Petrushka Robert 20-06-08 6
                     RE: Petrushka RobLindsay_BRB 20-06-08 7
                         RE: Petrushka juliew 22-06-08 8
                             RE: Petrushka wulff 24-06-08 9
                                 RE: Petrushka ian_palmermoderator 24-06-08 10
                                     RE: Petrushka wulff 24-06-08 11

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Essex Girl

19-06-08, 02:39 PM (GMT (BST))
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1. "RE: Petrushka"
In response to message #0
 
   There is a video of this that you might like to check out entitled Paris Dances Diaghilev and yes, the stage becomes a swirl of colour.

Hard work for the carpentry department too, not just the wardrobe people.


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JMcN

19-06-08, 02:54 PM (GMT (BST))
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2. "RE: Petrushka"
In response to message #1
 
   Petrushka was one of the first ballets I saw when I saw it during a Nureyev season at the Coliseum. I really didn't think much of it!

I got a lot more interested in the ballet when I went on a Friends of LFB trip to Russia in 1986. In St Petersburg, our local guide stood us in the middle of a square and told us that what we were looking at was the back-drop of Petrushka! I took a (very boring) photograph!

I saw SWRB do it a couple of times in the late 1980s. I can remember being bowled over by Iain Webb's performance. I also one more performance by Nureyev and one by an unnamed dancer when it was supposed to be him. Over these few performances in several years I got more and more drawn into it.

I think it is most definitely a product of its times (as is Firebird) but its magic still shines through. I have gradually started enjoying Stravinsky's scores over the years and, having seen the casting, I am really looking forward to the upcoming performances.

Janet McNulty


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pmeja

19-06-08, 02:57 PM (GMT (BST))
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3. "RE: Petrushka"
In response to message #1
 
   LAST EDITED ON 19-06-08 AT 03:01 PM (GMT (BST))
 
Enormous amount of work if you are going to build it, of course. Will you be renting or building?

I enjoy it a great deal.

(Edited to add last sentence).


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RobLindsay_BRB

19-06-08, 04:03 PM (GMT (BST))
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4. "RE: Petrushka"
In response to message #3
 
   Thankfully we already have a full set for the ballet from previous performances, one which has recently been refurbished especially for the forthcoming shows.

(This set, along with all of our other sets and costumes and props and other paraphernalia, is kept in storage in a vast warehouse when not in use, although I understand it's already been loaded onto the truck ready for transportation back to Birmingham Hippodrome for next week's shows...)

Rob.


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pmeja

19-06-08, 04:24 PM (GMT (BST))
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5. "RE: Petrushka"
In response to message #4
 
   LAST EDITED ON 19-06-08 AT 04:24 PM (GMT (BST))
 
Do you also have the costumes/props? It's very busy, but if the costumes are in decent shape and don't need a lot of repair, then it's just the logistics I guess, assuming you don't need to hire extra people for wardrobe just for these performances.

Alas I am too far away to attend!

Edited for a typo.


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Robert

20-06-08, 12:11 PM (GMT (BST))
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6. "RE: Petrushka"
In response to message #5
 
   Are you still using the old sets from the production I saw at Covent Garden in in a wonderful triple bill in 1958? Petrushka was preceded by Scenes De Ballet and The Rakes Progress. Nadia Nerina danced The Ballerina and Alexander Grant Petrushka. I had seen it before and it was one of the formative theatrical and artistic influences on my youth.
In the Lydia Lopokova biography it says she caused great amusement by appearing in the crowd scene in her going home clothes, wearing galoshes and carrying an umbrella!


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RobLindsay_BRB

20-06-08, 01:43 PM (GMT (BST))
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7. "RE: Petrushka"
In response to message #6
 
   Hello,

I have double-checked checked with the ballet staff, and yes, the forthcoming performances of Petrushka are of the same production, with the same sets and designs that you will have seen in 1958 (allowing for repairs and refurbishments!).

Rob.


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juliew

22-06-08, 04:41 PM (GMT (BST))
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8. "RE: Petrushka"
In response to message #7
 
   I'm very excited about this production - my son (and some of his friends from school) are dancing in it. I have to admit that I haven't seen the BRB doing anything before as we're a bit far away, so I'm looking forward to coming to see the triple bill and see him on stage too!


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wulff

24-06-08, 00:20 AM (GMT (BST))
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9. "RE: Petrushka"
In response to message #8
 
   I think that it's very difficult to get the crowd scenes in Petrushka right these days, especially for a non-Russian company. To make them work you need a number of mature extras in order to get the crowd properly balanced; putting in young dancers and/or students pretending to be middle-aged or old people just won't do. The last few performances by the RB at the ROH were not very satisfactory in this respect as I recall, and I was told that Russian dancers who had seen that production were not impressed. Moreover, audience reaction was not particularly enthusiastic - not enough dancing to satisfy contemporary tastes.

To my mind this is not a ballet with which Time has dealt very kindly. It is a bit like a fine wine that has gone "over the top" with age and lost something of its flavour.

That being said, I very much hope that BRB will manage to breathe new life into it.


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ian_palmermoderator

24-06-08, 12:46 PM (GMT (BST))
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10. "RE: Petrushka"
In response to message #9
 
   BRB is one of the few companies to cast older company members in its crowd scenes. I have very vivid memories of seeing Marion Tate, Alan Dubreuil and Michael O'Hare in the "Nutcracker" party scene, plus David Bintley makes occasional appearances. I'm not quite sure, however, whether these dancers would qualify under Wulff's definition of "mature".


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wulff

24-06-08, 01:43 PM (GMT (BST))
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11. "RE: Petrushka"
In response to message #10
 
   LAST EDITED ON 24-06-08 AT 01:44 PM (GMT (BST))
 
Well, Ian, "mature" does not necessarily mean octogenarian, and I am sure that the presence of older company members such as Tate, Dubreuil, O'Hare and Bintley (probably the finest Petrushka of his day) would greatly enhance the scene; but you need a few more people of similar vintage besides to give "backbone to the crowd which also contains younger adults, children, and the true dancing characters, ie. the coachmen and the so-called "nursemaids" - the latter are meant to be wet-nurses, by the way.

Edited to amend one word.


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