Mercoledi Musicale

When my friend Cathy posted this cartoon on Facebook earlier today it brought to mind one of those pieces that can easily become an ear-worm. And to be honest I'd never thought of the poor percussionist stuck on the snare drum for the full 15 minutes of Ravel's Boléro.

Though it is most often heard as an orchestral piece in the concert hall it was originally composed as a ballet for Ida Rubinstein in 1928.  Choreographer Bronislava Nijinska set her dance patterns to a rather flimsy scenario about a female dancer (Rubinstein) who mounts a table in a taverna in Spain at the insistence of the other dancers and becomes more and more abandoned in her movements.   Maurice Béjart, in perhaps the most famous version created in the late 20th century, echos some of that in a 15 minutes choreographic workout for a solo dancer (sometimes male/sometimes female) with some assistance from the corps that proves that dancers are more athletes than most athletes.

But I will be honest as much as I love the Béjart work I posted it once before several years ago; so when I went searching for a dance version on YouTube I was hoping to find a record of the piece that Peter Gennaro choreographed for the great Hollywood dancer Juliet Prowse.  It was the finale of her Las Vegas act for several outings and I recall seeing it at the MGM Grand back in the 1970s.  I still have the image of the complex finale - a stately procession across the stage, Prowse held aloft as her great black sequined cape (a Spanish funeral cape????) spread across the width of the stage and the whole (her and some 30 dancers) slowly descending from view into the depths of the stage floor.  It was the sort of thing that Las Vegas - and Prowse - did incredibly well before it all became a branch of Cirque de Soleil.  Though I recall she once performed it on The Ed Sullivan Show sadly it appears to not have been archived - though as I've found with YouTube you should never say never.

Unable to find the Prowse-Gennaro and not wanting to repeat the Béjart I found a version created by the French choreographer Roland Petit in 1997.  Danced by Lucia Lacarra and Massimo Murru on a barge in the harbour of Marseille, I find it lacks the dramatic intensity of Béjart's version.  I've always found Petit's choreography, with the exception of his Carmen,  had a certain coldness to it and often seemed mechanical and I'm afraid his Boléro is no different.  But then Ravel never liked Nijinka's creation - he felt it should have been set in the open air with a factory in the background and choreographed to reflect the mechanical nature of the music.  The barge setting definitely meets the open air requirement but that glorious night view across the Vieux-Port towards Notre-Dame de la Garde is magical more than mechanical.

Should you want to compare the two - and hear more of that insistent snare drum - here is a link to a performance by Nichola la Riche with the Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris. 

23 January - 1943: Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.

Lunedi Lunacy

With thanks to Cathy, who is fast becoming my muse!

26 ottobre - San Folco

A Dancing Master - Maurice Béjart - 1927-2007

This is a revised posting of the item I put up late last night on first hearing of the death of Maurice Béjart. I was able to do a bit of research for clarification.
It was May 1990 and we were living in Cairo. Maurice Béjart had recently converted to Islam and to honour his new faith had created a ballet Pyramide - el Nour with Béjart himself dancing and including a segment using the music of Umm (Ohm) Khulthum the great Egyptian chanteuse. The premiere took place in the new Cairo Opera House on Zamalach Island, a stones throw from where we lived. The new work was totally overshadowed by the performance of what had been the Ballet de XXieme Siecle's signature piece Ravel's Bolero and was now in the repetory of his Béjart Ballet Lausanne. It was advertised as the last performance that Béjart's company would give of this 20th century masterpiece of dance* and in deference to Egyptian sensibilities was the male version.

All I remember of Pyramide was a dancer in green - the colour of the Prophet - but to this day I still recall the incredible building of tension as Béjart's dancers moved to Ravel's supreme exercise in orchestration. I couldn't find one clip of the entire 15 minute opus so there is a break in what should be a steady, pounding beat of dance but it remains a great piece of choreography.

Bolero - Music: Maurice Ravel Choreography: Maurice Béjart Dancers: Elizabeth Ros and Ottavio Stanley

Part I

Part II


*I wonder now how true that was, if it was the case it appears that Béjart choreography for Bolero continued to be performed by other dance companies.

Revised posting: 23 novembre - San Clemente Papa
Originally posted: 22 novembre - Santa Cecilia

Parlo del Pui e del Meno

• Saturday evening was the first concert in our subscription series that we were able to attend at Accademia Nazionale S. Cecilia; we missed Ennio Morricone last week. The venerable Accademia (founded 1908) moved a while back from its old hall at the Spanish Steps to il Parco della Musica at the end of Via Flamminia. The complex is modern and includes a bookstore and CD shop that I'm going to have to spend some time in. Laurent tells me that during the daytime the area is alive with people and it is very much a Music Park. The sound in the Salle S. Cecilia is splendid (all that wonderful American cherry wood) though I wouldn't want to get out of there in a hurry with all the steps and landings and corridors.
  
  

  English conductor Jeffrey Tate was to conduct but called in sick and assistant conductor Carlo Rizzari had to fill in on a few days notice. That's always difficult when a conductor has not chosen the programme but Rizzari had most likely been leading the preparation rehearsals and it was obvious the players where 100% on side for the home boy.
  
  The programme was 20th century: Ravel's Ma mère l'oy Suite, Copland's Clarinet Concerto and the Prokofiev Seventh Symphony.
  
  The Ravel is more commonly heard these's day in the Piano 4 Hands version and it was good to hear the full orchestral setting. I had forgotten how lovely the Conversation Between Beauty and the Beast section is - the growling, slightly dissonant sounds of the Beast turning into a waltz theme as he falls under Beauty's spell. Principal clarinetist Allessandro Carbonare gave a fine performance of the Copland (written for Benny Goodman) and encored with a technically brillant jazz-classical cadenza.
  
  Poor Prokofiev, his death was overshadowed by Stalin who died the same day he did and over the past decade his music has fallen under the shadow of Shostakovich. Its nice to see that several of his works - including the Ivan the Terrible score - are being included in this year's programme. Rizzari didn't have the measure of the entire piece but the Vivace finale was beautifully handled - it would have been interesting to hear the piece end as Prokofiev intended it too rather than with the State imposed Coda.
  
  Looking over the programme for the rest of the season I was struck by the fact that it is heavy on the Russians, Germans and French with very little Italian music. But as our friends Larry and Vincenzo remarked at dinner - another fine feast hosted by our friends Robert and Walter - later that night: Well for Italian symphonic music there's Respighi then there's..... Respighi. Not really fair but.....
  




• Also a topic of conversation Saturday evening was the brutal rape and murder of a Navy captain's wife by a Romanian skinhead. Sunday morning this poster appeared on billboards in town:
  
  

  An Italian Woman violated and murdered by Gypsies
  Italy pays in blood for the stupidity of Immigration
  Out with the Gypsies
  

  Being a guest here I will not comment except to say that this poster is disturbing on many levels.

06 novembre - San Leonardo di Limoges