Lot Essay
LE SPECTRE DE LA ROSE
(The Spirit of the Rose)
A ballet in one act about a girl returning from a ball with a rose, falling askeep in a chair and dreaming of dancing with the spirit of the flower she has received. The spirit makes a spectacular disappearance through a window and the girl awakes still under the spell of her dream
ORIGINAL PRODUCTION
Composer: Carl-Maria Weber (Invitation to the Waltz,)
Choreographer: Michel Fokine
Designer: Léon Bakst (set and costumes)
Company: Ballet Russes de Diaghilev
Première: April 19, 1911, Théâtre de Monte-Carlo, with
Karsavina and Mijinsky
NEW PRODUCTION
Designer: Toer van Shayk (costume for Le Spectre)
Company: The Joffrey Ballet
Première: March 9, 1979, Mark Hellinger Theater, New York, as part of Homage to Diaghilev, which also included Petrushka, L'Après-midi d'un faune and
Parade
(Nureyev subsequently staged the tribute to Diaghilev in June 1979 at the Coliseum, London with The London Festival Ballet, replacing Petrushka and Parade with Schéhérazade and incorporating Bournonville's Conservatoire. Although Nureyev first performed the fole in an ill-conceived and inconsequential production with Frankfurt Independent Television in 1962, the appearance with the Joffrey Ballet is considered his true debut performance).
In the Joffrey Ballet Homage every attempt was made to preplicate the designs used in the original Diaghilev's productions. However, it was felt that the Bakst design for Le Spectre's costume had to be improved adn the choreographer Toer van Shayk's design was adopted. A. Bland in reviewing the London performance in June 1979 felt that the new costume had a material affect on the almost miraculous and successful revival of the Nijinsky role. It was also due to 'a new and positive approach to the dancing. The heavy arms curve like petals, the long, strong neck bends and stretches in acstasy; again and again familiar poses flash before the eye like stills from a film; but they flow from a full-blown, generous movement which has the juice of oil paint. Nureyev has grasped that the essence of the role is not so much in graceful airborne lightness as in a quality which Nijinsky must have had in abundance, what wine experts call 'body' ... the mysterious night-bloom which he conjures up is no faint poetic fantasy but one of those darkly crimson roses, 'blood drops from the burning heart of June', which evoke passion rather than sentiment.' (A. Bland, op. cit., 1985, pp. 198-9)
(The Spirit of the Rose)
A ballet in one act about a girl returning from a ball with a rose, falling askeep in a chair and dreaming of dancing with the spirit of the flower she has received. The spirit makes a spectacular disappearance through a window and the girl awakes still under the spell of her dream
ORIGINAL PRODUCTION
Composer: Carl-Maria Weber (Invitation to the Waltz,)
Choreographer: Michel Fokine
Designer: Léon Bakst (set and costumes)
Company: Ballet Russes de Diaghilev
Première: April 19, 1911, Théâtre de Monte-Carlo, with
Karsavina and Mijinsky
NEW PRODUCTION
Designer: Toer van Shayk (costume for Le Spectre)
Company: The Joffrey Ballet
Première: March 9, 1979, Mark Hellinger Theater, New York, as part of Homage to Diaghilev, which also included Petrushka, L'Après-midi d'un faune and
Parade
(Nureyev subsequently staged the tribute to Diaghilev in June 1979 at the Coliseum, London with The London Festival Ballet, replacing Petrushka and Parade with Schéhérazade and incorporating Bournonville's Conservatoire. Although Nureyev first performed the fole in an ill-conceived and inconsequential production with Frankfurt Independent Television in 1962, the appearance with the Joffrey Ballet is considered his true debut performance).
In the Joffrey Ballet Homage every attempt was made to preplicate the designs used in the original Diaghilev's productions. However, it was felt that the Bakst design for Le Spectre's costume had to be improved adn the choreographer Toer van Shayk's design was adopted. A. Bland in reviewing the London performance in June 1979 felt that the new costume had a material affect on the almost miraculous and successful revival of the Nijinsky role. It was also due to 'a new and positive approach to the dancing. The heavy arms curve like petals, the long, strong neck bends and stretches in acstasy; again and again familiar poses flash before the eye like stills from a film; but they flow from a full-blown, generous movement which has the juice of oil paint. Nureyev has grasped that the essence of the role is not so much in graceful airborne lightness as in a quality which Nijinsky must have had in abundance, what wine experts call 'body' ... the mysterious night-bloom which he conjures up is no faint poetic fantasy but one of those darkly crimson roses, 'blood drops from the burning heart of June', which evoke passion rather than sentiment.' (A. Bland, op. cit., 1985, pp. 198-9)