Posts Tagged ‘Night at the Ballet’

  1. Night at the Ballet: La Bayadère

    28 October, 2009 by Alexa Chipman

    balletlabayadere
    Set in a sort of mythical version of India, the mighty warrior Solor falls in love with a lowly temple dancer, Nikiya. Unfortunately, the captivatingly beautiful daughter of the Rajah, Gamzatti, has also fallen in love with Solar and she carries more influence. Solar is forced into a marriage he does not want, and when he denies Gamzatti for his true love the gods intervene and kill everyone so that in paradise Solor and Nikiya can be together for eternity.

    That is the simplified version of the story. In reality, I was unable to adapt it down to the 15 page Night at the Ballet episode length. I edited out as many small less important parts of the story as I could and managed to lower the pages to 18. This is a very long and complicated ballet, but also fascinating to watch. How often do two scantily-clad ballerinas in glittering harem outfits slap each other around and wrestle with a knife?

    In order to remember precisely how the story went, I popped in my video of the Royal Ballet and thought I’d take “a few notes”. Not even five minutes in I had to literally pause in order to catch up with my notes on the story it was happening so fast. Althrough I had to pause a lot and had literally 16 pages of a small notebook covered in scrawled notes about the action.

    I know that usually I give an excerpt from the script, but I doubt any of it would make much sense without some context. Here is part of the fight between Gamzatti and Nikiya:


    Gamzatti: Lift your head, pretty one. Ah yes I can see why he fancied you. Stand…you see that portrait? Recognize him?

    Nikiya: It is Solor.

    Gamzatti: My betrothed.

    Nikiya: No! You lie!

    Gamzatti: I’m afraid it was to you he lied. How could you honestly think he would marry a temple dancer? Really! Return to your life and forget him. Depart from my sight.

    Nikiya: I shall not.

    Gamzatti: Excuse me?

    Nikiya: He promised eternal devotion and loyalty over the sacred fire. He loves me!

    Gamzatti: How dare you!

    Nikiya: He shall never care for you!

    Gamzatti: You little…

    SFX: Slaps

    Nikiya: (cries out in pain) I am sorry but it is the truth, no matter how often you strike me.

    Gamzatti: Take this gold necklace…I will give you all the treasure your heart could desire. Just give him up!

    Nikiya: As though I care about your jewels. Solor is all I desire.

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  2. Night at the Ballet: Giselle

    28 September, 2009 by Alexa Chipman

    balletgiselle
    The entire episode, runtime around 25 minutes, has now been mixed and is on the server ready for its release in the first week of October. I think it came out decently— certainly better than I had expected. I received a few last minute peasant background walla which really helped (thank you Ronnie) and it all came together fairly smoothly. I also remembered to create a promo, due to several people asking me for one. http://imaginationlane.net/audio/gisellepromo.mp3

    History of Giselle Ballet Part 2

    London premiere 1842, US premiere 1846 in Boston, 1862 saw the first performance of Giselle by the Royal Danish Ballet, who were a very influential company at the time. Unfortunately by 1865 the interest in romantic era ballets began to fade, and Giselle was no longer performed very often. It was still quite popular in Russia, however, particularly when Pavlova danced the title role in 1903. It was revived in the US by the American Ballet Theatre in 1940. It began to gain popularity once more, and by the 1960s it hit the world stage as a favourite, continuing through to the present day where it is a staple for many companies.

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  3. Night at the Ballet: Giselle

    5 September, 2009 by Alexa Chipman

    balletgiselle
    This is an update on the production: I have received all the lines save from one person who shall remain nameless. I have got all the rest ready to go in and have started creating some of the ambient backgrounds, although I could use more walla from folk if you want to send some in.

    I plan on starting to mix a bit tomorrow, although it has a lower priority than H.M.S. Lydia since the episode is slotted for October and the Lydia episodes for September. I have, however, gone as far as I can with the lines that are in for Lydia so I thought instead of waiting I would go ahead and get started on Giselle.

    History of Giselle Ballet Part 1

    Paris Opera first performed the ballet in 1841 with the choreography of Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. Giselle was danced by Carlotta Grisi, a famous ballerina. She was from Italy and loved ballet from a very young age– already in the corps (lowest on the rung) by the time she was 10. She met the choreographer of Giselle, Jules Perrot, and he was immediately taken with her. He fell in love and created Giselle specifically for Carlotta. The ballet spread round the world and became an instant success. She eventually died in Switzerland in 1899.

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