Ballet and Opera in the Age of Giselle

Ballet and Opera in the Age of Giselle PDF Author: Marian Smith
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691146497
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Marian Smith recaptures a rich period in French musical theater when ballet and opera were intimately connected. Focusing on the age of Giselle at the Paris Opéra (from the 1830s through the 1840s), Smith offers an unprecedented look at the structural and thematic relationship between the two genres. She argues that a deeper understanding of both ballet and opera--and of nineteenth-century theater-going culture in general--may be gained by examining them within the same framework instead of following the usual practice of telling their histories separately. This handsomely illustrated book ultimately provides a new portrait of the Opéra during a period long celebrated for its box-office successes in both genres. Smith begins by showing how gestures were encoded in the musical language that composers used in ballet and in opera. She moves on to a wide range of topics, including the relationship between the gestures of the singers and the movements of the dancers, and the distinction between dance that represents dancing (entertainment staged within the story of the opera) and dance that represents action. Smith maintains that ballet-pantomime and opera continued to rely on each other well into the nineteenth century, even as they thrived independently. The "divorce" between the two arts occurred little by little, and may be traced through unlikely sources: controversies in the press about the changing nature of ballet-pantomime music, shifting ideas about originality, complaints about the ridiculousness of pantomime, and a little-known rehearsal score for Giselle. ?

Ballet and Opera in the Age of Giselle

Ballet and Opera in the Age of Giselle PDF Author: Marian Smith
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691146497
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Get Book Here

Book Description
Marian Smith recaptures a rich period in French musical theater when ballet and opera were intimately connected. Focusing on the age of Giselle at the Paris Opéra (from the 1830s through the 1840s), Smith offers an unprecedented look at the structural and thematic relationship between the two genres. She argues that a deeper understanding of both ballet and opera--and of nineteenth-century theater-going culture in general--may be gained by examining them within the same framework instead of following the usual practice of telling their histories separately. This handsomely illustrated book ultimately provides a new portrait of the Opéra during a period long celebrated for its box-office successes in both genres. Smith begins by showing how gestures were encoded in the musical language that composers used in ballet and in opera. She moves on to a wide range of topics, including the relationship between the gestures of the singers and the movements of the dancers, and the distinction between dance that represents dancing (entertainment staged within the story of the opera) and dance that represents action. Smith maintains that ballet-pantomime and opera continued to rely on each other well into the nineteenth century, even as they thrived independently. The "divorce" between the two arts occurred little by little, and may be traced through unlikely sources: controversies in the press about the changing nature of ballet-pantomime music, shifting ideas about originality, complaints about the ridiculousness of pantomime, and a little-known rehearsal score for Giselle. ?

The Paris Opéra Ballet

The Paris Opéra Ballet PDF Author: Ivor Guest
Publisher: Dance Books Limited
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
The cradle of ballet, tracing the origin of ballet as a theatre art back to its foundation by Louis XIV in 1669.

Swan Lake

Swan Lake PDF Author: Bill Cooper
Publisher: Oberon Books
ISBN: 9781786825797
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
This beautifully produced new Royal Ballet branded book with photographs by Bill Cooper is a collection of exclusive photographs which shines the spotlight on Swan Lake. These exquisite photos feature some of the finest dancers on stage today and give an exclusive insight into the Royal Ballet's work. Swan Lake was Tchaikovsky's first score for the ballet. Given its status today as arguably the best-loved and most admired of all classical ballets, it is perhaps surprising that at its premiere in 1877 Swan Lake was poorly received. It is thanks to the 1895 production by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov that Swan Lake has become part of not only ballet consciousness but also wider popular culture. That success is secured not only by the sublime, symphonic sweep of Tchaikovsky's score but also by the striking choreographic contrasts between Petipa's royal palace scenes and the lyric lakeside scenes created by Ivanov. Swan Lake has had a special role in the repertory of The Royal Ballet since 1934. Since then there has been a succession of productions, the most recent of which was overseen by Anthony Dowell. The 2019 Season sees a new production with additional choreography by ROH Artist-in-Residence Liam Scarlett. Scarlett, while remaining faithful to the Petipa-Ivanov text, will bring fresh eyes to the staging of this classic ballet, in collaboration with his long-term designer John Macfarlane.

Steven McRae

Steven McRae PDF Author: Andrej Uspenski
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1783195878
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
Steven McRae - Dancer in the Fast Lane gives a close up look at the ballet and dance world's newest, flame-haired star. Born and raised in the world of Australia's high octane, drag-racing circuit, Steven effortlessly moves between the sophistication of his interpretations of the greatest ballet roles as a Principal of The Royal Ballet, to full throttle blasts of tap. Once again photographer Andrej Uspenski has used his exclusive vantage point as a First Artist withThe Royal Ballet to give us glimpses of a dancer becoming a true dance supernova.

One Dead at the Paris Opera Ballet

One Dead at the Paris Opera Ballet PDF Author: Felicia McCarren
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190061812
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
"At its debut in 1866, La Source already had it all: dagger-wielding Muslims dominating veiled women, a magic flower in a green ecology, and a full blown environmental crisis at the end. When the Paris Opera ballet restages this Orientalist and colonial drama in 2011, and again in 2014, the contemporary context of homegrown jihad, climate politics and a law banning the dissimulation of the face in public spaces, keeps it relevant. At four historic performances, over 150 years, this book explores the resonance of La Source's double narrative in its contemporary contexts: the biopolitics of bodily hybridity and regeneration and the cosmopolitics of the exploitation of human and natural resources"--

Pilates and Conditioning for Dancers

Pilates and Conditioning for Dancers PDF Author: Jane Paris
Publisher: The Crowood Press
ISBN: 1785008374
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Professional dance is an exciting but demanding career to choose, and the dancer of today needs to be physically prepared for the stress on the body that a performing life entails. Pilates and Conditioning for Dancers is a practical guide to exercises designed specifically for dance students and professionals alike. The focus on how to choose exercises that suit the individual offers dancers the freedom to optimize their performance potential in a flexible environment. Key topics covered are Core Control; Turnout; The Healthy Spine; Footwork; Jumping and Landing. This new book covers each area of the body, relating the exercises closely to dance technique and providing movement solutions for dancers of al styles and at all stages of their performing career.

Wrights & Wrongs

Wrights & Wrongs PDF Author: Peter Wright
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1783197196
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 713

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Book Description
Peter Wright has been a dancer, choreographer, teacher, producer and director in the theatre as well as in television for over 70 years. In Wrights & Wrongs, Peter offers his often surprising views of today's dance world, lessons learned – and yet to learn – from a lifetime's experience of ballet, commercial theatre and television. Peter started his career in wartime, with the Kurt Jooss company. He has worked with such greats as Pina Bausch, Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Marcia Haydée, Richard Cragun, Monica mason, Karen Kain, Miyako Yoshida and Carlos Acosta - as well as today's generation of starts including Alina Cajocaru, Marianela Nunez, Natalia Osipova and Lauren Cuthbertson. While now regarded as part of the British ballet establishment, for many years Peter developed his career outside London, particularly in Germany with John Cranko's Stuttgart Ballet. That distance gives him a unique and unrivalled view on ballet companies. His close association with choreographers Frederick Ashton, Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet, Kenneth MacMillan and David Bintley gives Peter an authoritative perspective on British ballet. Wrights and Wrongs includes black-and-white photographs from Wright's career, and as Exeunt magazine comments: 'Anyone with an interest in British ballet will find plenty to occupy them in Wright's book... the many dramas and delights of his life in dance spring forth from the page with brio.'

Apollo's Angels

Apollo's Angels PDF Author: Jennifer Homans
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0679603905
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, LOS ANGELES TIMES, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY For more than four hundred years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully told, Apollo’s Angels—the first cultural history of ballet ever written—is a groundbreaking work. From ballet’s origins in the Renaissance and the codification of its basic steps and positions under France’s Louis XIV (himself an avid dancer), the art form wound its way through the courts of Europe, from Paris and Milan to Vienna and St. Petersburg. In the twentieth century, émigré dancers taught their art to a generation in the United States and in Western Europe, setting off a new and radical transformation of dance. Jennifer Homans, a historian, critic, and former professional ballerina, wields a knowledge of dance born of dedicated practice. Her admiration and love for the ballet, as Entertainment Weekly notes, brings “a dancer’s grace and sure-footed agility to the page.”

Ballet 101

Ballet 101 PDF Author: Robert Greskovic
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 9780879103255
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 660

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Book Description
Presents a look at the world of dance; an analysis of ballet movement, music, and history; a close-up look at popular ballets; and a host of performance tips.

The Royal Opera House Guidebook

The Royal Opera House Guidebook PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description