With the vast amount of choreography that George Balanchine produced in his lifetime, thereare bound to be ballets that get lost along the way. For whatever reason they were not maintained in the active repertory, we still have archival pictures and commentary to help us realize what these ballets were like.

I've always wanted to see The Seven Deadly Sins. I'm talking about the 1950's version with Allegra Kent. The pictures of it look so fanciful, and Allegra looks so young and beautiful. I suppose the reason I want to see it is not so much for the choreography, but for the vivid theatrical experience it seemed to be. The costumes and sets look so stunningly original and of course we would get to see Allegra in a role that she apparently danced and acted to perfection.

The other Balanchine ballet I would like to see is I think considered more "minor" Balanchine. It's Rhapsody Espanole(not sure about the spelling) that premiered during the Ravel Festival in the 70's. I've only seen one picture of it and read a small paragraph about it in Repertory in Review, but it seems interesting. The costumes look sparkly and showy and kinda cool, and I'd love to see what Balanchine made to this music.

Are there any lost Balanchine ballets that anyone would like to see revived?

Seven Deadly Sins was exactly my thought too, when I saw the thread.

the mention in this initial post of Rhapsody Espanole has long been on a friend's list of ballets that should come back. i agreed. it had, as my faint memory reminds me, great flourish, flair and force. the leading male role was given with grand style by peter schaufuss. as i recall it was dressed in bright tourquoise and black costumes.
from that same festival edward gorey often voiced interest in seeing GASPARD DE LA NUIT again. as i recall it was strange and dark - bernard daydee's designs were chicly gothic - so that's another candidate, with regard to the ravel festival ballets, that i too would like to see again, if for no other reason but to see what i could now make of its mysterious effects - i believe some dancers were suspended in the air and others held mirrors to somewhat sinister effect.
speaking of ravel fest. ballets, their festival inspired arlene croce to write one of her more memorable and wickedly witty lines. it was in her assessment of john taras's 'daphnis and chloe' and went, if mem. serves as follows:
'flame throwers wouldn't get me back for another look.'
but now i've gone way off topic.
i make the two suggestions above simply to connect to the 'rhapsody' comment in the initial post. given the time and energy i'm sure i'd come up w/ a good number more beyond that festival.
re: SEVEN DEADLY SINS, it's really too bad that the revival w/ bette midler went bust when mr. b. got heart trouble just as the plans were being finalized and the whole revival got scrapped. so near, yet so far...

In 1975's Ravel Festival Mr. Balanchine set eight pairs of quadrilles to Ravel's homage to his favorite 18th Century composers Le Tombeau de Couperin. I regretfully moved to New York a few months too late to see any of this festival. But this piece of music is one of my secret treasures and I would love to see what Mr. B did with it. I remember reading that he said of all the dances for this quickly assembled festival, it was Le Tombeau that lingered in his mind long after. I believe it was in the rep of POB for a while, but I don't think it has been performed for a long time.

Le Tombeau de Couperin is still in rep at NYCB. New Yorkers will be able to say when it was done most recently, although I don't believe it's scheduled for this year.

Thanks Ari: Sorry... I went to the NYCB site Reperetory file and checked "Tombeau"..."Couperin"...even "Ravel"... but not "Le"!
Hope to see this piece someday.

"tombeau" was the one(?) ballet balanchine's will left to ballet mistress rosemary dunleavy. she's consistently involved in its restagings, etc. it was done not that long ago at a school of american ballet workshop by the students. it's in repertory with some regularity at n.y.c.b.

Thanks, rg: shows how "out of the loop" I've been. Still hoping to see it someday...maybe I can twist Christopher Stowell's arm...

I’ve always been curious about The Figure in the Carpet because of the photographs I saw in an old NYCB program. But Handel’s music didn’t fit the picture I had in my mind of what the ballet would be like.

From an article titled “Figures in the Carpet” by Laura Jacobs (in The New Criterion online):

I wonder how many of you could have seen Balanchine's ballet to Mozart No. 5 violin concerto. Because he created for the Colon Theatre Ballet in Buenos Aires (Maria Ruanova was the prima ballerina there), but, as far as I know, it was only revived by Tulsa Ballet in USA (I might be mistaken, so please correct me if you are). This was, in fact, my very first exposure to Balanchine, as I saw this same ballet revived around year 1985 for the national ballet company of Uruguay. I was very much taken by the 2nd movement (the adagio - or is it andante?) - beautiful pas de deux.

When I first saw it (1985) the dancers wore leotards with chiffon skirts over them. Then, when I again saw it (around year 1999) they wore tutus.

Silvy

"Balustrade"

Well my lost Balanchine will be revived for the spring season, Ivesiana. I am longing to see it because of the interesting names of the sections, the Unanswered Question, In the Inn, and Central Park in the Dark.

"Figure in the Carpet" -- the buzz you read about it is quite special.

Another I would like to see is Electronics, that strange ballet where the costume is an all white unitard and fringes of metallic paper on the dancers, which I think were Diana Adams and Violette Verdy, it seems very similar to some Forsythe ballets.

Figure, Palais de Crystal (since it seems that POB is no longer permitted to perform it), Gounod seems to be approaching extinction.

Whatever happened to Union Jack? Seems to me it hasn't been done in eons.

I saw Gaspard. I do not need to see it again. But I missed the notorious PAMTGG, just before my time. That would be interesting. Or not. :shrug:

I'd love to see the "Orpheus" Balanchine did for the Met. Also, "Le Chant du Rossignol."

Union Jack will be seen at NYCB in the 2004 Spring season.

Just leafing through "Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works," the possibilities seem endless. That's why NYCB's "Balanchine 100" plans were so disappointing to me when they were announced. Just off the top of my head, I'd love to see Roma, and Native Dancers. Also, the ballet commissioned by Kirstein and Warburg, The Card Game. This was to the Stravinsky music Peter Martins later used for his messy Jeu de Cartes.

Carbro, I saw PAMTGG, and though I've forgotten it, I don't need to see it again. Neither does anybody else.

I'd also like to see Card Party. During Frederic Franklyn's recent round of seminars in NY, he said that was one of the ballets for which he was ballet master. It would be great if his vaunted memory can put this ballet back together. I've only seen silent snips of it, but it looks very inventive.

I'm on for the Rossignol and la Chatte --

and Baiser de la Fee -- despite the reports that stravinsky wrote fabulous but undanceable music for he end, I still wish I'd seen it...

There is a lost ballet Balanchine made for Tanaquil LeClercq in the 50's. I think it was to Hindemith and featured her as an insect that turns into a butterfly at the end. I can't for the life of me remember what it was called. It also had some of Karinska's most inventive and beautiful costumes, and an interesting pas de duex with LeClercq being partnered by a man who dances entirely on his knees. Definately one I would like to see.

Also rq thanks for the posting about Rhapsody Espanole, I was hoping someone who saw it could comment on it for me.

"Metamorphoses"

Thanks Mel

"Roma" and the Met "Orpheus" get my vote, though really, it would be easier to name the ones I wouldn't be at least curious to see-- there aren't any.

After seeing "Rubies" last week, I thought how much I would like to see again its precursor--"Danses Concertantes" with the original Berman sets as performed by the Ballet Russe in 1944. It was revived in 1972 by NYCB--I did not see it then, but from what I have read it was not successful. Danilova and Danielian said that the revival did not succeed "because the original had a jazzy thrust absent in the later staging"...I wish all the "Rubies" lovers out there could see this.

Definitely Roma-- a lost treasure it seems... Metamorphoses, which also has a wonderful score; Cotillon; and
VALSE-SCHERZO, a marvelous piece of music which was set for Wilde and Eglevsky. {drool}

A version of Balanchine's Danses Concertantes was revived again in 1989, and performed in 1993 as well. I have them listed as five movements, all coded by color. I'm sure these aren't the only casts, just the two I saw.

1989

Green: Cass, Sosenko, Frohlich
Purple: Tsetsilas, White, Reeder
Blue: Jackson, Z. Karz, Byars
Red: Sh. Stevens, Whelan, Boos
Yellow: M. Roy, Woetzel

1993

Green: Mahdaviani, Sosenko, Gold
Purple: Reyes, White, Lyon
Blue: Borree, Z. Karz, Byars
Red: Calvert, K. Tracey, Evans
Yellow: Whelan, Soto

According the Choreography by Balanchine, the 1944 cast was:

I. Variation: Svobodina, Talin, N. White
II. Variation: Boris, Goudovitch, Etheridge
III. Variation: Lanese, Bliss, Goddard
IV. Variation: Tallchief, Magallanes, Moylan
Pas de Deux: Danilova, Franklin.

The 1972 cast was Lynda Yourth, John Clifford, 8 women, 4 men. The sections are listed as: Marche; Pas D'action; Theme Varie (4 variations); Pas de Deux; Marche.

Listening to Maria Tallchief and Mary Ellen Moylan in Dancing for Mr. B describe the fourth variation that they performed made me wish I was there.

Francia Russell also described Clarinade, which was the first new ballet NYCB performed at the New York State Theater, as a ballet that didn't need to be recovered. The score was by Morton Gould, and it was danced originally by Govrin/Mitchell; Farrell/Blum; and couples/corps.

Also in response to a question about "lost" Balanchine ballets, Russell mentioned that there was a reconstruction of Cotillon recently. I thought she said it was done in Tulsa, but, unfortunately, I'm getting an error from the Tulsa Ballet site which I try to click their "Repertory" link, so I can't confirm. A Google search found a link to an article from Dance Magazine article by Hedy Weiss that references a Joffrey Ballet revival of the ballet in 1988.

The Joffrey did indeed revive Cotillion -- Illaria Ladre, who had danced with the Ballets Russe and had performed in the work, assisted in the revivial. It doesn't seem to be in their current repertory, however...

I saw the Tulsa's "Hand of Fate" pdd and Joffrey version each once, but only a few weeks apart, and very little of what I recalled from the Tulsa version was there in the Joffrey. I recall Tulsa's pas being much more mysterious and ominous than anything in the Joffrey piece.

Such are the ways of the diaspora, I guess. :shrug:

Editing to add: At least in the days before the Balanchine Trust.

I'd like to see Figure in the Carpet too... but call me sadistic, I'd also like to see PAMTGG because I wonder if now that "jet set" seems "period" there aren't aspects to PAMTGG that are "period" as well.... just curiousity..... everyone seems to have thought it pretty bad, it's sort of fascinating for that reason alone. What would the Trocks make of it, I wonder?

Apparently, the Mariinsky has La Chatte on their White Nights Festival schedule. Has it been "found"?

Are you sure it's the Balanchine? I seem to remember something by Roland Petit (?) by that title.

I sincerely hope it's not Petit's La Chatte, because it's part of the "Balanchine and Diaghilev" evening with Apollo and Prodigal Son :sweating:

i believe the LA CHATTE planned for the maryinsky is the hodson/archer 'reconstruction' of balanchine's ballet. (this followed closely the attempt to have markova recall/reconstruct 'le chant du rossignol'.)
so markova had some input for this 'reconstruction' as well, overseen by hodson and archer - who as usual did thorough work recreating the designs.
it was originally done for les grands ballets canadiens; i thought i could find a library catalogue entry for it but cannot at the moment.
perhaps someone else on this board has the particulars.
so far as i know after the initial run at grands ballets c. it was not done elsewhere.

Le Baiser de la Fee and Card Game have been on my want list for a long time, partly because of what I hear in their scores, partly because of what I read by those who saw them:

"[Le Baiser de la Fee's] images of destiny, its tragic illuminations, are as convincing as any I know in literature; but the lightness, the grace with which these dramatic scenes develop is peculiarly Balanchinian. Baiser de la Fee is poetic theatre at its truest." So wrote Edwin Denby about the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo's performances in 1940.

And about their Poker Game, which he called a "minor masterpiece", he wrote, "Besides being easy to look at, what you see is amusing. The steps emphasize a kind of staccato and a lateralness that may remind you of playing-card figures; many of the steps you recognise as derived from musical comedy. But the variety, the elasticity of dance impetus, the intelligent grace are qualities you never get in musical comedy routines. Nor does the musical comedy routine allow everyone onstage to project intelligent and personal good spirits. Poker Game, by allowing the dancers just this, makes you feel as if you were for a while in the best of company, with everybody natural and everybody interesting." (There's a subtext here about what's right and wrong about Balanchine performance which puts the stagings we see today into perspective, and says, for me, why Farrell's are the best of them, but that's another story.)

I never saw these, of course, but to pass something like from the sublime to the ridiculous, I am with those who say we don't need to see PAMTGG again. I looked at it a couple of times, and can even remember some irrelevant bits, like the clear plastic luggage piled up left and right on stage and the rising and falling passage of horizontal dancers across the stage on the hands of the corps, though not anything consequential like a pas de deux.

But even the Joffrey's Cotillon was something to see, although it went a little blank right where it should develop powerful mystery, in the "Hand of Fate" pas de deux; Chabrier's music points the way, but the Joffery dancers didn't take us very far, and so it was encouraging to read here that a better one had been staged in Tulsa. Maybe they will get put together. And then again...

I'm with Carley about hte Hand of Fate from Cotillon--

Oakland Ballet did it here, danced it beautifully -- SUsan Taylor I think was the ballerina at first, and later it was done by Joy Gim, both were sensational. It was staged by the Tulsa people (Moscelyn Larkin? I think), and it was a glorious dance -- very clean action, very few steps, actually, but haunting, truly mysterioous -- -- I remember I htink, hte ballerina doing a huge renverse with a weird timing to it, so that it did not become a releve until the leg had already begun to sweep around to the back, and then somehow she collapsed behind her partner in slow motion.... Could not tell you how it happened, though it was slower than slow and it all took place right in front of you, downstage and en face, and yet it was SO strange.....

Hodson and Archer's version for the Joffrey was much brisker -- and not very atmospheric. I found myself tempted to believe in the Larkin/Jasinski version, because it had such poetic force to it.

I would love to see Glinka Pas de Trois @ nycb... I do not remember the last time it was performed, but it is definitely one of my favorites to dance!

In addition I would also love to see The Fairy's Kiss, or Baiser de la Fee.... I am unaware also, of the last time this was performed.... In any rate, I adore the music! :-)

The full Basier de la Fee hasn't been performed in a very long time (except a pas de deux set by Tallchief at a Works and Processes program in 2004). If you mean, the Divertimento from "Le Baiser de la Fée" - NYCB performed for 2 seasons a year ago and it's on next winter's schedule.

As some others have said I would like to see Figure in the Carpet. Some dancers who were in it were quoted as saying it is a shame it was lost and others say it is just as well.

I'd also like to see the earlier version of Valse Fantasie. The most recent version has a principal couple. I've been told that the earlier version had several "ballerina parts." Correct me if I'm wrong.

That's great news!! But I would still love to see the full version, as I have all the music.

In her autobiography Irina Baronova wishes Cotillon ("a tender, mysterious dream of youth") and La Concurrence ("inventive and funny with brilliant choreography" were revived. She describes how in La Concurrence Balanchine had Toumanova, Riabouchinska and herself line up and "execute thirty-two fouettés in unison, a thing never seen before" and how both the company during rehearsal and the audience during performances reacted with excitement. She comments that it wasn't a problem for the three ballerinas--they "could do the fouettés on one spot, travelling in any direction or on diagonale" and that it was "great fun".

(Irina: Ballets, life and love. Page 76)

And I always thought that Balanchine had contempt for the 32-fouette trick.

There's been some nostalgia here for PAMTGG. The score was truly annoying. If a joke, it was not funny. (The Pan Am jingle is hovering just outside my memory as I type. Go AWAY!)

I recall this as feeling dated even when it first appeared -- though costumes and story line may have made it appear more so. I would be interested to see this again if only for the movement quality and the imaginative uses that Balanchine made of his of dancers. Would it work better without the period costumes?

Oh, those "Baby ballerinas"...

I'm curious about a couple of Balanchine ballets from the fifties -- "Roma" (1955) and "Native Dancers" (1959). The first was the other Balanchine ballet to Bizet, and the second, named for a famous racehorse, was a showcase for a pair of NYCB thoroughbreds: Patricia Wilde and Jacques d'Amboise. I never saw either ballet, and I'm not optimistic about ever seeing them. Peter Martins seems uninterested in Balanchine revivals. Perhaps Suzanne Farrell's Balanchine Preservation Initiative might be interested, but maybe not, since they predate her arrival at NYCB. Does anyone remember them?

I'd LOVE to see PAMTGG, bad costumes and all (although I'm glad you brought it up first, Bart)! I wonder if someone like John Clifford could put it back together?

'Le Baiser de la Fee' is the one I would love to see again. When the Ballet Russe did it in '46 it had a pretty marvelous cast.Franklin was the boy, Tallchief the Gypsy, and Danilova alternated with Marie-Jeanne (who surpassed Danilova in the role) as the bride. I saw it in later revivals with other dancers and it was Marie-Jeanne's bride I missed the most. She was soft and looked like a romantic ballerina in the role---a far cry from her usual steely pointed technique.

I too would love to see the full-length Baiser revived. The score is just so haunting, and the descriptions of it so tantalizing. I've always heard the reason Balanchine finally gave up on it was he was never satisfied with the staging of the final tableau. Maybe with today's technology that could be fixed.

I don't believe I ever saw PAMTGG (maybe I blocked it out), but I wouldn't mind seeing a revival. With an artist of Balanchine's caliber, it can be really instructive to see the failures. Without the distracting splendor of a masterpiece, you can sometimes see some of the mechanics you might otherwise take for granted; and the flaws of a poor piece can set the greatness of others into clearer relief.

1/3 on topic and 2/3 off, my dream 'lost' ballet triple bill would be BAISER x3:
Nijinska's
Ashton's
Balanchine's
all that now exists so far as one can tell of Nijinska's is the Bride' solo - reconstructed by Nina Youshkevitch and presented once at Dance Critics Assoc. conf.
of Ashton's the Bride's solo as reconstructed and rehearsed by Fonteyn w/ Nicola Katrak as shown on Foy's MARGOT FONTEYN docu.
of Balanchine's the bits researched by the Interpreters' Archive Project of the Balanchine Foundation - available only in select libraries.
in any BAISER fan hasn't ever read THE ICE MAIDEN tale i recommend it highly. it's beautifully told, even in the english translation of the danish that i finally found. (it's hard to find, i learned, b/c many compilations of H.C.Andersen tend to include THE SNOW QUEEN but not the Ice Maiden, which is a very different tale.
the attached foto is uncredited and undated but i suspect it shows F.Franklin as the the Bridgroom in the ballet russe de monte carlo staging of balanchine's ballet.

Here's another vote for Baiser, with that beautiful score I'd also love to see the nightmarish Opus 34 and experience what the fuss was all about.

What a great idea. You've made me really regret that it is impossible.