As the story below demonstrates, people are always trying to re-write the classics.

Do you have any outrageous re-writes for the stories of classical ballets? Either something you've imagined -- or something you've actually seen? or read about?

I'm working on a re-telling of Swan Lake (based on the actual obsession that some south Floridans have about eliminating Muscovy ducks from their ponds and lawns, as well as the plight of numerous exotic species who are kept as pets for a while and then released into the sub-tropical wild).

-- Act I takes place in the headquarters of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Siegfried, the Directress's son, is a hunter who broods about all the animal-lovers who surround him and make him feel guilty.

-- Act II takes place in a run-down Animal Shelter run the sadistic Von Rotweiller. While Odette is still a swan, the others in her corps are a mix of other creatures (allowing for lots of character dancing which the music doesn't actually allow for, so we'll interpolate something else. Tchaikovsky's dead and there's NO copyright or heirs to worry about.).

At the end of the act, Von Rotweiller gives Odette swan food containing a drug which changes her into her very-much-alter ego, Odile. It is Odile, not Odette, whom we see floating across the lake at the end of the act.

-- Act III is back at the palace/office. Odile, not aware that she herself is actually a swan, seduces Siegfried into taking a bite from a swan-burger.

-- Act IV. Siegfried returns to the Animal Shelter which has run out of funds and has been replaced by an Exotic Pet Store run by von Rotweiller. Odette is alone in a cage at back of the Clearance section. They dance on either side of the bars He frees her. Two alternate endings are provided. (a) They are hit by a truck while attempting to cross the 10-lane hightway that has recently replaced the Lake, or (b) they escape to the Everglades (Swan Heaven) to live happily ever after with all the other animals. Your choice.

"Giselle, The Dawn of the Dancing Dead", as a revenge minded flesh eating zombie, George A. Romero style.

Directed by Tim Burton? Hmmm......

Mats Ek did a Sleeping Beauty in which Aurora was a drug addict. Yes, it was that kind of needle.

Bart, that one's brilliant. Thoroughly thought through, and reprehensible in every way I give it three years before it's on stage. I'm sure there are "choreographers" out there who are leaping -- no, wait, that's a ballet step -- who are shouting, "Yes! Yes! Why didn't I think of that???

Keep 'em comin' The ballet world needs some inspiiration...

In the mid 70s, Jerome Weiss choreographed an interesting big sin city version of "Peter and the Wolf" for SFB. Peter was a boyscout; the Duck was a waddling, slightly inebriated floozy; the Bird had a questionable reputation and a great interest in Peter; the Wolf was a pimp; Peter's grandpa was in a wheelchair smoking something suspicious; the Hunters were the Marx brothers; well, you get the picture. I know it sounds like it was dreadful, but, in fact, it was very cute, well-done, and a big hit with the audience. Former SF Mayor Willie Brown was the onstage narrator...Only in San Francisco! :rolleyes:

Sounds WONDERFUL, Gina. Sounds like the feeling and tone were similar to the original, if not the surface style.

Fantasy rarely lives up to the excesses of reality, but here are three more possibilities.

"A Weekend in the Country (in the Hamptons)" based on the Turgenev play. Score by Pink Floyd based (loosely) on Chopin. Natalia Petrovna is a fabulously successful fashion magazine editor. Beliaev spends a lot of time lounging around the pool bare-chested. A showcase for a Sylvie Guillem-like ballerina. Lots of extensions and acrobatics. Its dark and bleak ending: the entire cast has to get into their respective luxury SUVs and face the ride home on the Long Island Expressway.

"The Four Temperaments of Eve". Searing psychological analysis of a Sylvie Guillem-type ballerina with multiple personalities. Music: the original Hindemuth is reduced and abstracted by John Smith and scored for Tibetan percussion. A psychiatrist looking remarkably like George Balanchine attempts to treat the ballerina Eve, who progresses through 4 of her personalities: "Really Down" (Melancholic); "Kinda Manic" (Sanguinic); "c-o-o-l" (Phlegmatic); and "Full of Rage" (Choleric). We learn about Eve through her interactions with a variety of (bare-chested) men. And there are lots and lots (and lots) of steps.

"Frozen Beauty" ("La Belle au Bois Gelee"). Lovely adolescent Aurora (long-legged Sylvie Guillem type) is subjected to an unexpected cryogenics experiment by the evil Dr. Carabosse. 100 years later, a bare-chested prince awakens her by enfolding her in an electric blanket, followed by lots of sensuous writhing on the floor. The original Tchaikovsky score is retained, but -- following the choreographer's instructions -- is played on a very bad Victrola.

Hans, Ek didnt only do Sleeping Beauty. He also somehow managed to do something weird with Giselle and Swan Lake...
At least my mind boggles... I might be accused of being a grumpy old woman, but I really do think that there must be a limit. Self restraint must be exercised with regard to old classics.
My advice to people who want to "modernize" is always: Do something new and fresh then and let us judge that.

Pamela, I feel exactly the same.

I'm waiting for someone to merge Coppélia with the plot of the movie "Artificial Intelligence."

I can see why it succeeded so well -- the score practically winks at us from beginning to end. It has a built-in invitation to have fun, which is so much of its charm. And why not? Willie Brown was a very dashing Mayor -- or appeared so to us Easterners. I guess our counterpart would have been Ed Koch, who conducted his own mayoralty with a certain flair for the theatrical.

I seem to remember hearing of a Nutcracker where Drosselmeyer is some kind of pedophile, and his relationship with Clara is more-than-platonic.

Hans,

What about Marin's Lyon Coppelia with the endless parade of blonde wigged, red dressed, black spike heeled Coppelia that come out of the movie projector.

A Coppelia that will give you nightmares.

I feel you want to come up with an outrageous, off the wall piece, go for it, I'll be happy to watch it. But don't take a wisp of a piece like Coppelia and turn it into a horror show.; as some others have already said, create your own piece and then apply your concept to that.

Richard

All wonderful scenarios--but Mats Ek still wins with his Giselle, it's the only version where Albrecht gets his come-uppance. At the end of the ballet he is literally naked and alone...... ---and that Act II in the Asylum?

atm711 - as an old (I mean someone I have seen for a long time and the same goes for me, so no offence meant as age goes) poster I certainly dont want to pick a cyber fight with you. But to come down to brasstacks, have you seen it live? Suppose not. Nor have I - I have only seen the damned thing on TV (would never pay hardearned taxed money to see Ek).
But, my thesis still stands - OK, Albrecht might be an idiot, but classic literature is full of cads, or at least guys who dont know what they really want. That is true of real life as well.
Ek's Giselle is totally void of any astesthic (sp. it is late and my dictionnary not at hand). Hope you see what I mean. OK, the plot is absolutely outrageous, but we must consider the time in which the ballet was conceived. Poor Giselle was dis-
honored, in plain terms she had had a ding dong with a man before marriage, that was not permitted by moral standards in those days. The man did not want to carry on with her - he also had obligations to fulfil - total disaster all around.
In fact, I do prefer versions where Giselle kills herself with a sword. Not having seen it myself, but I think British ballerina Beryl Grey chose that option. Very wise, Grey was big and healthy looking, nobody would have believed in her dying from apoplexy in the middle of the village community.
Giselle is a fairy tale and we must accept it as such, like we have to accept Shakespeare and his Othello and Romeo and Juliet. Tales maybe, but they happen
today as well.
Well, that was a tirade, but my view is still that you should leave a work of art well alone. Of course, one can always paint a moustache on Mona Lisa for fun - that has been done. But I think it is doing da Vinci wrong. By the way, DD just went to Paris and saw (what was there to see behind bullit proof glass) the Mona Lisa. She phoned me and asked what the fuss was about...

Maybe the point is that drastic story revisions must be in the spirit of the piece -- and that it helps when the entire work is light-hearted (like Peter) rather than serious (like Giselle or SL).

Otherwise, I agree with Pamela and Hans.

However, isn't it true that Americans generally more conservative about tinkering with the classics than Europeans? Think about all those extraordinary versions of Shakespeare all over Europe -- updating, transforming gender, wild costumes, bizarre locales, drastically transformed text -- it certainly seems so. Opera classics in smaller European cities are frequently experimented with. Ballet, on the whole, seems relatively (emphasis on the "relatively") unscathed in comparison.

Dunno, but the observation sounds right. As I read it, it struck me as ironic, though, because Americans do nothing to preserve our our things historical in comparison to Europeans. Perhaps to Europeans, that sense that the real thing -- the original, the seed, the source -- will endure, since so many vestiges of ages past are often still a part of their daily lives. Americans, on the other hand, feel that real effort is necessary to keep older artifacts intact.

Of course, this is a huge generalization.

Pamela, I assure you, my comment was mostly tongue-in-cheek I particularly hate what Mark Morris did to the Nutcracker, and what that other Englishman did to Swan Lake. I find it interesting that you assume Giselle had a pre-marital fling with Albrecht; the only time I thought this could be true was when I saw Lynn Seymour's Giselle. From her reaction to Bathilde one could assume that she was 'with child'.

PS: The 'age thing' doesn't bother me---I don't concern myself with things I can't change.

I think that we owe a deep debt of gratitude to Agrippina Vaganova, who kept Swan Lake from becoming deeply entombed in "Marxist-Leninist Realism" and made into a story about Comrade Sascha, the Head of the Labor Brigade at the steel foundry. It's also lucky that Josef Stalin considered it just another fairy tale, and his favorite.

No. atm711, age doesnt bother me either - on the contrary, I think that idiot things which used to make me hot under the collar before dont bother me now, whereas there as things now which seem to be an issue with me.
I want 19th century ballets and operas performed as they were written originally.
Think of seeing an authentic Bournonville ballet today... OK, there are remnants of the style today in Copenhagen.
Throw out Haydn and Bach (I am not a particular fan of either myself), but I have respect and I think they ought to be performed in a decent manner. So, they must be played today for the people who like them.
So must ballets from the 19th century be preserved in its original form - let us form a kind of "Old ballet preservation society" and sue those who try to modernize old works.
I vehemently maintain that people who try to modernize old works are totally devoid of talent, imagination and ideas. Do something new!
That can be said about Balanchine, he did something entirely new - he CREATED, in my mind there have been two great choreographers of late, but the greatest must have been Balanchine. The other one was of course Ashton - but I feel he depended too much on Fonteyn, so will he last in history? I am actually beginning to have doubts. Other opinions?

Other than "original instruments" renditions, we rarely hear the music of Haydn and Bach (Bach being a particular favorite of mine, btw ) as it was heard when new. That is also disregarding the various permutations of their themes reflecting the styles of our times.

I believe there is room (and reason) to adapt the classics of any medium in ways that make them accessible to contemporary audiences, to allow modern interpreters to comment upon the texts. Some will be good, most will be awful. But I firmly believe that these must never replace the originals.

I'd go to see bart's version of Swan Lake. Once. But then I'd probably tear around trying to find a traditional staging. I hope one still exists!

Sorry, having read the replies in a great hurry, I forgot one thing.
Yes, it is quite probable that Giselle had had a fling with Albrecht. Reading history of feudal Europe it was the norm, yes I do mean the norm, that the landowner´s sons should conquer as many of the maids and crofters' girls as possible and then get away with it. If they did not they were regarded as "not quite men". Of course, there was an entirely different code of conduct for young ladies of fine families. The offspring of these affairs of the young nobles were then disregarded.
Though, there might be an exception... My object of research Christian Petrovich
Johansson -it is all very odd - the father might have shown some responsibility there.
Unless I am more certain of my case, I cannot comment further.

I saw Ek's Giselle live at the Opera Garnier last year with Marie-Agnes Gillot and Nicholas Le Riche in the leading roles and found their performances deeply moving. Gillot in particular was a revelation as I had previously only seen her in roles that celebrated her very striking good looks and in Giselle she was totally transformed. Although I believe Ek's work to be following a familiar formula now and am not an admirer of everything he has produced, to call it "void of any aesthetic" (sic) doesn't do justice to a serious and committed artist'



As Giselle is generally presented in the medieval period, it is well to remember that the "droit de seigneur" held sway at that time in Europe and Albrecht would simply have summoned her to his castle and had his way with her (as he would with any other village girls that took his fancy) Society accepted this and no one would have died. But then you wouldn't have had an interesting story, would you?



Last year I took a much younger friend on his first visit to the Louvre; when he saw the Mona Lisa he was completely overwhelmed and I almost had to drag him away from her, which just goes to show how different our reactions are when confronted by any work of art.