Thanks, dirac, for another out-of-the-ordinary Link -- this time, an article from the Gainesville Sun on the role played by wine in the plots of several important ballets. The author mentions specifically Giselle (the merry harvesters), Manon (Lescaut's drunkenness), Sylvia (Orian's seduction attempt), and Ashton's Wedding Banquet.

Here's the Link:
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...4/entertainment

Does anyone have other examples of ballets in which wine advances the plot or changes what is going on onstage?

I admit to a memory lapse here, other than the party scene in Merry Widow and similar scenes where happy guests wave wine glasses in the air to little purpose.

I don't know whether we should include or exclude non-alcoholic drugs. I know that 19th-century ballet was fond of using opium-induced dreams to advance the plot (as in Bayadere). So include or exclude as you will.

The local Nutcracker used to have (perhaps still does) a bit in Act I where one of the maids, who has been sneaking wine from an extra glass throughout the party scene, interrupts the Grossvater dance with a drunken jig. It ends with her running offstage with her hand over her mouth.

Then there's everybody's favorite comic/dramatic corps de ballet: the Drinking Companions in Prodigal Son.

And, would the Prodigal have gotten in so much trouble if he hadn't been hanging out in a wine bar?

I don't really think of that tavern as a "wine bar" per se!

There's drinking used as a plot devise in many productions of Swan Lake (2nd act) and Sleeping Beauty (also 2nd act), and in some Romeo and Juliets

Lew Christensen's Filling Station has a role for a drunk girl.

It's only in the title, but Mark Morris' Drink to Me Only might qualify. And there's drinking in the party scene of his Hard Nut.

And don't forget Dr. Coppelius slipping Franz a mickey....

In Act II of the Baryshnikov staging of DonQ, after the Dream Scene, Basil and Espada have a dance-off in the tavern, and Basil downs one beer after another between phrases of his variation.

Then comes the "suicide" scene. Is that wine Kitri offers Basil to revive him? Brandy? Water? Whatever it is, he's sure feeling frisky!

In Ib Andersen's version of Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio's favorite harlot has obviously gone on a bender between the end of Act II and the beginning of Act III.

In Swan Lake, the tutor is usually taunted and/or plied with wine, and there is usually a toast to the Prince.

In Balanchine's Nutcracker, there are goblets for the guests. Who knows what's in them.

Balanchine's original version of the Arabian in Nutcracker featured Francisco Moncion smoking from a hookah, surrounded by four boys. (Who may have been played by girls.) I've been told that this was the version that was in the TV broadcast, but that is hard to imagine in the early 50's.

In MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet (and Andersen's), during the Dance of the Capulets, the women have a port de bras that always makes me think they are chugging beer.

Doesn't the grandfather in the Nutcracker usually get Grandma a bit tipsy?

And the Queen gently reprimands Siegfried, "You haven't been drinking, have you?", which of course, he denies.
Actually, easier to see in the '50s than any decade following. For one thing, there was the veil of exoticism (a fast disappearing concept in our day) surrounding the characters, and also, in America drugs had not yet become the social problem that would explode in the following decade. So on two counts it would be quite alien to the"real life" of most middle-class Nutcracker watchers.

Same with Solor's opium-induced visit to the Kingdom of the Shades.

But now we're dealing with a whole different class of intoxicant.

Thanks, carbro!

I just remembered the silver flask from which Lady Costermonger takes a swig in Union Jack.

I can't remember if the Watts/Martins and Leland/Andersen couples click imaginary glasses when they meet in Davidsbundlertanze.

(Quote)Does anyone have other examples of ballets in which wine advances the plot or changes what is going on onstage?


Not taking the question too seriously, Ashton's 'Creatures of Prometheus' and 'La fille mal gardee' have scenes with wine and of course Lavrovsky's Romeo and Juliet there are wine goblets. Alcohol is consumed in Cranko's ' Pineapple Poll' by Jasper.

That was the first thing that came to my mind! How the plot would advance WITHOUT that, I have no idea.

And it's fun seeing the old Doc toss out his own drink over his shoulder.

Glad you've found BalletTalk, amy_e. I hope you'll take a moment to tell us a bit about yourself on our Welcome Page.

There's drink aplenty in "Napoli." Peppo and Giacomo (the two unsuitable suitors) drain a glass or two in Act I, and in the Act III wedding celebrations, people sit outside an inn and are liberally served as they watch the dancing. But the best story is that King Frederik IX (I think that's the number), the present Queen's father, loved "Napoli" so much that he not only conducted it on occasion, but would, from time to time, send a glass of champagne (real champagne) backstage for each tarantella dancer, to make sure that the dancing was filled with high spirits.

In "La Sylphide" Act I, there's the fortunetelling scene, in which Madge drains two glasses of some evil spirits as payment for the telling. And surely it's not an accident that the token of Hilda's identity in "A Folk Tale" is a drinking cup.

In "Swan Lake," the dances des coupes ends the first act. "Fancy Free" takes place in a bar, for good reason.

James Kudelka's ''Cinderella'' portrays the Stepmother as quite the lush.

...and 'Fancy Free' takes place in a Bar.....

And The Rake's Progress?

There's drinking in Mayerling too, especially in the brothel... (I mean, it is MacMillan, there's a brothel scene....)

Roland Petit's "Carmen" (Sherry, of course, at Lilas Pastia's.)

Question: Am I right in remembering that there is NO wine -- or no toast -- in the wedding scene in Les Noces?

Then of course, there's "The People Who Live in Glass Houses" ballet from John Philip Sousa's operetta, The Bride Elect. All different character dances based on the contents of the liquor cabinet. Not to mention the romantic triangle in Richard Strauss' ballet "Schlagobers", Count Boris Vodka, Count Ladislas Slivovitz, and Mlle. Marianne Chartreuse!

Do we count non-alcoholic wine if it does the job of getting people drunk? If so, there's Act II of Mark Morris's Sylvia. It does save her from a fate worse than swinging.

In Lazlo Seregi's version of Sylvia the heroine's pizzicato variation is fuelled by champagne.

There's the Merry Widow section of Vienna Waltzes -- there's drinking from goblets. And in the Blue Necklace section of Double Feature, Kyra Nichols' and Megan Fairchild's characters drink champagne. Also in Harliquinade - the drunken soldiers.