I've long been a big fan of Glazunov's work on Raymonda--It's my favorite full length ballet score between the Tchaikovsky ones and Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella (I say full length so not to include the Stravinsky works).

However, his other two one act ballets (written in 98 and 99 respectively it seems but both premiered in 1900?) for Petipa seem much more obscure. The Seasons has had a huge life as musical excerpts, but Russes d'Amour or Lady Soubrette only has a few out of print recordings. I recently got, and fell in love with both charming scores.

I've done a fair bit of research on both works--both online (there's very little information on either work it seems) and from books (Wiley's book on Russian Ballet being the best source I found). What I can gather is that The Seasons was *not* notated, but Russes D'Amour is, otherwise there exists much more info on Seasons (photos, etc) than Russes.

Does anyone know if Russes had much of an afterlife at all? The scneario is light but charming (based on a Wattreau image Petipa liked) and Glazunov fills his score with charming old French dance pastiches. Seasons was done by Pavlova's company and some others more recently, though I can only doubt that much Petipa remained. They'd make a charming (albeit maybe too light) double bill.

Re: Eric Montreal 22
04/02/2009



As you will have found out, there are many serious posters on this site who have researched over a long period of years and have witnessed a good number of balletic history events.

I have found that they are not only learned they are willing to freely share their knowledge, but I would also suggest, that they are cautious in their statements on ballet history, as it is only fairly recently that in depth academic studies have taken place and even those that have been published should not be taken as the final word.

This is a good site on which to pose questions, but not a site where unsubstantiated or incorrect statements get by without correction, as I have learnt in the past.

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"The Seasons", were never performed by Anna Pavlova's company. The "Autumn" section of "The Seasons" was however danced by Pavlova in a pas de deux called,"Bacchanale".

You state,
I would have liked to know what sources you checked for these two statements and especially how you could arrive at your second statement, given the complexity of the survival of what is thought to be actual Petipa choreography.

RUSES D'AMOUR is also known as THE TRIALS OF DAMIS.

as a canadian you might find information about this version in or around Montreal:

Ruses d'amour - Chor: Ludmilla Chiriaeff; mus: Aleksandr Glazunov. First perf: Montreal, Canadian T.V., 1956, Ballets Chiriaeff.

bits of both Glazunov scores mentioned here have been variously used in the West, section(s) in Ashton's BIRTHDAY OFFERING, for example.

it's also known, and been noted here, that a 'pastiche' of the full work, with a sense of the original scenario, was done by K. Sergeyev at Vaganova Academy in the late 20th c.

Very true, and I appreciate that (and will have to be more careful with how I word things).



Re Pavlova--I had read that she did an abridged seasons. The info was mentioned in Nijinsky, Pavlova, Duncan: Three Lives In Dance, and I think other books--however I think you must be right--and by abridgement they meant excerpt (many dancer biographries, I've noticed, are filled with misinformation when it comes to the actual works danced).

The reason I didn't think Seasons was notated is it's not listed in the Harvard Collections list of their Sergeyev Stepanov Notation collection. Sorry, I should have been more clear. Russes d'Amour IS listed. However, the list I have from their catalog doesn't go into detail about the fragments from other ballets notated, so some of Seasons coul dhave been notated.

As for why I assume some Petipa survives in later performances--it's just an assumption. But Seasons seems to have been danced more steadily than Russes d'Amour--by students and professionals at the Marrinsky into the early communist era, and Pavlova danced in the original production so I assume her production carried over at least remnants of Petipa, etc. But it's clearly just me guessing.

Sorry, I'll try to be much more clear when posting in the history thread in particular. One reason I love this forum, is it does allow me to clear up things that in all the various dance books I've read contradict each other (as you implied, the history of many of these Russian works, particularly history in the English language, is often sketchy with contradictory sources and views).

The Seasons is, unfortunately, not in the Harvard collection. Ruses is, but, for the most part, the notations are very sketchy and don't offer much substantial data. I also love Glazunov's ballet scores. I think Raymonda is one of the great underdogs, if you will, of the 19th-century full-length repertory.

Nijinska used some of the music from 'The Seasons' for 'The Snow Maiden' for the Ballet Russe.

Right...and let's not forget that some of the delectable female variations in Ashton's Birthday Offering are danced to music from The Seasons. I so wish that ABT would revive its production of that ballet.

Absolutely.BO and La Fille...are the 2 Ashton ballets that i wish ABT would revive.

the seven solo variations in Ashton's Birthday Offering are taken from the following:
1. SCENES DE BALLET
2., 3., 3., 4., 6. THE SEASONS
7. RUSES D'AMOUR
the leading couple's Pas de Deux is set to the Grand pas des finaces from RUSES D'AMOUR.
needless to remark, all this information comes from David Vaughan's FREDERICK ASHTON AND HIS BALLETS (1977, revised and updated, 1999)

Cranko did a pretty good SEASONS for Stuttgart, if I remember aright.

You quite correct Mel, Cranko did a version in 1962 for Stuttgart Ballet. Incidentally some years ago Marcia Haydee reconstructed the pas de deux to Autumn from The Seasons which has also been seen at Stuttgart Gala(s).
I am in the process of completing a tabulation of productions of the two minor Glazunov ballets which I will post(soon I hope) to which others poster will be able to correct or add any I have missed.

Thanks for all yoru help--Doug, I'm with you about the worth of Glazunov's scores (Raymonda is my favorite 1800's ballet, in fact, after Beauty).

One aspect of these ballets I find fascinating, was brought up in Tim Scholl's From Petipa to Blanchine book--in a section that can be read on google books. He brings up the fact that these one act ballets, created first for the smaller Hermitage theatre, were, like earlier examples (notably Drigo's Awakening of Flora which the Mariinsky reconstructed so beautifully) in a way are both a throwback to earlier court ballets that were shorter variations on a theme rather than complex story ballets--and foreshadowed the return to these more abstract ballets by Balanchine. Russes D'Amour does have a story (more than The Seasons or Flora for that matter) but it's there more, it seems, to cause dances that are variations on this theme--the story is so basic even by ballet standards.

If I ever become a billionaire and form a ballet company devoted to these old ballets I'd love to do them as a double bill (maybe even a triple bill with Flora of which Seasons seems to have so much in common). At any rate the scores are masterpieces for their time and deserve to be heard--and in the context they were created for.

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id...1&ct=result is the link to Google Books online edition of the first half of From Petipa to Balanchine that mentions these works.