For some time now I have found it difficult to name just one ballet as my favourite when asked the question. My immediate response would be to say The Stone Flower, choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich, and danced by both the Bolshoi and Kirov Companies. But it is little known of in the west. I first saw it at the ROH in the 1960's when the Kirov visited and I worked helping their wardrobe staff. It is a fantastic ballet, with wonderful character dancing.brilliant structured esembles and soloist's. It has had a marked effect on me over the years. The music is some of the best written by Prokofiev for Ballet. There is a DVD released by NVC Arts - Warner Music Video in 1991
but I do not know if it is still available. Every time I watch I recall the excitement and wonder I felt all those years ago. It was modern for the era, and we had seen nothing like it before.


However, being true to my interest. and saying I do not have one particular favourite ballet, but I like different parts of many ballets. All of whom I am quite happy to watch from beginning to end. There are so many varied and entertaining productions in existance these days I find it very hard to choose just one. Then the question arrises concerning different versions of the same ballet, some I like others i do not. I am not that keen on Nureyev's re-workings of the classics, but I love Peter Wright, Pierre Lacotte, John Neimeirer John Cranko, Jerome Robbins, Serge Lifar, Keneth Mc Millan, Sir Fred Ashton and others to many to name.(Excuse my spelling!!)
It would be good to hear your comments.

"Liebeslieder Walzer" has been my favorite ballet from the first time I saw it.

My unquestionable favourite is The Sleeping Beauty.

I can't think why I thought it was, Hans. It's mine too, of course.

La Sylphide (unfortunately, only on video; I'd love to see it live).

Of course...Giselle...

I get the most satisfaction watching Balanchine.. His choreographic invention is so vast that it can't be reduced to a single work. My favorite tends to be the last major Balanhcine work I've been able to look at closely. Currently its Symphony in C. Liebeslieder Waltzer is a very close second.

But next season?

Les Sylphides---the first ballet I saw. I am still in awe of the beauty of the groupings. I have seen many performances over the years---good, bad and indifferent...but the beautiful workings of the choreography still shines through--and it would, I think, even performed in leotards.

Ashton's Symphonic Variations.

Balanchine's Serenade, though I, too, am exceedingly fond of Liebeslieder Walzer. I saw a lot of ballets in New York last spring, but the clincher that made me get on the plane in the first place was Liebeslieder.

Hands down, Swan Lake (Sergeyev's and Sir Peter Wright's productions).

Emeralds is my current favorite.

La Bayadere I have seen many companies perform this ballet. The entrance into the Kingdom of the Shades I think is truly beautiful -It still inspires me, either seeing it live or on tape.

What makes this difficult to answer -- or maybe easier, if you switch perspectives -- is the wrong-headedness of some of the recent productions of old masterpieces. When Hans said, and others seconded, The Sleeping Beauty, I thought of the McKenzie-Kirkland-Chernov staging at ABT and cringed. But SB's set pieces of choreography are exquisite, and at least in the abstract SB remains for me the idealization of late 19th Century ballet. In the abstract, it shares favorite 19th C. ballet with La Sylphide. Take away the dancing and you're left with the music, and SB wins by miles.

But my numero uno favorite ballet (and I've seen plenty of bad perfs of this over the years, too) is Concerto Barocco.

My book's in storage, so I'm lifting this quote by Arlene Croce from a Boston Phoenix review of "Ballo della Regina":

" A few nights ago, when Concerto Barocco was put on in place of Ballo della Regina, I felt a qualm. What if we should never see dear little Ballo again. Who cares if it isn’t great? The greatest Balanchine ballet is the one you happen to be watching. "

Is All of the Above a ballet? Just when I was trying to decide between Serenade, Symphony in C, Emeralds and La Sylphide, carbro has to bring up Concerto Barocco. I'm tempted to say The Four Temperaments, my favorite of Balanchine's black and white ballets, but I think I'll have to go with Serenade.

Concerto Barocco.

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

This is an interesting thread. So many choices..! Let's see...a couple of Petipa's-(three actually, if one counts Giselle's final version, which seems to come from him)-one Fokine, one Grigorovich, one Ashton, one Bournonville and many, MANY Balanchine's...
I wonder if more names will come up...

Symphony in C -with no close challengers

No contest: The Mariinsky's 1890 Sleeping Beauty when performed completely, minus touring cuts. Not just the greatest ballet; it's the single greatest work of art, period.

Not to be confused with the mediocre Kirov-1952 Soviet version.

However, its Bluebird pas de deux, presented with its 20th century Soviet 'improvements' and its unmusical ending, set my teeth on edge.

I'm with you there. At least the 1890 has fewer 'improvements' than the 1952 Konstantin Sergeyev version. The extraordinary 'Parade of Characters' that opens Act III, or the 'Vive Henry IV' Apotheosis with the final tableau, more than makes up for the handful of Soviet emendations in the Mariinsky's 1890 gem.

Love the attitude But now that we've gone over the top, I must respectfully submit that, in addition to the Sleeping Beauty, there are also the 9 Beethoven Symphonies, Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, The Ring Cycle, The Iliad, Graham's Herodiade, and the Bible and the Baghavad-Gita for good measure. Then there's Shakespeare and Racine, we'll have to fit them in somewhere...

Ashton's "Monotones II". But at the moment I'd kill to see Wheeldon's "Within the Golden Hour" again

Giannina

Ah...Giannina just diversified this list a little by adding Wheldon... (I wonder is Miss Tharp will ever make an entrance... )

I know. I was weaned on Pablo Casals' own festival in my native San Juan, listening to the likes of Rostropovich, Van Cliburn and Perlman practicing; now live within 10 blocks of the Shakespeare Folger Library (& jewel-box Elizabethan Theater); have visited most grand art museums on this earth; have walked on Pyramids and Great Wall of China; gazed over Rio de Janeiro from the Corcovado; etc., etc. No creation of humanity brings me greater joy and inspiration than the complete Sleeping Beauty-1890 performed at the one-and-only Mariinsky Theater.

I've been mulling this over and have finally decided to my satisfaction that my favorite ballet is Balanchine's "Apollo," in the version which includes the birth of Apollo and his return to Mount Olympus with the muses.

Some more to consider, moving forward to current productions,

Pierre Lacotte - Restoration of the following original 1800 ballets, all of which he has painstakingly researched. La Sylphide(1832 Taglioni not Danish version) POB Les fille de pharoah (for Bolshoi) Paquita
POB. *


Sir Peter Wright{ Coppelia, The Nutcracker,(Royal and BRB) Swan Lake (Swedish Ballet) *


Dame Ninette De Val. 1945/6 production of The Sleeping Beauty (from notes smuggled out of Russia)
now revived by Monica Mason again for The Royal Ballet recently) * Awaiting release

Don Quixote/Quichotte, Raymonda (full versions) Barishnikov, Nureyev.* * Raymonda A/R


It may be difficult for those of you in America and Canada to have seen these productions, but most of them are available on DVD *

:



Hi Cubanmiamiboy, I have posted a few more suggestions to this tread below. If anyone wants to know the details of DVD's such as where to obtain them, I would be happy to post the information. Just ask. Best wishes Nanarina.

I love you guys.... it's so sweet, a little bittersweet, to read this and hear your voices.

Because the question can hit you so differently when you resonate with another person whose love of ballet you really feel. Like right now for me I'm feeling what Gianina said -- the way San Francisco Ballet dances "Within the Golden Hour" takes me SO deep into the heart of what I feel ballet is, it's my current heart-throb, the ballet I kinda ache to see again. And that's a kind of favorite, isn't it? It's the one that's been on my mind the most, and indeed back over the weekend, I had several flashes of wanting to see Martyn Garside twisting into those glorious positions the corps has in the ring section, of wanting to see his quick little duet, of wanting to see Katita's little waltz steps, and Sarah van Patten reaching out forward in that "After the Rain' pose -- well, it takes that cantilevered reaching to a whole new level, reaching like the idea of reaching....

But basically, it's Concerto Barocco I "always" want to see, and Swan Lake that made a balletomane out of me, but which without Sibley and Dowell I'm not sure I really want to see again.

It's interesting that the contemporary Within the Golden Hour is mentioned. When I first saw this thread, my immediate thought was, 'A favorite must be a 19th-century classic, hence my choice of La Sylphide (which is virtually tied with Giselle and Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake). But why not a mid to late 20th or 21st century ballet?

Like a lot of non-New Yorkers, I haven't seen enough Balanchine to select one of his; and while I don't think Golden Hour is in that league and certainly it's not a 'great' ballet in the sense of Giselle or many of the others mentioned here, of all the new works I've seen over the past few years of serious ballet-going, it's the one that keeps coming to mind, especially that stunning final image that has been hinted at through the ballet. It may not be an overall favorite, but I'd have to call it a 'new' favorite.

So, thanks Paul and Giannina (and others) for expanding my thinking.

It seems to me, that from all of your posts, partically the last two, that we are gradually coming round to acknowledge my own feelings., and why I posted this thread.

My own excperiences set my thoughts in motion One day I can watch say La Bayadare, mainly on DVD, although I have seen it live a number of times. At the end I find myself thinking how enjoyable it was, and look forward to the next time I watch it. Maybe I choose it the next time I have a "Ballet Evening at Home" but it may be a different version. All the same if it is a production I like I still think to myself "Yes La "B" is my favourite ballet.

I will then see Raymonda, for an example, if it is the Bolshoi version where Aberadam is a Saracen Warrier and danced by Gedimas Taranda, rather than Nureyevs production where he does not represent the true character in my opinion. (though I have not seen the full work) I cannot help but really liking Raymonda as much as La Bayadere.
Then it is time to see The Stone Flower and that takes presedent at the time over the others.


And so it goes on, I suppose I am a lover of Ballet in a general sense. Which includes a wide spectrum of works. I do have some very strong dislikes though. I should think anyone looking at my Playlists on YouTubs could see my preferences, from favourite Dancers, past and present, actual Ballets, both major classics and the modern repertoire, which includes things such as Scene en blanc, Etudes,Serenade, Western Symphony, Bizet Symphony in C. And not surprisingly new ones added on a regular basis. Perhaps it is simply a case that I cannot make my mind up (Or I am Fickle!!)