Daily Double for Canada Day, Part 2

Okay, here's part 2.  Last Sunday afternoon, it was the Bolshoi Ballet of Moscow at the Cineplex with a full-length production of Raymonda, the last of the great classical ballets originally staged by Marius Petipa (famous for his collaboration with Tchaikovsky on Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker). 

This live-performance simulcast featured splendid dancing, choreography, and staging, along with some very intriguing backstage shots during intermissions of the sets being taken down and put up as the dancers warmed up.  From all these viewpoints it was a terrific afternoon.

But....

(you just knew there had to be a "But...." coming, didn't you?)

Since I am familiar with, and dearly love, Glazunov's music for Raymonda, I have to go off on a little personal rant here.  Far too many choreographers in the "good old days" considered it their privilege to mess around with the music, changing the order of the pieces, cutting sections, adding sections from other works (maybe even from other composers) and all of these things happened here.

Why?

Glazunov was a disciple of Tchaikovsky and learned everything there was to learn from the master about constructing an effective ballet score which is danceable, musically intriguing, and perfectly organized.  Just as in the great Tchaikovsky ballets, there's a clear through line of key sequences and varying tempo and metre which gives the music unending interest and involvement for the audience.

By the time the choreographers got through with it, the key sequence was butchered, several of Glazunov's ripest inspirations had vanished, and the whole had deteriorated into a choppy mess. 

Did they do it so that the composer's strengths wouldn't detract from the dance?  Or were they just so full of themselves that they considered the music only fit to be a carpet for them to walk on?

I notice that modern choreographers are much more respectful.  For instance, Maurice Bejart in Song of a Wayfarer used Mahler's song cycle complete and unaltered.  Even more noteworthy, Kenneth Macmillan in Song of the Earth  gave the same respectful treatment to Das Lied von der Erde -- thank goodness!  Nor did James Kudelka chop up and rearrange Beethoven's Sixth Symphony in his Pastorale, and so forth.

Whenever they mess around with the music, it causes me to cringe every time -- and detracts from my enjoyment of the whole.  The curse of approaching the art of the ballet as a music lover who is already familiar with the score.

But this won't stop me from checking out the Bolshoi on the big screen again -- particularly next year, when they are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Rite of Spring with a brand-new production choreographed specially for the company by the amazing Christopher Wheeldon -- a must-see if ever there was one!  And I'm betting that he won't try to cut the score!