Look what I've found!

(c) 2016 Gita Mistry, all rights reserved

Whereas most of my contemporaries St Andrews spent their pennies on Sergeant Pepper or Revolver I spent mine on ballet music. My pride and joy was this recording of the complete score of Giselle conducted by Richard Bonynge but I have other treasures too. I went to graduate school in Los Angeles in 1972 and thought this music collection was lost for ever - until I found it today. I have Ansermet's recording of The Firebird, Clifford Curzon's Symphonic Variations, von Karajan's Sacre du Printemps, Lanchberry's Fille mal gardee, Pistoulari's Graduation Ball and many, many more. 

My tutors had expected me to get a first but I came away with a second - albeit a respectable one or so I am told as St Andrews did not divide the second class honours class in those days. At least part of the reason may be that I listened to those records when I should have been revising.   I was ballet mad. Together with my frequent trips to London for Covent Garden, the Wells, the Festival Hall, the Coliseum or events with the London Ballet Circle and, after 1969, Glasgow to see Western Theatre Ballet not to mention my first classes with Sally Marshall in the sports centre it is a wonder that I graduated at all.

I have not touched these records since graduation.  I do not have a vinyl turntable but Gita does so I have entrusted these records to her, Tonight, after Don Quixote we shall try one to see whether it still produces sound. If it does, I shall be over the moon.

Will I like Ballet?

Grace in Winter

Author Ekabhishek Source Wikipedia

One of the first publications for Team Terpsichore will be a downloadable guide for ballet sceptics and ballet newbies called Will I like Ballet? I'm the author but the book is writing itself. It is such fun. So different from all the other books and articles that I have ever written which have been on IP and technology fun. They've been enjoyable to write too but in a different way.

Without giving too much away, Will I like Ballet? will suggest all the reasons why you might like ballet. I will debunk all the urban myths and tackle all the prejudices about ballet.  I will suggest some good ballets to start with such as Fille mal gardée and Coppélia.  I will identify all the good bits of choreography to look out for such as Odile's 32 fouettés in Swan Lake and the mesmerizing arabesques of the wilis in Act II of Giselle. I will include music, sets, costumes and lighting as well as choreography. I will tell the stories of the popular ballets including modern ones such as Nixon's Madame Butterfly as well as the big box office ones like The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty. 

I will profile all the companies which are in or tour the UK with massive plugs for my personal favourites such as Ballet Black, Scottish Ballet and Northern Ballet. I will portray all favourite choreographers and dancers from Sibley to Osipova including some who are yet principals.  

I will give practical tips for visiting every theatre in the UK that hosts ballet regularly such as where to park and how to book a ticket on-line without paying even more supplementarios than on an Italian express train. My fellow team member who is a TV champion chef and foodie will direct you to where to eat cheaply and well after a show at say The Dancehouse or Linbury.

In case the ballet bug bites, I will talk about the books that I have enjoyed from Arnold Haskell's Balletomainia  to Michaela DePrince's Hope in a Ballet Shoe.  I will identify some great blogs like Adult Beginner and Tala Lee Turton.  I will mention organizations like the London Ballet Circle and on-line forums where you can talk ballet, ballet, ballet, ballet, ballet all evening without becoming a social pariah.  

If you want to have a go at ballet yourself I will point you towards the wonderful classes for the over 55s in Leeds at Northern Ballet and the enormous range of classes available at Danceworks and Pineapple in London, KNT in Manchester or indeed Ballet West's in Argyll.

In writing Will I like Ballet? I claim no specialist expertise. Just the accumulated experience of watching an average of 50 over ballets a year over many years.

Fille bien gardée - Nottingham 26 June 2014

Birmingham Royal Ballet - La Fille mal gardée trailer from Rob Lindsay on Vimeo.

La Fille mal gardée is the oldest ballet that is still performed regularly. It was first staged in the Grand Theatre of Bordeaux two weeks before the storming of the Bastille, the event that precipitated the French Revolution. In another sense it is a very modern ballet. It has no shades or wilis, no wicked magicians who transform girls into swans, no kings or queens, princes or princesses. It takes place not in some mythical or exotic land but in rural France. Normandy judging by Osbert Lancaster's backdrops, It is about a young man and a young woman in love who find a way to be together despite the best efforts of the young woman's mother to marry her off to the wealthy but in every other way unsuitable village idiot. For those who have yet to see the ballet, here's the story guide,

The version of the ballet with which British audiences are most familiar was choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton in 1960 to an arrangement of the music of Ferdinand Hérold by John Lanchbery with sets and costumes by Lancaster. He created powerful roles for the lovers in which he cast Nadia Nerina and David Blair but he also created amusing character roles for Stanley Holden as the social climbing mother and Alexander Grant as the halfwitted suitor. I never saw Nerina but I did see Merle Park and Doreen Wells in the title role as well as Holden and Grant.  Ashton's ballet contains some of the best known and best loved scenes such as the clog dance and the "Fanny Elssler pas de duex".

The Birmingham Royal Ballet has taken La Fille mal gardée on a summer tour which David Bintley describes as part of a "small celebration" of the work of the Royal Ballet's founder Frederick Ashton. I caught it at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham which is a delightful building with a more than passing resemblance to the Grand Theatre in Bordeaux. The lovers were danced by Maureya Lebowitz and Chi Cao, the mother by Rory Mackay, the halfwit by Kit Holder and his dad by Jonathan Payn.

Lebowitz was a delightful Lise - witty and pretty - just like Park as I remember her.  It took me longer to warm to Chi Cao.  He is a powerful dancer and I loved his turns and jumps. But Colas has a funny side. For example he likes his drink and he's also a  bit cheeky. Chi Cao played it very straight which is by no means wrong as there are some who would like that interpretation. As for the character dancers I loved them all, particularly MacKay as widow Simone.

Leaving the theatre, everyone seemed to smile or grin. It's a feel good ballet that I have already seen many times and hope to see many times again. Nobody - not even the London Royal Ballet does Ashton as well as Birmingham. They are Ashton's heirs and they have kept their Fille very well indeed.