Classical Music Forum banner

Favorite ballet?

103K views 292 replies 150 participants last post by  Marsilius 
#1 ·
Yes, you knew it was coming sooner or later. Partly to satisfy TC's obsession with superlatives, and partly to satisfy my own curiosity...here's the big question we've all been waiting for:

What is your favorite ballet? And if you have one, why is it your favorite?

Taking in both music and dance, I'd have to say my favorite is Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. That, or Stravinsky's Petrushka. What's yours?
 
#36 · (Edited)
@sharik and all:



This is BRILLIANT!!!!!!!! I already adored the suite, but now I can hear EVERYTHING! All 3 acts in full!! Already listened to this fully, and I found the other 2 acts on youtube as well. I'm gonna die of pleasure.
 
#38 ·
If someone asked me how I like opera and ballet, I would say that I like to see opera and listen to ballet (although I do own a lot of opera on CD, and I listen on the computer). Seeing people constantly dance for two hours on end is for me like watching paint dry. My favourite ballet is Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake; the Finale just gets me every time. Long-breathed lines, and an opening blaze of fire that grabs attention. I do, however, also enjoy excerpts from The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. (I only like the suite of the latter; no toy instruments). All in all, I enjoy highlights rather than sitting down to listen to a complete ballet. Who knows, maybe I will one day?
 
#39 ·
I'm a passionate balletomane and it's tough to pick just one score as a favorite. Tchaikovsky comes to mind immediately. He completely revolutionized the genre and demonstrated that ballet music was a form to be taken seriously. Swan Lake and The Nutcracker are masterpieces of melody, orchestration, story telling and "danceability". But IMO The Sleeping Beauty is in a class by itself. It's 3 hours of gorgeous narrative dance music. I attended dozens of his ballet performances and the way his music comes to life with an orchestra playing live and dancers onstage moving to his music is extraordinary.

Prokofiev's ballets are great too. Romeo & Juliet I think is his magnum opus. The score's dramatic and lyric power bowls one over. Cinderella is a beautiful score but differs from R&J in that Prokofiev fits the score into classical dance forms: pas de deux, variations, waltzes, etc. Cinderella is arguably Prokofiev's homage to Tchaikovsky.

Other great ballet scores are Stravinsky's Firebird, Petrushka and Apollo and Ravel's stunning Daphnis & Chloe.
 
#50 · (Edited)
Favorite ballets by choregrapher, including some modern dance...

Balanchine - Four Temperaments, Agon, Symphony in C, Who Cares, Square Dance, Apollo, Prodigal Son, Jewels, Concerto Barocco

Robbins: Dances At A Gathering, Afternoon Of A Faun, The Concert

Ashton: Monotones, The Dream, La Fil Mal Gardee, A Month In The Country, Les Patineurs(I would also include Enigma Variations except I haven't seen it in soooo long)

Tharp: Push Comes To Shove

Taylor: Esplanade, Cloven Kingdom, Roses, Rite of Spring, Company B

Mark Morris: Dido & Aeneus; Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato


Traditional...Nutcracker, Act 2 Swan Lake, Giselle (with a great cast)
 
#51 ·
Another vote for The Tale of the Stone Flower here, particularly the Melodiya recording. That's the only one which has captured the full drama and magic of the music for me. The recording is a bit on the thin side, 1968 Melodiya, but on the other hand I find that just brings out the presence of all the instruments and their articulations the more.

I had the rare chance at one point in my life to study with someone from Moscow Conservatory. Russian classical musicianship is just astounding, there is absolutely nothing so deep nor so technical as it in the West. We're slobs, by comparison.

You hear all that in Gennady Rozhdestvensky's performance here with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra.
 
#63 ·
Ha. Ha. Ha. . . touche. . . fair shooting.

You want to talke the chocolate ganache of Nijinsky, Karsavina, and Fokine-- and you get the sourdough pretzels of the scores to Le Sacre and Daphne. . . Ha. Ha. Ha.

Mutatis mutandis, for me; but for the music. :D
 
#54 · (Edited)
My favorites:

Glazunov: Raymonda & The Seasons
Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty
Nosyrev: Song of Triumphant Love
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe
Dukas: La Peri
Nikolai Tcherepnin: Echo et Narcisse
Delibes: Sylvia
Offenbach: Le Papillon
Massenet: Le Carillon
Bartok: The Wooden Prince
Stravinsky: The Firebird & Petrushka
Khrennikov: Napoleon Bonaparte
Boris Asafiev: Flames of Paris
Shchedrin: Anna Karenina
Murad Kazhlayev: Gorianka (Maiden of the Mountains)
Khachaturian: Spartacus
Rossini (arr. Respighi): La Boutique Fantasque
Leevi Madetoja: Okon Fuoko
Rimsky-Korsakov: Mlada (opera-ballet)
:)
 
#71 ·
Hair Head Chin Eyebrow Facial expression


Seen this?-- I got it just for the beautifully-recreated opening scene of the film at the première of Le Sacre at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées ; but not for the insipid drama between Stravinksy and Channel. Ha. Ha. Ha.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Haydn man
#68 ·
I haven't managed to attend a ballet yet, but it's something I'll definitely do. I haven't even seen very many. Of those I've watched my favourite so far is a MacMillan Production of Romeo and Juliet. I believe a huge part of that is because I love Prokofiev's music.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top