 | This is my post from this week's Tuesday Blog. |
Respighi had written the ballet La Boutique fantasque for Léonide Massine and Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1919, basing it on short piano pieces from Rossini's collection Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age).
Massine described how, in Rome for a ballet season, Respighi brought the score of Rossini's Péchés de vieillesse to Diaghilev. Toulouse-Lautrec was an influence on the period setting and style of La Boutique fantasque, and Massine envisaged the principal character "quite Lautrec-like".
The story of the ballet has similarities to Die Puppenfee ("The Fairy Doll") of Josef Bayer, an old German ballet that had been performed by Jose Mendez in Moscow in 1897 and by Serge and Nicholas Legat in Saint Petersburg in 1903. Others note the similarities to Hans Christian Andersen's The Steadfast Tin Soldier. Massine's scenario centers on the love story between two can-can dancer dolls in a toyshop, incorporating elements of comedy, national folk dance and mime, as well as classical choreography.
In 1925, Respighi returned to Rossini's music, but not as a ballet, simply as concert music. He again used Sins of Old Age, specifically Quelques riens (Various nothings) from Volume XII, and applied what he called a trascrizione libera (free transcription) to them.
The four-movement score is brilliant, but also dark and evocative. Although not written for ballet, Rossiniana has been choreographed as a dance performance work.
Antal Dorati recorded many of Respighi’s seminal orchestral music for Mercury with the Minneapolis and London symphonies in the 1950’s, and his recording of the Ancient Airs and Dances with the Philharmonia Hungarica (again for Mercury, featured here a few years ago) is a reference recording. This coupling of the two Rossini-inspired scores comes much later, in the mid-1970’s for Decca, with the Royal Philharmonic. I note that the Boutique score is labelled a “ballet suite”, meaning some sections of the complete ballet are omitted in this performance – it still remains crisp and enjoyable.
Happy Listening!
Ottorino RESPIGHI (1879-1936)
La boutique fantasque (ballet after Rossini), P.120 – ballet suite
Rossiniana, P.148 (after Rossini)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Antal Dorati, conducting
Decca Jubilee Series – KJBC 79
Discogs - https://www.discogs.com/release/1068...ite-Rossiniana
No comments:
Post a Comment