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| Thursday, 26 February 2004 |
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The fate of Shostakovich ballets by Gwen Herat Yuri Grigorovich who was the ballet master of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow is still considered the greatest choreographer in the world. He made history when he choreographed The Golden Age ballet to the music of Shostakovich and I intend focusing on some of the ballets and their fate in particular the ones staged by Yuri Grigorovich.
Dmitry Shostakovich was born in St. Petrsburg on 12 September 1906 and died in Moscow on 9 August 1975. It was the Revolution that convinced him to be a composer when in 1917 as a child, he dedicated the compositions to the Revolution. Both his parents were musicians and they inspired the young Dmitry where his talent was. He entered St. Petersburg Conservatoire helped by Glazanov where he showed great promise as a concert pianist. However, the young Dmitry resolved to be a composer and nothing else. When his Diploma Composition, The First Symphony, was first performed in 1926, he was hailed overnight as a front rank composer. At twenty, Dmitry held his First Symphony performance in Leningrad and next in Moscow. The people went wild with response and captured the imagination of the world in the symphonic arena. It was a work of epic proportion which his distinct feature and style of composing were put in. It became his signature later on because the First Symphony contained overwhelming emotional intensity and the power of technical invention with an astonishing command of the orchestra. The great height reached by Petre Tchaikovsky stormed back into Russia's memory. Dmitry was determined to serve the needs of the Russian people and though his seminal work did not fall with the Russian traditions, he owed much to late romantics such as Mahler, Berg and Hindersmith. Romanticism which is usually associated with ballet, may have triggered off Dmitry's imagination to compose special scores for ballet apart from his fifteen symphonies. When Yuri Grigorovich staged the Dmitry Shostokovic ballet, the wonderous Golden Age, it gave the production much more magnitude than a classical ballet. There was the triumph of truth that was so important for choreography as well as for music. A new aspect was discovered in the work of the composer who was world renowned and whose performances were illustrious orchestrations with eminent musicians and operas. They were performed around the world's auditorium where ballets were danced not only in the West but in Russia as well. Dmitry Shostakovich's music was never intended for ballet until it was adapted later. Sadly, at that time, Dmitry's music in the ballet repertoire remained unrecognised at home and abroad. However, Dmitry was one of the first composers to score for the emergence of the Soviet school of dance. He wrote for three ballets in succession and immediately mounted them in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) The Golden Age in 1930, Bolt in 1931 and Bright Revulet in 1935. All three had unfortunate destinies and all for the same reason. The three ballets whose scenarios were ineptly done, were primitive in content and unattractive with no blame placed on Dmitry's music. They just did not appeal to the people. Choreographer, Fyodor Lopukhov who mounted BRIGHT RIVULET had a few interesting moments while the other ballets were less attractive. Each ballet had its own separate nuance. There was no doubt at all that the scores composed for them by Dmitry were full of verse and passion but the quality of the production fell short of his music. BRIGHT RIVULET had a script that was typical country vaudeville and highly flippant. It also comprised age-old comic situation. The story is that of a ballet company who comes to a collective farm in the country side to perform. The farmers' team leader gets involved with one of the dancers not knowing that his wife had trained at the ballet school in her youth along with the object of his attention. Some of the country folk were charmed by the ballerinas and naturally everything ended in good shape. The script was politely criticised after noting the confusion in some sequences and the plot had bare patches. The old fashioned characters were larger than life and some funny episodes were exaggerated. While with all its faults, BRIGHT RIVULET was originally planned as vaudeville that was genre and not without its own special standards. Ballet BOLT was worse in its production and the script which was meant to address a serious theme, failed its intention. Yet, though it disintegrated into vaudeville because a parody of the grave content with a lukewarm theme, BOLT had its main character, a loafer and a drunkard by the name of Lyonka Gulba who was kicked from the factory where he worked. In retaliation, he persuaded a youth into putting a bolt into a tool to blow up the works. The conspiracy obviously failed and justice was meted out. This was an ACT ballet but the action dragged over wanely and was pretty senseless. The intrigue and the conflict came out in the third ACT and in the following five minutes, lit up the ballet's interest only to fade away later. Because the first two ACTS constituted protected genre productions repeating entertainment from bygone era, the script slipped down in demonstrative social contrast. It collided with the characters and ended up in somewhat surreal. While Shostakovich's magical scores were the only redeeming feature, GOLDEN AGE lifted his spirits. Dmitry had to accept scripts as they were proposed but improved them over hundreds of time as done by Tchaikovsky, letting his music take on a totally different scale. The virtues of his music were highlighted in the reviews of all the ballets. While the ballets were returned to the repertoires, his music upsurged. ####### 'On the Road to Jaffna' "On the Road to Jaffna" is a journey through the Jaffna peninsula over three episodes of Bonsoir (26 mts each) to be telecast on 1st, 8th and 15th March 2004 at 9.30 p.m. on Rupavahini's Channel Eye. Starting from the sacred city of Anuradhapura, "On the Road to Jaffna" Bonsoir's Yasmin Rajapakse takes viewers through Vavuniya to the entire northern peninsula, touring the historical sites and discovering the culture and way of life of the Jaffna people. "On the Road to Jaffna" is based on the book "The Essential Guide to Jaffna and its Region" authored by Frenchman Philippe Fabry who guides the Bonsoir cameras on this tour. Also scheduled are visits to the Jaffna Fort, Library, Archaeological Museum, Kantharodai, Nagadeepa, Manalkadu desert, Casurina beach, Keerimalai, Fort Hammenhiel, the Nallur festival and lots more. The three programmes at 9.30 p.m. will be on Channel Eye on 1, 8, 15 of March. ####### Impressions of a wondrous story A programme of Christmas music was presented by the Peradeniya Singers at Sancta Maria Redemptorist Church, Halloluwa, Kandy on December 19, 2003. The choir was directed by Bridget Halpe who once again fulfilled her wholehearted commitment to music and song proving it to be a rich and rewarding experience to the audience in the tittle church. As I read through the programme with every interesting details carefully arranged, of who had written the words to which Carol and who had composed the music I encountered many familiar names among those that were not so familiar too. There were the very famous composers like Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Franz Gruber, Handel and the others I would hear for the first time, composers like Bortniansky and Max Bruch. One of the Carols that particularly moved me was Louvais nos per Deos, the Portuguese Carol arranged by the very famous Earl de Fonseka. Percy Colin Thome had written of it in his article "The Portuguese Burghers and Dutch Burghers of Sri Lanka" (Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union of Ceylon, Vol. LXII, Jan-Dec 1985, nos. 1-4, p. 177). To quote from his article, "An importation of exquisite beauty by the Portuguese was the traditional Carols which were sung every Christmas by choirs accompanied by violins, cymbals and bass drum. The beautiful Portuguese Carols which used to be sung by the Portuguese Burghers in Galle until the last Great War were examples: "Louvais grande Deos These were the very lines I had quoted in my own poem, "Metaphors of History" which opens with the first verse of the Carol and then extends the meaning in my own memories "It is perhaps now only a taste on the tongue / Remembered, lingering..." 'The Wondrous Story' unfolded the glorious Nativity of Christ in each Carol. Some were traditional, familiar ones which had echoed and re-echoed in our ears from generation to generation, century after century. Carols which would always remain in any age, in any time. Once in Royal David's City heralded the beginning, while Come All Ye Faithful drew the entire congregation in. There were Carols that were new to me, Carols from all over the world, German Carols, Basque Carols and our very own Carols in Sinhala and Tamil, the wonderfully haunting Mudhu Seetha Nalarelle by Lancelot Perera and the melodious Thannai Varuthi, a Tamil Carol. There were hauntingly sweet young voices sounding like cherubim and mature voices which blended together in harmony. The conductor, bridget Halpe, guided the choir with perfect precision, unobtrusively so that she too became part of the choir. The instrumental music was a wonderful backdrop. Michiko Herath rendered an exquisite soprano solo, but then I wish I could name every single singer, young and old, who was part of this unique choir. To me, the voices sounded like perfectly tuned, mellow musical instruments. Behind the scenes the choir secretaries must certainly have worked indefatigably so that everything would go smoothly. It was an inspirational evening of music and song that involved not only the singers and musicians but the entire audience. As one of the pastors said, "Why call it the Peradeniya Singers? It is an international choir." Yes, a choir which comprised Sri Lankan, English, American and Japanese singers. The grand finale was the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's The Messiah and we left the church with joyous voices wishing us in song 'A Merry Christmas'. I feel quite often that, living in Kandy, we may sometimes miss out on many significant events in the world of music and drama so we must celebrate 'The Wondrous Story' and all it represents through the dedication, the sharing spirit and the giving of oneself by Bridget Halpe, her choir and the musicians. Joy to the world! The Lord is come: Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare him room And heav'n and nature sing Jean Arasanayagam |
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