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Euroclassic notturno
• A programme made by BBC, taken on every night by Radio Romania Music via the European Broadcasting Union, along with other 12 European broadcasts.
March 2nd 2010 - A new premiere : a series of shows from The
Experimental Studio for Opera and Ballet "Ludovic Spiess", event taking
place in the yellow foyer
On Tuesday, March 2nd 2010, the Small Hall of the Romanian Athenaeum hosted an instrumental recital held by Biró László (violin) and Verona Maier (piano). The programme included
If we take a closer look at the themes of the ‘classical’ ballets we will notice they are addressed to children rather than adults. The Butterfly, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Petrushka, L'Enfant et les sortilèges, Ma Mère l'Oye are all based on more or less popular tales. It seems as if they were written especially for you, the young ones, to discover music more easily.
The second ballet written by Pyotr Ilyici Tchaikovsky is no exception to the rule. Sleeping Beauty is a work we are all familiar with but only a few know its beginnings.
We may think of it as a true story which begins in May 1888 when Tchaikovsky‘s Swan Lake was dismissed as a failure. Many composers would have given up writing another ballet score especially given the fact that ballet was still not considered a ‘first class’ genre. Surprisingly, when the director of the Saint Petersburg Imperial Theatre asked him to write another ballet score for his theatre, Pyotr Ilyici Tchaikovsky instantly accepted. The libretto was supposed to be based on a fairy tale so the story was first Ondine and not Sleeping Beauty.
So how did the famous tale of Charles Perrault turn into the main theme and why is this second ballet of Pyotr Ilyici Tchaikovsky believed to be more successful? You will find this out only if you listen to Steps on Notes on Saturday, March 13th starting from 11.00 sharp!
Simona Tănascu
Translated by Georgiana Mîndru MA student, MTTLC, Bucharest University
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