Ananiashvilli and Fadeyechev's staging of Swan Lake for State Ballet of Georgia, London Coliseum, 28 Aug-8 Sept 2024

[Emeralds]

Thank you, @Amelia and @MAB! 

[Shade]

I attended yesterday evening and took a friend who had not seen swan lake before. We had a very enjoyable evening with good seats and the audience around us was quiet, even in the pauses. I think of the men Rothbart was great. I had expected to see energetic dancing, similar to the Bolshoi and he, Efe Burak, delivered. Laura Fernandez did indeed use her eyes impressively. I was, though a little disappointed that I did not see a Georgian ballerina. Lake scenes very appealing. Audience was enthusiastic which I was pleased to see and it seemed quite full in the auditorium. We were glad that we went.

[Amelia]

17 hours ago, Shade said:

 ... a little disappointed that I did not see a Georgian ballerina. 

 

You, Shade, only had 2 chances to see her. To my surprise, among the seven Principals who participated in the tour as O-O or Siegfried, Nino Samadashvili was the only Georgian dancer. Five of them were guests. And at the same time the Georgian people are so amazing at dancing.

Edited September 6 by Amelia
typo

[San Perregrino]

1 hour ago, Amelia said:

 

You, Shade, only had 2 chances to see her. To my surprise, among the seven Principals who participated in the tour as O-O or Siegfried, Nino Samadashvili was the only Georgian dancer. Five of them were guests. And at the same time the Georgian people are so amazing at dancing.

Nino Samadashvili was listed to dance at 5 performances. Her final one being 7th September evening. So, still time to catch her unless she has withdrawn? 

[Angela Essex]

If anyone is at the Coliseum this evening am I imagining things or did I just see Joy Womack at the stalls bar at the interval? I almost went and told her I enjoyed her film but I wasn’t sure it was her.

[Jamesrhblack]

Back to my hotel by 2230: The Georgian State Ballet certainly whizz through Swan Lake in two acts and four scenes with a single interval. There were some odd musical cuts (not only internal, but no storm in the last scene) but I rather enjoyed seeing Odile dance to the music Fonteyn uses in the Nureyev film, and which Ashton so memorably incorporated into his Pas de Quatre. I’ll not do a spoiler alert re the ending but, to quote Sondheim’s Cinderella, “It made a nice change.”

 

I enjoyed the performance overall very much indeed, without feeling as moved or involved as I can be by this wonderful work. As others have intimated above, the cutting of the mime really does lessen the emotional impact as Odette and Siegfried seem to remain at the level of movers, rather than people whose feelings might matter, an impression reinforced by a Rothbart dancing full out.

 

I’m not sure, bar a superbly scintillating Spanish Dance, that the many choreographic alterations were memorable (although there was some beautiful imagery from the last scene Swans), but I enjoyed the re-arranging of the Ball Room scene scenario and very much liked the costumes with their Byzantine touches. Odile’s Black Tutu with red highlights really was a thing of beauty. It was also good to see Siegfried taking to the floor in the first scene rather than letting Benno take all the glory,

 

The dancers have an engaging enthusiasm about them (I was on the front row of the Stalls which is not only a lot closer than I usually am, but also closer and lower than I usually like to be) and the principals were fine: I preferred Laura Fernandez as Odile, finding her Odette rather blankly muted, and thought Daler Zaparov had more personality but rather less polish. Apart from a bassoon early entry and some typically recalcitrant brass, the ENO sounded splendid under Papina Gvaberidze’s decidedly brisk direction. Indeed, Odile struggled to keep up with the tempo for her foutées but sensibly stuck to singles: I really dislike the stopping for applause after this, but it seems very prevalent further East. At least there wasn’t a Jester.

 

So, not “rapture,” but rather more than “modified rapture” and the excellent programme, which contained several non ballet articles, has certainly inspired me to find out more about Georgia as a country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Amelia]

10 hours ago, San Perregrino said:

Nino Samadashvili was listed to dance at 5 performances.

You are absolutely right, my maths are shameful but my main point was about the absence of Georgian principals. The Tbilisi ballet school was strong under Vakhtang Chabukiani. Among its graduates were Igor Zelensky and Irma Nioradze. Nikolai Tsiskaridze also studied there for 3 years before moving to Moscow.

[FionaM]

I guess the same comment could be made about the Royal Ballet … foreign audiences might want to see British principals. The RB does have a decent number of British born principals, but more principals are non-British.  

[Shade]

9 hours ago, Amelia said:

You are absolutely right, my maths are shameful but my main point was about the absence of Georgian principals. The Tbilisi ballet school was strong under Vakhtang Chabukiani. Among its graduates were Igor Zelensky and Irma Nioradze. Nikolai Tsiskaridze also studied there for 3 years before moving to Moscow.

Thank you Amelia I did not know that. Some starry graduates indeed 

[Emeralds]

When the tour was announced and the article in Dance Europe said former SFB/ABT/ENB principal Maria Kochetkova (now freelancing) was guesting with them for some performances in Italy, I thought there was a possibility that they might invite her, or perhaps the Georgian principals at Dutch National Ballet, Maia Makhateli and Giorgi Potskhishvili, as guest artists since Amsterdam isn't very far away, but Dutch National Ballet start rehearsals for their new season in August.

 

There are also quite a lot of Georgian graduates of the Tbilisi school who joined and rose up the ranks of Russian companies like the Bolshoi and Mariinsky long before 2022 (or even 2014) and other companies worldwide, so I suppose there are fewer left dancing in Georgia. We're very happy with the production we saw and the dancers we had though! And it's great that this production has no jester!

[Angela Essex]

17 hours ago, Jamesrhblack said:

Back to my hotel by 2230: The Georgian State Ballet certainly whizz through Swan Lake in two acts and four scenes with a single interval. There were some odd musical cuts (not only internal, but no storm in the last scene) but I rather enjoyed seeing Odile dance to the music Fonteyn uses in the Nureyev film, and which Ashton so memorably incorporated into his Pas de Quatre. I’ll not do a spoiler alert re the ending but, to quote Sondheim’s Cinderella, “It made a nice change.”

 

I enjoyed the performance overall very much indeed, without feeling as moved or involved as I can be by this wonderful work. As others have intimated above, the cutting of the mime really does lessen the emotional impact as Odette and Siegfried seem to remain at the level of movers, rather than people whose feelings might matter, an impression reinforced by a Rothbart dancing full out.

 

I’m not sure, bar a superbly scintillating Spanish Dance, that the many choreographic alterations were memorable (although there was some beautiful imagery from the last scene Swans), but I enjoyed the re-arranging of the Ball Room scene scenario and very much liked the costumes with their Byzantine touches. Odile’s Black Tutu with red highlights really was a thing of beauty. It was also good to see Siegfried taking to the floor in the first scene rather than letting Benno take all the glory,

 

The dancers have an engaging enthusiasm about them (I was on the front row of the Stalls which is not only a lot closer than I usually am, but also closer and lower than I usually like to be) and the principals were fine: I preferred Laura Fernandez as Odile, finding her Odette rather blankly muted, and thought Daler Zaparov had more personality but rather less polish. Apart from a bassoon early entry and some typically recalcitrant brass, the ENO sounded splendid under Papina Gvaberidze’s decidedly brisk direction. Indeed, Odile struggled to keep up with the tempo for her foutées but sensibly stuck to singles: I really dislike the stopping for applause after this, but it seems very prevalent further East. At least there wasn’t a Jester.

 

So, not “rapture,” but rather more than “modified rapture” and the excellent programme, which contained several non ballet articles, has certainly inspired me to find out more about Georgia as a country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agree re the mime - its absence hugely detracted from the emotional impact of the performance for me. Especially when Odile first encounters Siegfried at the lake. 

 

Laura Fernandez was superb as both Odette and Odile for me, but I found Daler Zaparov’s acting and facial expressions much less engaging than Fernandez’s. There seemed to not be much emotional reaction from him to the tragic unfolding of events - especially when he finds out he has been tricked by Odile. Other Siegfried’s I’ve seen really project that their world has just been devastated, but that didn’t come across to me.

 

The Spanish dance was captivating - I watched Isabella McGuire Mayes’ you tube video analysis of Marinsky vs RB Spanish dances and this version seemed a lot more like the Marinsky version with lots of quite extreme cambre back (not sure if that is the correct term here?). It was one of the many highlights of the performance for me.

 

With respect to the other character dances I missed the tambourine noises - 

the tambourines were there but no noise from them. Also I really missed the heel click noises that I think are in the RB character dances. Maybe I’m imagining things but the character dances I’ve seen at the RB were a little more impactful. I also missed the character princesses - the princesses in this version were all the same and a little less sassy than is to my taste. 
 

Shout out to one of Siegfrieds sisters who was particularly smiley and engaging - she also danced in some of the corps numbers and was a joy to watch. 

 

I really liked that von Rothbart was more of a dancing role than I’d seen in the RB version and I liked that his costume was more minimalist than the RB version which emphasised the dancing. Also agree that it was nice to see Siegfried taking on a bit more of the dancing in act 1 compared with Benno.

 

Overall there was so much to like about this production. The costumes, staging and standard of dancing in general were great to my untrained eye and I had a lovely evening. Also the price for my front row stalls seat was amazing. I wish I’d gone sooner in the run before last night as I would’ve definitely liked to return to see more Odette-Odiles and Siegfrieds.

[Pas de Quatre]

I went to the 2.30 pm performance on 5th September, sitting towards the back of the Dress Circle and thought it a wonderful experience.  From what I could see it was full and the audience well behaved.  There weren't any children evident as they have mostly gone back to school.  Only one person had a minor coughing fit which they quickly stifled.  During the dramatic moments throughout you could have heard a pin drop, there was utter silence and concentration, followed by loud applause and cheers at the right moment.

 

The production was a fairly straight forward telling of the story and I rather liked it.  The programme was quite expensive, but had lots of information both on the current production, the history of Swan Lake and dancers.  It reminded me that Balanchine was Georgian and other snippets of dancers biographies.

 

The cast I saw was Nino Samadashvili as Odette/Odile, Oleg Ligai as Prince Siegfried, Marcel Soares as Baron von Rothbart, Kaito Hosoyo as Benno.  (The English spelling varies between the printed programme and the cast lists online).

 

Act 1 is fairly conventional with some lovely dancing, Siegfried joining in to turn the usual pas de trois into a pas de quatre.  His relationship with his mother seemed warmer than usual.  In the Synopsis she is described as the Princess Regent which explains the importance of his coming of age party - he will then become King.  Even today's Monarchs are encouraged to provide an heir and a spare!  Ligai is tall, long legged with beautiful lines, a huge jump and soft landings, which made me think of Nikolai Tsiskaridze before I had read about his connection in the programme. 

 

Act 2 ran on without interval and was gorgeous.  Samadashvili is every inch the Prima Ballerina.  I did miss the mime, but there is reference up thread to using Odile's music like in the Nureyev film, and in that film he choreographed a pas de deux to the mime music.  Ligai was an attentive tender partner, my only caveat was that as he is tall he was having to look down towards Odette.  Marcelo Soares had plenty to do and was more of a dancing role than in many productions,  he looked more like an Eastern magician than a large bird!

 

Act 3 after the interval was pretty conventional, with lovely Character dances.  I rather like the fact the the Spanish dancers came on as Rothbart and Odile's entourage.  Now to the famous fouettés - the whole production was performed at a brisk pace  and reminded me of Royal Ballet performances in 1960s and 1970s.  When did it all get slowed down?  It made me think of the films of Beryl Grey and it only took a few seconds to find on Youtube.

 

Beryl Grey - Odile in KIev and Moscow, 1958

 

Act 4 followed without an interval, there were some beautiful swan formations and I loved the lift where Odette appeared from among the swans on the floor.  By now I am sure it is not a spoiler to reveal the ending, where Odette was restored to human form and they live happily ever after.  Beautifully done and a valid alternative!  

 

Fonteyn & Nureyev Swan Lake 1966

 

This is the whole film.  You can find the Act 1 mime music about 35 minutes in.  Act 3 Pas de deux at around 1hr 30

 

 

Edited September 7 by Pas de Quatre
Add link

[Sim]

I have just got back from the matinee.  The leads were Anastasia Matvienko and Michal Krcmar, with Marcelo Soares as Von Rothbart.

I'm afraid that the production didn't do anything for me.  I felt no emotion and no connection.  I put this down to the complete absence of any mime, and to  bits that were cut.  Starting in Act 1, we have no indication that Siegfried is weighed down by the prospect of kingship, and the demand of his mother that he marry.  She never once makes this clear, here or in Act 3.  'Which one do you like?' is about as close as it gets. We therefore have no sense of Siegfried's need to escape, to think about what lies before him, and ponder what to do about it.  So no solo at the end of Act 1.  Bring on Act 2.  Here, there were some lovely Swan moments from the corps.  But once again, when Siegfried encounters Odette, there is no explanation of what happened to her, there is no explanation of the spell only being broken by someone who swears eternal love and marriage, and during what we know as the mime music not an awful lot happens.

 
Act 3 is rather different from other productions I have seen; the national dances come before the big pdd, and the Spanish dance comes afterwards.  I have never seen this section taken at such a lick...it seemed that they were sort of playing out what many of us sometimes think in Act 3:  I wish this bit would hurry up so we can see the pdd. The pace was so quick, and one dance led into the other so fast, that it could have been a mess...but wasn't.  Again, the bit with the six princesses was whizzed through...and again it was very unclear.  Who were these people?  Where was the pressure on Siegfried to choose one of them? 

Act 4 was, on the whole, lovely.  Lovely patterns and dancing from the corps.  However, there is no storm.  There is no real battle for the body and soul of Odette.  That glorious music when Siegfried runs onto the stage in a state of despair to beg Odette's forgiveness has gone.  He just turns up.  There is none of the abject remorse and guilt and devastation that he has condemned Odette to a lifetime of being a swan.   Von Rothbart (looking every inch like he came straight from a Trocks performance) also turns up, dances around a bit, then just disappears.  What happened to him?  Where did he go?  I won't say more in case anyone is going tonight or tomorrow, but again, it is so unclear.  Perhaps none of the above matters as there is no tragedy at the end.  I don't like happy endings in Swan Lake.  Sorry, I just don't:  the music tells me that there is tragedy and then redemption of some sort or another.  However, as we had to have one, this one was different and interesting.  

Anastasia Matvienko lifted the whole performance for me.  She is a lovely dancer and although there could have been more depth to her characterisations of both swans (very little reaction from her or VR when Siegfried's deception comes to light...where is the malice?) she convinced as Odette in particular.  Her fouettes were executed beautifully and at a whirring pace.  I only wish she could have had a partner who was her equal.  I found Michal Krcmar's dancing quite clunky and wooden.   I really tried hard not to have Vadim in my head during the Act 3 solo, but despite some success in this endeavour this solo just didn't cut the mustard for me.  No beautiful line, no glorious jumps, no beautifully pointed feet....it looked laboured.  There wasn't much chemistry between the leads despite a good try, but I attribute this to the lack of mime and time more than I do to the dancers.

The corps was lovely and beautifully in synch.  Benno's part was much reduced from what we are used to in the Western versions of the ballet.  The choreography for his solo in the Act pd3 was very disappointing to me...that stirring music but again, not an awful lot happening to accompany it.  

I loved the costumes and the set for the lake was simple yet effective.  The audience at an almost full Coliseum loved the ballet and were really engaged and on the whole very well behaved, even the children.   That says a lot.  

Despite my rather negative words I am glad I went.  It is always interesting to see different interpretations of this most famous and steadfast of ballets; sadly this one didn't work for me.  However, it did assuage my annual summer ballet withdrawal symptoms, and for that I am very thankful!
 

[Jamiel Devernay-Laurence]

On 06/09/2024 at 20:43, Angela Essex said:

If anyone is at the Coliseum this evening am I imagining things or did I just see Joy Womack at the stalls bar at the interval? I almost went and told her I enjoyed her film but I wasn’t sure it was her.

It was indeed, following her London debut with us a couple of nights before at ballet nights.

 

J

[Emeralds]

I remember the very first full length Swan Lake I saw didn't have the mime (where Odette tells Siegfried that Rothbart, "the angry person", has turned her into a swan, the lake was formed from her mother's tears, and if a man loves her and is faithful to her forever, she will be released from the spell and no longer be a swan) that is missing in this production and a few others that have been staged in London (the ENB Royal Albert Hall production and the most recent Bolshoi version).  Believe it or not, that was actually a Royal Ballet production 😉.  But when Anthony Dowell restored the mime for his 1987 production (the one before Liam Scarlett's production) it made Act 2 look so much nicer, especially since the music complements the mime so well. 

[alison]

The first Swan Lake I ever saw was, I think, the London Festival Ballet Makarova production, very early on in my balletgoing "career".  The programme notes told us what Odette was supposedly telling Siegfried, but there was no sign of it on stage!  I left feeling a bit stupid and wondering if ballet was for me if I couldn't even spot something as basic as a major plot point ...

[Emeralds]

2 hours ago, alison said:

The first Swan Lake I ever saw was, I think, the London Festival Ballet Makarova production, very early on in my balletgoing "career".  The programme notes told us what Odette was supposedly telling Siegfried, but there was no sign of it on stage!  I left feeling a bit stupid and wondering if ballet was for me if I couldn't even spot something as basic as a major plot point ...

That's unlucky that you started with that one, Alison! I had seen a number of full length productions on video and in person (mostly on video) or before I saw that Makarova production, so I thought I had seen a reasonable number of permutations/combinations eg jester  vs no jester, tutor vs Benno, happy ending vs tragic ending vs united in heaven ending, etc but even I found that production very confusing!

 

I think what was the worst was the splicing and repeating of the prospective brides' music! It was like a drunk DJ had found a record of the Swan Lake music and decided to play with it......!  I don't remember that version having much mime either. I only wished they had restored one of their old productions instead of hanging on to it for so long. I think it did lose them a fair bit of money. It played to only partly filled houses every time I went- the only Swan Lake I've ever seen that hasn't sold at least 95% of seats. 

 

I do remember the Morrice/Ashton RB one not having the mime but it flowed very musically and logically, and seemed reasonable enough that if he swore true love to Odette he should not do the same and/or propose marriage to Odile, and the chaos in Act 3 and his contrition in Act 4  made sense. 

[FionaM]

21 hours ago, Emeralds said:

I remember the very first full length Swan Lake I saw didn't have the mime (where Odette tells Siegfried that Rothbart, "the angry person", has turned her into a swan, the lake was formed from her mother's tears, and if a man loves her and is faithful to her forever, she will be released from the spell and no longer be a swan) that is missing in this production and a few others that have been staged in London (the ENB Royal Albert Hall production and the most recent Bolshoi version).  Believe it or not, that was actually a Royal Ballet production 😉.  But when Anthony Dowell restored the mime for his 1987 production (the one before Liam Scarlett's production) it made Act 2 look so much nicer, especially since the music complements the mime so well. 

Thank you for raising this, it’s prompted a thought I hadn’t articulated until now.  
 

I think that mime scene is rather rushed and forced. There is too much to say and it’s said (mimed) too quickly for the audience to ‘get’ it especially if they don’t know the meanings of each move. (Who knows the mime for mother?). I’m always nervous that Odette won’t complete the mime by the final note.  
 

The worst part for me musically is that it’s choreographed to complete in the next phase of the music. Often the Odettes are late musically on that extra note. 
 

it might be better to rethink this.

 

is it  really necessary to be so prescriptive?  Why do RB audiences have to be told so literally, when other audiences can accept the story for its tragic beauty. The music tells all. 

Edited September 12 by FionaM

[oncnp]

5 minutes ago, FionaM said:

. (Who knows the mime for mother?).

 

Start about 2:50  Swan Lake: A beginner's guide - Ballet Mime (The Royal Ballet) (youtube.com)

 

[Emeralds]

50 minutes ago, FionaM said:

Thank you for raising this, it’s prompted a thought I hadn’t articulated until now.  
 

I think that mime scene is rather rushed and forced. There is too much to say and it’s said (mimed) too quickly for the audience to ‘get’ it especially if they don’t know the meanings of each move. (Who knows the mime for mother?). I’m always nervous that Odette won’t complete the mime by the final note.  
 

The worst part for me musically is that it’s choreographed to complete in the next phase of the music. Often the Odettes are late musically on that extra note. 
 

it might be better to rethink this.

 

is it  really necessary to be so prescriptive?  Why do RB audiences have to be told so literally, when other audiences can accept the story for its tragic beauty. The music tells all. 

I agree that many audiences don't understand the mime (that's probably the reason for it being cut in many productions). I've been with a number of friends and relatives who have never taken ballet lessons/don't follow ballet regularly and have watched Swan Lake more than three times (with the mime) and they don't understand what that mime passage means either (until they get a demonstration and explanation) - although they understand the "please don't shoot my swans" mime later in Act 2, which is included in the productions by State Ballet of Georgia, ENB in-the-round, Morrice/Ashton etc. 

 

As you say, @FionaM, the cut mime passage has a lot of information to convey in a very short space of time in a brisk passage of music- to me it feels like Odette is "talking" very hurriedly, which can go right over someone's  head. 

 

Of course, there are lots of things in stage performances - from plays to operas to symphonies - that audiences don't catch, understand or notice even after repeat viewing, but are still beautiful, necessary and worth keeping. I do like the mime but am aware it might not be fathomable to many (although it doesn't stop them enjoying the full ballet).

 

I think this production definitely doesn't hit  emotional highs and lows (compared to the RB's emotional rollercoaster that the current production is; in some ways it can feel like there is a tad too much emotion and misery for a first time watcher) but conversely everyone is quite civilised and chilled in the SBG version and even the prospective brides don't appear too upset at not being picked. Perhaps they are there more for the buffet and party, to make friends with other nobles, and already have their social calendar all booked up- probably other Princes, Dukes and  Counts scheduled for the next 6 months-  so they feel there's plenty of fish in the sea!

 

I did, funnily enough, like the fact that Siegfried's mother didn't seem as bossy or imperious as other Queens/Princess Regents normally are, to the point that they sometimes look like they're bullying Siegfried. She seemed quite relaxed, as though saying, "oh you didn't like these six ladies....very well, am sure my staff can organise another ball next week, there are stil other young noblewomen you haven't met yet".  I do like Swan Lake to start with a cheery and happy Act 1 up until the point where Siegfried's mother tells him he must marry. If there is no cheer at all and Rothbart is lurking and spreading a cloak of misery over everything from the start it can make the ballet very one-note of being gloomy from start to finish. 

 

It's not as dramatic as the RB version but if viewed as a rather benign, child-friendly illustrated story book style, it still works on its own merits. The only bit that I felt could do with a bit more ramping up was making Rothbart a bit more evil- fewer jumps and maybe a few more passages of  mime or emoting to show us he really is the baddie.

 

I did like the fact that the 3 main classical ballet productions of Swan Lake (RB, ENB, SBG) in London have all been really different from each other this season, so that it doesn't feel like "oh no, not the same Swan Lake again just with a different dance company" because they are distinctive, which is great for audiences. (And I'm glad BRB did Sleeping Beauty this year!) 

Edited September 12 by Emeralds

[Pas de Quatre]

I agree that it was nice to see a warmer relationship between Siegfried and his mother. My impression of Act 3 was that it was a group of debutantes being presented at Court during the ball. In the programme the dancers aren't credited, and in the synopsis they are described as "charming Maidens". 

[Emeralds]

I wish the Act 3 dancers had been credited-  the Spanish Dance couples deserve a shootout of their own, and I'd like to have found out who the Czardas, Mazurka and Neapolitan Dance performers were. Would love to see this company return with another programme- perhaps something with a Georgian story or composer. 

[James]

On 11/09/2024 at 16:27, Emeralds said:

I think what was the worst was the splicing and repeating of the prospective brides' music! It was like a drunk DJ had found a record of the Swan Lake music and decided to play with it......!

 

I know what you mean, Emeralds, but, in fact, at this point the production resorted to the original 1877 score, so what you heard was genuine Tchaikovsky. In the original, the arrival of each prospective bride, accompanied by her family, was separately heralded, interrupting the waltz every time.
If I could criticise anyone for playing around with Tchaikovsky’s score, it would be Ricardo Drigo, the author of the 1895 revisions, but that’s another story. 

[Emeralds]

2 hours ago, James said:

 

I know what you mean, Emeralds, but, in fact, at this point the production resorted to the original 1877 score, so what you heard was genuine Tchaikovsky. In the original, the arrival of each prospective bride, accompanied by her family, was separately heralded, interrupting the waltz every time.
If I could criticise anyone for playing around with Tchaikovsky’s score, it would be Ricardo Drigo, the author of the 1895 revisions, but that’s another story. 

That's a good point. Admittedly, veteran watchers of Swan Lake are now used to a certain running order and specific edits - done by Drigo - that we are so familiar with that the original version would sound really strange (even jarring) to us. Probably an unrealistic aim, but I wish that if the plan had been to restore certain bits of original music or original running order, that the whole thing was restored and not just bits and pieces of it. (That would of course result in a very long ballet which might have to be staged as two shows!) I sometimes wonder what Tchaikovsky would think if he could attend a modern day performance of a fairly standard production eg RB, ABT.