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To add to the list.
From the Financial Times's review of Borodin:
[the production]
>substitutes a vast garden of
>incongruous poppies for the Polovtsian
>steppes, upon which would-be dancers
>execute embarrassing writhing rituals. Call
>them strangers in paradise.
Interestingly, I read from the Metropolitan Opera archives:
"In the Tartar dances, too,
Borodin is completely
at home. These dances,
which were made
known to us several years
ago by the MacDowell
Chorus, are replete with
oriental color
and rhythms, savage, fascinating
breaths
from the Eastern plains,
dances of the
people, for the people,
by the people."
--- as per written in "The New York Tribune" on Dec. 31, 1915. And I wonder
'how many' 'several years ago' and 'where' in New York that was!
I also found of interest an earlier reference to the Covent Garden in the
same "New York Tribune" review:
"As both the overture and
the third act
are omitted in the Metropolitan's production,
as they were omitted in the Diaghileff
production in
Paris and also in the
performances at Covent
Garden, the work as
last night's audience
heard it is really the
joint production of
Borodin and Rinsky-Korsakoff."
I assume "the performances at Covent Garden" refers to
Mikhail Fokine
Composer: Alexander Porfir'yevich Borodin
Music title: Prince Igor (1890)
Work definition: Ballet in one act
ROH premiere: 21 June 1911,
Composer: Alexander Porfir'yevich Borodin
Music title: Prince Igor (1890)
Work definition: Ballet in one act
ROH premiere: 21 June 1911,
Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev
Next would be to do some lyrical comparisons!
Cheers,
Speranza
--
(a) Russian original for the lyrics to the Dances.
(b) Italian version:
(as heard at the Metropolitan on Dec. 30 1915, four days after the 'prima
assoluta' at the Scala in Milan).
-- a link to the entry in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Igor:
va' su l'ale de la brezza
canzone, va' su l'ale del pensiero
e bacia tu la mia diletta terra
ti segue l'alitar de l'alma mia
l'aria è tutta ebbrezze
l'eco pur sospira par che vaghi il monte
quasi nube a mezzo mar.
già del sole la carezza inonda
or le vette de' miei colli
e lieto da le mie foreste vaghe.
un canto celestial risponde al mio.
come sospir, la canzon va trasvolando
reca, o rosignolo la pia canzone
ti segue l'alitar de l'alma mia
lieve ai margini del mar
(c) English translation to Italian version, from
On the wings of the wind borne away fly homeward song of our mother land to
the land where we sang in freedom before the days of captivity there beneath the
ardent sky blows a languid, warm-breathed breeze there the cloud-capped
mountains dream listening to the murm'ring sea and the emerald slopes are
glowing In the sunshine's golden rays there the roses in the valleys hang in
heavy fragrant clusters there among the young green branches nightingales pour
forth their lays fly my song upon the zephyrs back to home and liberty.
(d) The "Kismet" version, as made a solo for male voice and recorded by
Bing Crosby!
take my hand I’m a STRANGER IN PARADISE all lost in a wonder land a
STRANGER IN PARADISE
if I stand starry eyed that’s a danger in paradise for mortals who stand beside an angel like you
if I stand starry eyed that’s a danger in paradise for mortals who stand beside an angel like you
I saw your face & I ascended out of the common place into the
rare
some where in space I hang suspended until I know there's a chance that you care
won't you answer my fervent prayer just a STRANGER IN PARADISE
some where in space I hang suspended until I know there's a chance that you care
won't you answer my fervent prayer just a STRANGER IN PARADISE
don’t send me in dark despair from all that I hunger for but open your
angel's arms
to this STRANGER IN PARADISE & tell him that he need be a stranger no more
to this STRANGER IN PARADISE & tell him that he need be a stranger no more
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