Release Date: 01 January 2000
Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 730099449526
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: 20TH CENTURY ENGLISH BALLETS
Description
20th Century English BaIlets Cinderella (Philip Feeney) The Brontes (Dominic Muldowney) A Christmas Carol (Carl Davis) All the music on this disc is taken fromfull-length ballet scores commissioned by Northern Ballet Theatre. The Companywas created in 1969 by Laverne Meyer with the intention of providing qualityperformances of classical ballet not only around its home base of Manchester, but alsothroughout Great Britain.The Company now has its administrative headquarters in Halifax, West Yorkshire.In 1987 the noted dancer and actorChristopher Gable was appointed Artistic Director of Northern Ballet Theatre,following his appearance with the Company as the painter, L.S. Lowry, in ASimple Man (choreography by Gillian Lynne, music by Carl Davis). Hedeveloped a new artistic policy for the Company, concentrating on thepresentation of full-length narrative dance dramas, in which the impact of thestory told is every bit as important as the quality of the dancing. The relatively modest size of the Company,(34 dancers, 24 players in the orchestra), has been challenging for NBT in itspresentation of the traditional repertoire. Nevertheless, with an imaginativeand innovative approach to the great classics the Company has enjoyed enormoussuccess with productions of Romeo & Juliet and Swan Lake. Its moreparticular claim to attention, however, is with the creation of wholly newworks. This innovative policy has resulted inthe regular commissioning of new ballet scores, three of which are representedhere. As with most ballet scores, there are passages in. each of .these workswhere the interest is primarily dramatic - the items on this recording havebeen chosen with the dual purpose of providing a memento for those listenerswho have seen the ballets, and a musically satisfying experience to those whohave not. Cinderella For his production of Cinderella, ChristopherGable undertook extensive research into the different versions of the story. Heopted to take as his model the version told by the Brothers Grimm in 1815rather than the more familiar story published by the 17th Century Frenchauthor, Charles Perrault, which was translated into English in 1729 as Cinderella,or the Little Glass Slipper. In Perrault one finds the FairyGodmother with a pumpkin which turns into the coach to take Cinderella to thebal1, the glass slipper and the instruction to be home by midnight. TheBrothers Grimm story is harsher, more cruel and moralistic. Cinderella's 'ugly'sisters are described in Grimm as having "beautiful lily - white faces butugly black hearts" .Cinderella' s Stepmother not only treats the heroinewith great cruelty , but also takes a kitchen knife to her own daughter' s toeswhen it becomes apparent that her feet are too big to fit in the slipper foundby the Prince. The Stepmother and her daughters are blinded by ravens for theirmalice and deceitfulness, and throughout the story Cinderel1a is helped to bearher torments by the support of her dead Mother f
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
