don quixote
The Vienna State Ballet is part of the Vienna State Opera and Vienna Volksoper
don quixote Ballet in one Prologue & three Acts
Music Ludwig Minkus arranged by John Lanchbery Libretto after the 2nd part of the novel El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de La Mancha (1615) by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Choreography & Direction Rudolf Nureyev after Marius Petipa Musical Direction Robert Reimer Stage & Costume Design Nicholas Georgiadis Lighting Design Marc Anrochte
WORLD PREMIERE 1 DECEMBER 1966 – VIENNA STATE OPERA RESTAGING 28 FEBRUARY 2011 – VIENNA STATE OPERA REVIVAL 28 JUNE 2023 – VIENNA STATE OPERA
about today’s performance Published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, Miguel de Cervantes’ famous story about the hidalgo Alonso Quijada – an impoverished descendant of the lower nobility, who pursues his dreams of knighthood and finally sets out into the world on his rickety horse Rosinante and accompanied by his squire Sancho Panza to fight against social ills – is more than just a fascinating store of knowledge about the world of the Siglo de Oro. To this day, the adventures of the »Knight of the woeful countenance« are a collision of ideal and reality and the draft of a social utopia that never existed outside the world between two book covers. And to this day, reflection on Don Quixote has not ceased – not even on the ballet stage, which took an early interest in the material: already in 1740, Franz Hilverding produced a Don Quixote ballet in Vienna, which Jean-Georges Noverre then presumably referred to in 1768 in his Viennese choreography about the knight from La Mancha. Further works followed by Charles Didelot in 1808 in St. Petersburg, Paul Taglioni in 1839 at the Berlin Court Opera and Salvatore Taglioni in 1843 at the Teatro Regio in Turin. Finally, in 1869, Marius Petipa, in his first collaboration with the composer Ludwig Minkus, brought out his version at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, which – revised for St. Petersburg two years later – is preserved today only in the numerous rewritings Petipa’s work underwent. Among these Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote stands out, created in 1966 for the Ballet of the Vienna State Opera and until 1985 on the repertoire at the Haus am Ring in Barry Kay’s set and costume design, regularly with Nureyev himself in the role of Basil. In 2011, Manuel Legris brought the piece back to the place of its creation, now with Nicholas Georgiadis’ design: Nureyev’s opulent and highly virtuoso ballet comedy, in which the story of Don Quixote only forms the framework for the turbulent and colourful love intrigue about the young couple Kitri and Basil and a dream vision in the tradition of romantic »ballet blanc«.
ABOUT TODAY’S PERFORMANCE
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Zsolt Török (Don Quixote)
synopsis Prologue In Don Quixote’s house Don Quixote, a country gentleman, believes himself to be a valiant knight straight out of the country romances which are his favourite reading. As he dreams, Dulcinea, the heroine of these stories and his vision of the ideal woman, appears to him. But his neighbour Sancho Panza, chased by servants from whom he has stolen a chicken, enters and disturbs his day-dreams. Don Quixote decides to make Sancho Panza into his knightly companion, and together they leave to take on the world.
Act 1 A public square in Barcelona Kitri, the daughter of Lorenzo, the innkeeper, searches in the crowd for her beloved, Basil the barber. Her joyous dancing is interrupted by her father who, wanting her to marry the rich and noble Gamache, repulses Basil. Kitri determinedly refuses this proposed marriage, but the arrival of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza puts an end to their argument. Lorenzo offers his hospitality to the knight and invites him to his inn. Sancho Panza is a little too attentive to the girls and is teased and manhandled by the young people until Don Quixote comes to his rescue. When Don Quixote sees Kitri, he believes her to be his adored Dulcinea. Gallantly, he offers her his arm for a minuet. Gamache is furious. Kitri and Basil take advantage of the confusion to flee.
Act 2 Scene 1: The »gypsy«* camp Basil and Kitri refuge in a windmill. They are discovered by a group of »gypsies«, who try to rob them. However, the »gypsies« soon realise the poverty of the young people, and decide to help them when they witness the arrival of Lorenzo and Gamache, followed
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by Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, who eventually find their hiding place. The »gypsies« try to set Don Quixote against Lorenzo and Gamache. To this end, they install a puppet theatre where the story of the thwarted love of Basil and Kitri is played out. Caught up by the story, Don Quixote tries to come to the puppet lover’s aid, and destroys the theatre. Suddenly, he finds himself facing the windmill, which he attacks, believing him to be a gigantic enemy. He is caught up by the spokes of the windmill and thrown to the ground. The »gypsies«, disguised as ghosts, attempt to frighten the knight. Basil and Kitri manage once again to escape.
Scene 2: Don Quixote’s dream Don Quixote, wounded and half fainted, dreams that he is transported to an enchanted garden as a reward for his courage and fidelity. The Queen of the Dryads takes him to Dulcinea, to whom he dares to declare his love. But the dream evaporates.
Act 3 Scene 1: An inn Basil and Kitri, happy to have escaped their pursuers, celebrate their success with friends at an inn. Lorenzo, Gamache, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza lose no time, however, in rejoining them. Lorenzo is absolutely decided that Kitri should marry Gamache. In desperation, Basil resorts to subterfuge and pretends to commit suicide. Kitri implores Don Quixote to help them, and the knight obliges Lorenzo to allow Kitri to marry the »dying« Basil. But as soon as her father has given his blessing, Basil jumps up gaily. Provoked beyond endurance by the trick played upon him, Gamache challenges Don Quixote to a duel, and is beaten.
Scene 2: The wedding In the midst of the great rejoicing at the marriage of Kitri and Basil, Don Quixote and his faithful servant leave in search of new adventures.
* »Zigeuner« (engl. »Gypsy«) is a foreign designation that has been used in the German-speaking world since the 15th century. Three classifications can be distinguished: Designation of an ethnic group with an independent culture, a nomadic, marginal and delinquent way of life, an »unattached«, non-settled way of life. The foreign designation is usually used in a racist discriminatory way. In literature, music, the visual and performing arts, there is also a romanticised depiction of the »Zigeuner«, as in Nureyev’s Don Quixote. Since the 1980s, the ethnic groups use the terms Sinti and Roma as self-designation. Since these cannot be equated with the meaning of the historical term in the context of Don Quixote, »Zigeuner« is explicitly used as a source term in the context of the Vienna State Ballet’s production.
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SYNOPSIS
KLAUS GEITEL ON RUDOLF NUREYEV AS BASIL (1971)
»Nureyev’s art, otherwise rather darkened, filled with ferocious passion and an accomplished and heartbreaking capacity for suffering, sparks into brilliant and enchanting life. Here he runs riot with the – no less accomplished – weapon of his smile … His charm is just as compelling as his rage. Instead of making the audience shrink back, they crane their necks to see him. This nice version of Nureyev is a sensation. Only now is the complete breadth of his talents clearly revealed … Nureyev the clown is a genuine discovery.«
Rudolf Nureyev (Basil), Kirov Theatre Leningrad, 1960
Rudolf Nureyev (Basil) and Gisela Cech (Kitri), Vienna State Opera, 1977
Rudolf Nureyev (Basil) with Irmtraud Haider (Kitri’s girlfriend) and Ully Wührer (Kitri), Vienna State Opera, 1966
RUDOLF NUREYEV ON DON QUIXOTE
»I try all through to keep the six main characters together, playing off each other, as in commedia dell’arte – you can even match up characters. Quixote is Pantalon, Kitri is Columbine; Basilio, Pierrot and so on. I wanted the story not to be about Don Quixote but about how people react to him, how they take advantage of him and devise ways to mock and laugh at him. Yet they go crazy doing this, they are as fantastic as the knight is. And Don Quixote himself ... At first, I hated him quite a lot. I didn’t understand for a long time: I was on the side of the people. To me he was just a clown. And then I read the book! There is so much there, but in a ballet you can only skim the surface.
I tried to put in a lot of things I felt about the book, like impressions of the Callot lithographs, but you daren’t put too much comment in. It really is largely a lot of dances and great zest and comic spirit ... and yet, everybody seems to think of his ballet as kind of foolish. I can’t take any credit for these productions which I do only to provide another vehicle for myself and to preserve what is left of Petipa. With Don Quixote I wanted a comic part and since no choreographer has ever offered me one, I did this.«
yearning for immortality
ANNA BEKE
For more than two decades, Rudolf Nureyev, one of the greatest dancers of the century, was stateless. In 1982, long after he escaped spectacularly from his Soviet homeland to apply for political asylum in Paris in 1961, the state of Austria offered him a new home: Nureyev became an Austrian citizen – but he would remain both at home and homeless all over the world.
Making a Noise in the West Once he began his second career in the West, Nureyev conquered the dance world seemingly overnight, beginning with the swinging London of the 1960s. Paris, Milan, Vienna, New York – no major dance centre was left out. Thanks to his magnetic stage presence and technical virtuosity, he rapidly became the ballet world’s biggest attraction, filling houses to the very last seat. »The only critic is a full house«, the ballet star would confidently claim. The Royal Ballet became his artistic home, confronting the young dancer with an immense wealth of new experiences. It was here that the choreographers who had initiated the revival of dramatic story ballets from the middle of
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the 20th century onwards were working: Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan and John Cranko. Nureyev’s heyday coincided with the creation of rigorously dramatic major works calling for an ambitious level of technical and performance skills, such as MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet (1965) and Cranko’s literary ballets Onegin (1965) and The Taming of the Shrew (1969). These were the first ballets since Michel Fokine’s works for the Ballets Russes to create strong male roles. And these were the footsteps in which Nureyev was able to tread – both as a choreographer and as a dancer. His remarkable awareness and rapid grasp of dance gave him the ability to respond to his contemporaries’ numerous innovations with ideas of his own. However, wherever there is so much light, there is always a great deal of shade: this quick-tempered artist frequently rubbed colleagues or theatre managements up the wrong way, and his connections with the Royal Ballet would loosen from the mid-1960s onwards. Other companies were eyeing up Nureyev not only as a guest star – they were also interested in his virtuoso technical expertise and knowledge of the Soviet ballet repertoire. Vienna offered fertile ground for the years of his artistic apprenticeship, during which Nureyev was able to establish himself in a new double role – as an acclaimed star dancer and choreographer.
Choreography in Vienna and around the World Following his debut as a choreographer with two new productions of Pepita classics – Raymonda as a visiting production by the Royal Ballet at the Spoleto Festival and Swan Lake for the ballet of the Vienna State Opera, both in 1964 – Tancredi (1966), commissioned by Vienna to a score by Hans Werner Henze, became Nureyev’s first original work. Nureyev had achieved a huge hit with Swan Lake, which he danced together with the star ballerina Margot Fonteyn – with its 89 curtain calls, this iconic theatre event at the Vienna State Opera went down in the Guinness Book of Records. Nureyev’s last choreographic gift to Vienna came in 1966 and was the new version of Petipa’s Don Quixote (1869/1871) to the score by the Viennese-born Ludwig Minkus. Nureyev choreographed this milestone of his career only five years after his defection during the Cold War and he clearly saw the leading role of Basil as a vehicle for his own talents as a dancer. Alongside subsequent new productions of the classics Sleeping Beauty (1966), The Nutcracker (1967), Romeo and Juliet (1977) and Cinderella (1986), Nureyev also attracted attention with new ballets that included Manfred (1979), The Tempest (1982) and Washington Square (1985). As a swan song for his career, he bade farewell to his audience on 8 October 1992 with a new production of the Petipa masterpiece La Bayadère at the Paris Opera – a company that he had run as Ballet Director from 1983 to 1989 and a stage on which he had made his Paris debut 31 years before, performing the same work in a guest production by the Kirov in May 1961. It was through this ballet that Nureyev had seen Paris for the first time and also bade his final farewell some three decades later. 13
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Innovative Traditionalist Although Nureyev made an effort to absorb the influences of neoclassical, modern and contemporary dance in his role as Ballet Director, as a choreographer he remained faithful to the aesthetic of Russian and Soviet ballet – the traditional 19th century lineage that started with Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov and Alexander Gorsky. Here he was very cautious about introducing changes: »If you are familiar with these ballets, then you will know what a choreographer is allowed to do. You can only introduce something of your own up to a certain point.« In Don Quixote large portions of the »original« Petipa had been lost, as was the case with other classic ballets, and the notated sections had only been preserved in part. The »core«, which formed the basis for Nureyev’s version, was Alexander Gorsky’s modified new version from 1900, which in turn had been heavily influenced by Konstantin Stanislavsky’s Moscow Arts Theatre with its emphasis on »realistic theatre«. Nureyev adopted few additional innovations from his compatriots George Balanchine, Michel Fokine and Vaslav Nijinsky, who had revolutionised the world of Western ballet in the first third of the 20th century: he took on neither the one-act, strongly expressive narrative ballet of the Ballets Russes, nor the abstract and purist neoclassical ballet of Balanchine with its aesthetic that »ballet is woman«. He also distanced himself from the Hans van Manen’s view, based on the theory that »dance is about dance«, of ballet as movement within time and space: »For me, purity of movement wasn’t enough. I needed expression, more intensity, more mind.« A statement like this places Nureyev firmly in the sphere of influence of those who renewed the dramatic story ballet, whose works follow the structure of traditional classical ballet and whose representation of whole-body movement makes them successors to the Ballets Russes. They rejected what Petipa called »number ballets«, while Nureyev celebrated them as opportunities to demonstrate dancers’ technical excellence. While Cranko’s attitude was: »I’m not interested in the purely technical. Technique should go unnoticed«, Nureyev built his work on the physical and virtuosic side of dance that he knew from Soviet ballet. While this in turn brought him closer to Balanchine, who focused on bravura technique in abstract form, Nureyev’s ideal of mastering the technical discipline of dance was always combined with the dramatic qualities of a choreographer like Cranko, albeit without exploring his ultimate depths. After Nureyev spent an entire summer preparing for this production of Don Quixote by reading Cervantes, he commented: »There is so much there, but in a ballet you can only skim the surface.« As a result it is no surprise that Nureyev’s version of Don Quixote relies mainly on effects and technical excellence and only secondarily on dramaturgy and narrative. His ballet adaptation involved a certain reduction of their content while in the literary ballets of Cranko or MacMillan this would be intensified and concentrated down to its essence. Though Nureyev never resorted to slapstick, he did deliberately include the piece’s comic side, placing it in contrast to the tragic or unreal, lyrical moments.
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NICHOLAS GEORGIADIS
»Don Quixote by Petipa/Minkus, that is southern Spain à la russe. We have tried to preserve a picturesque, almost folk character, orienting ourselves strongly on Goya, from his happy period, in which images of public places full of life prevail. Nureyev also imagined these elements as models for his staging. And although Cervantes actually worked in the 16th century, our Don Quixote is very 18th century.«
Don Quixote: Dream versus Reality Not without reason does Don Quixote the »melancholy knight« provide the framework for Nureyev’s version, even if he does maintain the convention followed by all other choreographers since Petipa in pushing the title figure to the margins of the narrative in order to concentrate on the love story between Kitri and Basil, because virtuoso ballet dancing and a man of advancing years with a whole series of ailments do not complement each other. The wedding of this charming couple at the end of Act 3 is far more danceable – and represents the culmination of the ballet. If the rather trivial narrative is broken down into the main components of the wedding negotiations, the underlying statement was consistent with a popular theme of Soviet revolutionary ballets: acclaiming the third estate as victors over the aristocracy. Ashton’s new version of La Fille mal gardée (1960) – whose original was a French revolutionary ballet from 1789 – essentially tells the same story. An avaricious parent opposes the marriage of only child with good prospects to a suitor offering no social advancement – and fails. The basic structure of the clichéd love story has been a popular archetype since the Renaissance, the period in which Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s Don Quixote, the first modern novel in world literature, was written. The crafty lovers are forced to resort to a whole series of tricks during the course of the comic ballet for their love to triumph in the end – elopement, disguise, a play within a play, a faked suicide and a pretended fainting fit. In other respects too, Nureyev’s version provides everything that dance lovers expect from a Don Quixote – both then and now: a story ballet offering sympathetic characters with whom the audience can identify, flawless ballet technique in the Soviet manner, rousing music and a full evening of entertainment – a ballet like a firework display! While the extended St. Petersburg version of 1871 was marked by the aesthetic of grand ballet – a response to the grand opéra of the 19th century – and influenced by Italian féeries that were heavily reliant on effects, Nureyev trimmed down the St. Petersburg version that was one of the sources of his version to three acts plus prologue. In doing so, he retained the popular template of classical ballet: with the beginning and end each forming an exuberant ballet couleur locale act advancing the narrative, while the central section is marked by an ethereal ballet blanc – a remnant of transcendental romanticism featuring purist pointe work. While classical ballet under Petipa had undergone a shift from unearthly to more worldly existence – this should not be confused with »reality«, because even these »colourful ballets« left plenty of opportunity to dream. Certainly a lot of dreaming happens in Don Quixote: most of all in the so-called vision scene, which Nureyev retained from the traditional Russian-Soviet version and in which the title figure hallucinates his way into the realm of the dryads after his defeat in the »battle« with the windmills. Surrounded by graceful wood nymphs – an elevated ideal of womanhood for a man past his prime – Don Quixote has a fevered dream in which he sees Kitri as the incarnation of Dulcinea: »Her beauty is out of this world, because in her all the impossible attributes that only bold fantasy can dream of are made real«
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(Cervantes). In his delirium, the self-appointed knight surrenders to the promise of the fantastical and thus releases himself from the tiresome burdens of real life. If the dream world of »white tutus« marks the climax of Act 2, the colourful locations of Acts 1 and 3 represent earthly dreams of an idyllic Spain, with which Don Quixote reacts to deep-seated yearnings for »faraway lands« and »exoticism«. There is nothing purist here, both the choreography and the scenery are pulsating and full of light: opulent and vibrantly colourful costume and stage designs by Nicholas Georgiadis transport the audience from the Renaissance world of Cervantes to Spain in the 18th century. A noisy market square in Barcelona – symbolising Spanish everyday life – serves as the main location of the on stage world, evoking the charms of an idyllic Mediterranean plaza. Here numerous interactions occur simultaneously, inviting the audience’s eyes to wander: stallholders offer their wares, fan-wielding ladies flirt with stylish toreros – together they create a vibrant image and provide the ideal backdrop for the protagonists to tell their own stories.
A Feast of Dance Individual soli and group scenes are accompanied by fiery fandangos, sensual seguidillas and the spirited sound of castanets, all of which are testimony to an undiminished joie de vivre – the fiesta mood is present all the time, everywhere! Reason enough to supplement the traditional ballet vocabulary of danse d’école with Spanish dance elements. There is even a Hungarian csárdás by racy »gypsies« in character shoes in this »most Spanish of all ballets« accompanied by loud finger-clicking and clapping. Nureyev creates a magnificent feast of dance as a choreographic celebration of life and love – no more and no less. Don Quixote himself, however – an almost mythological representative of an older, supposedly better time – is someone whose earthly existence always carries a tragicomic air: when he rides proudly towards the citizens of Barcelona on his old nag Rosinante or when he dances an outdated minuet with the girl who will always remain unattainable for him. Joyous reality only exists for the young: the old are left with memories of the past – both recent and distant, their own and historic. These are two opposing worlds that are separated for ever. What else is left for Don Quixote but to confuse dreams with reality? Nevertheless Nureyev’s Don Quixote does not leave much time for nostalgia and sentiment – once the title figure has been introduced in the prologue it becomes a feast of top class dancing. From here onward, the pas d’action of mimed narrative that once filled out classical ballets, alternating with dance scenes, is heavily reduced in number and transposed to the 20th century. For Nureyev the main thing is dancing – on stage, just as it was in his own life. The highest technical demands are made of the dancers, particularly the two leads: as soon as Basil has executed his extremely complicated soli with razor-sharp pirouettes and complex battu combinations, it is time for Kitri’s variations with a tour de force of flying jetés and spiralling fouettés, garnished with enticing hip movements, arms pertly akimbo and fiery glances with which the female lead exudes an almost Circe-like allure. 17
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To this day both leads remain dream roles for technically accomplished dancers; at the same time, the famous Don Quixote grand pas from Act 3 is one of the most frequently performed pas de deux at dance galas the world over, often being performed as their crowning finale. The group scenes for the corps de ballet are no less ambitious and certainly not fillers to give the principals a rest: they are the liveliest parts of the ballet, being repeatedly presented in sophisticated new configurations. The corps often go beyond the image of synchronised and symmetrical unity and the dancers can be seen as soloists within the ensemble. Even today, this more than half a century-old work makes the highest demands of the dancers who perform it and requires superlative virtuosity. Through his conscientious approach to reviving the classics, Nureyev did indeed set exacting standards and created a ballet that remains valid to this day. In a broader sense, Nureyev should also be understood in choreographic terms as a key link, transporting the historical past into the present and – like the protagonists of the Ballets Russes before him – achieving a decisive cultural transfer from East to West.
The Man of La Mancha – Nureyev’s Alter Ego Just as Don Quixote was a milestone in the career of Nureyev the choreographer, the cunning Basil became one of his most celebrated roles, allowing Nureyev the dancer to show off his outstanding technical prowess, comic talent and not least his charismatic appeal. The former Viennese dancer Susanne Kirnbauer remembers: »When he ran around the stage in a semi-circle as Basil, [...] he would snarl with his teeth like a big cat.« People have repeatedly spoken of Basil’s »affinity« with Nureyev, while failing to notice the similarities between Nureyev and the title character – the Man of La Mancha: both were consistently prepared – both in fiction and in reality – to back up their dreams and desires with their own lives and to contend with all the adversities human life had to throw at them. Both seem to have possessed an insatiable longing for youth and beauty. Each of them hoped that they could overcome transience – a factor that has particular salience in dance – especially when they themselves became marked by age or sickness. While Don Quixote yearned for the timeless charms of Dulcinea, Nureyev was attracted to young men throughout his life, throwing himself into one adventure after another. Their shared taste for unattainable beauty is something that Nureyev and his alter ego had in common with another famous fictional character, who would become the dancer’s last major stage role in 1991: Gustav von Aschenbach in Flemming Flindt’s ballet adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novella Death in Venice. Don Quixote’s abstract love for the unattainable Dulcinea also presents parallels with Nureyev’s relationship with the untouchable ideal of Margot Fonteyn: »At the end of Swan Lake, when she left the stage in her great white tutu, I would have followed her to the end of the world.«
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Throughout his life, Nureyev’s own age was a matter of concern to him: having only started ballet as a 15 year old, he always had the feeling he had no time to lose. From the late 1970s onwards, when time began to gnaw away at him, he frequently felt let down by former colleagues. Back in 1970 Rudi van Dantzig cast the dancer as an ageing artist in The Ropes of Time. Years later, after Herbert von Karajan had suggested that he give up dancing and take up conducting as this would guarantee him a longer artistic life, Nureyev – who was desperate to cling on to his life and his audience – followed this advice. In the summer of 1991 he made his debut as a conductor with the Vienna Residenzorchester at Palais Auersperg, presenting a mixed programme – and more concerts followed. That same year, Nureyev and his company Nureyev and Friends embarked on a three-week farewell tour of England – numerous members of the audience demanded their money back. The curtain fell. Today Rudolf Nureyev still seems larger than life – one of the greatest dancers of the century. His name is mentioned in the same breath as Vaslav Nijinsky, the leading dancer of the Ballets Russes, and perhaps the leading dancer of all time; both of them became icons of their art form. However, what both artists had in common above all was their remarkable double talent as dancers and influential choreographers. Nureyev himself once summarised with visionary foresight: »As long as my ballets are danced, I will live.« Even if one might reasonably hope that Nureyev’s works, which breathed new life into an entire genre, will remain in repertoire around the world for decades to come and may even last for centuries, one thing that can be said for certain is that Nureyev’s name will remain unforgotten – as an exceptional artist during an exceptional period for classical dance: »You live because you dance, you dance as long as you live« (Rudolf Nureyev).
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FLORENCE CLERC FLORENCE CLERC
»My involvement with Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote »Meine Auseinandersetzung mit Rudolf Nurejews goes back decades. I danced the role of Kitri Don Quixote reicht Jahrzehnte habe die together with Charles Jude aszurück. Basil inIch 1981, when Rolle der Kitri 1981, als to das Ballett das Repertoire the ballet was added the Parisin Opera repertoire. der Pariser Oper aufgenommen wurde, gemeinsam Many performances followed throughout my career, mit Charleswith Judepartners als Basilsuch getanzt. Es folgten im including as Cyril Atanassoff, Laufe meiner Karriere viele Auftritte, darunter Patrick Dupond and Fernando Bujones. I worked auch mit Cyrilwith Atanassoff, Dupontthe und intensively Nureyev Patrick on rehearsing part. Fernando Mit Nurejew habechoreographer ich intensiv He was aBujones. demanding director and anwho derwas Einstudierung der Partie Er war very present and paidgearbeitet. close attention to ein anspruchsvoller Direktor und der every detail. Watching him in theChoreograph, rehearsal process, sehr präsent his warinvolvement und auf jedes Detail achtete. witnessing with eachgenau role, was very Ihn im Probenprozess rewarding for me. zu beobachten, seiner Auseinandersetzung mitfull jeder Rolle beizuwohnen, Don Quixote is a ballet of character, playful and war sehrwhich bereichernd mich.to steer in the direction lively, Nureyevfür wanted Don Quixote istdell’arte. ein Ballett voller Charakter, of commedia The academic in theverspielt 2nd act, in und lebendig, das Nurejewclarity in die Richtung derout from turn, demands a stylistic that stands Comedia Arte lenken wollte. the rest dell’ of the ballet.
Kitri ist eine kleine Königin auf dem Platz von Barcelona. Sie ist ein Energiebündel, das alle in ihren Bann zieht. Dies umzusetzen, erfordert von der Tänzerin unbestreitbare körperliche Qualitäten – Kitri man is braucht enorme Sprungkraft, Ausdauer a little eine queen in the square of Barcelona. und SheElan. is a bundle of energy that captivates everyone. Das im 2.requires Akt wiederum verlangt To Akademische make this happen undeniable physical nach einer from stilistischen Klarheit, sich vom Rest qualities the dancer – youdie need tremendous des Balletts abhebt.stamina, Kitri ist eine komplexe jumping abilities, and verve. KitriRolle is a für eine Tänzerin, der man, in allen Balletten complex role formit a dancer, onewie that, as in all of von Nurejew,ballets, große can Fortschritte das eigene Nureyev’s be used für to make great Künstlertum kann. Basil ist hand, progress formachen one’s artistry. Basil,wiederum on the other leichtlebig und fantasievoll. Er tanzt mit dances einer is light-hearted and imaginative. Hestets always gewissen Lässigkeit und vor allem viel Charme, with a certain nonchalance and, above all, a lot of gleichzeitig muss dertime, Tänzer charm; at the same theherausfordernde dancer must master technische Schwierigkeiten meistern. challenging technical difficulties. TheDie portrayal of Darstellung der Beziehung derbeen beiden hat their relationship has always a lot ofmir funstets for me, viel Spaß gemacht und ich studiere die Rollen and I really enjoy staging and rehearsing the sehr roles. gerne Es ist wieduet, ein fröhliches Liebesduett, voller It is aein. happy love full of understanding and Verständnis wie man vorpas allem passion, asund youLeidenschaft, can see especially in the de im Pas de of deux 2. Aktes sehen kann.« deux thedes 2nd act.«
Elena Bottaro & Aleksandra Liashenko (Kitri’s girlfriends), Davide Dato (Basil), Liudmila Konovalova (Kitri), Ensemble
François-Eloi Lavignac (Sancho Panza), Elena Bottaro & Aleksandra Liashenko (Kitri’s girlfriends), Liudmila Konovalova (Kitri), Davide Dato (Basil), Jackson Carroll (Gamache), Zsolt Török (Don Quixote), Ensemble
Jackson Carroll (Gamache), François-Eloi Lavignac (Sancho Panza), Zsolt Török (Don Quixote), Ensemble
François-Eloi Lavignac (Sancho Panza), Ensemble
Arne Vandervelde & Géraud Wielick (»Gypsies«)
Davide Dato (Basil), Liudmila Konovalova (Kitri)
Olga Esina (The Queen of the Dryads), Ladies Ensemble
Ketevan Papava (Street Dancer), Eno Peci (Espada)
Liudmila Konovalova (Kitri), Davide Dato (Basil)
ludwig minkus: in service of dance ALFRED OBERZAUCHER
The feelings with which the over 70-year-old Ludwig Minkus contacted the directorship of the Vienna K. k. Court Opera in 1897 are unknown. He had approached the Directorate to submit a new ballet. Minkus must have thought it was worth a try, even though the composer Gustav Mahler, who had just taken over the direction of the house, had certainly been described as hard-to-reach, especially in the field of ballet. But Minkus had nothing to lose. On the contrary, encouraged by his extensive theatre experience and the awareness of having been the Imperial Russian Theatres’ ballet composer for decades – a position in which he had mostly in collaboration with Marius Petipa brought out some 20 ballets –, Minkus, after settling (again) in Vienna in the mid-90s, had now offered the one-act divertissement Tanz und Mythe oder ein Maskenfest. He played the work to Mahler, but the reaction was – as was to be expected – negative: »The music of the work was found to be appropriate, but the plot is so undemanding and the subject so outdated that acceptance of the work cannot be requested« (signed Gustav Mahler). This put an end to the composer’s dream of following up his Russian successes in his homeland. He would probably have liked to return to the city where he had studied and achieved his first successes. Minkus was born in Vienna on 23 March 1826 and studied violin at the Vienna Conservatory. As Louis Minkus, he also gave his first concerts here, in which he already
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played his own compositions. In 1845, a reviewer described him as »the most talented young artist, who in the past season has earned the honourable appreciation of art connoisseurs and critics here in Vienna, both as a player and as a composer«. From 1853 Minkus worked in Russia, initially for two years as a »Kapellmeister« in the serf theatre of Prince Jussupov in St. Petersburg. In 1861 he accepted the position of concertmaster at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre, in 1862 he became inspector of ballet music and composed his first ballet for this theatre. At the same time, he worked as a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory. However, Minkus also composed for the Paris Opera. Testimony to this is the ballet La Source by Arthur Saint-Léon, premiered in 1866, to which Minkus contributed the first and last pictures, and Léo Delibes the second and third. In 1872 he succeeded Cesare Pugni as composer of ballets at the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg and continued his collaboration with Marius Petipa, begun in Moscow in 1869 with Don Quixote. This and the ballet La Bayadère, premiered in 1877, can be seen as the highlight of this now legendary partnership. In 1886 the position of ballet composer at the Imperial Russian Theatres was abolished and Minkus received a small pension after leaving the theatre. In 1891, his last ballet written for St. Petersburg was finally premiered. In 1895 he reappeared in Vienna as Alois Minkus. Here he was also no stranger as a ballet composer. In 1868, a ballet by him was given for the first time – still at the Kärntnertortheater. It was Fiamma d’amore by the French choreographer Arthur Saint-Léon, which had premiered in 1863 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow under the title The Embers of Love, or The Salamander. The ballet, which was also successful in St. Petersburg (as Fiametta) and in Paris (as Néméa), was added to the repertoire of the »Haus am Ring« in 1871. Seven years later, Minkus’ ballet La Source, created in collaboration with Delibes in Paris in 1866, entered the repertoire of the Court Opera under the title Naila, the Source Fairy; the choreographer was Carl Telle. In 1907, the name Minkus appeared once again on the programme notes of the Court Opera in connection with Carl Godlewski’s ballet Rübezahl, for which some numbers from La Source were reused. It was not until 1966, almost 50 years after his death – Minkus died of pneumonia in Vienna at the age of ninety-one on 7 December 1917 – that the composer reentered the Viennese repertoire with Don Quixote in Rudolf Nureyev’s version. At this time, in 1966, the Don Quixote production had been celebrated as a huge success, but not a few had raised their voices against the score, dismissing it as »too simple«, »uninspired«, even »inferior«. In contrast, the German musicologist Thomas Steiert writes of the music of Minkus, whom he sees above all as a craftsman, as the »ideal of 19th century ballet music«. According to Steiert, the negative image of ballet music is »not due to its supposed lack of quality, but to the inadequacy of the criteria by which it has been judged ever since. Ballet music cannot be understood without its original context: Its claim is not that of independent music; its specific character is only revealed in connection with ballet’s other components, such as choreography and scenic action. [...] It must leave space for dance, enter into a connection with dance and must not claim independence in any way.«
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LUDWIG MINKUS: IN SERVICE OF DANCE
JOHN LANCHBERY
»Don Quixote is one of Ludwig Minkus’ best scores: both appealing and accessible. The Spanish atmosphere of the ensemble pieces – and the panache of the inevitable waltzes – is full of the joys of life … Minkus followed Adam, the composer of Giselle, and preceded Delibes in his use of the leitmotif in connection with a particular character. The same theme can be heard every time Don Quixote and Sancho Panza enter. As is the case with almost all of the 19th century Russian ballet repertoire, the music for Don Quixote has undergone repeated modifications since it was first performed, with some passages cut and new ones added.
When Rudolf Nureyev asked me to construct a new version of the score for the Vienna State Opera in 1966, I felt a keen responsibility to preserve the best of Minkus’ work. I also adopted the changes that Rudolf Nureyev made in the libretto. I polished some of the passages that I felt ought to be revived and reorchestrated the entire work in an effort to give the whole thing a more authentic Spanish feel. Despite these numerous interventions, I am convinced that one can sense a great deal of Ludwig Minkus’ real genius, especially his brilliant and infectious melodies.«
sequence of musical numbers Prologue Overture Don Quixote and Vision of Dulcinea Sancho Panza
Act 1 Kitri’s entrance – Variation Basil’s entrance – Variation Morena Kitri and Basil Scene Lorenzo Jota Gamache’s entrance Seguidilla Entrance of the Matadors Variation Espada Variation Street Dancer Coda Entrance of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza Sancho Panza and the young girls Duo Kitri’s girlfriends Pas de deux Kitri and Basil Adagio Menuet with Don Quixote Variation Basil Pas de trois Basil and Kitri’s girlfriends Kitri’s Castanets Variation Duo Kitri’s girlfriends Coda Finale
Act 2 Scene Pas de deux Kitri and Basil Arrival of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza Csárdás »Gypsy Dance« Puppet Theatre Wind Mill Ghosts Scene 2 The Magic Garden Variation The Queen of the Dryads Variation Amor Variation Dulcinea Coda of the Dryads
Act 3 Scene 1 Overture Pas de cinq Kitri’s girlfriends, Espada, Basil and Kitri Duel Scene 2 Fandango Espada and Street Dancer Pas de deux Kitri and Basil Adagio Variation First Bridesmaid Variation Basil Variation Kitri Coda Finale
don quixote chapter 19
... in which is related the adventure of the enamoured shepherd, together with other truly droll incidents. MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA
»If you, sir knight, have no fixed road, as it is the way with those who seek adventures not to have any, let your worship come with us; you will see one of the finest and richest weddings that up to this day have ever been celebrated in La Mancha, or for many a league round.« Don Quixote asked him if it was some prince’s, that he spoke of it in this way. »Not at all«, said the student; »it is the wedding of a farmer and a farmer’s daughter, he the richest in all this country, and she the fairest mortal ever set eyes on. The display with which it is to be attended will be something rare and out of the common, for it will be celebrated in a meadow adjoining the town of the bride, who is called, par excellence, Quiteria the fair, as the bridegroom is called Camacho the rich. She is eighteen, and he twenty-two, and they are fairly matched, though some knowing ones, who have all the pedi grees in the world by heart, will have it that the family of the fair Quiteria is better than Camacho’s; but no one minds that now-a-days, for wealth can solder a great many
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flaws. At any rate, Camacho is free-handed, and it is his fancy to screen the whole meadow with boughs and cover it in overhead, so that the sun will have hard work if he tries to get in to reach the grass that covers the soil. He has provided dancers too, not only sword but also bell-dancers, for in his own town there are those who ring the changes and jingle the bells to perfection; of shoe-dancers I say nothing, for of them he has engaged a host. But none of these things, nor of the many others I have omitted to mention, will do more to make this a memorable wedding than the part which I suspect the despairing Basilio will play in it. This Basilio is a youth of the same village as Quiteria, and he lived in the house next door to that of her parents, of which circumstance Love took advantage to reproduce to the word the long-forgotten loves of Pyramus and Thisbe; for Basilio loved Quiteria from his earliest years, and she responded to his passion with countless modest proofs of affection, so that the loves of the two children, Basilio and Quiteria, were the talk and the amusement of the town. As they grew up, the father of Quiteria made up his mind to refuse Basilio his wonted freedom of access to the house, and to relieve himself of constant doubts and suspicions, he arranged a match for his daughter with the rich Camacho, as he did not approve of marrying her to Basilio, who had not so large a share of the gifts of fortune as of nature; for if the truth be told ungrudgingly, he is the most agile youth we know, a mighty thrower of the bar, a first-rate wrestler, and a great ball-player; he runs like a deer, and leaps better than a goat, bowls over the nine-pins as if by magic, sings like a lark, plays the guitar so as to make it speak, and, above all, handles a sword as well as the best.« »For that excellence alone«, said Don Quixote at this, »the youth deserves to marry, not merely the fair Quiteria, but Queen Guinevere herself, were she alive now, in spite of Launcelot and all who would try to prevent it.« »Say that to my wife«, said Sancho, who had until now listened in silence, »for she won’t hear of anything but each one marrying his equal, holding with the proverb ›each ewe to her like‹. What I would like is that this good Basilio (for I am beginning to take a fancy to him already) should marry this lady Quiteria; and a blessing and good luck – I meant to say the opposite – on people who would prevent those who love one another from marrying.« [...] It grew dark; but before they reached the town it seemed to them all as if there was a heaven full of countless glittering stars in front of it. They heard, too, the pleasant mingled notes of a variety of instruments, flutes, drums, psalteries, pipes, tabors, and timbrels, and as they drew near they perceived that the trees of a leafy arcade that had been constructed at the entrance of the town were filled with lights unaffected by the wind, for the breeze at the time was so gentle that it had not power to stir the leaves on the trees. The musicians were the life of the wedding, wandering through the pleasant grounds in separate bands, some dancing, others singing, others playing the various instruments already mentioned. In short, it seemed as though mirth and gaiety were frisking and gambolling all over the meadow. Several other persons were engaged in erecting raised benches from which people might conveniently see the plays and dances that were to be performed the next day on the spot dedicated to the celebration of the marriage of Camacho the rich and the obsequies of Basilio. 41
DON QUIXOTE – CHAPTER 19
Don Quixote would not enter the village, although the peasant as well as the bachelor pressed him; he excused himself, however, on the grounds, amply sufficient in his opinion, that it was the custom of knights-errant to sleep in the fields and woods in preference to towns, even were it under gilded ceilings; and so turned aside a little out of the road, very much against Sancho’s will, as the good quarters he had enjoyed in the castle or house of Don Diego came back to his mind.
»For me alone was Don Quixote born, and I for him; it was his to act, mine to write; we two together make but one.« DON QUIXOTE – CHAPTER 19
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MARIO VARGAS LLOSA
»There are no knights-errant, no one professes the ideas or respects the values that once moved them, and war no longer consists of ritualistic duels between knights. Now, as Don Quixote laments in his discourse on arms and letters, war is no longer settled by swords and lances, that is, by the courage and dexterity of individuals, but rather by the thunder of artillery which, in the roar of death, has erased the codes of honour and heroic deeds that forged the mythic figures of an Amadis of Gaul, a Tirant lo Blanc and a Tristan de Leonis. Does this mean that Don Quixote de La Mancha is a book focused on the past, that Alonso Quijano’s madness comes from a desperate nostalgia for a world that is gone, from a profound rejection of modernity and progress? ... Thus, the dream that transforms Alonso Quijano into Don Quixote de La Mancha does not constitute a reenactment of the past, but rather something much more ambitious: the realization of a myth, the transformation of fiction into living history.«
RUDOLF NUREYEV – Choreography & Director Rudolf Nureyev was born on 14 March, according to other sources on 17 March 1938 near Irkutsk on a train of the Trans-Siberian Railway. He received his first ballet training in Ufa, and from 1955 to 1958 at the Leningrad Vaganova Institute with Alexander Pushkin, among others. His first engagement as a soloist with the Kirov Ballet made him almost overnight one of the most famous dancers in the Soviet Union. In 1959 he performed for the first time in the West at the World Youth Festival in Vienna. During a guest performance in Paris in 1961, he decided to escape from the Soviet Union. After first dancing with the International Ballet of the Marquis de Cuevas in 1961/62, his career as one of the most fascinating stars in the world of dance led him to all famous classical ballet companies. But he also worked with modern dance artists, as his performances with the companies of Martha Graham and Paul Taylor show. In addition to the Royal Ballet London, Rudolf Nureyev had a close relationship with the Vienna State Opera Ballet. From 1964 to 1988 he danced 22 roles in a total of 167 performances with the company at the Vienna State Opera, the Volksoper and at international guest performances. With his touring ensemble Nureyev & Friends he also created his own programs at irregular intervals. As a choreographer, Nureyev was able to present himself with his own work as well as with adaptations of the famous story ballets. In 1964, his Swan Lake after Petipa and Ivanov celebrated its premiere at the Vienna State Opera, followed by the two other major Tchaikovsky scores Sleeping Beauty for the Scala di Milano and The Nutcracker for the Royal Swedish Ballet. Compositions by Tchaikovsky were also the basis of the ballets Manfred and The Tempest created on works by Lord Byron and Shakespeare. For Washington Square based on the novel by Henry James, Nure yev chose music by Charles Ives after he had already been inspired by the music of a contemporary composer for Tancredi at the Vienna State Opera with Hans Werner Henze’s score of the same name. In addition, Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella were also reinterpreted by Nureyev. Today, his Vienna Swan Lake is part of the repertoire of many renowned companies, as well as Nureyev’s two other Tchaikovsky classics, his version of Alexander Glazunov’s Raymonda and his Don Quixote, which he also created for Vienna. From 1983 to 1989, Nureyev was director of the ballet of the Paris Opera. He worked as an actor in the field of musical (The King and I, 1989) and film (Valentino, 1977). On 6 January 1993, Nureyev died of AIDS in Levallois Perret nearby Paris. At his request, his capital formed the basis of the Nureyev Foundation. The merits he had earned in Vienna led to his Austrian citizenship in 1982. The Vienna State Opera appointed him an honorary member in 1988. Since 1999 there has been a Rudolf Nureyev Promenade in Vienna.
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ROBERT REIMER – Musical Direction Robert Reimer is one of the most versatile conductors of his generation with a repertoire from opera to ballet, from baroque to modern and from traditional symphony to cross-over concerts. He is a regular guest at the large opera houses such as Bayerische Staatsoper, Berliner Staatsoper »Unter den Linden«, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Stuttgarter Staatsoper, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Gran Teatre Liceu Barcelona, Finnish National Opera, Royal Opera Copenhagen and Copenhagen Opera Festival or Hong Kong Ballet. His opera repertoire ranges from Mozart, Weber, Massenet, Tchaikovsky, Wagner and Strauss to Janáček, Berg, Poulenc and Ligeti. As a ballet conductor, he has led productions such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadère, Peer Gynt, Don Quixote and Jewels. Since 2013, he has also appeared regularly in European CD, DVD, radio and TV productions. As a concert conductor, Robert Reimer has been invited by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Royal Chapel Copenhagen, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie RheinlandPfalz, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, Basel Sinfonietta and Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava. Furthermore, he conducted several times the first night at the Classic Open Air on the Gendarmenmarkt with the Berliner Sinfoniker. In 2018 he has led the world premiere of Frédéric Ledroit’s St. John Passion in Ludwigshafen with the European Chamber Choir, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and international soloists. In 2019 he conducted a concert version of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava. A live recording of this has been released on CD by Navona Records. In the cross-over area Robert Reimer worked with stars such as Chris de Burgh, Ute Lemper, Till Brönner, Joja Wendt or Peter Maffay and has been a regular guest conductor with the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg since 2013. Robert Reimer made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in the 2020/21 season conducting the ballet production Tänze Bilder Sinfonien, followed by Onegin, Swan Lake and Don Quixote.
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BIOGRAPHIES
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Don Quixote Rudolf Nureyev Season 2023/24 PUBLISHER Vienna State Opera GmbH, Opernring 2, 1010 Vienna General Director: Dr. Bogdan Roščić Administrative Director: Dr. Petra Bohuslav Director & Chief Choreographer Vienna State Ballet: Martin Schläpfer Managing Director Vienna State Ballet: Mag. Simone Wohinz Editorial Team: Mag. Anne do Paço, Nastasja Fischer MA Design & Concept: Fons Hickmann M23, Berlin Image Concept Cover: Martin Conrads Layout & Type Setting: Miwa Meusburger Producer: Print Alliance HAV Produktions GmbH, Bad Vöslau PERFORMING RIGHTS Musikverlage Hans Sikorski GmbH, Berlin on behalf of Editions Mario Bois SA., Paris TEXT REFERENCES About today’s performance by Anne do Paço, Yearning for Immortality by Anna Beke (English translation: David Tushingham) as well as the text from Florence Clerc are original contributions for this programme booklet. Alfred Oberzaucher: Ludwig Minkus: In Service of Dance. Extract of the original essay for the programme booklet Don Quixote. Vienna State Ballet, Season 2010/11 (English translation: Anne do Paço). Reprint only with permission of the Vienna State Ballet / Dramaturgy. Pp. 4–5: after program booklet Don Quichotte, Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris, Season 1997/98 / p. 6 quoted after: Klaus Geitel: »Man ist kühn genug, um unmodern zu sein«: Klaus Geitels Tanzkritiken 1959–1979. Leipzig 2019 (English translation: David Tushingham) / pp. 10–11: Rudolf Nureyev quoted after George Balanchine/Francis Mason: George Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets. New York 1977 / pp. 15, 36–37: Quotes by Nicholas Georgiadis & John Lanchbery from the Vienna State Ballet program booklet Don Quixote 2010/11 (English translation: Nastasja Fischer & David Tushingham) / pp. 40–42: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra: The History of Don Quixote (English translation:
John Ormsby). gutenberg.org 1997 / p. 43 quoted after Mario Vargas Llosa: A Novel for the Twenty-First Century (English translation: Johanna Damgaard Liander). In: Harvard Review, No. 28 (2005). PHOTO CREDITS Cover: Pozo Canada Wind Farm. Albacete, Castilla La Mancha, Spain © Cristina Arias/Getty Images / pp. 22–31, 33: © Ashley Taylor / p. 32: © Dimo Dimov / p. 7: Alexander Bland (Ed.): Rudolf Nureyev. An autobiography with pictures. London 1962 / pp. 8–9: © Helmut Koller / p. 44: © Josef Pálffy / p. 45: © Nora Heinisch for Win Village Agency Rights owners who could not be reached are requested to contact the editorial team for the purpose of subsequent legal reconciliation.
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