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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-07-22 13:08
This is a way-off-the-wall question, but if anybody can answer it, I'll bet you're here. Does anyone know where I can get a list of the musicians, especially the clarinet players, for the first Ballets Russes performance in the USA? Under the auspices of the Metropolitan Opera, these performances took place at the Century Theatre in New York City, with opening night on January 17, 1916. That's the night I'd particularly like to know about. The company kept this engagement for two weeks, then went on to perform in 17 cities, with two return engagements in New York at the Metropolitan Opera House. There were personnel changes along the way, but that opening series at the Century Theatre is the one I most need to know about.
Ernest Ansermet travelled with the Ballets Russes from Paris. He conducted the Century Theatre performances because at the time, the regular conductor, Pierre Monteaux, was in military service in France. Monteaux later joined the company and replaced Ansermet. For a later engagement at the Met (April 3-29), the concertmaster was Nathan Franko, if that helps, but I don't know whether he was concertmaster at the January performances conducted by Ansermet. I have a copy of the program (from the New York Public Library website) and I've seen everything the New York Times published but haven't even been able to find out whether the Ballets Russes brought the whole orchestra along from Paris, or just brought the principal players and hired locals, or what. Any help much appreciated!
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
Post Edited (2010-07-22 13:10)
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Author: weberfan
Date: 2010-07-23 01:05
(posted on the Klarinet List as well, just in case)
Lelia,
Have you delved deeper into the NYPublic Library system? Perhaps the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center (a branch of the NYPL) might be able to steer you toward your goal. Here's a number: (212) 870-1630. If you're game, give the Met a call: Peter Clark, (212) 870 7457, is good. Or try, David Hamilton, who, I'm told, is something of an in-house historian. (212) 799-3537.
Chuck
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-07-24 11:42
Chuck, thanks very much for this advice. I'll follow up on Monday. I hadn't thought of trying Lincoln Center, even though I've worked there! -- but yes, they might have some archives from the Century Theatre. The Century (torn down a few years later) wasn't owned or even leased by the Met, but the Met did help travelling companies make arrangements there and elsewhere when the old Opera House was unavailable.
Ran into variant spellings for the Ballets Russes concertmaster, btw -- his name may have been Nahun or Nahan (not Nathan) Franko. I don't know for sure yet whether he was Russian, though I think he was, but the early 20th century spellings for the Russian names transliterated from Cryllic alphabet are so non-standardized that they vary from one U. S. city's programs to another city's within the same tour.
The reason why I want the info is to establish how my 1916 clarinet playing character communicates with a Ballets Russes clarinet player. The character's native language is English, he doesn't speak Russian, but he's fluent in French. If I have them speak French as their common language, sure as anything somebody'll come up with proof (when it's too late for me to do anything about it...) that the Ballets Russes' first clarinetist was an American who couldn't speak a word of anything but English!
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: vin
Date: 2010-07-24 16:24
This doesn't answer your question, but Daniel Bonade toured America with Ballet Russe in 1917, after which Stokowski engaged him to stay and play in Philly. Perhaps he was also there in 1916, but if anyone knows the Lincoln Center people mentioned above could find them.
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Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2010-07-24 22:35
Again, I'm not answering your question, but here's something I found about Nahan Franko: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahan_Franko He was born in New Orleans, and his nephew was Edwin Franko Goldman.
I could be wrong, but from the little I've been able to find, I'm not sure that there was always a "regular" full-time orchestra that toured with the Ballet Russes. I wonder if local musicians were hired to form an orchestra when the Ballet Russes was in town (or in the country). You can read more about Daniel Bonade here:
http://www.stokowski.org/Philadelphia_Orchestra_Musicians.htm#Daniel Bonade
When Bonade joined the touring company, he had already been in America for a year.
Post Edited (2010-07-25 00:15)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-07-25 17:05
vin wrote,
>>This doesn't answer your question, but Daniel Bonade toured America with Ballet Russe in 1917, after which Stokowski engaged him to stay and play in Philly. Perhaps he was also there in 1916, but if anyone knows the Lincoln Center people mentioned above could find them.
>>
You steered me in the right direction. I searched "Daniel Bonade"+"Ballets Russes" online and found confirmation through the University of Maryland website. The university has a collection of Bonade's papers. He did indeed join that tour in 1916. There's plenty more information out there, too, now that I've got the name. What good luck that the Ballet hired a clarinet player who's so well-known today.
Thank you for the information about Nahan Franko, clarinetguy. Knowing something about the concertmaster will help make those scenes credible.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2010-07-25 18:05
Lelia, you're welcome! If you go to the Stokowski site, you can find brief biographies of principal players (past and present) in a number of American orchestras. There are a lot of names (it will take a lot of searching) of other musicians who toured with the Ballet Russes during this American tour, including Ernest Williams (trumpet) and Benjamin Kohon (bassoon).
Someone posted this link a while back about the clarinetists of the Sousa Band. http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses_1/available/etd-03272006-200646/unrestricted/Treatise.pdf
I know this won't tell you much about the Ballet Russes orchestra, but you'll be able to read about other important clarinet players of the early 20th century.
Post Edited (2010-07-25 18:07)
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