Conversation:

Entry: From Ballets russes to Ballet noire: The Spectre of the Rose on Stage and Screen - A87779443
Author: Dmitri Gheorgheni (GE, Post Editor), Not here the darkness, in this twittering world - U1590784

The h2g2 Edited Guide contains many kinds of entries.

Some INSTRUCT - they tell you how to make useful things, like advent calendars and baguettes.

Some INFORM - they tell you things you want to know, such as what to do in Manchester on a Saturday night, or how many postboxes there are on the Isle of Wight.

Mine, however, are most likely to make you scratch your head and think, 'Did I really want to know all that?'

This, alas, is one of those entries.

I'm hoping this ballet story will give you a chuckle. And get the sound of Berlioz out of my head...it's driving me mad, I tell you, mad...

Wonderful stuff Dmitri, I particularly liked "Nijinsky looked a bit like the Sprout in an old Jolly Green Giant advert, but more colourful." (I am old enough to remember that advert) and "Hecht rescued more screenplays from oblivion and bad lines than a critic could shake a shtick at"

A typo: <> "or" should be "of".

A couple more links for you:
Carl Maria von Weber A610688
Champagne A941122

Thanks for this enlightening piece, I'm going to go youtubing now

GB

Thanks for the correction, GB, and those links.

I'll go add them.

And thanks for reading. I think you'll enjoy the Youtubes.

Oh, and ahem...for everybody kind enough to read this, a present from Youtube.

Not the Spectre of the Rose. Rather the Spectre of the Pig:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHbGqJ_MonU

Oh, almost forgot:

I found the Nijinsky image. And he DOES look like Sprout:

http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/balletsrusses/ExhibitionItems/ExhibitObjects/NijinskyinLeSpectredelaRose.aspx?Enlarge=true&ImageId=f25933cf-227d-4183-871a-8fb2c3a063d5%3a12e6b86a-83ff-4cbf-8cf5-a71cb320df68%3a53&PersistentId=1%3af25933cf-227d-4183-871a-8fb2c3a063d5%3a36&ReturnUrl=%2fExhibitions%2fballetsrusses%2fExhibitionItems%2fExhibitObjects%2fNijinskyinLeSpectredelaRose.aspx
Nijinsky as the Rose, 1911.

This is great fun, and I love the comparison of Nijinsky to Sprout!

It's informative too, of course, and taught me a new word ' heteronormativity'.

On the subject of ballet and madness, hasn't this theme been explored more recently in 'Black Swan'? is it worth mentioning this?

Ooh, I haven't heard of this one. Give me a link, MVP. Or tell me who was in it, whatever...

See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/

Natalie Portman played the ballerina who dances Odette/Odile.
Some of the critics were rude about it, but a friend of mine loved it. I saw Meryl Streep in 'The Iron Lady' instead.

Oh, thanks! Sure, we can mention that. It looks like the theme's still active.

Done.

Are we all done here?

GB

DG says he is satisfied with it.

Could we change
<>
to
<> (moving the 'a' to next to 'perennial'.

Sure can.

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