Saturday, June 13, 2009

PF - 1971-1977 - Ballets With Roland Petit


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5 comments:

Dr. Forrester said...

BALLETS DE MARSEILLE - Pink Floyd Ballet

format: NTSC
ratio : 4:3
video : 6000kbps
audio : Linear PCM 48kHz
sub-titles : English / French

Details and historical background [1]:

Pink Floyd's flirtation with the cultural establishment
culminated in the autumn of 1970 with French choreographer
Roland Petit's proposed ballet, based on Marcel Proust's
Remembrance of Things Past and featuring Rudolf Nureyev
plus sixty other dancers, which was to have incorporated
Floyd compositions performed by the band and a 108 piece
orchestra. "Pretty amazing!", Gilmour gushed to Melody
Maker. "Something nobody in our field has ever done ..."
"Freakier and freakier," announced Rolling Stone. "Pink
Floyd is now into ballet ...".

Prior to their lunch in Paris on 4 December with Petit,
Nureyev, and Roman Polanski (who hoped to direct a film of
the ballet), the Floyd dutifully attempted to familiarize
themselves with Proust's eight-volume classic. All found
it slow-going, especially Dave, who gave up after eighteen
pages. Only Roger managed to struggle past the first book.

By the time Waters, Mason, and Steve O'Rourke got to Paris,
however, Petit had decided to set aside Proust in favour of
The Arabian Nights. "Everyone just sat there drinking this
wine and getting more and more drunk," Roger recalled,
"with more and more poovery going on around the table,
until someone suggested Frankenstein and Nureyev started
getting a bit worried... I was just sitting there enjoying
the meat and the vibes, saying nothing... And when Polanski
was drunk enough he started to suggest we make the blue
movie to end all blue movies, and then it all petered out
into cognac and coffee and we jumped into our cars and
split. God knows what happened after we left !".

Over two years later, Roland Petit finally would choreograph
a Pink Floyd ballet, but without Nureyev, Polanski, or the
108-piece orchestra. A set of five live shows was performed
in Marseille (November 22-26, 1972), that did not form part
of the scheduled European winter tour.

The programme was divided in three sections :
- Allumez les etoiles
- La rose malade
- The Pink Floyd ballet, in four movements based on:
One of these days
Careful with that axe, Eugene
Obscured by clouds / When you're in
Echoes

There was eventually a serie of eight performances set in
Paris between January 13rd and February 2nd (two shows per
day) but the band didn't play live each time (a tape was
used when the band didn't play).

The original ballets have never been fully filmed, so this
DVD presents a 1977 studio rendition. While the band wasn't
playing on this occasion we have here a rare opportunity to
see what the ballet was actually.

However, as the ballet was one of the very first "melange
des genres" attempt to cross pop music and classical dance,
there has been some news reports with live sequences. These
snippets (and more) are available for the very first time
on this DVD.

This DVD was received from an anonymous fan without any info
about the lineage. However this is by far the best quality
we've been able to get for this ballet filmed in TV studios.
Colours are superb and there are 2 audio tracks available:
an amazing stereo remastered soundtrack and the original
mono TV soundtrack. The tracklist is:
1. One Of These Days
2. Careful With That Axe, Eugene
3. Obscured By Clouds
4. When You're In
5. Echoes

There are also very interesting bonus snippets, showing the
Floyd rehearsing OOTD with the dancers, and some other
snippets taken from rehearsals and live performances with
the Floyd and the Ballet of Marseille. Apart from a short
extract of CWTAE, this footage never surfaced previously!

There are even more bonus with extremely rare documents
related to the Ballet and Roland Petit.

Last but not least, the DVD includes English and French
sub-titles!

June 13, 2009 at 4:44 AM
Unknown said...

HELLO THANKS, THIS IS A WONDERFULL WORK OF PINK FLOYD, BUT A HAVE A QUESTION FOR YO, THIS ONE COMPARATE WITH THE ANOTHER POST OF JUEN 13, ROLAND PETIT BALLET, WATH IS THE DIFERENCE??
THANKS

June 18, 2009 at 9:18 PM
Dr. Forrester said...

If you click on the cover art, you will be able to read all of the details. If multiple art files exist, I always try to post the one with the details.

My advice? You need both!!

June 18, 2009 at 10:53 PM
goa said...

this is an amazing DVD, and a crossroad of PF with more "traditional" arts.
The quality is perfect, it's form a low gen source or matye the master, no idea, no logos nor nothing.
A must for any decent person :-)

June 19, 2009 at 11:36 AM
Tomi said...

this si definitely better version of RP ballet, amazing quality and stunning bonus: you can see PF during rehearsal and also playing above artist, 6min of absulute awesome heaven :)

June 21, 2009 at 6:25 AM

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