Saturday, June 13, 2009

PF - 1971-1977 - Ballets With Roland Petit


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5 comments:

  1. 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!

    ReplyDelete
  2. 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

    ReplyDelete
  3. 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!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. 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 :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. 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 :)

    ReplyDelete