# What are your favorite ballet sequences in operas?



## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Okay, time to start a thread about favorite dance sequences from opera. Rameau rocks the house of course.






Any other favorites?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I think the Venusberg music from the Paris revision of _Tannhauser_ is just about the most insane and obscene ballet music ever written and if properly choreographed would make the _Rite of Spring_ look like a church picnic.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Some years ago I was amazed to see that late one evening BBC R3 would be broadcasting The Four Seasons by Verdi.

It turns out this is the name for the ballet music from I Vespri Siciliani which has achieved a small amount of independent life as a concert piece, but is always cut from the Opera. What a life the flaneurs must have had, when they could devote hours and hours to attending the Opera with dining and a full ballet in the middle. AS an independent piece it's not bad.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I was thinking recently of operas where the most famous part is a chorus - Nabucco, Fidelio, Prince Igor

But this is in a category with Les Indes Galantes where the most famous part is a dance and chorus.






(Oh my, the ballerina is so beautiful)


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Alexander said:


> (Oh my, the ballerina is so beautiful)


My favourite production of this operas as well. I don't think it ever went to dvd  Pity.


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## graziesignore (Mar 13, 2015)

> It turns out this is the name for the ballet music from I Vespri Siciliani which has achieved a small amount of independent life as a concert piece, but is always cut from the Opera. What a life the flaneurs must have had, when they could devote hours and hours to attending the Opera with dining and a full ballet in the middle.


Funny you should mention that, as I was watching I Vespri Siciliani on video over the weekend and this version DID include the ballet... which... I confess... I fast-forwarded through. Oh well - I can always go back and give it a second look!


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

*Rimsky-Korsakov's "Mlada"*
Act II: Dances (esp. during the Procession of the Nobles)
Act III: Dances in front of the statute of Cleopatra (during the Witches' Sabbath)


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

George Balanchine's _Ballo Della Regina_ from _Don Carlos_


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I really like the original ballet music Johann Strauss wrote for *Die Fledermaus*, which includes different national dances. Maybe I have a certain amount of affection for it, because I once danced the Russian Dance in a production. Still, I often wonder why it is often substituted for one or more of his waltzes.


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## Cesare Impalatore (Apr 16, 2015)

I love this dionysian dance by the Dagon cultists in Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila:


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Not into ballet, but the ballet music Rossini wrote for William Tell is the greatest opera ballet music ever.
Beautiful melody after beautiful melody. Nothing else comes close.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I love the ballet music in Gluck's reform operas; Orpheus et Eurydice in particular.


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

The dance of the hours

beautiful ballet

the battle between light and dark

La Gioconda by Amilcare Ponchielli


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## Leonore (May 13, 2015)

Sorry about the quality. I can't console myself that there isn't a DVD for this (I used to have a VHS, lost it a long time ago, don't even have a VHS player any more anyway).





(Eh già, solita usanza - starting around 3:45)


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

My first opera ballet discovered was the one in act 3 from Traviata. I prefer a classical approach, and I liked Zeffirelli's production in a small Italian theatre. I have the DVD and I really liked Stefania Bonfadelli and Scot Piper in the title roles. Wonderful Traviata!
Slightly too crowded at some points, but all around great!






And, this my beloved Borodin, Polovstian Dances:


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)




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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

sabrina said:


> My first opera ballet discovered was the one in act 3 from Traviata. I prefer a classical approach, and I liked Zeffirelli's production in a small Italian theatre. I have the DVD and I really liked Stefania Bonfadelli and Scot Piper in the title roles. Wonderful Traviata!
> Slightly too crowded at some points, but all around great!


Zeffirelli is the master, :tiphat:


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

PL Pizzi's modern production of Gioconda has amazing ballet section with audience favorite Letizia Giuliani, skip ahead to the 8:10 mark.....


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