S. Hurok Presents; A Memoir of the Dance WorldHurok, Sol
History
S. Hurok Presents; A Memoir of the Dance World
Hurok, Sol
Ballet -- History
Our farewell performance, with both Fokines dancing, took place at
Charles Dillingham’s Hippodrome, on Sunday evening, 29th May, 1920. For
this occasion, the Fokines appeared together, by popular request, in the
Harlequin and Columbine variation from his own masterpiece, _Carnaval_;
Fokine alone danced the _Dagestanskaja Lezginka_, and staged a work he
called _Amoun and Berenis_, actually scenes from his _Une Nuit
d’Egypte_, which Diaghileff called _Cléopâtre_, adapted, musically, from
Anton Arensky’s score for the ballet. I quote Fokine’s own libretto for
the work:
Amoun and Berenis are engaged in the sport of hunting. She
represents Gazelle, and he the hunter who wounds her in the breast.
The engaged couple plight each other to everlasting love. But soon
Amoun betrays his bride. He falls in love with Queen Cleopatra. Not
having the opportunity of coming near his beloved queen, he sends
an arrow with a note professing his love and readiness to sacrifice
his life for her. Notwithstanding the tears and prayers of Berenis,
he throws himself into the arms of Cleopatra, and, lured by her
tenderness, he accepts from her hands a cup of poison, drinks it
and dies. Berenis finds the corpse of her lover, forgives him and
mourns his death.
The Hippodrome version consisted of “The Meeting of Amoun and Berenis”
“The Entrance of Cleopatra,” by the orchestra; “The Dance Before
Cleopatra”; “The Betrayal of Amoun and the Jealousy of Berenis”; “The
Hebrew Dance,” by the orchestra; “The Death of Amoun and the Mourning of
Berenis.”
In 1927, I presented the Fokines with their “American Ballet,” composed
of their pupils, at the Masonic Auditorium, in Detroit, and on
subsequent tours. Prominent professional dancers were added to the pupil
roster.
That summer, with the Fokines and their company, I introduced ballet to
the Lewisohn Stadium Concerts in New York, for three performances, to a
record audience of forty-eight thousand people. I also presented them
for four performances at the Century Theatre in Central Park West. The
Stadium programmes included _Les Elves_, arranged to Mendelssohn’s
_Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream_, with the addition of the same
composer’s Andante and Allegro from the _Violin Concerto_. Also
_Medusa_, a tragedy set to Tchaikowsky’s _Symphonie Pathétique_, a work
for four characters, the title role being danced by Vera Fokina, and the
sea god Poseidon, who fell in love with the beautiful Medusa, danced by
Fokine.
It was during one of the Stadium performances, I remember, I had
occasion to go to the Fokines’ dressing-room on some errand. I knocked,
and believing I heard an invitation to enter, opened the door to
discover the two Fokines dissolved in tears of happiness. So moved was
Michel by Vera’s performance of the title role in _Medusa_, that they
were sobbing in each other’s arms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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