Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Alicia Markova [sound recording].

Author

Markova, Alicia, Dame, 1910-2004.

Publication

1972.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Gruen, John.

Description

2 sound discs (ca. 75 min.) : digital.; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1 (ca. 48 min.). John Gruen describes Alicia Markova and the room where they are sitting; Markova speaks with Gruen about her activities since retiring as a performer, including six years as the director of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and teaching at the University of Cincinnati; her current activities in London, England; seeing Anna Pavlova dance and doing a barre for her the next day; her impressions of Pavlova as a dancer and as a person; Serge Diaghilev, including their first meeting; auditioning for [Michel] Fokine and [Bronislava] Nijinska for a role in Midsummer night's dream; auditioning for George Balanchine and joining the Ballets russes; her training in Monte Carlo; her first major role, as Odette in Act II of Swan lake including an anecdote about [Mathilda] Kchessinska's coaching her; the strict regime of class and rehearsal; her performance in Balanchine's Song of the nightingale as her first celebrated role; Diaghilev's death and its devastating effect on her; the circumstances of her first collaboration with Frederick Ashton and its leading to her joining the Vic-Wells Ballet [later the Sadler's Wells Ballet and then the Royal Ballet]; her first great partner, Anton Dolin; her approach to her roles; working with Stravinsky [ends abruptly but continues on disc 2].
• Disc 2 (ca. 27 min.). Alicia Markova continues to speak with John Gruen about Stravinsky; tells an anecdote about Billy Rose and [Anton Dolin's ballet] Scènes de ballet; her great admiration for George Balanchine; her sheltered life in the Ballets russes; [Leonide] Massine's making and rehearsing of works on her for others to dance; her thoughts on working with choreographers including why she thinks they liked to work with her; briefly, Margot Fonteyn; the circumstances of her and Anton Dolin forming the Markova-Dolin Company; her thoughts on current trends in ballet.

Alternative Title

Dance Audio Archive.

Subjects

• Diaghilev, Serge, 1872-1929
• Dolin, Anton, 1904-1983
• Vic-Wells Ballet (Company)
• Ashton, Frederick, 1904-1988
• Pavlova, Anna, 1881-1931
• Ballets russes
• Stravinsky, Igor, 1882-1971
• Metropolitan Opera (New York, N.Y.) > Ballet
• Markova, Alicia, Dame, 1910-2004
• Balanchine, George
• Nijinska, Bronislava, 1891-1972
• Sadler's Wells Ballet

Note

• Interview with Alicia Markova conducted by John Gruen on July 26, 1972 at her home in London, England. This interview was used as a basis for a chapter in John Gruen's book, The private world of ballet (New York, Viking Press).
• Sound quality is fair overall. There is an extraneous hiss due to distortion in the original recording as well as occasional short gaps.

Funding (note)

• The assistance of the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts is gratefully acknowledged.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-177

OCLC

80787284

Author

Markova, Alicia, Dame, 1910-2004. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Alicia Markova [sound recording].

Imprint

1972.

Original Version

Original format : 1 sound cassette (ca. 75 min.: 1 7/8 in. per sec.; 2 channels). Originally recorded in 1972.

Funding

The assistance of the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts is gratefully acknowledged.

Local Note

For a transcript of the audio recording see: *MGZMT 3-177.

Former call no.: *MGZTC 3-177

Archive original: *MGZTCO 3-177

Added Author

Gruen, John. Interviewer

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-177