AN album for ballet class about opera music

OPERA

Nolwenn Piano Music For Ballet Class

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ENG : 32 operas, 32 composers over 3 centuries of music ! From the courtly spectacles of the Renaissance through to the first opera productions on the early stages of Europe, ballet and opera have been inextricably linked. Drawing inspiration from this rich tapestry of opera music, and in some cases, music from the ballets within operas, this cd

ENG : 32 operas, 32 composers over 3 centuries of music ! From the courtly spectacles of the Renaissance through to the first opera productions on the early stages of Europe, ballet and opera have been inextricably linked. Drawing inspiration from this rich tapestry of opera music, and in some cases, music from the ballets within operas, this cd hopes to thread together well-loved and cherished arias with less familiar gems. Opera music is above all, music of the theatre. It is music that moves and evokes emotion. The cd Opera hopes to inspire and bring dancers on an artistic journey with music that feeds the soul, whether by bringing a sense of grandeur and magnificence into the ballet studio, or reflection, playfulness and joy. By offering pieces from the mid-seventeenth century through to the twentieth, Opera celebrates this profusion of exquisite music. Nolwenn Collet adds a further layer of colour and atmosphere to this by adapting the music directly from the orchestral scores. Played on a Steinway grand piano in the French countryside, she honours the essence of each composition. // FR : L’opéra et la danse ont toujours été intimement liés et ce, depuis les tout premiers spectacles de danse de cour de la renaissance puis avec les toute premières productions d’opéras sur les scènes européennes. Ce CD puise son inspiration dans le riche répertoire de musiques d’opéras et parfois de musiques de sections de ballet inclues dans les opéras. Il offre au danseur des airs célèbres et adorés du grand public mais aussi des pépites moins connues. La musique de l’opéra est avant tout une musique de théâtre. C’est une musique qui est vivante et qui exprime les émotions. Ce CD Opera s’adresse à l’âme du danseur et a pour ambition de l’amener à la découverte d’un répertoire de musiques sublimes s’étendant de la moitié du 17e siècle au 20e siècle. Ces arrangements de musiques d’opéras cherchent à apporter tour à tour un sens du théâtral, de la grandeur, de la présence sur scène, mais aussi un sens de la réflection, du jeu et de la joie.. Un album pour travailler l’interprétation, l’expression et développer sa palette artistique. Les arrangements de Nolwenn Collet pour le cours de danse classique ont été réalisés à partir de partition d’orchestre afin d’offrir une gamme de couleurs des plus chatoyantes. Enregistrés sur un piano à queue Steinway, elle a cherché à honorer au mieux l’essence de chaque composition.

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CREATING THE ALBUM FOR BALLET CLASS OPERA...

Ballet class Music OPERA Nolwenn Collet Music from Opera for ballet class

WHY AN ALBUM ON OPERA MUSIC?

For a long time, I had been wanting to create a selection of tracks for ballet class, adapting music from Operas...and I finally did!
My interest for the repertoire of Opera music started in my adolescent years, when I lived in Trier, Germany. 

My mother was singing in the choir of the Trier Opera House and I was fortunate to meet with the pianist in charge of vocal coaching. I found his work fascinating and decided to study vocal coaching!
I then moved to Paris and studied piano accompaniment with the wonderful Angeline Pondepeyre.

I learnt three major things
1. LISTENING, 
2. BREATHING 
3. SUPPORTING
LISTENING to the music, to your partner or to anybody you are performing with is essential.. but listening to a dancer is also understanding the language of dance , how music can be translated into movement... 
BREATHING is crucial...singers, and music for voice or wind instruments can teach us, [musicians and performing artists of all horizons in general],  how to make breathing  PART of our language, which in a way is the starting point of any intention we want to express.  
SUPPORTING means being THERE, being in the moment, accompanying while listening and breathing together, and especially in opera music and ballet music, this means, to be able to play with an orchestral dimension: researching colours, depth, textures and connections to the score at many levels. Opera music has such a rich repertoire,  stretching over nearly four centuries... 
So dancing to Opera music, is a wonderful way to make connections, not only with history and our artistic heritage, but also with poetry, theatre, dance, music and stage.

Opera music for ballet class piano mazurka polonaise wagner verdi mozart for ballet class

The Track listing of the ballet class album OPERA

A ballet teacher and ballet historian...

Collaborating with Ballet Teacher and dance historian Grainne McArdle.

COLLABORATING WITH GRAINNE MCARDLE

Ballet teacher and PHD dance historian Grainne McArdle was the ideal collaborator on that project. 
Together, we decided to select Opera music from different eras, countries and composers.
So, each of the 32 tracks of the album Opera have a different composer and Opera. 
We started by selecting music from the 17th  century and worked our way up to the post romantic era. 
Thanks to Grainne's wide knowledge of the repertoire of the 17th century, we included many operas from that era represented by baroque composers such as Claudio Monteverdi, André Campra, Marin Marais, Henry Purcell, George Frederich Handel... 
Operas at the time always included a ballet section if not many, and in France, the art form known as Opéra-Ballet and Comédie-Ballet were very popular then. 
Our selection of Operas also explores the classical era with composers such as Jean Baptiste Lully, (He also founded in France l'Ecole d'Opéra Royale) Jean-Philippe Rameau, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Christof Willibald Gluck... 
Then comes the very popular Bel Canto era with composers such as Gaetano Donizetti, Giuseppe Verdi, Vincenzo Bellini, Giacomo Puccini... 
...And here are the Romantics! We explored Opera music from France, Germany, Austria, Russia... with composers such as,  Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Säens, Adolphe Adam, Léo Delibes, André Messager, Ambroise Thomas, Charles Lecoq, George Bizet, Jacques Offenbach, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Alexander Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, Piotr Illitch Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korsakov, Richard Wagner, Engelbert Humperdinck... 
Most of these composers have also composed  many  ballets... 

Did you know that the beautiful duet of Siegfried and Odette in Swan Lake, Act 2, from Tchaikovsky came from his Opera Undina?
He destroyed most of the music from his opera but kept that duet and replaced the vocal parts by a violin and a cello… 

Did you know… that many choreographers have chosen music from Operas or libretti from Operas to create their ballets?
Carmen, Thaïs, Flerdermaus, Traviata, Queen of Spades, La Sonnambula, Manon, Eugene Oneguin are only a few…  

More reasons for dancers to explore the inspiring repertoire of Opera music!

a great dance photographer for "opera"

Ballet Class music Nolwenn Collet Opera music Album Opera

Meeting Natacha Hochman

During the lockdown of 2020, it has been very difficult to organise artistic collaborations, in particular, to find a photographer, a model, and a place to do a photoshoot for the album cover of OPERA. 

But despite the circumstances, something quite magical happened: I met the renowned photographer and author Natacha Hochman. 
Natacha Hochman is curious of many domains and she has written on and photographed many of them, to name a few: Japan,  Paris Opera and  ballet, The Kerguelen islands, sub-marines, animals...

Natacha, and her editor Martine Faïn from Maison d'édition Arphilvolis have accepted to let me use one of the photographs from the beautiful book of Natacha Hochman, Fulgurances

This photograph, is of the ballet dancers Aurélie Dupont and Laurent Novis,  in the ballet Roméo and Juliet from Serguei Prokofiev. A Paris Opera production, with a   choreography by  Rudolph Noureev.

Left: A musical evening at Natacha Hochman's