Research Catalog

Interview with Irina Baronova

Title
Interview with Irina Baronova [sound recording].
Author
Baronova, Irina.

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StatusVol/DateFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
discs 1-6AudioUse in library *MGZTL 4-595 discs 1-6Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance

Details

Additional Authors
  • Harris, Dale, 1928-1996.
  • National Endowment for the Arts, 2007-2008.
  • New York State Council on the Arts, 2007-2008.
Description
6 sound discs (ca. 391 min.): digital; 4 3/4 in.
Summary
  • Disc 1, Nov. 17, 1976 (ca. 63 min.). Irina Baronova speaks with Dale Harris about her background, including her family's emigration to Romania during the Russian Revolution and their life there; her family's moving to Paris so that she could study with Olga Preobrajenska; Preobrajenska as a person and as a teacher; Tamara Toumanova and her mother; her early performing career, including as a soloist at the Paris Opera [Opéra de Paris]; being recruited by George Balanchine for the Monte Carlo Ballet Russe [the company founded in 1931 by René Blum and W. de Basil], and performing at the Théâtre Mogador [trails off and continues directly on disc 2].
  • Disc 2, Nov. 17, 1977 (ca. 59 min.). Irina Baronova speaks with Dale Harris about joining the Monte Carlo Ballet Russe; George Balanchine, and W. de Basil; Pierre Vladimiroff as a teacher; Serge Lifar and her other partners, including Anton Dolin and David Lichine; her first Swan lake, in London in 1933; the allocation of roles among the company's ballerinas, including herself and Alexandra Danilova [short gap]; the circumstances of Leonide Massine's replacing Balancine as the company's principal choreographer; Balanchine's works for the company including Concurrence and Cotillon; her feelings about his choreography and dancers today [trails off and continues directly on disc 3].;
  • Disc 3, Nov. 17, 1977 (ca. 73 min.). Irina Baronova speaks with Dale Harris about the style of ballet dancers today, including Soviet dancers; her regret that Michel Fokine's ballets, Les sylphides and Petrouchka, are no longer performed as originally choreographed; Ninette de Valois; dance critics, including Arnold Haskell and John Martin, and criticism; life on tour; [Lubov] Tchernicheva as a teacher; roles she danced prior to 1936; David Lichine's works for the Monte Carlo Ballet Russe; her dancing on film.
  • Disc 4, Nov. 18, 1977 (ca. 61 min.). Irina Baronova speaks with Dale Harris about the break between Leonide Massine and W. de Basil; including anecdotes about W. de Basil's loss of a key contract and the manner in which he secured Covent Garden as a performance venue for his company; reasons different dancers left or stayed; Serge Denham as a person; de Basil and the management of the company; the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo's tour of Australia and New Zealand, including its management by Gerry [Gerald] Sevastianov and Victor Dandré; the effect of World War II on the company; Sevastianov, including his family and circumstances of his becoming involved with the Ballet Russe; their marriage [trails off and continues directly on disc 5].
  • Disc 5, Nov. 1977 (ca. 66 min.). Irina Baronova continues to speak with Dale Harris about her marriage to Gerald Sevastianov; her dancing at Radio City; the Ballet Russe Highlights; [Anatole] Vilzak; acting in plays with Uta Hagen and others; her second marriage, to Cecil Tennant; Margot Fonteyn [very short gap following which Baronova continues to speak about Fonteyn]; the play, A bullet in the ballet; Michel Fokine, including his working methods and an anecdote about him and Sir Thomas Beecham; the early Ballet Theatre [trails off and continues directly on disc 6].
  • Disc 6, Nov. 1977 (ca. 69 min.). Irina Baronova speaks with Dale Harris about Bronislava Nijinksa; her work Cent baisers; her work Les noces; compares Frederic Ashton's La fille mal gardée to Nijinska's La fille mal gardée; Matilde Kschessinska [ Matilʹda Feliksovna Kshesinska︠i︡a]; the audiences for de Basil's company, including an anecdote about peforming in New Zealand; being coached by Fokine in Le spectre de la rose; reminisces about David Lichine, Tatania Riabouchinska, and Tamara Toumanova, including an anecdote about Toumanova's mother; her (few) regrets regarding her career; her partners including André Eglevsky and Igor Youskevitch [short gap]; her first husband's changing of his name to Severn; her second husband's death; renewing her acquaintance with her first husband [beginning at track 12, ca. 3 min., there are a number of gaps where the tape was erased at the request of the oral author shortly after taping; these sections were also deleted from the transcript]; her life as it is now [ends abruptly].
Alternative Title
  • Dance Oral History Project
  • Dance Audio Archive
Subjects
Note
  • Interview with Irina Baronova conducted by Dale Harris on Nov. 17 and 18, 1977, in New York City, for the New York Public Library Dance Collection Oral History Project. Barbara Newman was present during the recording session of Nov. 17 but does not participate in the interview.
  • Discs 1-3 : Sound quality is generally fair. The interviewee's voice is soft but for the most part can be clearly understood. The interviewer's voice is very soft and is often difficult to understand. Discs 4-6: Sound quality is good.
Funding (note)
  • Preservation was funded in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, 2007-2008 and the National Endowment for the Arts, 2007-2008.
System Details (note)
  • Transferred from two sound tape reels (ca. 358 min.; polyester; 1 7/8 in. per sec. ; originally recorded Nov. 17 and 18, 1977) to wav file and compact disc formats in 2008. The handwritten notes on the original covers of the archival reels indicate a duration of 358 min., which is the time noted in the original catalog record. However, as transferred, the total duration on the compact discs is 391 min.
Call Number
*MGZTL 4-595
OCLC
80123032
Author
Baronova, Irina. Interviewee
Title
Interview with Irina Baronova [sound recording].
Funding
Preservation was funded in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, 2007-2008 and the National Endowment for the Arts, 2007-2008.
System Details
Transferred from two sound tape reels (ca. 358 min.; polyester; 1 7/8 in. per sec. ; originally recorded Nov. 17 and 18, 1977) to wav file and compact disc formats in 2008. The handwritten notes on the original covers of the archival reels indicate a duration of 358 min., which is the time noted in the original catalog record. However, as transferred, the total duration on the compact discs is 391 min.
Local Note
For transcript of interview, see *MGZMT 5-595
Archival original: *MGZTO 5-595 reels 1-2
Dubbing master: *MGZTD 4-595 nos. 1-6
Former call number: *MGZT 5-595.
Local Subject
Monte Carlo Ballet Russe.
Added Author
Harris, Dale, 1928-1996. Interviewer
National Endowment for the Arts, 2007-2008.
New York State Council on the Arts, 2007-2008.
Research Call Number
*MGZTL 4-595
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