Ringer Spy Jen sends us the photo spread from the latest issue of ‘The Face’ Magazine featuring Elijah Wood (Frodo).
Category: Old Special Reports
Tolkien-inspired dance work unveiled at C.S. Lewis and Friends Colloquium
The third C.S. Lewis and Friends Colloquium took place November 16-18 at the Upland,
Indiana campus of Taylor University. Scholars and enthusiasts of the work of Lewis and
his fellow writers gathered from as far away as Japan.
Several papers being presented related to Tolkien, including the first place student essay
“The Lord of the Rings and the Christian Way”, presented by Nathan E. Sytsma of Calvin College.
One highlight of the weekend was a post-banquet presentation on a new full-length ballet
entitled The Silmaril. In April of 2003, this ballet will be presented at Butler University by the Butler Ballet under the direction of Stephan Laurent. Ellen Denham, a long-time
Tolkien enthusiast and librettist of the ballet, was the guest speaker. The score for the ballet will be newly composed by Michael Schelle, the composer in residence at Butler, who has extensive experience composing for film.
The presentation was received with excitement, and many Colloquium attendees said that they hoped to return to Indiana for the premiere. To find out more about the Colloquium, visit the websiteTo find out more about the Butler Ballet, visit their websitehere. Following is an excerpt from Ellen Denham’s presentation.
“The story of Beren and Lúthien seems to me to be a natural subject for a ballet, because after all, there is a lot of dancing in it! Beren first falls in love with Lúthien when he sees her dancing upon the grass in a woodland glade. When Lúthien comes before the throne of Morgoth, the original source of evil himself, she offers to dance for him, and in doing so weaves a spell of sleep that allows the capture of a Silmaril and her escape with Beren.
I first conceived of the idea of Beren and Lúthien’s story as a ballet while listening to Prokofiev’s music in the car during a commute. In my mind, I could picture Lúthien’s dance before Morgoth. I mentioned the idea to my husband, Stephan Laurent, who is, coincidentally, the Chair of the Department of Dance at Butler University and Artistic Director of the Butler Ballet. He had not read The Silmarillion or The Lord of the Rings at the time, but when I described the story, it appealed to him and he suggested that I try to write a libretto, or ballet plot, based on Tolkien’s tale.
In addition to containing references to dance and having a central female character who expresses herself through dance, the Beren and Lúthien story shares other elements with classic ballets. In many Romantic and Classical ballets, a man meeting otherworldly or enchanted female creatures is a common theme, as is that of lovers meeting again after death. La Sylphide premiered in 1832 in Paris with choreography by Philippo Taglioni and music by Jean Schneitzhoeffer. In their book Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets, George Balanchine and Francis Mason say about this ballet “…the sylph became ballet’s symbol for romantic love–the girl who is so beautiful, so light, so pure, that she is unattainable: touch her, and she vanishes.” This aptly describes Beren’s first impression of Lúthien.
The theme of beautiful but unattainable women is continued in the ballet Giselle, which premiered in 1841, also in Paris, with choreography by Jules Perrot and Jean Corall’ and music by Adolphe Adam. In Giselle, the Wilis, the spirits of young women who had died before their wedding days, rose from their graves at night and danced in the moonlight. These spirits, however were vengeful, and compelled the men who had betrayed them to dance until they died. The exception was Giselle, who forgave her fiancé’s duplicity, realizing that he truly loved her, and danced in his stead, saving him from death before day came and she had to return to her grave. Beren and Lúthien’s story also expresses a love that transcends death.
Later ballets such as La Bayadère and Swan Lake, both first presented in 1877, continue some of these themes. In La Bayadère, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Ludwig Minkus, the hero seeks for his beloved in a dream sequence after her death in the “Kingdom of the Shades”, much like Lúthien seeks for Beren in the Halls of Mandos.
Swan Lake, with music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, was premiered with choreography by Julius Reisinger in Moscow, but this production was not a success and it was presented in a revised version in 1895 in St. Petersburg with choreography by Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa. Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake falls in love with the enchanted Swan Queen Odette in circumstances similar to the way Beren falls in love with Lúthien. Balanchine and Mason say about this heroine, “She is a princess of the night; she is all magic, a creature of the imagination.” Like Lúthien, Odette flees from the hero at first, but then falls in love with him.
In these ballets, the otherworldly female characters, whether they be sylphs, Wilis, enchanted swans, or shades, come in groups rather than alone, so the audience can enjoy the pleasure of the corps de ballet: a stage filled with unison or contrapuntal movement to dazzle the eye. Naturally, this is one thing that needed adaptation to present The Silmaril as a full-length ballet. I have handled this by adding a group of elf-maidens who appear with Lúthien as their leader and giving Lúthien a companion, M’riel. Other corps de ballet scenes include a court dance before Thingol and Melian; spirits of departed mortals dancing in the Halls of the Lord of the Underworld, Mandos; and a group of vampire bats who dance before Morgoth’s throne. In The Silmarillion, Lúthien and Beren are able to sneak into Morgoth’s throne room because she uses her magic arts to disguise him as a werewolf and herself as a vampire bat. Because of this I thought that it was fitting that in the ballet, when Lúthien and Beren arrive, Morgoth is being entertained by a group of his vampire bats who are led by their queen, Thuringwethil. This presents an opportunity for Lúthien to attempt to blend in with the other bats until her identity is discovered.
Perhaps to Tolkien purists, this changing of the Master’s work would seem indefensible. I know that many people have strong opinions about the changes to Tolkien’s work that will appear in the upcoming movies beginning with The Fellowship of the Ring this December, but I’m not going to get into that debate here! However, I realized as soon as I started writing that there was, to begin with, no way I could adapt the story for a stage presentation without omitting a lot of material. Much of this deals with the complicated story of the Silmarils and the historical context within which the story of Beren and Lúthien takes place. I chose instead to focus on the love story, the quest for the Silmaril, Beren’s death and Lúthien ‘s choice. A dance production is not a book, nor should it attempt to be. What we will present with The Silmaril is an interpretation of Tolkien’s work adapted to meet the special requirements of a ballet. I hope that many of those who see the ballet but have not read The Silmarillion will be inspired to read the book to better understand the rich context of the tale. However, for those who just choose to attend the ballet, I think it still presents an engaging story which is complete in itself.”
Thanks to Saulone for pointing out this most interesting tidbit to all hardcore Decipher LOTR TCG fans out there.
In the Decipher card to the left, labeled “The Pale Sword” the Nazgul is holding an ordinary blade, and yet in the card to the right, the “Nazgul Sword”, he is holding the Pale Blade. It appears the two cards were accidently switched. The sword below is the picture of the Pale Blade, so you can compare its image to the swords displayed in the two cards.
The Sword of the Witchking:
This evil and ancient sword is wielded by the Witchking, leader of the nine Ringwraiths, the indestructible and relentless shadow servants of Sauron. [More]
If the earliest advance sales of New Line Cinema’s “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” are any indication, it could give corporate counterpart Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Harry Potter” pic a runs for its money.
Denmark, Sweden and Norway have received 200,000 advance ticket orders for “Fellowship” — a number that accounts for a little more than 1% of the countries’ total population.
Swedish “Fellowship” tickets went on sale only yesterday — much to the relief of the fans who had been waiting in line for as long as five days in temperatures that dipped below the freezing point.
Unusual interest
“We had people going out with hot coffee and hamburgers for people standing in line,” said Rasmus Ramstead, president and CEO of the pic’s Swedish distributor, Svensk Films. ” ‘Star Wars: The Phantom Menace’ was the last time people queued up outside theaters, but it’s never been anything like this.”
Tickets were also available via the Internet, but the system went down when it was overwhelmed by online requests.
Denmark has been selling tickets since Oct. 18; Norway’s tickets went on sale Nov. 5.
Tickets also went on sale today in the U.K., where “Fellowship” received a PG certificate, boosting its local box office prospects. Pic was initially expected to get a 12 rating, preventing kids under that age from seeing it.
Calling all kids
The advisory parental guidance rating throws it open to the entire kid audience, significantly improving its chance of rivaling the record-breaking figures being posted by “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (as the film is titled in Blighty), which is also rated PG.
The British Board of Film Classification saw “Fellowship,” which is being released in the U.K. by Entertainment Film Distributors, last week. The PG comes with an advisory note that the pic features “battle violence and fantasy horror” and “may not be suitable for under 8s.”
The running time was also confirmed at 2 hours and 58 minutes, some 15 minutes longer than exhibs expected.
Pic enters release worldwide Dec. 19, outside of Japan and Italy.
My old friend James M sent me this article from ‘The Hollywood Reporter’ take a look at some of the blue screen SFX work!
From: J. Bennett
I don’t know if this is important enough to list on the web site but today on the way to work I noticed the beginning of Lord of the Ring billboards in Berkeley, California, USA. They’re very nicely done, with a stunning “life-like” artistic rendition of just the Hobbits. They don’t say anything fantastic, but are very simple, in that black, yellow, brown, green collection of colors most of the authentic movie things appear in. It says “Lord of the Rings”, with a larger L and larger S at the front and end. And between the bottom of that L and S is “The Fellowship Of The Ring” in letters of a much more small nature. Underneath it all in bold white unstylish letters is “December 19”. I have been a fan of these movies for almost a year now, looking at everything, from wallpaper, to book covers, to web site art, to snapshots, to pictures in magazines and on gaming boxes. But I’ve never seen this particular rendition of the Hobbits. So it is a new art for me.