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igenlodeApparently, I'm writing again...
I attended the premiere of the restored/rereleased "The Red Shoes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mHgGU4AbOA, and there is of course an arguably pivotal moment in that, when it dawns on Boris Lermontov that the leading lady he has driven away isn't going to be coming back or extending any olive branches, and that he is going to have to be the one to humble himself and make the first move... and then news suddenly arrives that she is going to be back in Monte Carlo on holiday, and he immediately abandons his nascent letter of appeal and starts scheming to assert his will over her again, with tragic consequences for everyone involved. So the question is what that letter would have contained (some kind of concession on his part, presumably? It was his treatment of Julian that drove her away, rather than his treatment of herself, so the concession would probably have to involve making amends of some sort for his behaviour towards her husband...) and what would have happened if it had actually been sent?
Basically the tragedy is precipitated because Julian perceives her behaviour as running back to Lermontov in secret to dance for him -- when she could be dancing for anyone else -- behind her husband's back, which looks like betrayal. And because he knows very well that Lermontov wants to split them up and is not particularly scrupulous in his methods. But if Julian is in on events from the start and Lermontov is obliged -- as it appeared at one point that he was about to be -- to admit that he was the one at fault, then the dynamic of the whole relationship changes...
I did find myself very conscious of the "Love Never Dies" parallels in the moment when Vicky's husband begs her to leave with him now, before the performance, and her impresario puts pressure on her to perform and signal the end of her marriage, and Vicky is pleading that please can't she get the performance over first and then talk to her husband afterwards... :-(
I attended the premiere of the restored/rereleased "The Red Shoes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mHgGU4AbOA, and there is of course an arguably pivotal moment in that, when it dawns on Boris Lermontov that the leading lady he has driven away isn't going to be coming back or extending any olive branches, and that he is going to have to be the one to humble himself and make the first move... and then news suddenly arrives that she is going to be back in Monte Carlo on holiday, and he immediately abandons his nascent letter of appeal and starts scheming to assert his will over her again, with tragic consequences for everyone involved. So the question is what that letter would have contained (some kind of concession on his part, presumably? It was his treatment of Julian that drove her away, rather than his treatment of herself, so the concession would probably have to involve making amends of some sort for his behaviour towards her husband...) and what would have happened if it had actually been sent?
Basically the tragedy is precipitated because Julian perceives her behaviour as running back to Lermontov in secret to dance for him -- when she could be dancing for anyone else -- behind her husband's back, which looks like betrayal. And because he knows very well that Lermontov wants to split them up and is not particularly scrupulous in his methods. But if Julian is in on events from the start and Lermontov is obliged -- as it appeared at one point that he was about to be -- to admit that he was the one at fault, then the dynamic of the whole relationship changes...
I did find myself very conscious of the "Love Never Dies" parallels in the moment when Vicky's husband begs her to leave with him now, before the performance, and her impresario puts pressure on her to perform and signal the end of her marriage, and Vicky is pleading that please can't she get the performance over first and then talk to her husband afterwards... :-(