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72-592: Other variants of the Aarne–Thompson type include The Six Swans , The Twelve Wild Ducks , Udea and her Seven Brothers , The Wild Swans , and The Twelve Brothers . The 1937 animated feature film The Seven Ravens adapts the fairy tale. The tale was published by the Brothers Grimm in the first edition of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen in 1812, under the name "Die drei Raben" (The Three Ravens). In

144-634: A bit about a hot air balloon to the already-extensive adventures of Phileas Fogg and his companions so that the Kiralfys could put a real helium balloon onstage to be operated by wires. Aside from adding special effects, few changes were made to the Paris production. They added the Around the World Waltz and a curtain for scene changes that was in the shape of a fan. The Kiralfy production was larger than

216-635: A connection of "The Six Swans" tale with a story of seven swans published in the Feenmärchen (1801) and the swan-ride of the Knight of Swan (Lohengrin). They also saw a connection with the swan shirts of the swan maidens of the Volundarkvida . On his notes on Children of Lir tale, in his book More Celtic Fairy Tales , folklorist Joseph Jacobs wrote that the "well-known Continental folk-tale" of The Seven Swans (or Ravens) became connected to

288-524: A key. She goes into the mountain, where a dwarf tells her that her brothers will return. She takes some of their food and drink and leaves, in the last cup , a ring from home. When her brothers return, she hides. They turn back into human form and ask who has been at their food. The youngest brother finds the ring, and hopes it is their sister, in which case they are saved. She emerges, and they return home. This tale, like The Twelve Brothers , The Six Swans , and Brother and Sister , features

360-545: A long and successful partnership and even continued to have success in their individual careers. From folk dancing in Europe to directing and producing in the United States, the Kiralfys spent their lives astounding audiences with unseen visual phenomenon and were never afraid to push the boundaries earning them a special place in entertainment history. The Kiralfy Brothers, Imre (1845–1919) and Bolossy (1848–1932), were

432-638: A new narrative for the sister character found in all three versions. A musical version of The Seven Ravens , written by Wolfgang Adenberg and Alexander S. Bermange was presented at the Amphitheater Park Schloss Philippsruhe, Hanau, Germany as part of the Brothers Grimm Festival in 2007. A fantasy webcomic named Raven Saga [1] , created by Chiriro Howe and published by Webtoon . The Six Swans " The Six Swans " ( German : Die sechs Schwäne )

504-708: A new stage deck for the Academy of Music to accommodate for a sinking steam ship. Audiences loved the depictions of foreign attractions such as the Suez Canal , Calcutta , and the Taj Mahal . The Kiralfys were immediately praised for their use of pastel backgrounds which please the eye but do not distract from performance. They were also some of the first American producers to utilize realistic set design. For example, their trees looked like actual trees and not theatrical renditions of trees. They convinced Jules Verne to add

576-487: A particularly broad canal connected to a lake. The four hundred foot stage was the largest ever constructed in the Northwest and allowed me to put two hundred performers in action in one scene. I could still hide myself and cruise the show in a gondola to evaluate the performance.” In 1888, Bolossy returned from his trip to Europe and brought two new spectacles to America, Mathias Sandorf and Antiope . Mathias Sandorf

648-541: A production that was usually greater than the sum of its parts. It had to have a meaningful story with a universal theme, and it had to have a hero or heroine with whom the audience could sympathize. Imre and Bolossy both trained at the Opera Ballet but they refused to become permanent performers. Bolossy reflects on his training in Paris: There is no question that in Paris I acquired my training, not only in

720-484: A revival of The Black Crook at Niblo's Garden . They added musical numbers, improved the costumes (beyond exposing the legs of the actresses), and strengthened the dance numbers. According to Bolossy Kiralfy, their revival was an immense success, playing over one hundred performances before going on tour and breaking Niblo's Garden's record number of performances of a revival. Their production, featuring actors such as George Atkins , E.K. Collier, and W. Martin, as well as

792-452: A swan permanently). The Queen is now free to speak and, with her brothers' support, proves she is innocent of the crimes against her. The Queen's three missing children are found alive and her mother-in-law is the one who is burned at the stake as punishment. In the end, the Queen, her husband, three children, and six brothers live happily ever after. Folklorist Stith Thompson points that

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864-567: A variant of the tale in The Yellow Fairy Book . Scholars and folktale catalogues report variants of the tale type across Europe, the Middle East, and even India and Japan, although the number of brothers and their animal form may vary between tales. The tale was published by the Brothers Grimm in the first edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen in 1812, and substantially rewritten for the second edition in 1819. Their source

936-425: A way to lift the curse: she must not speak for six years while sewing six star-flower shirts for her brothers. On the other hand, if she speaks before the end of the sixth year, the spell will never be broken. The Princess agrees to do this and, sheltering in a tree , dedicates herself solely to gathering the star-flowers and sewing the shirts in silence. In the fourth year, the young King of another country finds

1008-411: A woman rescuing her brothers. In the era and region in which it was collected, many men were drafted by kings for soldiers, to be sent as mercenaries. As a consequence, many men made their daughters their heirs; however, they also exerted more control over them and their marriages. The stories have been interpreted as a wish by women for the return of their brothers, freeing them from this control. However,

1080-430: Is Wilhelm Grimm's friend and later wife Henriette Dorothea (Dortchen) Wild (1795–1867). A King gets lost in a forest while hunting for game . An old witch promises to help the lost King get back home, on the condition that he marry her beautiful daughter. The King suspects the mysterious maiden to be wicked, but agrees to marry her. He has six sons and a daughter from his first marriage, however, and fears that

1152-516: Is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1812 (KHM 49). It is of Aarne–Thompson type 451 ("The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers"), commonly found throughout Europe. Other tales of this type include The Seven Ravens , The Twelve Wild Ducks , Udea and her Seven Brothers , The Wild Swans , and The Twelve Brothers . Andrew Lang included

1224-409: Is a play by Jules Verne . Bolossy purchased the play itself along with the scenery, costumes and effects used in the original production. Kiralfy had several interviews with Jules Verne and William Busnach to improve certain scenes and adapt them for American audiences. Kiralfy also introduced two new ballets in this production; one of them is called America and required 120 performers; the other one

1296-459: Is also a witch, then sews seven magical white shirts . When the King leaves for an errand one day, the Queen follows the reel to the hidden castle. Mistaking her for their father, the six princes rush out to greet their stepmother who then throws the shirts over her stepsons, transforming them into swans . Believing that she has cursed all seven of her stepchildren, the Queen goes home. But

1368-628: Is attested in a Romanian tale, which was also compared to the Grimm's tale. The geese transformation is present in the Irish variant The Twelve Wild Geese , collected by Irish folklorist Patrick Kennedy and compared to the German variants ("The Twelve Brothers" and "The Seven Ravens") and the Norse one ("The Twelve Wild Ducks"). In a tale attributed to Northern European origin, The Twelve White Peacocks ,

1440-596: Is born years later and seeks her brothers. The tale continues with the motif of the poisoned apple and glass coffin of Snow White (ATU 709) and concludes as tale type ATU 706, " The Maiden Without Hands ". Folklorists Johannes Bolte and Jiri Polivka , in their commentaries to the Grimm fairy tales, compiled several variants where the brothers are transformed into all sorts of beasts and terrestrial animals, such as deer, wolves, and sheep. Likewise, Georgian professor Elene Gogiashvili stated that in Georgian variants of

1512-787: Is buried in the family mausoleum in Green-Wood Cemetery , New York, but there is also family mausoleum at Kensal Green Cemetery in London. Bolossy Kiralfy after the split During his time alone, Blossy Kiralfy focused a lot on outdoor theatre. In London he created Venice in London , which included a lake and water canals. A few years later, in Portland, Oregon , he produced Carnival in Venice . According to Bolossy, this production in Portland required “a huge open air theatre with

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1584-526: Is called The Fete of Storks and required no less than 200 performers. In this production, Kiralfy included performers like the James troupe of eccentric games, and Alexandrov Brothers, the famous Russian musical clowns. The other production that Kiralfy brought was the new ballet Antiope which opened at London first. Kiralfy promised this ballet to be more brilliant and effective than the Excelsior , which

1656-563: Is present in a Polish tale collected in Kraków by Oskar Kolberg , O siedmiu braciach bocianach ("The Seven Stork Brothers"). The Hungarian tale A hét daru ("The Seven Cranes") attests the transformation of the brothers into cranes. The jackdaw transformation is attested in the Hungarian tale, A csóka lányok ("The Jackdaw Girls"), wherein a poor mother wishes her rambunctious twelve daughters would turn into jackdaws and fly away, which

1728-512: The President of the United States attended a performance. President Ulysses S. Grant , who attended a performance on September 17, 1875, with Secretary George M. Robeson , General Orville E. Babcock , and former-Attorney General George Henry Williams , “seemed to be much pleased with the brilliant spectacle”. After the production closed in October at the Academy of Music, it went on tour to

1800-601: The acacia tree she is placed on by her brothers after fleeing home. The other variation is in the result of the brothers' transformation: in some versions they are ducks, in others ravens, and even eagles, geese, peacocks, blackbirds, storks, cranes, jackdaws or rooks. The eagle transformation is attested in the Polish tale Von der zwölf Prinzen, die in Adler verwandelt wurden (English: "The Twelve Princes who became Eagles"), translated as The Eagles . A similar transformation

1872-464: The Danish fairy tale collected by Mathias Winther, De elleve Svaner (English: "The Eleven Swans"), first published in 1823, or Ligurian tale Les onze cygnes . Hungarian folk tale collector Elisabeth Sklarek compiled two Hungarian variants, Die sieben Wildgänse ("The Seven Wild Geese") and Die zehn Geschwister ("The Ten Siblings"), and, in her commentaries, noted that both tales were related to

1944-801: The Germanic area and Scandinavia, and another she dubbed "western version". She noted that in this western version, the youngest sister, after she settles with the brothers, asks for fire from a neighbouring ogre, and a tree sprouts on their yard and bears fruit that causes the transformation. Variants have also been collected in Japan with the name 七羽の白鳥 (Romanization: Nanaha no hakuchō ; English: "The Seven Swans"). However, Japanese scholarship acknowledges that these tales are restricted to Kikaijima and Okinoerabujima . Japanese folklorist Keigo Seki also found variants in Kagoshima . A literary predecessor to

2016-460: The Grimm versions. A third Hungarian is titled A tizenkét fekete várju ("The Twelve Black Ravens"). Ludwig Bechstein collected two German variants, The Seven Crows and The Seven Swans . Commenting on the Irish variant collected by Patrick Kennedy , Louis Brueyre indicated as another variant the Indian tale of Truth's Triumph , or Der Sieg der Wahrheit : in the second part of the tale,

2088-617: The Hungarian Circus. There the brothers first performed under the name "Kiralfy" instead of their family name of Königsbaum; the boys' father changed their name to prevent them from being recognized as the sons of a revolutionary. They were never recognized, though over the years, there were a number of close encounters with Austrian police, during many of which their father was nearly arrested. Jacob Königsbaum and their mother, Anna (Rosa) Weisberger, were highly supportive of their sons' career. They gave up their clothing business to take

2160-697: The Kiralfy Brothers , Sieba and the Seven Ravens , was presented at the Star Theatre. The German pagan folk band Faun released in 2019 a song called Sieben Raben (from the album Märchen & Mythen ), inspired by this fairy tale. Black Feather by K. Tempest Bradford (published in the Interfictions anthology, 2007) references commonalities between The Six Swans , The Seven Ravens , and The Twelve Brothers while building

2232-468: The Kiralfy Brothers may already have envisioned how to produce their ideas of spectacle on stage. For four years, the family continued to tour as dancers, until eventually being contracted by Niblo's Garden , just after the theatre’s immense success with The Black Crook . Their first foray into the production side of theatre came in 1871, with the pantomime Humpty Dumpty at the Olympic, in which

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2304-759: The Kiralfy Brothers’ production was brought to the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia in April 1879, reviewers praised the ballet and scenery, while essentially ignoring the acting. One reviewer comments that the sets of “Pandemonium, the Garden of Eden , and the Temple of Enoch were wonderful to behold, and were master-pieces of scenic painting,” and goes on to note that, because the piece

2376-677: The Kiralfy sisters’ dancing talents, was later revived from November 1874 to January 1875. With this production, the brothers achieved their goal of making popular theatre, and they made a strong effort to elevate The Black Crook into a slightly higher class of theatre. The Deluge, or Paradise Lost The next year, they imported the French spectacle The Deluge to Niblo's Garden, and were noted for producing rain on stage. The Deluge , otherwise known as Paradise Lost, opened Niblo's Garden's 1874–1875 season, on September 4, 1874. This production

2448-517: The Paris production, having a cast of 35 principal actors, a ballet corps, and over 200 ensemble members. Around the World in Eighty Days opened at the Academy of Music, after a legal challenge due to another New York troupe trying to mount the same Paris production, and it was a major hit. The special effects and exciting story attracted large audiences consistently. It became so popular that

2520-465: The Princess sewing. Taken by her beauty, the King takes the Princess to his kingdom and makes her his wife . However, the King's wicked mother does not consider her daughter-in-law fit to be a Queen. When the young Queen gives birth to her first child, her mother-in-law kidnaps the baby and accuses the Queen of killing and eating him, but the King refuses to believe it. During the next two years,

2592-419: The Queen has two more babies but twice more , her mother-in-law kidnaps them and falsely claims that the Queen has killed and eaten her own children. The King is unable to keep on protecting her, and unable to properly defend herself, the Queen is sentenced to be burned at the stake as a witch. On the day of the Queen's execution, the six years expire. Even though the Queen has sewn all six star-flower shirts,

2664-521: The Slovak collection named Codexy Revúcke ("Codices of Revúca "), and published version Traja zhavranení bratia ("Three Raven Brothers"). A Puerto Rican variant, "The Seven Crows," was collected by J. Alden Mason and Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Sr. Georgios A Megas collected another, Greek variant in Folktales of Greece . The Liechtenstein composer Josef Rheinberger based an opera on

2736-810: The United States. Some of the houses for Around the World included Haverly’s Theatre in Brooklyn, the Novelty Theatre in Brooklyn, and the Grand Opera House , the Windsor Theatre , and the Amphion Academy . For the audience and the producers, much of the appeal in such frequent productions lay in the fluidity of the plot, which allowed many opportunities for additions to the story, scenery and dance. The fantastic situations Phileas Fogg and company get into on their trip around

2808-539: The World in Eighty Days at the New York Academy of Music . According to Bolossy Kiralfy, their goal with the production was to “convert American theatre audiences into enthusiasts for the French style of musical spectacle” which so inspired the brothers. Around the World in Eighty Days based on the Jules Verne novel and adapted for the stage by Michael d’Ennery, was another Parisian import. To mount

2880-517: The area to attract a mass audience. Highlights of the site included the two-storey Empress Hall, built for Kiralfy in Fulham which could seat 6,000 viewers for his spectaculars, and the 300-feet high Great Wheel whose forty carriages could each accommodate thirty people. Imre Kiralfy became a British citizen in 1901. The renowned producer died on April 27, 1919, at age 74 in Brighton , England. He

2952-409: The boys' poor mother curses her twelve sons into the avian form, while also giving an escape clause: after their sister is born, she should sew twelve shirts to save them. In a Sudanese tale, The ten white doves , the titular white doves are ten brothers transformed by their stepmother. Their sister has a dream where an old woman tells her the key to reversing the curse: weaving coats with leaves from

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3024-441: The brothers on tour through Europe. For many years, the family continued to travel, touring all through both Eastern and Western Europe, while the three of the four younger siblings went to school and learned dance. The Kiralfy family motto was "All the World's a Stage." Eventually, their sisters Haniola, Emile and Katie, as well as their youngest brother Arnold joined Imre and Bolossy in the dance industry. Only their brother Ronald

3096-424: The children will be abused by his new wife. So before the wedding , the King sends his children to a hidden castle in the forest, secretly visiting them by following a magical reel of thread given to him by a wise woman . The new Queen becomes offended at her husband's frequent absences. Curious, she bribes the servants into revealing her stepchildren 's whereabouts and her husband's reel. The Queen, who

3168-565: The eldest of seven siblings born in the 1840s in Pest —(since 1873 incorporated with Buda and Óbuda into Budapest )—during the Hungarian Revolution , in which their father, Jacob Königsbaum, was ruined. When they were young children, Imre and Bolossy began to teach themselves to dance. They continued for years until their father caught them and promptly enrolled them in dance classes. Soon, they were dancing at large venues such as

3240-631: The finest Ballet technique from Monsieur Barres, but in the areas of production and management. The presentations at the Theatre Francais taught me dramatic staging. My experience at the Theatre de la Porte-Saint-Martin and at the Chatelet gave me the ability to produce big spectacular numbers. At the Opera I learned the choreography that would help me to plan my lavish musical productions. And it

3312-542: The invention of the telegraph as incorporated in a dance of telegraph messengers. Not a word was spoken in the production and Excelsior is widely regarded as the Kiralfys’ most important work which showcased the Kiralfys’ expertise in dance and spectacle. The Kiralfy Brothers had a 13-year long producing partnership. In 1887, Imre and Bolossy Kiralfy had a falling out and the firm disbanded, driving Bolossy and Imre to produce outdoor spectacles. Neither publicly addressed

3384-439: The issues of when the stories were collected are unclear, and stories of this type have been found in many other cultures, where this issue can not have inspired them. Some folklorists connect this tale to the more general practice of ultimogeniture , in which the youngest child would inherit. In the original oral version, there were three, not seven ravens; one study of German folk tales found that of 31 variants collected after

3456-422: The last one lacks a left sleeve. When the Queen is brought to the stake, she takes the shirts with her. Just as she is about to be burned, the six swans come flying through the air. The Queen throws the shirts over her brothers and they regain their human form, but the youngest retains a left wing instead of an arm (in some variants, the sister is unable to finish the last shirt in time, leaving her youngest brother

3528-686: The medieval cycle of the Knight of the Swan . The tale type is said to be "widely recorded" in Europe and in the Middle East, as well as in India and in the Americas. In Europe only, there exist "over two hundred versions" collected and published "in folktale collections from all parts" of the continent. French scholar Nicole Belmont identified two forms of the tale type in Europe: one "essentially" present in

3600-556: The outer boroughs for two weeks, until it reached the Brooklyn Academy of Music , during Christmas week in 1875. Yet, like The Deluge , this Kiralfy Brothers production did not end here. The first of a long line of expansive revivals of Around the World in Eighty Days opened again at Niblo's Garden on January 22, 1877. It was presented at Niblo's Garden nine times, together with a series of very successful tours and revivals between 1881 and 1892 throughout New York City and

3672-469: The princes' sister remains human and has witnessed the enchantment. When her father does visit, the Princess tells him everything and begs to remain at the hidden castle for fear of her stepmother. When the King leaves, the Princess runs away, finding her brothers in a robbers ' hut. The princes can only take their human forms for fifteen minutes every evening. They tell their sister that they have heard of

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3744-424: The production “Kiralfy out-Kiralfy’s himself” Imre Kiralfy then moved to England where he created even larger spectacles. The twenty-four acre Earl's Court Exhibition Centre grounds were rebuilt in 1894 by Imre Kiralfy in a Mughal Indian style. The Empire of India Exhibition opened the site in 1895, and was the first of a series of annual exhibitions there, which drew heavily on the abundance of transport links in

3816-508: The publication of Grimms' Fairy Tales , only two followed the Grimms in having seven ravens. A variant from Silesia has a boy searching for his lost sister after she's transformed into a dove. A Polish variant exists with the name The Seven Raven Brothers , collected from the Płock region. Two Slovakian versions exist: one named O sklenenom zámku ("About the glass keyhole"), archived in

3888-547: The second edition, in 1819, the name was retitled Die sieben Raben and substantially rewritten. Their source was the Hassenpflug family , and others. A peasant has seven sons and no daughter. Finally a daughter is born, but is sickly. The father sends his sons to fetch water for her to be baptized. In their haste, they drop the jug in the well . When they do not return, their father thinks that they have gone off to play and curses them and so they turn into ravens . When

3960-504: The show in the United States, the brothers re-created the scenery and costumes from the Paris production as precisely as possible, and hired all the cast and crew members, except for the principal speaking roles, from the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin , where the original production was performed. In terms of special effects, the brothers rented an elephant for $ 150 per week, brought a steam engine from Europe to run automation, and created

4032-463: The sister is grown, she sets out in search of her brothers. She attempts to get help first from the sun , which is too hot, then the moon , which craves human flesh, and then the morning star . The star helps her by giving her a chicken bone and tells her she will need it to save her brothers. She finds them on the Glass Mountain but has lost the bone, and chops off a finger to use as

4104-410: The split, although, Bolossy intimated that his brother was making business deals behind his back. Upon their split, Bolossy continued to work in fantasy and fable whereas Imre pressed on with progressive era productions filled with science, technology, and machinery. Imre Kiralfy after the split Imre Kiralfy’s The Fall of Rome was produced on Staten Island with 2,000 performers, a grand number at

4176-679: The stories of the Aarne–Thompson–Uther ATU 451 tale-type follow a long literary history, beginning with the tale of the Dolopathos , in the 12th century. The Dolopathos , in medieval tradition, was later used as part of the Knight of the Swan heroic tale. Fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes cites that the Brothers Grimm considered an origin in Greco-Roman times, with parallels also found in French and Nordic oral traditions. The Brothers Grimm themselves, on their annotations, saw

4248-545: The tale is The Seven Doves ( Neapolitan : Li sette palommelle ; Italian : I sette colombi ), in Giambattista Basile 's Pentamerone , where the brothers are transformed into doves. In the tale from the Brothers Grimm, there are six brothers and they are transformed into swans. In other European variants, the number of princes/brothers alternates between three, seven or twelve , but very rarely there are two, eight, nine, ten or even eleven, such as

4320-528: The tale type the brothers (usually nine) change into deer, while in Armenian variants, they number seven and become rams. The Kiralfy Brothers Imre Kiralfy and Bolossy Kiralfy were highly influential burlesque and spectacle producers in Europe and the United States toward the end of the 19th century. The brothers paved the way for many of our modern day spectacles. With backgrounds in music and dance, these performers turned producers dazzled New York City with theatrical wonders. The brothers had

4392-404: The tale, which was premiered in 1867. Ludwig Englander wrote a romantic fairy tale in four acts called The Seven Ravens, combining drama, pantomime, opera and ballet. The libretto was by C. Lehnhardt and based on the original German play by Emil Pohl. It was translated by G.P. Lathorp and ran at Niblo's Gardens, New York, from 8 November 1884 for a total of 96 performances. A competing spectacle by

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4464-454: The time. In 1892, to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus' "founding" of America, he produced Columbus and the Discovery of America at the Madison Square Garden Theatre . It was later featured at the Auditorium Theatre at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition . Imre Kiralfy also premiered his show America at the Chicago World’s Fair which was picked up by the Metropolitan Opera House in 1893. Life magazine in quoted as response to

4536-399: The twelve princelings are transformed into peacocks due to a curse cast by a troll. The blackbird transformation is attested in a Central European tale ( The Blackbird ), collected by Theodor Vernaleken: the twelve brothers kill a blackbird and bury it in the garden, and from its grave springs an apple-tree bearing the fruit the causes the transformation. The avian transformation of storks

4608-455: The world, allow for inserts and interpretation. Due to their success with this work, the brothers bought a property at 39 Washington Square , which they used for offices and residence until 1921. Excelsior When the electric lightbulb was commercialized around 1880, the Kiralfy brothers took full advantage. They quickly put a production of Excelsior into the works with plans to be lit electrically for special effects scenes. The spectacle

4680-426: The youngest child, a girl, witnesses the transformation of her one hundred brothers into crows. In a Lithuanian variant, Von den zwölf Brüdern, die als Raben verwandelt wurden or The Twelve Brothers, Twelve Black Ravens , the witch stepmother asks for her husband to kill his sons, burn their bodies and deliver her the ashes. In the Hungarian variant A tizenkét koronás hattyu és a csiháninget fonó testvérkéjük ,

4752-403: The “Kiralfy Troupe,” as they had come to be known, were performing. The reviewers of the production praised both the dancing and the scenery greatly, declaring the latter to be “of exceptional beauty”. This “exceptional beauty” would become a common theme in reviews of the Kiralfy Brothers' productions. The Black Crook In August 1873, the brothers first produced their own musical spectacle,

4824-417: Was called a “delectability” by the historian George Odell. Its players included actresses Julia Seamen, Lillie McDonald and Katie New, as well as the Kiralfy Sisters as dancers. The Deluge ran until November 14, 1874, and a competing theater company, Bryant's Minstrels , opened their own The Deluge on the same day. Odell said it brought “a veritable flood-tide of success”. When one of the many revivals of

4896-416: Was presented at Niblo's Garden in 1883. There was still use of gas-lighting and they were not the first ones to employ electric lighting (they, themselves, had previously used electric light in their revival of The Black Crook ) but they were the first and only production to be lit under the personal direction of Thomas Edison . In their production, the invention of incandescent light was celebrated along with

4968-414: Was promptly fulfilled; and in the "West Prussian" tale Die sieben Dohlen ("The Seven Jackdaws"), collected by professor Alfred Cammann ( de ). The transformation into rooks (a type of bird) is attested in Ukrainian tale "Про сімох братів гайворонів і їх сестру" ("The Seven Rook Brothers and Their Sister"): the mother curses their sons into rooks (also called "грак" and "грайворон" in Ukrainian). A sister

5040-604: Was there that my encounters with the artists proved how exciting and challenging the work of producers and directors could be. Bolossy Kiralfy was 26 when he retired as a performer and began the second phase of his career where he focused on producing and choreographing. He adapted European productions to the United States. The Kiralfy Brothers had a 13-year-long producing partnership. According to Bolossy Kiralfy, “The American public not only became educated of our large dance extravaganzas, they demanded them in all musical productions.” When they travelled to New York City in May 1869,

5112-418: Was under the direction of the Kiralfys, it would “undoubtedly draw full houses”. The Deluge is a perfect example of the Kiralfys’ mastery of the key concepts of burlesque ; the plot was weak but the gorgeous set, astonishing special effects, and beautiful girls served well to cover this up. Around the World in Eighty Days On August 28, 1875, the Kiralfy Brothers put up, “in spectacular style,” Around

5184-427: Was uninterested in dance. As teenagers in the 1860s, Bolossy and Imre travelled to Paris, where they were immediately taken with theatrical spectacle. Bolossy believes he first developed his theory of theatre in the city: Real musical theatre had to be popular theatre, attracting an audience from all segments of society. It had to embody in logical form all aspects of the theatre – music, lyrics, dance and drama – in

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