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Once upon a time a former prima ballerina called Cinderella. After her mother's death she became a servant in the dance company directed by her stepmother and her two stepsisters. The invitation to a charity gala performance, which the famous solo dancer Frederic, will attend, is going to change her life...

Directed by Christian Dumas-Lvowski, Don Kent. Starring Bill T. Jones.

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Three romantic heroes each with a solitary destiny: Tatiana, a Romanesque young woman seeking absolution, Onegin, a distant dandy hiding emptiness under affected haughtiness, and Lenski, abandoned by his literary idol. Between these three, barren affections presage the inexorable social ruin. All the resources of the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow are brought to bear to ensure this opera performance is exceptional evening of theatre and song: a vocal line-up of the highest order with notably the baritone Mariusz Kwiecien and the Bolshoi Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Alexander Vedernikov. With a stage setting as sombre as it is effective - a great dining table appears in the middle of a salon - the director Dmitri Tcherniakov separates two different worlds and lends the drama a clarity rarely reached. The exceptional quality of this production, and the great success encountered by its first edition, inevitably led to the remastering in high-definition of this program to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its original release.

Roberto Alagna (tenor), Serena Gamberoni (soprano) & Marc Barrard (baritone)
Teatro Comunale di Bologna Orchestra, Giampaolo Bisanti
Libretto Pierre-Louis Moline
Subtitles: French, English, German, Spanish, Italian
Length: 104 minutes - Bonus: Backstage & Interviews
Colour 16/9 - PCM STEREO, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1

Theatrical and musical adaptation in one prologue and three acts by David Alagna
Filmed in High Definition at the Bologna Opera, January 2008
THE PERFORMANCE: Roberto Alagna as Orpheus in his brother David's new version of Gluck’s masterpiece. A major event recorded in Bologna.

Opting for the French-language version of Orpheus, David Alagna was faced with the task of achieving an appropriately subtle adaptation. In a plot transposed to the present day, Eurydice dies in a car accident on the day of her wedding and Orpheus's quest for his beloved is a dream beginning and ending at the cemetery. No happy ending in this interpretation, but a new approach to characterisation:Amore, sung by a baritone, becomes a funeral parlour employee and Orpheus' guide. Orpheus, of course, loses his loved one forever by turning to look back. World famous tenor Roberto Alagna throws himself body and soul into this production. His incredible vitality, flawless timbre and diction make him a great Orpheus. His partner, young Italian soprano Serena Gamberoni, is simply stunning as Eurydice, while French baritone Marc Barrard is suitably terrifying as the guide to the Underworld. The orchestra is conducted by Giampaolo Bisanti, who masterfully brings out all Gluck's poetry, romantic melancholy and depth.
A co-production with the Montpellier Opera.

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Leocadia Begbick - Jane Henschel
Fatty "the Bookkeeper" - Donald Kaasch
Trinity Moses - Willard White
Jenny Smith - Measha Brueggergosman
Jim Maclntyre - Michael König
O’Brien/Higgins - John Easterlin
Bank-Account Bill - Otto Katzameier
Alaska-Wolf Joe - Steven Humes

Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado
Stage Direction : Alex Ollé, Carlus Padrissa – La Fura dels Baus

A hard-hitting new production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by the Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus at the Teatro Real de Madrid.

Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism and the inexorable industrialisation of a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money. In twenty scenes the authors tell the story of a city lost in the middle of a desert and run by three thugs; in Mahagonny food, sex, gambling and violence rule supreme.

The production by Alex Ollé and Carlus Padrissa, both of La Fura dels Baus, combines enormous inventiveness, joy and energy with awe-inspiring ferocity.

Perfect casting brings together a group of singers – Measha Brueggergosman, Michael König, Jane Henschel and Willard White – who are also marvellous actors.

The Teatro Real Orchestra and Chorus are directed by young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, who actually began his career at the Teatro Real. In November 2010, he received the “El Ojo Crítico” prize, awarded annually to Spain’s most outstanding artists in the classical music field.

Director: Andy Sommer
Length: 138 min - Image: 16/9 NTSC
Audio: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: French / English / German / Spanish
Zones: All Zones - 1 disc

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Performed in 1981 by Rudolf Nureyev and re-created specifically for the Bolshoi Ballet by French choreographer Pierre Lacotte, “Marco Spada, or the Bandit’s Daughter” is a grandiose and unique ballet on both a technical and dramatic level: complex choreography, five lead roles created for five principals, several changes in scenery, the participation of nearly all the Corps de ballet and even the presence of animals on stage. The American soloist David Hallberg stars as Marco Spada with Evguenia Obraztsova, Olga Smirnova, Semion Chudin and the Corps de ballet of the Bolshoi Ballet.

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The Bolshoi Ballet troupe in Yuri Grigorovich’s version of the romantic masterpiece 'Giselle', at last available in HD. First performed in 1841, 'Giselle' was an immediate hit. With music by Adolphe Adam and a libretto by The?ophile Gautier and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, the ballet touches on the great romantic themes: local colour, a pastoral love affair doomed to end in tragedy, a plunge into fantasy and redemption through the power of love.

Featuring Anastasia Yatsenko, Andrei Merkuriev, Denis Savin, Morikhiro Iwata, Pavel Sorokin.

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Last production staged by Patrice Chéreau, this « Elektra » will remain as the main and most striking lyrical event of these last years in Aix-en-Provence. In 1903, Richard Strauss attended a performance of Elektra, a play by the Viennese poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal based on the tragedy by Sophocles. Three years later, Strauss came to an understanding with Hofmannsthal on a lyric adaptation of the play. Even though tepidly received at its premiere on 25 January 1909 in Dresden, Elektra quickly won over audiences and today occupies an enviable place in the repertoire of opera houses the world over. With its clear-cut contrasts and telluric power, it is one of the most scathing masterpieces of the whole lyric repertoire.

Elektra comes in the wake of Salome with the same dimensions (a single act lasting approximately an hour and three-quarters), a story taking place in ancient times, extreme feelings, and devastating violence. Frenzied unity of place, time and action, with the drama unfolding in the courtyard of the palace in Mycenae, in real time. It tells how Electra, daughter of King Agamemnon, keeps alive the memory of her father, murdered upon his return from Troy by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, and dwells only on vengeance. And how this vengeance finally comes about.

This production is leaded by three amazing singers: the German soprano Evelyn Herlitzius gave a tremendous, never-to-be-forgotten account of the title role, Waltraud Meier portrays a human and chilling Clytemnestra and Adrianne Pieczonka is a fantastic Chrysothemis.

Everyone’s loneliness and intimate struggles are Patrice Chéreau’s favorites theatrical themes. With Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Orchestre de Paris, this production of Elektra becomes an unforgettable experience.

Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Elektra

Elektra – Evelyn Herlitzius (soprano
Klytämnestra – Waltraud Meier (mezzo)
Chrysothemis – Adrianne Pieczonka (soprano)
Orest – Mikhail Petrenko (baritone)
Aegisth – Tom Randle (tenor)
Tutor – Franz Mazura (bass)
Coro Gulbenkian
Orchestre de Paris/Esa-Pekka Salonen
Stage director: Patrice Chéreau
rec. live, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, July 2013

Region Code: 0 (all)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Image: NTSC, colour, 16:9 Sound: Dolby 2.0 Stereo, 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: French, English, German, Italian, Spanish
Timing: [110:00 (opera) + 23:00 (bonus)]

TCHAIKOVSKY The Nutcracker • Pavel Klinichev, cond; Nina Kaptsova ( Marie ); Artem Ovcharenko ( Nutcracker Prince ); Denis Savin ( Drosselmeyer ); et al.; Bolshoi Ballet; Bolshoi Th O & Children’s Ch • BELAIR BAC 073 (DVD: 103:00); BAC 473 (Blu-ray: 103:00) Live: Moscow 12/2010


The Bolshoi Ballet is celebrating the 85th birthday of choreographer Yuri Grigorovich, a subject of veneration in his homeland even though his talent outside Russia has always been questioned. In addition to such original works as Spartacus and Ivan the Terrible , Grigorovich has also attacked several 19th-century classics with limited success, of which his Nutcracker is an example. It is difficult to know how much of Petipa and Ivanov’s choreography survives, as few versions are comparable, though one might assume that Balanchine comes close in many respects as do the versions that descend from Sergeyev’s notation. For some reason each of the character dances in the second act here is given to a couple, rather than varying between soloist, couple, or trio or larger group. The final pas de deux is—as usual in Soviet versions—disfigured by the use of a male corps that separates the dancers while hoisting them aloft for the music’s climax so that they are separated rather than joined in communion. Grigorovich’s limited vocabulary is also wearying, whether in the Snowflakes scene or the Waltz of the Flowers. Choreographing people arriving at the party is not a successful idea with repetitive movements for all.


Within this framework, Nina Kaptsova and Artem Ovcharenko stand out for their enthusiasm and brilliance, while Denis Savin as Drosselmeyer is given far more dance movement than in other versions of the ballet. Pavel Klinichev and the Bolshoi Orchestra are entirely at home in this music, glowing throughout. But it is unfortunate that such a farrago is maintained in the repertory.


FANFARE: Joel Kasow

When she is finally released from an evil spell by the kiss of a young prince, the Sleeping Beauty awakes and is- in spite of a hundred years of sleep- as beautiful as a young woman. The love of the prince is simply stronger than the curse that rests on the haunted princess. The artistic director of the Staatsballett Berlin, Nacho Duato, has brought new life to this beloved classic, which itself is over a hundred years old and for which Tchaikovsky has composed the unforgettable music. This production demonstrates that Nacho Duato can also tackle classical ballets with dance en pointe with great success. Nothing in this production is old and dusty, rather the entire choreography looks fresh and is bursting with vitality and brings an air of spring to the stage. The costumes by Angelina Atlagic deserve likewise admiration as they sparkle on stage like spring buds in morning dew. The stage design, also designed by Atlagic, offers a refined setting for the ballet fairy tale. The décor of this production is highly imaginative and colorful, yet at the same time very elegant and stylish.

A mythical performance from la Monnaie - Bruxelles.
Parsifal is a strange and enigmatic work. At the end of his life, did Wagner wish to celebrate asceticism, which he himself had never practised? Did he fall upon his knees before the Cross, as claimed by Nietzsche? And what does the secret society of knights based on pure blood signify, desperately waiting for the saviour to regenerate it? What is the true nature of the opposition between the worlds of Klingsor and the Grail? What can Parsifal tell us today? In his artistic will and testament, Wagner condenses his moral idea of the world and returns to the roots of love and religion - to the very heart of art according to him.
With the participation of conductor Hartmut Haenchen who is passionated by the score, Italian stage director Romeo Castellucci proposes an original reading of this brilliant work and explores the essence of Wagnerian ‘Kunstreligion’ in a different light.

“Thanks to the telling contributions of Mr. Castellucci and Mr. Haenchen, the Monnaie’s ‘Parsifal’ casts new light on a difficult opera.” NY TIMES

Parsifal: Andrew Richards
Kundry: Anna Larsson
Gurnemanz: Jan-Hendrik Rootering
Amfortas: Thomas Johannes Mayer
Klingsor: Tómas Tómasson
Titurel: Victor von Halem

Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie
Hartmut Haenchen

Stage direction: Romeo Castellucci
Choreography: Cindy Van Acker
Set & costume designs, lighting: Romeo Castellucci
Dramaturgy: Piersandra di Matteo
Recording: La Monnaie / De Munt, Bruxelles - 20/02/2011

R E V I E W:
WAGNER Parsifal • Hartmut Haenchen, cond; Andrew Richards (Parsifal); Anna Larsson (Kundry); Jan-Hendrick Rootering (Gurnemanz); Thomas Johannes Mayer (Amfortas); Tómas Tómasson (Klingsor); Victor von Halem (Titurel); O symphonique de la Monnaie; Ch de la Monnaie; Ch de jeunes de la Monnaie • BELAIR (DVD: 239:00) Live: Brussels 2/20/2011

The Parisian daily Le Monde called this 2011 Le Monnaie production “un Parsifal hallucinaire.” That’s putting it mildly. Wagner’s operas have long inspired “extreme” treatments and this is one of the most extreme I’ve encountered. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t. It’s not for the faint of heart. And I wouldn’t want to be without it.

Parsifal is the first operatic undertaking for the Italian playwright and stage director Romeo Castellucci, well known for his avant-garde tendencies. In the hyperbolic language sometimes employed by men and women devoted to dramaturgy, Castelluci explains his method in the liner notes. “As I approached Parsifal, I tried to forget everything I knew. I put myself in the shoes of someone who knew nothing. I closed my eyes, and I listened once, twenty times, and then a hundred times to the music, this thing. Then I slept. I reworked the whole of Parsifal in a state of amnesia, from the beginning to the end. A work like this needs a vision coming from one’s deepest places … not just an illustrative approach.” OK, that’s a little over the top. But there truly is a dreamlike quality to what you witness here. One remembers images rather than scenes when it’s all over. Act I’s setting is a dense and dark forest in which one can, at first, barely make out the principal singers. (Gurnemanz’s costume covers him from head to toe in leaves, so he fits right in.) Act II is borderline pornographic, as Castelluci dispenses with singing Flowermaidens on stage and, with the vocalists out of sight, has Parsifal tempted by platinum-wigged nude dancers (and, as the credits acknowledge, “Shibari bondage performers” and “contortionists.”) One dancer lies down on a pedestal and aims her external genitalia at the audience for a good 20 minutes. Kundry’s and Amfortas’s act of sexual congress, barely alluded to as a historical event in run-of-the-mill Parsifals, is graphically projected as a hologram. Act III is a complete change of gears, with the chorus joined by a large crowd of non-singing supernumeraries in modern-day dress that, from the Transformation Scene onward, are seen to be slowly striding forward, presumably to a better future world. There are clichés, to be sure—the face paint, Kundry’s application of a few words, graffiti-style, to a blank wall, etc.—and some familiar visual theatrical features are missing: there’s no spear, no non-healing wound, no sign of the Cross when Klingsor’s realm is vanquished. But for contemplative Wagnerians, this will be a very rich experience indeed.

It helps enormously that the musical values are first-rate. Hartmut Haenchen is an experienced and insightful Wagner conductor and, as with his excellent Ring cycle for Etcetera (Fanfare 31:3), he consults the notes of Wagner’s assistants and other artists involved in the first Bayreuth performances. Haenchen definitely eschews the draggy tempos that have become common, but this Parsifal is not the least bit rushed. (For the record, the timing is a half-hour longer than Pierre Boulez’s famously brisk 1970 Bayreuth recording.) Castellucci is not alone in finding Kundry to be the central character in Parsifal—she’s alive and well when the curtain comes down at the close of act III—and Anne Larsson does a terrific job with the wide-ranging dramatic requirements of her role. Jan-Hendrick Rootering is a magisterial Gurnemanz and the American tenor Andrew Richards has a pleasing, well-supported voice well suited to Parsifal. This is Richards’s first Wagner role and, from the sounds of it, Siegmund and Walther, at least, should be on his radar. Thomas Johannes Mayer appears and sounds agonized without scenery chewing. (Remember, he’s got no wound to show off.) Tómas Tómasson is an excellent singer, though perhaps his Klingsor should be a bit less robust to contrast better with the other male characters that still have their “equipment” intact.

Most opera videos released nowadays are carefully planned, with a film director assigned to the project; this video, we are told, is “purely an archive.” No apologies are necessary. The camera work is skillful and editor didn’t feel obliged to always show us who was singing at the moment. (How long can you watch Gurnemanz explaining the back-story, anyway?) The medium was clearly analog film. The sound is good and even though the resolution of Dolby Digital is lower than the stereo PCM option on a DVD, the surround sound program here is sonically very satisfactory. Subtitle choices are English, French, Dutch, and German.

Clearly, this shouldn’t be anyone’s introduction to Parsifal. But for those who want to explore new levels of meaning and emotional power in Wagner’s final work, BelAir’s release deserves the strongest consideration.

FANFARE: Andrew Quint

Since it was first published in 1731, L’Histoire du Chevalier Dex Grieux et de Manon Lescaut has been the object of numerous adaptations for both stage and screen. In the 19th century, Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber, Jules Massenet and Giacomo Puccini used Abbe Prevost’s novel as the theme for their respective operas. After 1912, cinema transposed the story of Manon and the Knight into varying degrees of melodramatic intensity. In 1974 British choreographer Kenneth MacMillan in turn decided to focus on the two protagonists for an ambitious ballet that could translate the feelings and emotions of two souls abused by the accidents of life and their own personal weaknesses. In short, how a young girl on her way to a convent manages to elope with the young student with whom she has just fallen in love, only to leave him to escape destitution and finally allow herself to be persuaded by her brother Lescaut to yield to the advances of wealthy “protectors.” Rather than reuse the score of Massenet’s opera, MacMillan entrusted Leighton Lucas with the task of arranging a series of extracts taken from a selection of the French composer’s operatic, symphonic and vocal scores. The end result was a huge success from its debut performance in London in 1974 onwards. Sixteen years later, L’Histoire de Manon entered the Paris Opera Ballet’s repertoire.

Asafyev: Les Flammes De Paris

In Memoriam of the Great French Revolution.

World Premiere Recording at the Bolshoi Ballet in DVD.
The Flames of Paris belongs to the pearls of the pure classics of classical dance.

Produced in the 30's of the last century The Flames of Paris on a music by Boris Asafiev was presented on the eve of the anniversary of the October Revolution, and later continued to be included in the ranks of works which were always brought out for an airing on anniversaries of this sort. And this is hardly surprising, The Flames of Paris is about the conflagration of the great French Revolution. And it had a new "hero" type which, up to then, had not been encountered in ballet - one of its main characters was the populace, revolutionary in mood and ready for action.

The choreographer Alexei Ratmanky has attempted to make maximum use of the preserved fragments of Vasily Vainonen in his new ballet. The most talented soloists of the Bolshoi Ballet appear in this production as Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev or Denis Savin and Anna Antonicheva.

Cast:
Director: Vincent Bataillon Natalia Osipova (Jeanne)
Denis Savin (Jerome)
Ivan Vasiliev (Philippe, un Marseillais)
Yuri Klevtsov (Marquis Costa de Beauregard)
Nina Kaptsova (Adeline)
Anna Antonicheva (Mireille de Poitiers)
Ruslan Skvortsov (Antoine Mistral)
Bolshoi Ballet & Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, Pavel Sorokin

Format: NTSC, DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo
Region: all
Subtites:French, English, German

The 70 dancers of the Igor Moiseyev Ballet take us on a journey around the world and through the regions of the former Soviet Union, revealing an incredible multitude of folklores, including Moldovan, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Nanai, Kalmyk, Tatar, Adjaran and Caucasian.

“Breathtaking” – “Impressive” – “Exceptionally fine” – “Outstanding” THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Finesse, speed and virtuosity” THE WASHINGTON POST

Director: Andy Sommer
Length: 107 min - Image: Color, 16/9, NTSC
Audio: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1
Zones: All Zones

Staged by Luc Bondy.

Sound: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish

Three magnificent vocal leads, one chamber orchestra, a sole setup, during one night, the audience witness the fate and destiny of the touching Strindberg's heroine.

Filmed in high definition at the Grand Theatre de Geneve, 10/2008.

The world-famous choreographer and dancer uses the body - movement - as the principal vehicle for his ideas. The result is there in performances, intimate or otherwise in which the body is displayed to an audience.

The "Evening of Roland Petit Ballets" is made up of two one-act ballets. The first - "Passacaille" is to music by Anton Webern, including his "Five Pieces" Op. 5 in the arrangement for string orchestra and "Passacaglia" Op. 1. "Pique Dame" uses music not from Tchaikovsky's opera but from his Symphony no 6.

A profound, powerful and yet unfinished opera, Moses und Aron ends with an admission of defeat: "O word, thou Word that I lack!", Moses' last cry, is also the last phrase the composer has been able to set to music. Recounting the story of Moses, who has experienced the immensity of God, and of Aron, who tries to speak of it; casting doubt, with dodecaphonism, upon the adequacy of tonal and traditional musical language; Moses und Aron questions the possibility of a True Speech. Following in their wanderings the chidlren of Israel, a stateless people lost in the desert and looking for signs and images, Moses un Aron symbolizes the challenges encountered by a community looking for her own identity, torn between spiritual ideal and material needs. The opera thus reveals, in Romeo Castellucci's spectacular and poetic staging, a tragic divide between what can and cannot be represented, between God and idols, between endlessness and constriction, between the realm of intuition and the realm of language. The Paris Opera Chorus and Orchestra, who, thanks to his musical director Philippe Jordan's work, has pierced all the secrets of Schönberg's audacious score, reveal with grace and accuracy all the emotion contained in this anxious, overwhelming and unforgettable masterpiece.

Note: This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players, and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Svetlana Zakharova, Sergei Filin, Gennady Yanin, Maria Aleksandrova (dancers)

Soloists of the Bolshoï Ballet & Orchestra of the Bolshoï Theatre, Alexander Sotnikov

Choreographer: Pierre Lacotte after Marius Petipa.

For the first time in Blu-ray, Bel Air Classiques present Petipa’s extravaganza, The Pharaoh’s Daughter, in the stunning production by Pierre Lacotte. This Russian ballet enjoys a special place in history. Premiered in 1862, this grand spectacle, which lasted four hours and featured a cast of 400, was Petipa’s first truly successful ballet and secured his future in St Petersburg, where he went on to become the most influential choreographer of the 19th century. Until recently, The Pharaoh’s Daughter was also one of Petipa’s lost ballets; it hadn’t been performed since 1928. In 2000 the French choreographer Pierre Lacotte premièred a restored version at the Bolshoi Theatre, after much research into the original, resulting in a shorter although still sumptuous extravaganza. Ballet scenarios don't come much sillier than The Pharaoh's Daughter, which turns on the story of British Egyptologist Lord Wilson who, after a reckless hit of opium, dreams himself back to the time of the pharaohs. Wilson falls in love with Aspicia, the ballet's titular heroine, and when she throws herself into the Nile to avoid being married off to the King of Nubia, Wilson is left to face death by snakebite. Tragedy is averted by the Nile's underwater king who restores Aspicia to Wilson's arms.

"Whatever doubts are raised by Lacotte's choreography, his designs are deliriously extravagant - and with these, at least, we're guaranteed a taste of the blockbusting opulence that enthralled St Petersburg and Moscow 140 years ago." -- Judith Mackrell, The Guardian

Also available on Blu-ray

Ten years after his death, the Paris Opera Ballet payed homage to the American choreographer who considered the Paris Opera as his second home after New York City Ballet. The three pieces performed here illustrate not only the diversity of the choreographer's repertoire and sources of inspiration, but also his love of music and his all-embracing attitude to the performing arts. Jerome Robbins brought new energy to classical dance, introducing 20th century urban rhythms, confirming its status as a modern entertainment form and instilling it with the interrogations of contemporary theatre. En Sol, set to Maurice Ravel's Concerto en sol, follows no particular narrative line or dramatic effect. Echoing the music's jazzy invitations and light-heartedly copying Broadway style, this is a light and joyous piece for two soloists and an ensemble. It provided Jerome Robbins with an opportunity to reveal the relaxed, fluid feel so emblematic of his style.

In the Night and The Concert are two tributes to Frederic Chopin, each in a different register. Seeking to free the composer from the commonplaces that have often belittled his music, Robbins transforms Les Nocturnes into In the Night, a long and poetic pas de deux built like a metaphor of love in all its states. The Concert joins the ranks of the few comic ballets in the history of dance. Taking as its point of departure images inspired by some of Chopin’s more fancifully entitled scores, Jerome Robbins' piano recital is a comic plea for the cause of human vulnerability.

The fact that, at the very same period, he was contributing to the renewal of the musical by bringing a tragic side to his West Side Story, only underlines his insatiable thirst for originality and his immense talent for freely combining genres and styles. Lastly, Benjamin Millepied, who made his dance debut with Robbins in New York, dedicates his second creation for the Paris Opera Ballet, Triade, to the choreographer. "Dance is composed of human relations", Robbins used to say. A worthy heir to his master, Benjamin Millepied matches this credo through a fruitful dialogue with composer Nico Muhly.

R E V I E W:



TRIBUTE TO JEROME ROBBINS • Marie-Agnès Gillot, Florian Magnenet, Laëtitia Pujol, Audric Bezard, Marc Moreau, Clairmarie Osta, Dorothee Gilbert (dancers) • BEL AIR 070 (DVD: 111:00) Live: Paris 9/2008


The Paris Opera Ballet staged these four works in 2008 to honor the 90th anniversary of Jerome Robbins’s birth (he had died 10 years earlier). Robbins had always led a dual existence, one as the most innovative of choreographers for what became known as the American “show” dance style, and also as one of the more innovative choreographers of ballet. He did the former to make money, the latter for his own pleasure, yet they always influenced one another, and in the end Robbins himself influenced such people as Jacques d’Amboise, Lester Horton, and Twyla Tharp. Perhaps the best example of Robbins’s cross-styled choreography here is En Sol, essentially a summertime beach fantasy set to the music of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. Moves that one immediately recognizes as part of our show music lexicon go side by side with traditional ballet moves, postures, and jetées. It’s been thought that Robbins first began to mix his dance metaphors, so to speak, during his stint as a 20-year-old in an artists’ work camp (Tamiment) led by Max Liebman, where he worked with the up-and-coming comedians Danny Kaye and Imogene Coca, though he also came under the wing of Mikhail Fokine about the same time and in 1940 was accepted into the corps de ballet of the newly formed Ballet Theatre.


The level of dancing seen in this film is magnificent. Judging by ballet videos I’ve seen over the past 20 years, what was considered spectacular in 1990 was considered the par for star dancers in 2000, and considered average for members of the corps in 2010. Nearly every ballet company on video, with the exception of the La Scala ballet of Italy, has come so far up in quality that it’s astounding, and Paris seems to be the best of all. I attribute this in part to the groundbreaking work that Rudolf Nureyev did with the company in the mid-to-late 1980s, raising up not only the technical level of dancers but, more importantly, the overall expectation of what the corps could do and a perennial drive to always become better. That, combined with the exceptionally high level of dance training nowadays, has led to most dance companies being able to pull off things that would have been considered extraordinarily difficult a generation ago.


As mentioned, En Sol grabs the eye as much for the mixing of dance metaphors as it does for the way the moves are executed. Male dancers, especially, do leaps that angle the legs in a way that shouts Broadway rather than Fokine or Ashton (although Ashton himself was not entirely immune to Robbins’s work; some of his later ballets incorporate a little of the American’s style). The choreography still looks fresh because it was conceived as timeless, and if the men do many moves that remind one of show dance, the women are far more balletic, being on pointe a great deal of the time and looking as if they should be in tutus even when they’re just in bathing suits. I’m sure there was a time when this choreography was not merely controversial, but annoying to balletomanes, but we are so far past that point that we now simply see it as great 20th-century dance. Regardless of the venue he was working in, Robbins always filled space well, and that is no exception here. In a sense, the star of this ballet is the corps, although danseuse étoile Marie-Agnès Gillot is cast in one of the lead roles.


The second ballet in this set, Triade, is not actually Robbins’s work, but choreography by Benjamin Millepied, who worked closely with the American from the age of 16. The music is also newly minted, a pretty modern score composed by Nico Muhly, and it’s as interesting as the choreography. Millepied describes it as On the Town- influenced, although here we have two male and two female dancers—at least, in the beginning. Toward the end, a third couple suddenly comes out of the wings and joins them on stage. Like Robbins’s own work, Millepied’s ballet is just a generalized dance, showing four people who simply interact out of pure emotion; it “doesn’t tell a story and hardly ever makes a point; it’s just an excuse for talking about human relationships and feelings.” But Millepied pushes the balletic envelope here even further than Robbins did. His dancers swoop and dive on stage, crossing each other to create fascinating patterns despite the minimal number involved. Further, the use of an almost black, night-like set works to his advantage. At one point one of the male dancers, wearing dark slacks, dances with only a pale spotlight on him. The effect is that we focus on his face, hands, and arms, the only flesh-colored items in the spotlight, which create their own unique pattern. The introduction of a third couple in the last stage of the work adds to the ability to fill space, even if it confuses the story somewhat. At one point, a female dancer “sits” on pointe, held only by the arm of her male partner, a gravity-defying stunt. At another, there is an arabesque that appears to be even more incredible than many yoga-inspired positions: A female dancer leans backward on the floor, her knees bent and her body held in a perfect rectangle by just one arm, similarly bent underneath her, leaning on that one elbow. One is reminded how much of modern dance, from the time of the Ballets Russes to the present, is influenced by and incorporates geometric designs. The stars of this production are Gillot, Laëtitia Pujol, Audric Bezard, and Marc Moreau.


Next comes Robbins’s In the Night, one of his purely classic, romantic ballets, set to Chopin nocturnes. Both the costumes and the choreography are more traditional here, with only occasional touches of the show dance style for which Robbins became famous. This could quite easily be the work of Ashton as much as Robbins. Again, the choreography is sparse, centered on six solo dancers who work in pairs; again, it is extremely difficult and challenging dance, requiring each of those six dancers to be an étoile. Even so, the choreography is quietly difficult, most of the technique requiring slow and careful interaction, grace, and delicacy of movement. As a result, the viewer is drawn in to the details of the dance. It lacks the flamboyance and sheer joie de vivre of classic Robbins, yet is much more classical. The dancers are all principals of the company, Clairemarie Osta, Benjamin Pech, Agnes Letestu, Stéphane Buillon, Delphine Moussin and Nicolas le Riche (whom I’ve seen before in other works, and he is outstanding).


The finale of this marvelous evening is one of the very few really comic ballets ever staged, The Concert. When Robbins first presented this back in the 1950s, it was alternately reviled or misunderstood, sometimes by the same people. The liner notes say that it was, to some extent, influenced by the silent film series The Perils of Pauline, but from a late 20th-century perspective, you could really only view those films as unintentional comedy, not melodrama. Moreover, Robbins himself admitted that he tried to make the humor in The Concert as much like cartoons or comic books as possible. There is a very strong feeling of early Mad magazine in this ballet, which begins with an extraordinarily fussy pianist, fiddling with the height of her piano bench and the touch of the keyboard before she even begins playing. (I must interject here that I actually saw a real pianist, in concert, do exactly this kind of fussing around before playing, back in the 1970s.) As she plays Chopin, the members of the audience arrive on stage, one by one, carrying pale blue folding chairs which they quietly unfold and sit on. There is the Male Aesthete, there for the artistic “meaning” of it all; two women who sit behind him, comically crossing their legs in exaggerated ballet style, who immediately open their handbags to fish out hard candy to suck on; the Female Aesthete, so Devoted to Art that she has to sit right by the piano, one elbow in the cabinet of the instrument, soaking it all in like a sponge; the Art (Ms.) Androgyne in her horn-rimmed glasses and wide male-styled stride, who sits right behind the Female Aesthete; and the “odd couple” consisting of the woman who wants to be there and the husband who couldn’t care less. The latter is so bored by it all that he pulls out a newspaper and starts reading. (Since this is France, of course the paper is Le Figaro! )


But confusion is right around the corner. An usher arrives, checking people’s tickets, and discovering that most of the audience is in the wrong seats. A highly amusing round of musical chairs ensues, including one moment when Ms. Androgyne pulls the chair right out from under the rear of the Female Aesthete, who is so wrapped up in the piano that she never notices, but continues to sit in midair, her feet on pointe! The menfolk then carry the womenfolk (now dressed in tutus) on stage, where they engage in an “improvised” ballet of their own. Of course, some of them are purposely out of step, the worst being Ms. Androgyne (still in her horn-rimmed glasses as well as a tutu), who keeps ending her turns on the outside of the group, facing the wrong way. Eventually they pull each other together in a semblance of unity to take their final bow, though one dancer in the right rear still has her arms curved the wrong way for even that!


More comedy ensues, particularly from the Married Couple. There’s one bit where the wife is sitting, watching the pianist, while the husband sneaks up behind her with a knife, but it does no damage—it’s only a rubber prop. He pushes on it, assures himself that it’s soft rubber, then pokes himself in the stomach with it, only to have it penetrate him as he limps offstage. In another bit the husband, still with a cigar in his mouth, cavorts about the stage in a goofy-looking butterfly costume, appearing for all the world like Groucho Marx in a ballet. He is, of course, joined by the Female Aesthete, with whom he does a romantic dance until the Wife suddenly returns and breaks it up. This sort of thing goes on until the end, and it is obvious that Robbins was having great fun with this piece.


Naturally, the audience falls out laughing at this, and there is a tremendous roar of applause at the end. Somehow, I can’t help but feel that Robbins’s own spirit was there that night. You almost hoped he would come out from the wings and take a bow; he certainly deserved it!


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Founded in 1974 by a group of ballet enthusiasts for the purpose of presenting a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form and en travesti, LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO first performed in the late-late shows in Off-Off Broadway lofts. The TROCKS, as they are affectionately known, quickly garnered a major critical essay by Arlene Croce in The New Yorker, and combined with reviews in The New York Times and The Village Voice, established the Company as an artistic and popular success. By mid 1975, the TROCKS' inspired blend of their loving knowledge of dance, their comic approach, and the astounding fact that men can, indeed, dance en pointe without falling flat on their faces, was being noted beyond New York. Articles and notices in publications such as Variety, Oui, The London Daily Telegraph, as well as a Richard Avedon photo essay in Vogue, made the Company nationally and internationally known. The original concept of LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO has not changed. It is a Company of professional male dancers performing the full range of the ballet and modern dance repertoire, including classical and original works in faithful renditions of the manners and conceits of those dance styles. The comedy is achieved by incorporating and exaggerating the foibles, accidents, and underlying incongruities of serious dance. The fact that men dance all the parts--heavy bodies delicately balancing on toes as swans, sylphs, water sprites, romantic princesses, angst-ridden Victorian ladies--enhances rather than mocks the spirit of dance as an art form, delighting and amusing the most knowledgeable, as well as novices, in the audiences. For the future, there are plans for new works in the repertoire: new cities, states and countries to perform in; and for the continuation of the TROCKS' original purpose: to bring the pleasure of dance to the widest possible audience. They will, as they have done for thirty four years, 'Keep on Trockin'.' Bonus: interview with Tory Dobrin Artistic Director Format: 16/9 Sound: PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.0 DTS 5.0