France Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote: Paris Opera Ballet, Orchestra of the Paris Nationwide Opera / Gavriel Heine (conductor). Transmitted dwell (directed by François Roussillon) from the Opéra Bastille, Paris, 2.4.2024. (JPr)
(Repeating myself) it’s because of the ballet corporations in Vienna, Milan and right here in Paris that it’s potential to understand Rudolf Nureyev’s transformative affect on dance; not solely via his inventive legacy as a performer – the like of which we’re but to see once more – but additionally because of his enduring choreographies. The esteem Paris nonetheless holds him in was mirrored within the phrase ‘respect’ used in regards to the steps he created on this Don Quixote. Solely within the UK does he seem like considerably ignored and certainly The Royal Ballet might restage his 1968 The Nutcracker (the primary ballet I noticed at Covent Backyard) as a substitute for their over-familiar model by Sir Peter Wright. Additionally, Nureyev’s 1975 The Sleeping Magnificence and 1977 Romeo and Juliet – I noticed each many occasions – have lately vanished from the repertory of English Nationwide Ballet.
Within the early Nineteen Eighties I noticed Nureyev dance in his legendary Swan Lake for Vienna State Ballet which he created in 1964 and which they nonetheless carry out and is to be revived there later this season. In Milan they are going to quickly dance Nureyev’s La Bayadère (created for Paris in 1992) however that solely received to La Scala in December 2021. In Paris they’re dancing his 1981 Don Quixote which was restaged there in 2002 with units by Alexandre Beliaev and costumes by Elena Rivkina.
As soon as once more watching this Don Quixote it’s blatantly apparent how a lot – technically – Nureyev calls for of the dancers, and together with all of the (genuine?) Spanish shaping, it is stuffed with his trademark demanding balances, intricate footwork and armography. I believe there are weaknesses in our homegrown corporations which implies it is perhaps a step too far (!) for them. The principal dancers in Paris’s Don Quixote barely pause for breath over three acts and look as contemporary on the finish as they did in the beginning.
Nobody goes to see Don Quixote as a ballet for the story! Initially, it’s a nineteenth-century Marius Petipa-Ludwig Minkus warhorse and what we now see is predicated on an 1869 Bolshoi comedian play staged by Petipa with Minkus’s music that focused on a minor incident from Miguel de Cervantes’s authentic seventeenth-century novel. It’s merely the love story of Kitri, a younger lady, and Basilio, a poor barber, and her rejection of being pressured to marry a wealthy nobleman, Gamache. Wandering into the story on occasion is the Don Quixote and his comedian sidekick, Sancho Panza, primarily for Don Quixote – who I’ve seen described as an ‘idealist from one other age’ – to confuse Kitri with Dulcinea, his dream woman ‘of his coronary heart’. It’s a classical showcase for any ballet firm, with the demanding Act III grand pas de deux simply being the ultimate showstopper in a night of showstoppers.
All of it seems to be very cinematic on the large stage of Paris’s Opéra Bastille and François Roussillon’s camerawork pulls again greater than some administrators do to point out us the larger image. That the whole lot is conceived on a grand scale is obvious from the transient prologue set in Don Quixote’s large, dimly lit, moderately well-furnished mattress chamber someplace inside a fortress. There the ageing nobleman – with a barber’s bowl on his head, sword and lance – enlists his gluttonous servant Sancho Panza to accompany him on his quest to carry out feats of chivalry and win the guts of his excellent lady, Dulcinea, who has appeared to him in a imaginative and prescient. Neither the willowy Yann Chailloux, exuding the suitable self-righteous pomposity as Don Quixote, or Fabian Revillion, as a jovial, moderately well-upholstered and barely disreputable Friar Tuck-like Sancho Panza, look as previous as they’re typically proven to be.
From this level on we grow to be immersed within the unique and vibrant world of a Spanish and Moorish-influenced metropolis, nominally Barcelona, with its bustling public sq.; extra probably a fortress courtyard since it’s fringed by large towers with a valley proven on the again. From the very begin, Nureyev’s exuberant choreography for the ensemble numbers calls for your consideration and this dancing maelstrom requires the best virtuosity, in addition to some compelling appearing from the gaggle of quirky characters we’re launched to. The close-up camerawork reveals fascinating element: at one level Don Quixote kisses Kitri’s hand and also you see her gesture to Basilio as if saying ‘That’s deal with a girl.’ Kitri is kind of a contemporary younger lady in the best way she stands as much as her father as he tries to drive her on Gamache. Daniel Stokes because the foppish Gamache is somewhat too prissy – for need of a much less acceptable phrase – to be actually PC for 2024 and clearly is first cousin to the umbrella-wielding Alain in Sir Frederick Ashton’s La fille mal gardée. The primary act ends with two astonishing one arm lifts for Kitri and Basilio on the conclusion of their considerably prolonged pas de deux instantly earlier than they escape these marriage plans her father, Lorenzo (a somewhat piratical-looking Sébastien Bertaud), has for Kitri: although they exit pursued by Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, Gamache and Lorenzo.
Sae Eun Park’s Kitri is assured high-spirited and playful – a spotlight being her exuberant and wickedly-fast castanet variation – whereas she later transforms into one thing softer and extra ethereal because the imaginative and prescient of Dulcinea within the Dryads’ scene. Park was partnered by the partaking Paul Marque who impresses along with his boyish appeal, disarming smile and ebullient virtuosity. It was the primary time Park and Marque had danced their roles collectively however the chemistry between them was delightfully plausible.
As Act II begins the stage is dominated by two large windmills: Kitri and Basilio get a languidly stunning love duet earlier than they’re found by some gypsies who ultimately promote them some garments and permit them to cover from their pursuers disguised as gypsies themselves. A puppet theatre is introduced on the stage the place younger dancers (I assume) play out the story of Kitri and Basilio and mock Gamache. Believing Kitri/Dulcinea to be at risk Don Quixote tries to return to her support and he destroys the theatre earlier than attacking a windmill which he believes to be a big enemy and will get wounded for his pains.
Phantom figures and a few raggedy umbrellas being opened hang-out Don Quixote’s desires and there’s the gorgeous phantasm of a ‘floating’ Kitri/Dulcinea. We’re shortly transported to an enchanted forest the place the Queen of the Dryads – the elegant, considerably emotionless Héloïse Bourdon – presents Don Quixote to Dulcinea. There’s dancing from all involved of crisp, crystalline purity with Silvia Saint-Martin catching the attention as Cupid and as a bell tolls the dryads drift away with greater than a touch of the swans in Swan Lake.
Act III begins with a smoky tavern scene which with all of the flamenco is paying homage to a ballet model of Carmen, particularly since Florent Melac’s toreador Espada (who we first met swirling his cape along with his fellow toreadors in Act I) returns to duet with Roxane Stojanov’s road dancer. Melac’s smouldering, hot-blooded Espada dramatically stomps round – in a great way – extra just like the precise bull while Stojanov dances with appreciable aptitude. To be truthful I’ve seen this scene higher executed because it seems in an inordinate rush to get to the grand pas de deux finale. Extra might have been manufactured from Basilio’s ‘dying’ scene and I’m not sure these new to the ballet would fully observe what was happening throughout the pretend suicide. As a result of Lorenzo remains to be decided that Kitri ought to marry Gamache, Kitri asks Don Quixote to assist them. He forces Lorenzo to permit Kitri to marry the ‘dying’ Basilio who then proceeds to make a miraculous restoration. Gamache is seething and his duel with Don Quixote is a little bit of a multitude earlier than ending with Gamache’s utter humiliation.
We at the moment are again within the ‘courtyard’ at nighttime for the spirited marriage ceremony pas de deux which featured some rock-solid balances and well-executed fouettés en tournant from Sae Eun Park and while Paul Marque was challenged by the modifications of route Nureyev demanded he in any other case danced with panache. The athleticism of Marque’s high-flying leaps (with mushy landings), spins and turns had been by no means doubtful and his partnering was wonderful.
After Don Quixote is caught professing his love for a disguised Gamache and humiliated himself this time he units off after Gamache with the loyal Sancho Panza. Everybody else joins in with the clapping, twirling, high-energy and joyful – perpetuum cellular-like – finish to the ballet.
As Kitri and Basilio’s associates, townsfolk, bullfighters, gypsies and dryads, the corps de ballet excelled; dancing with consummate synchronicity when required and giving their characters vital parts of individuality. The spirit and strength-in-depth of the Paris Opera Ballet shone via this efficiency. Minkus’s music – in its effervescent orchestration by John Lanchbery – introduced a way of ebullience and all the mandatory Spanish colors to the dynamic motion we noticed from the dancers on this revival of Don Quixote which did Rudolf Nureyev proud. Underneath American conductor Gavriel Heine, the Orchestra of the Paris Nationwide Opera sounded very good.
Impressed by Marius Petipa’s choreography, Nureyev’s Don Quixote is a real celebration of dance with out the slightest false observe (step?).
Jim Pritchard
Featured Picture: Paul Marque (Basilio) © Yonathan Kellerman
Creatives:
Choreography and Route – Rudolf Nureyev
Music – Ludwig Minkus (organized by John Lanchbery)
Libretto – Miguel de Cervantès
Set design – Alexandre Beliaev
Costume design – Elena Rivkina
Lighting design – Philippe Albaric
Solid:
Kitri – Sae Eun Park
Basilio – Paul Marque
Don Quixote – Yann Chailloux
Sancho Panza – Fabien Revillion
Lorenzo – Sébastien Bertaud
Gamache – Daniel Stokes
Espada – Florent Melac
The Avenue Dancer – Roxane Stojanov
The Queen of The Dryads – Héloïse Bourdon
Cupid – Silvia Saint-Martin
The Bridesmaid – Inès Mcintosh
A Gypsy Chief – Francesco Mura
Kitri’s Mates – Camille Bon, Clémence Gross
