We watched the DVD of the Paris Opera Ballet's BAYADERE as well as the documentary about Rudolf Nureyev, DANCING THRU DARKNESS. The documentary, which includes distressing footage of Nureyev in the final months of illness, is built around his struggle to end his career on a high note by staging the Minkus ballet for Paris. It is, it seems to me, a bittersweet result: the production is visually attractive though overblown and features an endless scene of the betrothal of Gamzatti and Solor as one set of corps dancers after another appear in variably interesting costumes to dance (very well) the endless reams of choreography set before them. It simply goes on and on. When you think it's over and you are going to finally get down to the scene where Nikiya sorrowfully dances for her beloved and his intended bride, you are proven wrong. After a while it stopped being even mildly entertaining and became merely tedious.
Isabelle Guerin danced at New York City Ballet as a guest in the 1990s and all of the very appealing qualities of those performances are found in her Nikiya: her persuasive musicality, silky technique and - most importantly - a thread of vulnerability in her expressive portrayal that makes it very moving. Laurent Hilaire is an excellent dancer and partner as Solor; he and Guerin thoroughly captivate the audience in the Kingdom of the Shades in both their solos and most especially in their fluent partnership. I do think it's a mistake to have Solor wear fitted trousers rather than tights; the grace of the line is somewhat diminished. But that's a minor distraction.
Elisabeth Platel as Gamzatti almost engages our sympathies when she finds Solor actually loves someone else; but the snake in the flower basket dismisses such feelings. Platel dances with regal polish, especially a velvety set of fouettes in the betrothal scene. In a spectacular solo as the First Shade, Agnes Letestu shows in no uncertain terms why she became one of the the Opera Ballet's brightest etoiles. At ABT we are accustomed to seeing the famous Bronze Idol solo at the opening of the final temple scene but since the Nureyev production ends with the Kingdom of the Shades, the Bronze Idol (danced on the DVD by Wilfried Romoli) is carried in to the palace and performs his dance as part of the betrothal festivities. Mr. Romoli, by the way, has just been in the news, dancing in the Paris Opera Ballet's production of Balanchine's FOUR TEMPERAMENTS - his final role with the Company as he has reached the mandatory retirement age.
The opulence of the production is understandable; you have to show something magnificent onstage to compete with the glories of the Salle Garnier itself and most especially with the Chagall ceiling. Shots of the auditorium give a warm you-are-there feeling as you view the DVD. An article about this BAYADERE's costumes describes the care and attention to detail that went into their creation.
The heart of any BAYADERE is the Kingdom of the Shades and it is a visually arresting and superbly danced rendition of that act which makes this DVD so worthwhile. The scene begins as if the Shades are actually materializing out of the darkened sky. A brief doubled-image reminds us this is Solor's hallucination. As the camera backs away, the soft blue aura infuses the scene with moonlight, and Ezio Frigerio's backdrop of jungle, sky and distant temples is perfect. Shifting camera angles give us a couple of unusual views of the classic choreographic patterns and for a moment the lighting tricks us into thinking we are seeing the dancers in negative-image. I hope I haven't made it sound too gimmicky because it really isn't. Wei and I were so enthralled that we went back at the end and watched the entree again. Nureyev concludes the ballet here: we do not see the wedding of Gamzatti and Solor, the intrusion of Nikiya's spirit, the wrath of the gods, or the final apotheosis of the reunited lovers. {Joanne Ho Young Lee's black-and-white photo of the corps.}
For Guerin, Hilaire, Platel, Romoli and Letestu and for the beautifully wrought Shades scene, this DVD is very much worth viewing. For "everything you ever wanted to know about BAYADERE" go here. Allow plenty of time when you click that link because the Wiki page is a fascinating read. It is there that I found this photograph of Ekaterina Vazem who created the role of Nikiya; it's a reminder of how the notion of what a ballerina should look like has changed over the decades. The original Solor was Lev Ivanov, best known for his choreographic contributions to THE NUTCRACKER and SWAN LAKE.
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