Estelle Posted May 24, 2000 Share Posted May 24, 2000 The Ballet de Marseille, created by Roland Petit, has been lead for two seasons by the former Paris Opera Ballet principal Marie-Claude Pietragalla. In the last two seasons, their repertory has been mostly contemporary, with works by Claude Brumachon, Maryse Delente, Richard Wherlock... The only real "classical" ballets they had danced until now in two seasons were Balanchine's "Who cares" and Rudi Van Dantzig's "Romeo and Juliet" last season, so I was wondering what they would look like in a romantic work such as "Giselle". Pietragalla chose to commission a new production to the POB premier danseur Eric Quillere. As far as I know, Quillere, in his mid-30s, is an experienced dancer, but has little experience of ballet staging. And this "Giselle" was not very convincing, in my opinion. Some new sets and costumes were commissionned to the painter Rodolfo Natale. Around 1992, Patrick Dupond had commissionned new sets and costumes for "Giselle" at the POB; the minimalist sets and the costumes inspired by traditional Brittany had caused much trouble among the critics and part of the audience, and were to be replaced a few years later by more traditional ones, after Benois' production for the Ballets Russes. Well, I wonder what the people who were shocked by that Paris version would have said about the Marseille one... Quillere decided to substitute a somewhat "modern" context to the usual one, and so the sets of the first act showed a vilage in an unidentified country, with a kind of workshop on the left (Giselle's father -yes, she has a father- is supposed to work there) and a bar (with a pool table) on the right, the background looked more or less like a painting by Edward Hopper (which was quoted in the program notes as one of the inspirations of Natale). Giselle wore a yellow dress, Albrecht had a fancy red suit, and the people of the village wore everyday clothes with shiny colors. Well, all that was quite surprising, but could have been acceptable, but I found that many details of that production were lacking coherence: for example, the mixed colors and shapes of the dancers' clothes in the first act broke the symmetry of the dances, and for me it was quite strange to see people with such "modern" outfit dancing the usual Romantic-style variations... Also, while Bathilde and her friends were supposed to belong to a higher social class, it was not really obvious from their outfit; it took a while to notice that the men had ties and some women had small pearl necklaces. The second act was a bit more traditional, but Albrecht still had his red suit (a strange colorfor a mourning man on a grave, indeed!), and the Willis' white dresses were not exactly tutus, and were less ethereal and elegant in my opinion. Some details of the action were modified too: Giselle has no mother, but a father (and, instead of the usual mime scene, it just looks like "ah, that girl will drive me crazy, she shouldn't go out with that boy", while some videos of Willis are shown on the background); there is no peasant pas de deux (it's replaced with ensemble scenes), there are some pas de deux between Bathilde and Albrecht (and Bathilde seems a bit Odile-like, doing her best to seduce a somewhat stupid Albrecht), the relationships between Hilarion and Albrecht are quite violent, and so are those between Bathilde and Giselle (it reminded me a little bit of Ek's version, but looked quite out of place in this version)... Also the mad scene takes place only between a few characters (Giselle, Albrecht -about as expressive as a turnip, waking up only after she's dead-, Giselle's father, and Hilarion), which made it less dramatic in my opinion. Hozever, fortunately Quillere didn't change the main choreographic parts, and the ensemble dance he added seemed stylistically correct to me. The main role was danced by Marie-Claude Pietragalla herself (as usual, most of the advertisement was very Pietragalla-centered -one almost feels likely to think that someday she'll rename the company "Ballet PIETRAGALLA National de PIETRAGALLA Marseille PIETRAGALLA"...). I was a bit worried about it, because her main successess with the POB were roles such as Kitri or Carmen, or contemporary pieces, and I had trouble imagining her in a romantic role. Eventually she was average: rather convincing in the first act, except that she was perhaps a bit too childish, and her mad scene was so expressionnistic that it became somewhat embarrassing to watch; her second act was sometimes lacking poetry. Technically she was good, except a diagonal in the first act that I've always seen with pointes and that she did with demi-pointes (but I don't know the names of the steps). Her Albrecht was Julien Lestel, a former dancer of the POB corpsde ballet and of the Zurich Ballet. He had beautiful elegant arms and good jumps, but seemed a bit too unexperienced sometimes. Hilarion was danced by Julien Derouault, with a somewhat "soundless movie evil traitor" exaggerated style, but with good jumps in the second act. Valentina Pace, a handsome blond-haired, long-legged dancer, was perfect as Bathilde, with a beautiful smooth style and a great port de tete; her Myrtha was a bit less impressive, but still quite good. Gilles Porte and Angelo Vergari, as Giselle's friends, jumped impressively, and Thierry Hauswald was an expressive Giselle's father. In general, I was happily surprised by the corps de ballet: while they had not danced much ballet in the previous seasons, their training seemed quite good, with a good timing in the ensemble parts, nice bodies and feet for all of them, and also some good acting in the first act. It seems to indicate some good work by Quillere and by the new ballet master, Bruno Cauhape (former POB dancer). In spite of the unusual (and, to me, often unlogical) aspects of this production, the audience was enthusiastic at the end (definitely more than with the last mixed bill I had attented), and the dancers received several bows. The orchestra, conducted by David Garforth, was part of the success too. Let's hope that it will encourage the company to stage more classical ballets in the next seasons! Link to comment
Alexandra Posted May 24, 2000 Share Posted May 24, 2000 Well, if their idea of "classical ballet" is productions like this, I hope someone is telling the audience what they're seeing Thanks for your review, Estelle, and for you patience in writing in such detail. It sounds, unfortunately, like a production staged by a young man looking for what to do when his technique starts to go who's never given "Giselle" more than a passing thought. Giselle has a father? What possible reason for that, except to be "different"? (The colors, too, may not seem important, but I think Giselle's dress is always blue, not because it's always been blue, but because the color blue was related to hero/heroine, and it was a way of setting her apart.) I think your point about time and music is a good one, too. It's the problem I have with Dance Theatre of Harlem's "Giselle" (which, in some seasons, has been, I think, very well danced). It's grape picking music, not cotton picking music, and when the stage picture clashes with the music, the incongruity interferes with the drama. Probably Mats Ek has had an influence in an unintended way. While his was a real rethinking of the ballet -- from a point of view inside the ballet, as it were, knowing it well and understanding it, and commenting on it -- the after-Ek "Giselles" just take notions and sprinkle them on top of the ballet. (I also loved your observation about Pietragalla's place on the posters.) Alexandra Link to comment
Andrei Posted May 25, 2000 Share Posted May 25, 2000 Estelle, You had mentioned that the same ballerina danced Bathilde and Mirtha in the same performance. Was it done on propose? Andrei. Link to comment
Kevin Ng Posted May 25, 2000 Share Posted May 25, 2000 Estelle, I enjoyed your review, and I look forward to seeing this production when the Ballet de Marseilles tours Hong Kong and Macau in 2 weeks' time. Link to comment
Estelle Posted May 25, 2000 Author Share Posted May 25, 2000 Andrei- in both casts, it was the same dancer who danced both Bathilde and Myrtha, so it seems to be on purpose. However, there was no real dramatic reason for that, so that was another detail that looked somewhat unlogical to me. Or perhaps they were lacking good female dancers for that role? But that seems unlikely (that's quite a large company, and there were two casts for most roles). By the way, in that version Bathilde came back at the very end of act II and seemed to comfort Albrecht (but if I remember correctly, it happens also in some traditional productions). Alexandra- well, I'm not sure the audience really knows what they're seeing, unfortunately... Paradoxically, since Pietragalla arrived in Marseille, much of the advertising has been done on "Pietragalla, la grande danseuse classique de l'Opera" (and much of the audience seems to come to the performances mostly to see her) while she has danced mostly contemporary roles... Also I think that perhaps one of the reasons for such "modernized" versions is that non-specialized newspapers are unlikely to write more than a few lines about a "traditional" staging of "Giselle" or "Swan Lake", while they often spend pages raving about Mr X's fancy new sets and the new costumes by fashion designer Mr Z (generally paying little attention to dance itself...) The previous "Giselle" I had seen was Monique Loudieres (with Andrei Fedotov) with the Ballet de Nancy, and well, it was in a different category. Link to comment
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