National Ballet of China's Raise the Red Lantern

[The Traveling Ballerina]

Although I had moments of "wow" during the evening, this production felt a bit incohesive to me. Here are some more of my thoughts - has anyone else seen Raise the Red Lantern?

[Drew]

The production looks pretty stunning visually at any rate...I read in your review they don't give any cast information or indeed information about the ballet and its background. That seems a shame all round.

[seattle_dancer]

9 hours ago, The Traveling Ballerina said:

Although I had moments of "wow" during the evening, this production felt a bit incohesive to me. Here are some more of my thoughts - has anyone else seen Raise the Red Lantern?

I’ve only seen excerpts of multiple ballets in a studio presentation at Barnard College (NYC) quite a few years ago.  They did have costumes and a few props, which I enjoyed seeing so close. I’d love to see the entire ballet someday.

When watching NBC I don’t have the same expectations I do of a western ballet company, as I believe it is their goal to blend eastern and western cultures.

I’d be curious how the emotional themes in this ballet came out compared to the movie.  It seems it would be much harder to communicate through ballet.

[YouOverThere]

Since last evening's performance might be the only one that I get to, I'll throw in my impressions from that:

- I loved the music. To me, it sounded both classical and Chinese at the same time.

- The lead dancers were quite good. Which they had to be, because there wasn't much in the way of tricks or "wow" sections in the choreography to make them look spectacular if they had been merely adequate.

- The costumes were impressive (as they tend to be in Chinese theatrical productions)

- The story was difficult to follow. This has been my experience with Chinese theatrical productions - the creators don't feel the need to present a full telling of a story. Without having read the program notes beforehand, I might have been lost in trying to figure out who was who.

- The choreography could have used a little more variety, especially in tempo.

- the story was a tragedy, but it didn't engage me enough for me to have any emotional response to it.

Edited February 16, 2019 by YouOverThere

[The Traveling Ballerina]

17 hours ago, Drew said:

The production looks pretty stunning visually at any rate...I read in your review they don't give any cast information or indeed information about the ballet and its background. That seems a shame all round.

Thanks to reading @YouOverThere's impressions, I flipped through the program again and discovered that a couple of pages were stuck together! So I have updated my post  As I mention in the update, there is very limited casting information - so I still don't know who actually danced that evening.

[The Traveling Ballerina]

46 minutes ago, YouOverThere said:

- The lead dancers were quite good. Which they had to be, because there wasn't much in the way of tricks or "wow" sections in the choreography to make them look spectacular if they had been merely adequate.

I felt like there was very little dancing for the principal male characters. The Peking Opera Actor had some opportunity to demonstrate his technical skills, but most of his and the Master's contributions were in partnering.

 

48 minutes ago, YouOverThere said:

- The choreography could have used a little more variety, especially in tempo.

- the story was a tragedy, but it didn't engage me enough for me to have any emotional response to it.

Completely agree!

[pherank]

On 2/15/2019 at 4:23 PM, Drew said:

The production looks pretty stunning visually at any rate...I read in your review they don't give any cast information or indeed information about the ballet and its background. That seems a shame all round.

The ballet is based upon a popular Chinese film of the same name, starring Gong Li (among others). And the film was based on a best selling book - sound familiar?  😉
There's nothing new under the cinematic and stage sun.
 

Edited February 17, 2019 by pherank

[Dreamer]

I wonder if the current production is the same that the company performed back in 2005 in California.  The 2005 version was staged by Zhang Yimou. I don’t remember much except that it was a powerfully told story and easy to follow. 

[The Traveling Ballerina]

30 minutes ago, Dreamer said:

I wonder if the current production is the same that the company performed back in 2005 in California.  The 2005 version was staged by Zhang Yimou. I don’t remember much except that it was a powerfully told story and easy to follow. 

Hmmm...my understanding is that Zhang Yimou was the director of the film that the ballet is based on, and Wang Xinpeng and Wang Yuanyuan are the choreographers of the ballet. If you saw it in 2005, I'm thinking it's most likely the same version as that's the same year it premiered (at Kennedy Center).

[Dreamer]

3 hours ago, The Traveling Ballerina said:

Hmmm...my understanding is that Zhang Yimou was the director of the film that the ballet is based on, and Wang Xinpeng and Wang Yuanyuan are the choreographers of the ballet. If you saw it in 2005, I'm thinking it's most likely the same version as that's the same year it premiered (at Kennedy Center).

That’s right, Zhang Yimou, a film director, was responsible for adapting his film for the ballet stage. Back then this fact was emphasized much more, maybe because House of Flying Daggers was making a big splash that year. There may have several US cities to which the company toured this production in 2005.