Drew Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 I'd be grateful to read any reports/reactions to Lacotte's staging of Stendhal's novel at the POB. Link to comment
miliosr Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 Florian Magnenet had to replace Mathieu Ganio after the ballet had started. And kudos to Pierre Lacotte for creating such a large work at age 89! Link to comment
silvermash Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 Up to me, it’s a beautiful production with gorgeous set (painted canvases in trompe l'oeil technic, a very beautiful know-how of the opera house) and great costumes. However the ballet is too long, ill constructed with too much scenes and characters. It needs a stricter editing… I'm not a big fan of the choreography either, it's sometimes too repetitive, presumably to characterize the roles but during 3 hours, it becomes redundant... Link to comment
Drew Posted October 19, 2021 Author Share Posted October 19, 2021 21 hours ago, silvermash said: Up to me, it’s a beautiful production with gorgeous set (painted canvases in trompe l'oeil technic, a very beautiful know-how of the opera house) and great costumes. However the ballet is too long, ill constructed with too much scenes and characters. It needs a stricter editing… I'm not a big fan of the choreography either, it's sometimes too repetitive, presumably to characterize the roles but during 3 hours, it becomes redundant... Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It sounds as if some of the problems might be fixed with judicious editing...but not all... Link to comment
silvermash Posted October 19, 2021 Share Posted October 19, 2021 yes. I had a second view last night with a different cast and it seems to me that too much is missing than a cut of all the unnecessary scenes that don't add anything to the story. You never get into the complexity of the characters, they don't carry the story. It's more of a series of variations and pas de deux of different styles put end to end and it's not helped by the coutless changes of scenes ... this choreographic problem could only be solved by reworking the choreography to bring a real storytelling though it and also emotions. Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 The POB posted quite a bit of stage rehearsal footage for World Ballet Day. Link to comment
Drew Posted October 22, 2021 Author Share Posted October 22, 2021 The backdrops seem kind of ravishing as gigantic drawings, and I think I understand what Lacotte said about the characters-emerging-from-book effect he wanted but I did find myself wondering how the black and white look actually worked in the theater. (I have read some French comments about the production now...not a lot though.) Link to comment
Recommended Posts