Les Ballet de Monte-Carlo at the Kennedy Center: Cendrillon

[YouOverThere]

Les Ballet de Monte-Carlo presented their version of Cendrillon (aka Cinderella) at the Kennedy Center. Their version is a little different from the standard version, almost as much centered around Cinderella's father as around Cinderella, with both having flashbacks about when Cinderella's mother was still alive. Rather than a fairy godmother, the fairy was an incarnation of Cinderella's deceased mother. There was no carriage and no slipper: the prince had a foot fetish, and the fairy arranged for Cinderella's feet to be covered with sequins.

I took in 2 performances, but for some reason I just couldn't get into it. It certainly wasn't because of the dancers, who were spot on and in the ensemble dances about as in sync as any company that I've seen. With the unusual telling of the story and the different characterizations, I found it a little hard to follow at the first show. The production was "cartoonish", with extremely silly (actually, ridiculous) costumes, especially for the women and a lot of slapstick comedy from the men, and I thought that the attention-grabbing costumes diverted attention from the actual dancing. Not only was the story a little different, but the music was not played in the usual order, e.g., Cinderella's Waltz was used in 3 different places, and there was even some music from Prokofiev's score for Lieutenant Kije (my accomplice felt good enough to attend 1 performance, and felt that the production "mangled" the score). I felt like for some scenes the mood of the music didn't fit the mood of that particular part of the story. The dancing was largely at a fast pace, with only a few slow pieces, and I felt that it emphasized athleticness over beauty (I know, "beauty is very subjective). Cinderella's personality was never really developed so I didn't find myself develop a true caring about her.

My take was not widely shared by the audience, though it was a much younger crowd than is typical at the Kennedy Center, and I don't know how many of my fellow spectators have watched a lot of ballets. So I do wonder if the problem was with me; that it was too different from what I'm used to,

[Drew]

7 hours ago, YouOverThere said:

 I felt like for some scenes the mood of the music didn't fit the mood of that particular part of the story.

Thank you for the report on this production. If I were in D.C. then I would definitely have tried to see it.

I LOVE Prokofiev's music for Cinderella, but the whole score kind of strikes me the way you describe feeling at this production. In other productions (that I have seen), I often feel the mood of the music doesn't "fit" the story I'm watching). The edge of melancholy and even cruelty is too strong.

In Ratmansky's version, Cinderella appears to be having some kind of PTSD episode in the middle of her romantic pas de deux with the Prince at the end....The first time I saw Ratmansky's verstion, I remember thinking that  however oddly that episode sits in a "fairy tale" ending (and as part of the ballet's final pas de deux), it does correspond to the agitation of the music at that moment. I do realize that today's choreographers are not trying to tell the traditional story or channel The Sleeping Beauty the way, say, Ashton does--but the mood of the score sometimes still seems a bit strange to me.

(I know that that the fairy tale Cinderella' story has sad elements, but they are sad elements in a fairy tale; the story is not an explicit exploration of the psychological impact of losing your mother too young.)

Edited November 20, 2022 by Drew
Typos/precision

[lacdescygnes]

On 11/19/2022 at 2:24 PM, YouOverThere said:

Les Ballet de Monte-Carlo presented their version of Cendrillon (aka Cinderella) at the Kennedy Center. Their version is a little different from the standard version, almost as much centered around Cinderella's father as around Cinderella, with both having flashbacks about when Cinderella's mother was still alive. Rather than a fairy godmother, the fairy was an incarnation of Cinderella's deceased mother. There was no carriage and no slipper: the prince had a foot fetish, and the fairy arranged for Cinderella's feet to be covered with sequins.

I took in 2 performances, but for some reason I just couldn't get into it. It certainly wasn't because of the dancers, who were spot on and in the ensemble dances about as in sync as any company that I've seen. With the unusual telling of the story and the different characterizations, I found it a little hard to follow at the first show. The production was "cartoonish", with extremely silly (actually, ridiculous) costumes, especially for the women and a lot of slapstick comedy from the men, and I thought that the attention-grabbing costumes diverted attention from the actual dancing. Not only was the story a little different, but the music was not played in the usual order, e.g., Cinderella's Waltz was used in 3 different places, and there was even some music from Prokofiev's score for Lieutenant Kije (my accomplice felt good enough to attend 1 performance, and felt that the production "mangled" the score). I felt like for some scenes the mood of the music didn't fit the mood of that particular part of the story. The dancing was largely at a fast pace, with only a few slow pieces, and I felt that it emphasized athleticness over beauty (I know, "beauty is very subjective). Cinderella's personality was never really developed so I didn't find myself develop a true caring about her.

My take was not widely shared by the audience, though it was a much younger crowd than is typical at the Kennedy Center, and I don't know how many of my fellow spectators have watched a lot of ballets. So I do wonder if the problem was with me; that it was too different from what I'm used to,

I was there on Friday and largely agree with your take, especially on the music. Also the music didn't appear to be live, which I thought was a bit disappointing.

The story was pretty close to the Brothers Grimm, with the spirit of the mother (in Grimm, it's a tree on her grave that bestows the dress and shoes), the stepsisters mutilating their feet and the overall darker tone. Not necessarily what I expected as the Perrault version is the default one in the French-speaking world, and that's the one that has the fairy godmother and the pumpkin carriage.

I was somewhat surprised that Cinderella was barefoot the entire ballet, although the sequins effect was a neat touch - it has to be quite challenging for the dancer. I felt that the ball sequence lasted too long and the corps didn't have anything interesting to do, and as they were not characters we had met before it was a bit pointless.

That said, I still enjoyed the production and the fact that it was a different style. And it was nice to have a younger, more diverse audience.

I was also very impressed by how Les Ballets de Monte Carlo comes through as a unified company when they have dancers trained at Vaganova, SAB and the Paris Opera Ballet school, among others. 

Edited November 22, 2022 by lacdescygnes
typo