Paris Opera Ballet (live stream), 13/12/2020

Minkus : La bayadère

Artists of the Paris Opera Ballet

Orchestre de l'Opéra National de Paris

Philippe Hui

French theatres had been hoping to re-open their doors on the 15th of this month, but have been put off until the second week of January, much to their despair.  However, the Paris Opera has launched a new streaming site which proposes both already existing (but not commercially available) recordings of operas, ballets and concerts to rent on a video on-demand basis.  This platform will also include live performances, and they began today with a slightly unusual staging of La bayadère.  For each of the three acts of the ballet, the principals changed, which means that we saw eight of the company's étoiles perform (Gamzatti does not appear in the last act).  It was a trifle odd, but understandable in that all of these artists have been starved of performance, and it was a reasonable way to give as many of them as could be contrived some stage time, and it did not harm the ballet as a whole.

A couple of technical issues first.  I'm currently watching events like this with the laptop connected by cable to the TV, and via a standard broadband wi-fi connection.  This means I usually set the image quality to 720p, which give me a clear image on the TV and less chance of it freezing because my broadband is overloaded.  However, despite that, the image on this live broadcast reminded me of early days of digital sports broadcasting - when the movement becomes too rapid and too complicated, the image stutters, blurs, and speeds up then slows down for a few frames.  I will watch parts of it again when it becomes available on-demand later tonight (the ticket price holds good both for the live and the on-demand showings) to see if that's still the case, but it was not very satisfactory on the live broadcast.

The other issue, and this is not just a problem with the Paris Opera, is the curtain-call protocol. They are performing, nominally, without an audience, yet persist in taking all bows and curtains calls as if the audience was present, and in complete silence.  Frankly, it looks ludicrous.  Looking through the Twitter feed afterwards, apparently there were at least some journalists present, but they were forbidden to manifest their presence.  This, I do not understand.  Why prevent them from making themselves heard?  In an empty theatre, particularly one the size of the Palais Garnier, they surely had enough space around them to be able to applaud, even whistle or cheer, without risking contaminating anyone else.  

Similarly, there was surely personnel around not required to be active while the performance is actually taking place, they could have had seats in the circles, and applaud the performers.  At the end of this performance, Paul Marque, who danced the Golden Idol, was promoted étoile in a public announcement, as is customary for the POB, and the company, present on stage after their curtain calls, erupted in congratulatory applause and cheers.  The difference in ambience was instantly tangible, and all the dancers deserve a concrete manifestation of appreciation for their artistry and hard work rather than just having to imagine us, the invisible audience behind our screens, equally cheering them on.  

So to the ballet itself.  Nureyev mounted La bayadère for the company not long before his death in 1992.  It's the three-act version, ending with the Kingdom of the Shades scene, and I admit to being ambivalent about that.  However, unlike most other 3-act versions, the end is clear enough - in this version, Solor has joined Nikiya in death having, presumably, overdosed on opium, even though we don't really see that at the start of the act.  The production itself is spectacular, beautifully set and dressed by Ezio Frigerio and Franca Squarciapino.  The first two acts are a rich blaze of reds and oranges, forest greens and the yellow metal shades, gold, bronze and copper, which makes the cool, pale whites and blues of the last act stand out all the more.  The costume fabrics are sumptuous, and I want to run off with that magnificent Tiffany-inspired screen seen at the start of Act 3!

Dorothée Gilbert was the 1st act Nikiya, alongside the Solor of Germain Louvet, and the Gamzatti of Léonore Baulac.  Gilbert and Louvet made a good pair, Gilbert softening what seemed at first like a rather stony demeanour to respond to his Solor, and then interacted expressively with Baulac's haughty Gamzatti.  I had forgotten that in this version, the Gamzatti of Act 1 does not actually dance much, and performs in heeled slippers rather than pointes, so it's definitely more of an acting role at this point.  In the second act, the positions inverse, the focus is mostly on the Grand Pas between Solor and Gamzatti, here with Valentine Colasante and Hugo Marchand.  Marchand is a more obviously muscular dancer than Louvet, and this was a strong, confident partnership.  I still can't get over how obliging Solor always appears here - it doesn't matter which production, it's always the same - but he was passably convincing right at the end of the act.  Nikiya makes only the one appearance in the act, but it's all-important, a long variation, first melancholy, then frantically joyful, then her death scene.  Amandine Albisson took over the role here, fluid and touching.  

It's in the second act that you get most of the character and secondary numbers.  There was no credit given for the Girl with the Water-jug, which was very nicely done, although seeing the two girls with her - both ballet school students - wearing masks looked odd.  Indeed, all the children in this staging (and there are quite a few required) wore masks.  The logic escapes me a little, but when it came to the eight boys who accompany the Golden Idol, it worked in a rather unexpected way.  They only lacked tails to look like little monkeys which, combined with their style of choreography, seemed unexpectedly apt in this number.  As far as idols themselves, Paul Marque wasn't the most powerful Idol I've seen, but there was a very pleasing precision and crispness to his movement.

Finally, for the last act, Myriam Ould-Brham and Mathias Hermann took over the principal roles, for a textbook perfect pas de deux.  I still wish the company had more than one ramp for the famous Entrée of the Shades, but the ladies were on good form, especially considering the circumstances.  They were certainly on better form than the orchestra, from which some not entirely kosher sounds escaped at intervals, but you don't go to Bayadère for its music, it's just a nice extra when it's played really well.  This was a slightly unusual, but generally very enjoyable staging, here's hoping it's the first of many from this company.

[Next : 13th December.  Yes, no joking, there's another show this evening]