No show could bring the curtain down on the Year of France in China better than this September's upcoming ballet triple-bill by the Ballet of Opera de Paris.
Since the ballet company last toured Beijing eight years ago, local ballet fans have been waiting for their return on tiptoe. Coming hot on the heels of the classical Russian companies including Kirov and Bolshoi that have toured recently, the Ballet of Opera de Paris' three neo-classical pieces will be a rare treat for China.
Most of the company's principal dancers, including Aurelie Dupont, Marie-Agnes Gillot, Agnes Letestu, Clairemaire Osta, Jean-Guillaume Bart, Manuel Legris and Jose Martinez, will come to Beijing.
"Opera de Paris in the ballet circle is just like Chanel or Gucci in fashion. It's something luxurious but that you should have if you really like it," says Zhao Ruheng, president of National Ballet of China. Zhao's company staged "Sylvia" last October in collaboration with the Ballet of Opera de Paris, as part of the Year of France in China programme. They are now rehearsing three works choreographed by Roland Petit, the former ballet master of the Paris company.
The triple-bill that the Ballet of Opera de Paris will perform on September 16 and 17 are specially selected for the China tour. "L'Arlesienne," "Suite en Blanc" and "Bolero," are three programs that could be portrayed as "blue," "white" and "red," the three colours representing France.
"L'Arlesienne," a sentimental blue ballet, was choreographed by Roland Petit for his Ballet National de Marseilles in 1974. It is based on a short story by Alphonse Daudet and set to Georges Bizet's orchestral suite No 2 of the same title.
In Petit's haunting tale of obsession, young Frederi is obsessed by the memory of a woman he cannot have, and ultimately cannot live without.
The "white" ballet "Suite en Blanc" choreographed by Serge Lifar for the Ballet of Opera de Paris is acclaimed as neoclassical showpiece. A one-act ballet, it is designed to display the technical virtuosity of a company.
Lifar himself danced the principal role when it premiered in Zurich in 1943. The choreographer largely extracted the music from Edouard Lalo's score for "Namouna," a short-lived ballet choreographed by Petipa in 1882.
All the dancers will wear the pure white costumes against a stark, monumental, black setting.
"It bears all the hallmarks of the Lifarian style: dancers working in parallel formation with typical Lifaresque off-balance virtuosity," says Zhao who watched the work in Paris.
"It's an extremely difficult ballet that shows off the entire company; only the best companies attempt it."
The erotic "Bolero" is no doubt the "red" piece. Beijing's audience had chance to watch it in January when the choreographer Maurice Bejart's Ballet Lausanne toured Beijing with the program. But you still should not miss the Ballet of Opera de Paris version.
The great choreographer Bejart made the ballet in 1961. It was the first that he choreographed for his then newly established Ballet of the 20th Century, and is considered one of his signature works.
The "Bolero" is a Spanish dance with a rhythm generally bearing a triplet on the second half of the first beat. Bejart choreographed his "Bolero" to music by Maurice Ravel. It has a single theme, repeated 16 times, with additional instrumentation at each repetition of the tune.
The result is an enormous orchestral crescendo. The soloist in top and tights, alone on a circular podium, twists and turns in rhythmic contortions and sensual movements, giving form to the music and life to the crescendo.
Bejart once describes his conception of "Bolero" as stripping the music down to its essentials. The choreography echoes back to the use of dance in sacred rituals, including fertility rites.
"This is music that is at once both too well-known and always new, thanks to its simplicity. A melody uncoils inexorably, increasing in volume and intensity, devouring the sonic space until it finally drowns itself," Bejart was quoted as saying.
(China Daily September 1, 2005)
