Mary Ellen Hunt
Paris
Opera Ballet, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, CA
La Bayadère
April
30, May 1, May 3
Act II (the wedding of Solor and Gamzatti) begins with a series of processions and then dances for the corps and soloists. Most of them afford us a nice opportunity to watch the French schooling at work: dances with fans, dances with parrots, warrior dances. It's a bit like the third act of Swan Lake where one appreciates the lovely corps, but you only want to get to the good stuff.
The first highlight is the "Golden Idol" variation, typically given to a premier with outstanding elevation and solid technique. Monday's Idol, Benjamin Pech was acceptable in the first section of the solo, although it had none of the look of a "statue" per se. Nevertheless, he completed his final manège of turns, two coupé jetés and a rond de jambe fouetté passé en l'air with a stunning elevation and brought the house down. Jerémie Belingard, who danced the Idol on Tuesday night was much cleaner, showing the crisp edges of the series of positions as he glided across the floor, and producing impossibly compact double attitude turns in plié from the kneeling position. His last circle of turns was as impressive as Pech's but marred only by a slight slip at the end of his double tour.
The "manu" or jug-balancing dance was a little gimmicky, but sweet and offered a kind of humorous break before the main action. Mélanie Hurel was a little more adventurous with her balancing than Fanny Fiat, but Fiat's smile and her charming relationship with the children was quite pleasant to watch. The pas de deux for Gamzatti and Solor that is the centerpiece of this act is not particularly exciting and filled with awkward positions, but both Dupont and Gillot made much of the work exciting simply through attitude. Every small flick of their feet was calculated. Legris took the variation at a somewhat quick tempo, which didn't quite allow time for the audience to fully appreciate the floating quality of his double cabrioles right at the start, nevertheless, it did add a brilliance to his manège, which flew around the stage. And both Gillot and Dupont nailed the fiendishly difficult series of fouettés in the coda. It began with a series of ten fouettés en de dans to attitude derrière. Dupont's were so secure that she literally seemed to be on wires, being revolved, rather than spinning, and Gillot used the whipping action to dip a little lower with the leg in her initial développé, giving the impression of very brilliant fouettés Italienne. Then, if you weren't sure that they could do "regular" fouettés, they proceed to do twenty fouettés en dehors as punctuation.
The act concludes with the dramatic solo of Nikiya as she realizes Solor has betrayed her. From the start, it was a little more subdued than I was used to seeing. Neither Gaïda nor Letestu took the full cambré arching back in the very first port de corps. However, this restraint made it possible to build the dance in intensity until at the end of the diagonal moving back, Gaïda's slump of the arms over her head was heartbreaking. Letestu used that building up to contrast the quiet of a soutenu with the impassioned melting down to allongé arabesque. In the briefly happy dance that follows, Letestu also used her length to great advantage, so as to cover the maximum amount of space on the stage.
In the end though, what seemed to make the greatest impact was to see a difference in sensibility between Nikiya and Gamzatti. The contrast between Gaïda and Dupont helped to distinguish them and therefore made each one stand out more. Letestu and Gillot appeared very similar in type and style of dancing and so Nikiya and Gamzatti both of their portrayals seemed to be a bit less appealing.
The final act, or the "white" act of La Bayadère is the one most often seen in the West. "The Kingdom of the Shades" marks one of those purely classical moments in dance and it is a place where any insecurity of technique shows up starkly. Personally, I would prefer to see the line of shades coming down the ramp spaced further apart. It shows the elegance of the line more clearly and no one has to dodge out of the way of the next girl's foot in arabesque. From the upper balcony, it was clear that the dancers were staggering the line (moving slightly left or right) to avoid collisions and this detracted slightly from the visual effect. Then too, Tuesday night showed a more secure entrance. There's a kind of visceral pleasure in seeing something like this executed so precisely by thirty-two individual dancers. The corps work throughout was beautifully clean despite a fairly brisk tempo, and they were in lines that looked as if they had been drawn by a ruler when they began the développés after the entrance.
In the entrada to the grand pas de deux that is the heart of this act, Legris showed some beautifully creamy double attitude turns, while Bart's grand rond de jambe en l'air to a renversé emphasized his control and lean lines. The delicate pas de deux for Solor and Nikiya has a nostalgia and a perfume to it that I found a little lacking in Gaïda's rendering on Monday, however, there was a tender atmosphere between her and Legris that translated well. Letestu's absolute technical assurance allowed her to room to play with the musicality and also to articulate certain moments. For instance, from her pirouette she unfolded her right leg to développé la seconde in a thrilling manner. Then too, the attenuated arch of her body in the temps de poisson lifts backwards made this particularly awkward step look elegant.
The three famous variations from the "Kingdom of the Shades" are traditionally performed by premiers or up-and-coming sujets, and they are notable for showing the technique and presence of the dancers. The first, often given to the most technically secure soloist requires a solid connection to the floor, a "grounded"-ness, which Eleonora Abbagnato possessed in spades. She cleverly phrased the single pirouette in passé a little bit late in the music so as to have just enough time to show her sissonne développé écarté without any wobbling. On the first two nights, the orchestra sped up somewhat soon in her variation. This is not an atypical situation. The conductor often increases the tempo to assist the dancer in covering the difficulty of the rélevé passé from battement devant to seconde, since it is so hard to control this movement, but Abbagnato was so secure, she hardly looked to be in need of help. In fact I wanted it to go slower so that she could show off her balances!
The second variation, marked by quick hops on pointe and bourrées requires a delicate, airy faade on a tenacious technique. Laetitia Pujol was exceptionally fine on both nights, and I was particularly satisfied by her navigation through the intricate turn section. The music was quick, but she never shortened her grand jeté, and marked the downbeat of the music with an unexpected développé croisé out of her pirouettes and putting the cap on it with a solid triple pirouette on Tuesday night.
The third variation, or cabriole variation, was danced by Delphine Moussin on the first night. She takes the musicality in a somewhat breezy manner, which is pleasant if not exact. Still, her footwork in the diagonal back was crisp throughout. Tuesday night, the sujet Muriel Hallé performed this variation with somewhat more attack and suspended the final attitudes coming downstage beautifully. Letestu navigated the treacherous arabesque turns in Nikiya's scarf variation a little carefully, but with fine balances and neat double pirouettes, faring somewhat better than Gaïda on the first night. Both men, however were consistently "on" in their technique and finished with splendid manèges of double assemblé turns that looked as if they were drilling straight into the floor.
In general it seemed that the Paris Opéra Ballet showed at its best in the brisker parts of La Bayadère. It was here that you could clearly see the unison and the angularity of their lines and the impressive fullness of their movement quality.
This review initially appeared on Voiceofdance.com, May 5, 2001.
For questions or comments, please contact maryellenhunt@yahoo.com.