Bertaud/ Valastro/ Bouché/ Paul - mixed programme, Paris Opera Ballet

[Duck]

Brigitte Lefèvre organised a number of – I understand informal – choreographic events for the company’s dancers when she was at the helm of POB. Benjamin Millepied changed this into something more formal and set up a Choreographer’s Academy, with Sébastien Bertaud, Simon Valastro, Bruno Bouché and Nicolas Paul – all dancers with POB – participating, and with William Forsythe as – then – mentor (I’ve read somewhere that Aurélie Dupont has since put the Academy on standby, and I can’t see any choreographic events scheduled for next season at all). The mixed programme at Palais Garnier last week presented the results of the Academy’s work. I saw the performance on Sunday afternoon.

The four dancers all started to produce their first choreographies some 10 to 15 years ago, though I hadn’t previously heard of any choreographies by Valastro or Paul.

Bertaud’s Renaissance for 15 dancers was undoubtedly the piece that received by far the most press coverage before the opening night, due to the designs by Olivier Rousteing/ Balmain. The costumes looked sparkly in the pictures and even more so on stage, reflecting the strong lights. The choreography to Mendelssohn’s 2^nd Violin Concerto was vivid and fluid, alternating corps, PDD and small groups. Some movements gave a hint of a story (a dancer running to the side of the stage, pausing, his hand on his front as if thinking about something, and running back into the centre of the stage; also some of the PDD), other elements were purely abstract. While I thought at times that, given the passionate music, a stronger narrative element would have been great, the work was just beautiful to look at. The uncontested star of the performance and indeed of the whole programme for me was Pablo Legasa (Coryphée), who stepped in for Mathias Heymann the day of the opening night, and thus danced his corps role plus the role created on Mathias Heymann with its many intricate and incredibly fast solos. And dear me, he delivered! With astonishing fluidity, assuredness, precision and an immensely visible joy of performing. In one of these allegro solos, following a fast section, he took his leg into a high developé à la seconde (with the leg at say, 10 o’clock) on demi pointe, and then he held that position for a second or two or three, all while smiling exuberantly … followed by the next fast section of that solo. I fell in love with his dancing rather helplessly! Great also to see Joseph Aumeer on stage in a corps role that put him centre stage.

Simon Valastro’s Little match girl Passion (Passion with a capital “P”) is based on Andersen’s story and uses David Lang’s music. This is a multisensorial work – live Passion-like music in the orchestra pit, 4 singers – one singer wears a soutane, the others are dressed in black from head to toe, they start in the pit, then walk onto the stage where they walk around to sing and tell the story, they hold and comfort the little match girl (Eleonora Abbagnato, superb) on her deathbed, they end the piece back in the pit. I sensed that the singing was the driving force and the dancing was shaping out its content. I guess I will have read the story as a child but had forgotten its bitter end, and I found the piece incredibly emotional. If Pablo Legasa in Renaissance was the star performer of the programme for me, Simon Valastro’s choreography achieved this for me in its story telling cum choreography, and I would love to see more of him as choreographer.

Bouché’s Undoing world is about refugees; to quote from the programme book, “seeking out rare halos of resistance in a society torn between chaos and survival”. Dancers use golden rescue sheets to highlight their plight, and they dance simple steps in circular groups as a means of calm and resistance. While there were elements of the choreography that went beyond me, I found the group sections very effective.

Paul’s Seven and a half metres above the mountains uses Renaissance music and, based on the programme book, refers to “submersion in all its forms”. Dancers in everyday clothes walk up the stairs from the orchestra pit onto the stage and then towards the back of the stage, where they disappear, just to walk up the stairs again, etc., creating an endless and possibly hypnotising flow of such movements. Some dancers walk towards the centre of the stage where they perform contemporary solos, duos and trios, while other dancers continue to walk past them. A number of comments on social media praised this work very highly, so, clearly, I will have missed something there (as I really didn’t get it).

It’s a pity the work of the Academy is not continued as it not only gives dancers the opportunity to present and further explore their choreographic talents on the main stage; it also gives some of the more junior dancers who may not be in a featured role that often the chance to shine more prominently.

I understand that with new works, the duration of the programme may be difficult to tell upfront. In this case however, something clearly went wrong. The programme was shown – up until the last performance – as 1 hour 50 minutes in duration. It took in fact 3 hours, and I understand the first night even went beyond that. I normally travel back the evening of a matinee performance which allows for a performance of up to around 2 hours 40 minutes in duration; the only reason why I was staying in Paris until Monday this time was because the train fare was so much lower on Monday that the savings even outweighed the costs of a cheap hotel on Sunday night. Lucky me that I did as I would have otherwise had to leave during the – one – interval. Who knows, though, how many others will have been affected.

The first four minutes of the video in the following link show short extracts of the four choreographies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6Hog0RQaJI.

 

 

 

[assoluta]

7 hours ago, Duck said:

Brigitte Lefèvre organised a number of – I understand informal – choreographic events for the company’s dancers when she was at the helm of POB. Benjamin Millepied changed this into something more formal and set up a Choreographer’s Academy, with Sébastien Bertaud, Simon Valastro, Bruno Bouché and Nicolas Paul – all dancers with POB – participating, and with William Forsythe as – then – mentor (I’ve read somewhere that Aurélie Dupont has since put the Academy on standby, and I can’t see any choreographic events scheduled for next season at all). The mixed programme at Palais Garnier last week presented the results of the Academy’s work. I saw the performance on Sunday afternoon.

 

If these are the results,  Mlle Dupont is making the only sensible decision ; in fact, after seeing all four pieces, my first and foremost question was "who on earth permitted these pieces to be shown on the stage of Palais Garnier?". Two of the four works are so inept they may be contenders for the title of the worst ballet ever shown on the Grand Opéra stage. The only piece choreographically enjoyable, despite its glaring faults, was Bertaud's Renaissance.  Concerning the information in the opening sentence, similar events were taking place before Lefèvre.

[Duck]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder methinks.

 

 

[assoluta]

There are also such things like "basic incompetence". These are best left to be judged by competent professionals and are not discussed in public fora, for this reason I will not be discussing them here besides registering my opinion that the pieces shown were grossly incompetent.

Edited June 21, 2017 by assoluta

[Jan McNulty]

I wasn't at the performance but I would say that new choreographers need a chance to show what they can do.  That most people aren't professionals and look at something with a view to enjoying it (or not) and that if companies didn't have these choreographic opportunities then ballet would be dead by now!

 

Northern Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet in the recent past have both had public performances of new choreographies by company members.  These initiatives have led to the likes of Kit Holder, Ruth Brill and Kenny Tindall being given the opportunity to make works for the full company and all those works, IMHO, have enriched the repertoire of those companies.  It is also good to see how their style develops.  Not everything is going to be wonderful but how many works of, for example, Petipa still survive?

 

I very much enjoyed reading Duck's review as an enthusiastic ballet watcher and I value Duck's opinions greatly. 

Edited June 21, 2017 by Jan McNulty
Edited to fill in a missing word - Petipa!

[assoluta]

I agree with every word of what you have written, Janet, it is however depressing to witness works of such incompetence produced at the Opéra de Paris.

[Duck]

In order to provide a few additional opinions about the programme and thus illustrate that the reception of artistic endeavours is indeed subjective, I’ve done a search on the web for reviews and posts about the programme. The below are all those that I’ve been able to find (they are all in French), searching by the names of the four choreographers, and using a UK laptop and a local phone in doing so. I’d be happy to look at other reviews/ posts that are out there.  All aspects below relate to the work of the choreographers (rather than that of the dancers/ musicians). Sorry, long post.

Reviews

- http://www.resmusica.com/2017/06/19/soiree-soiree-bertaudvalastrobouchepaul-a-garnier/ The reviewers enjoyed Bertaud’s work and some aspects of Valastro’s piece. She summarises the evening as “interesting and refreshing” and regrets that Academy is not pursued.

- http://www.concertclassic.com/article/bertaud-bouche-paul-valastro-quatre-choregraphes-au-palais-garnier-les-quatre-temperaments The reviewer highlights Bertaud’s work and less enjoyed the others.

- https://bachtrack.com/fr_FR/critique-bertaud-bouche-paul-valastro-ballet-opera-palais-garnier-paris-juin-2017 The reviewer gives the programme 4 out of 5 stars, highlights Valastro’s piece, and did not enjoy Bouche’s work.

Blogs

- http://balletetcie.fr/soiree-bertaud-valastro-bouche-paul-15-juin/ Pictures of Valastro’s work remain with the reviewer, who also highlights Paul’s piece.

- https://lesballetonautes.com/ The reviewer highlights Paul’s piece and less enjoyed the other works.

Forums

- http://www.forum-dansomanie.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7636&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15 6 reviewers

• One poster did not enjoy Bertaud’s work, found that of Bouche mixed and higlights Valastro’s (“a rare quality”) and Paul’s pieces

• One poster did not fully enjoy Bertaud’s and Bouche’s works, found Valastro’s work “impressive” and Paul’s piece “very accomplished” and regrets that the Academy is not pursued

• One poster highlights Valastro’s and Paul’s works and regrets that the Academy is not pursued

• One poster highlights Valastro’s work, finds that of Bertaud nice to look at and did not enjoy Paul’s piece

• One poster enjoyed Bertaud’s and Valastro’s works, found that of Bouche mixed and did not enjoy Paul’s piece

• One poster strongly disliked Bouche’s and Paul’s works

- http://dansespluriel.soforums.com/t1280-Bertaud-Bouche-Paul-Valastro-du-13-au-18-juin-2017-ONP.htm?start=15 Two reviewers - one poster did not enjoy Bertaud’s work however found Valastro’s work “magnificent” and Paul’s piece “very elaborate”. Another poster did not enjoy Bertaud’s work and found Valastro’s piece “interesting”.

Twitter

- It may also be useful to scroll through the POB twitter account @balletoparis for further comments https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=balletoparis&src=typd

 

[betterankles]

Probably just better to do these kind of things in smaller venues like LInbury or Clore rather then Palais Garnier.  I believe there is a smaller venue at Bastille?

[Duck]

There is the Amphitheatre at the Bastille Opera as smaller venue.

 

[assoluta]

On 6/22/2017 at 16:11, Duck said:

In order to provide a few additional opinions about the programme and thus illustrate that the reception of artistic endeavours is indeed subjective, I’ve done a search on the web for reviews and posts about the programme.

 

This may illustrate just as well that every kind of incompetence can find a champion which is not surprising in view of the fact that anybody today can be a "critic". When Edward Villella was saying

 

There is a lot of mediocrity around. A lot of mediocrity is highly praised and highly funded and highly supported.

 

he obviously was not interested in vindicating mediocrity and basic incompetence in terms of "subjectivity of reception", and I am with him on this issue rather than with those who try to reduce everything to subjective feelings.

 

Much more pertinent to this particular case is, however, what I learned later from the very people whose works were shown: the "Academy of Choreography" whose demise is being lamented by some, likely to be not very well informed "critics", was little more than a facade, they had few opportunities to learn anything from their supposed "master" and, as a result, didn't learn much.

[Jan McNulty]

There are some comments about the performance on the American equivalent website - on the Paris Opera Ballet forum in the European Dance Companies section.

[toursenlair]

On 2017-06-21 at 02:37, assoluta said:

There are also such things like "basic incompetence". These are best left to be judged by competent professionals and are not discussed in public fora, for this reason I will not be discussing them here besides registering my opinion that the pieces shown were grossly incompetent.

 

I really don't think it's appropriate that you should dismiss everyone who disagrees with your judgement as not a "competent professional" and with your assumption that all "competent professionals" would agree with your judgement, and indeed are always right. There are many many examples of works that have been panned by "competent professional" critics on their first outing or later which have since come to be considered masterpieces.

Here are just some about Balanchine, but Manon and Elite Syncopations, among others, were also trashed by the critics.

Apollo (1928, New York premiere in 1937)

“Apollo never will, in all probability, be popular. For [Balanchine] it has enormous personal importance. Perhaps it should be revived from time to time, since historical milestones in the ballet are evanescent; but to ask us to admire it for its intrinsic values is another matter. It still seems a very young and dated effort.”

— John Martin, The New York Times (September 9, 1951)

Prodigal Son (1929, New York premiere in 1950)

“There are portions which are deeply touching, superb in their inventions; there are others which are appropriately and believably erotic, and there are others which must be classified as unadulterated foolishness, dramatically and kinetically. Unfortunately, the foolish or the dull passages predominate.”

— Walter Terry, New York Herald Tribune (February 24, 1950)

Serenade (1935)

“The ballet seems dated. The reason has nothing to do with years, but rather with the underlying concept. It is a piece of theatrical deception. On the surface it is the very essence of lyricism. There is a little theme of youth, awakening, and unrequited love woven with the utmost delicacy through one of Balanchine’s typical music visualizations. But if you probe beneath the movement to weigh the theme and its relative importance to the ballet, you have the feeling that Balanchine takes very serious emotions and uses them as a convenient excuse for his pretty patterns. The result is cold and strangely naïve.”

— Doris Hering, Dance Magazine (January 1949)

The Four Temperaments (1940)

“It is rich and flavorful music and handsome choreography, but the two work more than a little at cross purposes. The ballet misses fire, in spite of its many brilliances of composition, chiefly because Balanchine’s choreography echoes only the form of the music and misses its texture and perhaps even its content to a degree. The music is neo-Gothic, and though Balanchine has put the danse d’école through all sorts of imaginative deviations, they all fall quite within the classic frame.”

— John Martin, The New York Times (January 7, 1959)

 Concerto Barocco (1941)

“The first and third movements [of the score], with their baroque lightness and gaiety, stand the addition of movement well; but there are some doubts in the case of the Adagio, since the music is so complete that even the addition of artistry and immaculate taste seems forced.”

— Georg Zivier, Die Neue Zeitung, Germany (September 1952)

Symphony in C (1947, New York premiere in 1948)

“Balanchine has once again given us that ballet of his, this time for some inscrutable reason to the Bizet symphony. Up to the middle of the third movement, he had used virtually all of his familiar tricks, some of them charming, some of them forced, and some of them slightly foolish. ”

— John Martin, The New York Times (March 23, 1948)

The Nutcracker (1954)

“The work has never before been seen in New York in its entirety, and Balanchine has restored cuts that have been made in practically all the previous productions elsewhere. Even in this full form it is scarcely a full-evening ballet, but rather a generous three-quarter program. But this is quite long enough. Indeed, unless you are one of those who find delight in watching children perform, you may find it advisable to arrive at the City Center along about ten o’clock, when the adults take over.”

— John Martin, The New York Times (February 3, 1954)

Agon (1957)

“Balanchine’s choreography, built up on complex and frequently changing counts, is closer to mathematics than to art. The soloists and corps de ballet show amazing cohesion in overcoming the difficulties of the music and choreography, but the composition, addressed as it is to the mind, leaves the heart cold.”

— Rostislav Zakharov, Pravda, Russia (October 14, 1962)

Jewels (1967)

“Turned out to be paste. This was disappointing in every way, as it was just three typically Balanchine opening ballets strung together to fill — well, almost to fill — an evening.”

— Craig Dodd, Dancing Times (September 1969)

 

 

Edited June 23, 2017 by toursenlair

[assoluta]

8 hours ago, toursenlair said:

 

I really don't think it's appropriate that you should dismiss everyone who disagrees with your judgement as not a "competent professional" and with your assumption that all "competent professionals" would agree with your judgement, and indeed are always right.

 

You are yourself making assumptions and you are distorting what I did say. Your collection of excerpts doesn't change the tenet of my message: grossly incompetent works get praised and there are limits to "subjectivity of reception". The works shown were grossly incompetent. Reducing everything to "subjectivity of reception" nullifies the whole notion of "competence", and my message was an attempt to remind the readers of this thread about it.

[Jan McNulty]

The works shown were "grossly incompetent" in your opinion.  That opinion may not be shared by everybody.

 

 

[assoluta]

58 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

The works shown were "grossly incompetent" in your opinion.  That opinion may not be shared by everybody.

 

What I said:

 

There are also such things like "basic incompetence". These are best left to be judged by competent professionals and are not discussed in public fora, for this reason I will not be discussing them here besides registering my opinion that the pieces shown were grossly incompetent.

 

makes perfectly clear that it is my opinion that the works shown were grossly incompetent. I also said that judging "competence" in any field is best left to the experts in those fields. This is also my opinion, does that sound controversial to you? (I am sorry if it offends somebody's feelings).

Edited June 24, 2017 by assoluta

[Jan McNulty]

Thank you for your opinion that the works were grossly incompetent Assoluta.

 

I mentioned earlier in the thread that there are some comments - well actually one report about the performance on an American equivalent forum.  I wouldn't normally do this but here is the link:

 

http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/41069-2016-2017-season/&page=8#comment-383443

 

OK neither Katherine nor I were at the performance but were trying to give another point of view on choreographic evenings.  The person in the linked thread WAS at the performance.

 

I'm afraid I think this discussion is no longer fruitful so I am locking it for further discussion.  Thank you Duck for your initial report - please keep them coming!