Paris - What a superb billing! Sylvie Guillem, Patrick Dupont, Francine Lancelot, Maurice Bejart, Lifar, Balanchine, Baryshnikov, Nureyev. For the centennial celebration of the Statue of Liberty, the Paris Opera Ballet has outdone itself. From July 8 to July 19 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and then at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., from July 22 to July 29, the American ballet-going public will be able to enjoy itself, all the more so because the Paris Opera Ballet hasn't made a U.S. tour in nearly forty years. It's quite an artistic and amiable gesture.
Direct heir of the Royal Academy of Dance, created during the reign of Louis XIV in 1661, the Paris Opera Ballet is an institution on a par with the Bolshoi or the Royal Ballet. In numbers, it is the largest company in France and the second-largest in the world. This is a rank and reputation which is always difficult to maintain, especially in a discipline where personality looms large. Perhaps more so than in other arts, sentiments can vacillate radically from season to season, posing serious problems at times.
With its 160 members, the company has had its share of controversies since Rudolf Nureyev was appointed director in 1983. What hopes had been raised by the arrival of this celebrity dancer, but then what criticisms had followed about his difficult character, about his lack of experience as a director, about the total ineffectiveness, in brief, of this "czarevitch" in ballet slippers! All kinds of remarks were made: that he was a miserable choreographer, that he persisted in giving himself top billing when he was already beyond his prime, that he was at loggerheads with everyone, from Robbins to Neumeier to Petit, and even worse.
Finally the polemicists relented; tempers calmed and humors improved. Certainly problems still exist, but gradually reason has come to prevail, all to the Paris Opera Ballet's best advantage. This was confirmed in its recent tour in Japan last May. If not a triumphal tour, it was definitely an honorable one. Who can ask for more? Nureyev was given standing ovations. There wasn't even one free seat in halls holding up to 3,200 people. Isn't this a good sign, a highly satisfying one?
It can be said that the Paris Opera Ballet has succeeded in affirming its personality in the public eye, especially during the last two seasons. To accomplish this, the company has used both repertory and creative devices. The three programs selected for the American tour provide a sampling of this "made in France" style. They exemplify continuity. Tradition is highlighted without neglecting the modern. It is both an ambitious and valuable action, one to be encouraged. In reality, no other company can boast of such variety in its repertory as the refined Quelques pas graves de Baptiste, a strictly baroque work choreographed by Francine Lancelot, with music composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully in the seventeenth century; the neoclassicism of Balanchine's Crystal Palace, of Lifar's Mirges (two works that were part of the 1948 American tour); and the modernity of a Bejart, the choreographer invited to present Arepo, one of his most recent creations.
It is true that Nureyev's Swan Lake - an overly refined hodgepodge, according to certain competent opinions, leaves one with many reservations, as does his Washington Square, perhaps even more so. It is not a question of trying to avoid the issue. However, this is not sufficient reason to
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