Paris - On Monday - Francis Bacon and a Ballet at Opéra Bastille

I love ballet. I always have.

Popeye kind of hates ballet which means that I always have to go to ballet performances on my own.

I usually end up very frustrated because (almost) every time I come back from the Opera (usually Garnier) very excited and bubbly, I meet my dear husband’s eyes totally filled with incomprehension even though I’m trying to share my passion with him!

I love ballet. He does not like it at all.

But in the end, it doesn’t matter very much because life would be boring if we liked exactly the same things.

On Monday morning, a friend called me to let me know that she had one extra ticket for a very contemporary ballet about Francis Bacon’s work at Bastille Opera, that very night.

“How about coming along?” she said.

I went berserk because I wanted so much to go to this ballet... and I would not be alone!

I knew it would be very modern. No ballet skirts. No fancy costumes. No extraordinary stage setting.

The choreography and the music itself were totally inspired by Bacon’s work... so filled with violence and where the human body ends up distorted to no limits.

(I love Bacon’s paintings but I know I could never, ever live with one of them in my home...)

So I was very, very eager to see how Wayne McGregor, a renowned British choreographer, had translated Bacon’s work into a ballet.

And I loved it from the beginning to the end (almost).

I did have a hard time loving as much the last part called “Dispelling the Fears” mainly because the very discordant music (to my ears) put me under a lot of stress... which is how I more or less end up feeling whenever I go see paintings by Bacon. So, yes, well done, Mr. McGregor!

When you watch a very classical ballet, there are many things that prevent you to fully comprehend the fantastic work of the dancers behind the entrechats or the pas de deux. The music, the corps de ballet, the costumes, the stage setting.

Of course, you end up enthralled because a ballet can be so magical and dazzling. I remember being dumbfounded while watching Rudolf Nureyev’s absolutely incredible entrechats (leaps even). (Live on stage, of course! Lucky me.)

I know that ballet is one of the hardest artistic disciplines ever. It takes a lot of work from a very early age.

A dancer has to sacrifice almost everything to reach up to the top of his/her art while experiencing a lot of physical pain. And then he/she offers you moments of pure beauty and joy as if dancing was so easy and natural.

The ballet called “L’anatomie de la sensation” (“The Anatomy of Sensation”) was ballet dancing to its ultimate perfection.

The dancers were the dancing stars of the Opéra de Paris. Beautiful and extremely talented young people. Wayne McGregor made them perform to the limits of their virtuosity.

Every part of "L'anatomie de la sensation" (all nine of them) became total physical and emotional gifts to us.

Physical gifts because the dancers’ performance was totally brilliant. They all accomplished what had been asked of them - they did go to the limits of their skills and sometimes even beyond (unbelievable).

Since there were almost no costumes, the muscular strength was there to be seen, so amazing. And from time to time, some very unusual moves helped us understand better what an excellent dancer is all about.

Emotional gifts because every step, every move, every interaction between the dancers awakened emotions in our hearts, passions even... without a story to back up the ballet. Feelings, fleeting memories of Bacon’s paintings...

That night, we all left the Opéra with sparkling eyes and very wonderful and unforgettable memories.

Do I need to tell you that there was a standing ovation?

*Good Luck, and Good Night*

Will there be an auto-da-fé?

This morning, I heard on the French news that an Israeli movie supposed to be shown in June, was cancelled in most movie theaters where it had been scheduled.

The movie is «5 hours from Paris» by Leon Prudovsky. It is not a political movie but it is a moving love story which could happen anywhere. It is set in Tel Aviv, of course since Leon Prudovski is a young Israeli film director.

This ‘cultural auto-da-fé’ is happening in France.

People, wake up.

Israel is blockading the Gaza Strip after trying to destroy it. Why? Because Hamas is the main political force in Gaza after defeating Fatah in... lawful elections. I won’t go on discussing Gaza’s choice, probably because Fatah had become useless and somewhat corrupted. But there were elections. Not eveyone in Gaza voted Hamas. Enough of them did.
That’s all.

In 2009, Israelis voted lawfully for their own governement. Due to their own election process, ‘hawkish’ Netanyahu became Prime Minister. We all knew then that the peace process was in great danger. But again, let’s not forget that not all Israelis were extremely happy about this appointment.
‘Operation Cast Lead’ was not as popular in Israel as media tended to let us think it was.
That’s all again.

So now, we have to deal with an escalation of violence, once again from Israel in less than two years and this time, against international pacifists, in a very unlawful and criminal way.

The world leaders are reacting. I’m tempted to say: ‘At last.’

How do you get very angry and violent children in the same family to behave and make peace?

I have many answers which have all proved wrong since our Semitic brothers were often very close to a peaceful agreement and then for some reason (always a good one depending on which side you are), everything fell apart and life in the family became uglier and uglier.

Being such a tiny insect on earth, there isn’t much I can do.
Except one thing: I will say and repeat: ‘Let us not enter into a new auto-da-fé era!’ This century is already becoming very harsh. Let’s not repeat our errors.

It’s one thing to demonstrate, one thing to weigh on our leaders in every lawful way we can.

But it is very, very, very dangerous to start using cultural means to retaliate upon unlawful and violent acts.

It is ugly and it stinks, to be true.

Nazis did it. The Inquisition did it. Please, let’s not do it.

In 1972, after the Munich Massacre, or in 2001, after the attack against the Twin Towers, did I feel like burning the Qur’an? Did I quit going to Le  Louvre and its Islamic Art section? Did I destroy my Umm Kulthum records? And what about watching Youssef Chahine’s movies? Or reading  Mahmoud Darwish?

Now should I burn my priceless Primo Levi’s books or maybe Anne Frank’s Diary? Should I quit listening to Arthur Rubinstein or Eugene Ormandy’s recordings? Should I turn away from my Israeli friends?

It stinks.

And it won’t help.

In the XXth century, Jules Romains, a great French writer, wrote a cycle of works called «Les Hommes de bonne volonté» (Men of Good Will), a pacifist literary monument. In 1927, he signed a petition against a law that was calling for the abrogation of intellectual independence and all freedom of expression in time of war.

This time, more than ever, we need ‘Men of Good Will’. Don’t you think so?

After all, anything and everything can happen. I’ve heard that  ‘fries’ are once again ‘french’ in America the Beautiful. It makes me feel soooooo good!

French people are so proud of their culinary gifts that we did feel bad... except that thank goodness, we never insisted in getting back the Statue of Liberty. (At least I hope we never did... seeing what we are capable of doing right now in the name of whatever you call it.)


Let’s hope you don’t sleep well, all of you, people filled with hatred.

Oh my God, am I getting violent? Is it infectious?









@TareX who left me an interesting comment... it’d be nice to let me know who you are. I’d rather communicate than put up with ‘anonymous comments’.

TREEMONISHA

©http://www.chatelet-theatre.com/2009-2010/

«The Sting» and «The Entertainer»... Does it ring a bell? Well, of course.

1973 - «The Sting» (L’Arnaque) -  a movie by George Roy Hill, starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman.

The soundtrack? «The Entertainer»! And Scott Joplin made his come back into the musical world even if most of us had never listened to ragtime before.

I was living in the States at the time and besides the ragtimes, I discovered «Treemonisha» by Scott Joplin. The first Afro-American opera ever written (1911). A big flop at the time. But thanks to «The Entertainment», it made a big come back.

«Treemonisha» is not made of ragtime tunes even if the field workers sing the well-known «Aunt Dinah has blown the horn». It’s a real opera, very romantic and beautiful with haunting arias.

It was first played in Paris in 2005... It sure took us a long time, I know. But I missed it then since my priorities were more hospital oriented.

This week, «Treemonisha» came back to Paris with an extremely good international cast. Guess who went (run?) to the Théâtre du Chatelet... so excited and happy...

Well, it was worth waiting (over 30 years). I enjoyed every minute of it.

Last week, I read Doctorow’s «The March», a book about the American Civil War but with a vision completely different from «Uncle Tom’s Cabin» and/or «Gone with the Wind». Very impressive book, about the horrors of war but also especially brilliant because of the way it deals with the complex slavery/freedom problem, as seen from both points of view, North and South. Doctorow brings up some very disturbing facts and ideas. Worth reading, really.

Treemonisha who is 18, was born right at the end of the Civil War. She is a beautiful and educated girl who will lead her people away from the dullness of illiteracy and obscurantism and open a new enlightened era for them.

Actually, the whole opera is about education versus superstition and obscurantism, the same power of education which was to bring racial equality to America. Pretty visionary for something written at the beginning of the XXth century, less than 50 years after slavery ended in the States and quite a few years before Martin Luther King received the Peace Nobel Prize... and Barack Obama became the first African-American president of the United States (after 43 white ones) - let's not forget his impressive wife!

The libretto may sound a little bit naïve from time to time... But who can  defend one single minute that some of Verdi’s libretti are not naïve, not to say silly!

Treemonisha herself, the adopted daughter of poor and humble people, got all her education from a white woman. (So much like Scott Joplin who learnt to play the piano at the house where his mother was a maid and was sent away to study music by the wealthy and white family she was working for.)

But the brilliant and again visionary idea behind Treemonisha’s moving story is that women could get an education, enough education to become leaders among women and men alike.

Oh boy, do I love this opera!

Back to the performance. It was fantastic! Great performers. Very beautiful ‘operatic’ voices. A great director. Very entertaining ballet over the ragtime part.
And two incredible things:  first, a standing ovation.
(We tend to be very fussy about opera in Paris! Simply so highbrow French, I should say!)
And secondly: an incredible and hilarious ‘encore’ with the entire cast over «Aunt Dinah...»... (‘Encores’ are frowned upon in France, especially at the opera.) The singers danced along with the dancers or tried to... but the young and extremely good tenor managed a double somersault! Impressive, very impressive.

So much joy!

Such a good night... and then a ride back to Swee'Pea’s apartment, late at night through Paris.

So great to be alive!


*Good Luck, and Good Night*