The Paris Opera House is the most amazing theatre i've ever been in. I think the inside is more beautiful than any part of Versailles. So much marble and GOLD. Inside the theatre the ceiling is painted by Chagall, which doesn't match the gold gaudy-ness of everything else but still amazing. Most of the seats in the Opera house don't have a good view of the stage, there are these tiny boxes that have regular chairs in them so if your behind someone in the chair you d
on't really see anyhting. When you enter the box there is this littl
e room where you hang your coat, there's a mirror and a bench- then you go through a curtain to your seats- it's pretentious, but ohhh so french.
Meredith got three tickets but they were all in different places. My seat was at the very very top of the house (second row to the back). It was such a tight squeeze that my knees were jammed into the back of the people in front of me. Also, I was so high up that my feet didn't touch the ground. It was very odd but I would sit anywhere to see the Paris Opera Ballet. I did have
a great view of the stage though being so high up and not in a little box I could see the entire stage really well. The other students from the Paris Opera Ballet that weren't dancing were sitting by me. They were so loud and funny to watch come in with their huge dance bags. An older man next to me got really mad at them but this was their end of the year performance
and their friends that were dancing I could understand why they were all so excited. And they are all still teenagers.
The first piece was a very very classical ballet piece by Ivan Clustine choreographed in 1913. So all the girls were in white romantic tutus and all the boys were in their black tights. There were
so many dancers onstage and they all looked so beautiful. This piece was all about technique, which was impeccable. I'm sure that the youngest dancers onstage were about 13 or 14. The first turn that the lead guy, Remy Catalan was a little off but the amount of pressure that this 17 or 18 year old boy is under is crazy. They all are so young performing to a sold out audience at one of the most glorious opera houses in the world with a full orchestra. I couldn't imagine. This is what I was expecting from the school, perfect technique.
The second piece was Pige De Lumiere by John Taras
choreographed in 1952. It started out with a group of guys in torn clothing and barefoot and it looked like they were supposed to be in a jungle or something. They were so great, they had so much energy to run around the stage doing jumps and summersaults. Then as the piece went on there were creatures that came out of this jungle, most of the girls were some sort of bug or moth or something. The costumes were so well designed i was surprised that it was a school show. One boy, Francois Alu, was absolutely incredible. Watching this piece it dawned on me that these kids are the next ballet stars- and I'm seeing them now. They are just going to continue to get better and bettter.
The last piece was Sept Dnses Grecques (7 Greek Dances) choreographed in 1983 by Maurice Bejart. There was taped music for this piece because
it was all Greek folk music which was so great. This piece blew me away. The boys were just in white pants and the girls in black leotards. There was only one section where the girls were on pointe. This piece was very geometrical in the way that it was choreographed but so so artistic. I was shocked that this was a school performing this piece. I was not expecting something so contemporary or artistic from the school. But it makes so much sense that they are training them to be such great technical dancers but also amazing artists! At bows the kids next to me went crazy- but so did all the audience members the dancers were incredible and so young to be so good.
It put all my school shows to shame that's for damn sure!
<-wow!
No comments:
Post a Comment