Performers: Ballet of the Paris Opera/ Paris Opera orchestra/ Koen Kessels
Studio: BelAir Classiques BAC032 [Distr. by Naxos]
Video: 16:9 widescreen color
Audio: DTS 5.1; DD 5.1; PCM stereo
No region coding
Length: 102 minutes
Rating: *****
This Roland Petit ballet had its American premiere in 1980 with a different title and cast. The great French choreographer, born in 1924, was once the young rebel of dance in the late 1940s. His early works brought a shocking new realism to ballet, for which he was labeled “l’enfant terrible” by Jean Cocteau. Petit also specialized in creating truly original one-act allegorical fantasies, a skill crucial to the structure of this brilliant full-evening ballet. The latter portion of Petit’s career has seen him turn increasingly towards full-length productions that feature the classics of literature, drama and opera transformed into ballet, but with variable success. “Proust” is definitely the most successful of these efforts because it draws upon the same non-verbal, imaginative aspects of the writer that were the greatest strength of young Petit’s freshest early work. It is a happy marriage of two art forms.
“Proust or the Intermittences of the Heart” is really a ballet about Roland Petit rather than Marcel Proust. Petit’s stated intention was not to make a faithful adaptation of the novel. Rather, he preferred to capture its essence or flavor through thirteen selected tableaux, featuring the narrator’s constant fluctuations between happiness and torment. The ballet is divided into two parts. The first part is titled “Some Images of a Proustian Paradise”, which contains seven essentially feminine tableaux of great beauty. They intermingle depictions of Proustian themes such as art, memory, time and eros. This includes the inevitable brief foray into lesbianism, done with such exquisite style that it is nearly subliminal. The second part is titled “Some Images of Proustian Torment” and it features six masculine tableaux whose themes are a darker evocation of the writer’s world. This includes a more overt depiction in dance of male homosexuality, which should not surprise any reader of Proust but which may prove too strong for some. There is also a brothel scene, tame by today’s standards but certainly unusual in ballet. These evocations of eros are aesthetically superb. Petit never allows the sensual to overwhelm either the visual or the thematic aspects of his ballet. The tableau that concludes part one depicts a husband who essentially does nothing more than watch his sleeping wife. It is of such poignant sadness, and is danced so brilliantly, that it takes the breath away. Other tableaux have an equally potent visual beauty coupled with deep, heartfelt emotion. Petit alternates narrative episodes with more abstract ones, creating a brilliant synthesis. His choreography is complex and highly expressive, producing a full-length ballet of great beauty and strength. Like the novel upon which it is based, this is a ballet that worships at the altar of art.
As accompaniment to the ballet, Petit chose music known to Proust during the period he wrote his great novel. Music by Faure, Debussy, Franck, Hahn, Saint-Saens and others is perfect both in mood and in color. It is performed live by the Orchestre de l’opera National de Paris conducted by Koen Kessels. Eleonora Abbagnato, who dances Albertine, is brilliant, as is Herve Moreau who dances young Proust. All of the Premiers Danseurs and the Corps de Ballet are splendid. Filmed at the Palais Garnier in March 2007, this is a world class production in every way. BelAir Classique’s picture and sound are exemplary. The Dolby 5.1 surround sound is spacious and clear, as is the DTS 5.1 surround, which has slightly greater presence. The PCM stereo sound loses a little space but gains in richness, depth and bass.
– – Mike Birman
