Palais Garnier,
Paris, France. Balcony (Seat 15, E130.)
Story. Garance
is a lovely woman who refuses to settle down with one man. She is courted by many men, including
Frederick and Baptiste. When Baptiste
expresses his love for her, Garance is not ready to commit to the relationship,
so Baptiste leaves. Later, she is
accused (falsely) of taking part in a robbery and is bailed out by the rich
Count, and she stays with him for several years. Meanwhile, Baptiste gets married and has a
child. He also becomes a successful mime. Garance goes to the theatre regularly in
secret to watch his performance. When
they finally meet again, they reconnect.
After Baptiste’s wife makes a plea that he stay with the family, Garance
leaves.
Conductor – Jean=Francois
Verdier. Garance – Laetitia Pujol,
Baptiste – Mathieu Ganio, Frederick – Karl Paquette, Lacenaire – Vincent Chaillet,
Nathalie – Muriel Zusperreguy, Madame Hermine – Stephane Romberg, Le Comte –
Benjamin Pech.
Musicians. Thibault Vieux, Violin; Michel Dietlin,
Piano; Simon Delfin, Bass; Paul Lepicard, Trumpet; Anthony Millet – Accordion;
Stephane Chauveau, Percussions.
We really wanted
to see an Opera at the most famous opera house in the world, the Palais
Garnier. However, with nearly all operas
now performed at Bastille (actually any time I check,) this is not to be. So we would settle on a ballet instead. The only show that worked for us was
tonight’s show, a work I had never heard before, by someone I didn’t know.
When I went to
the box office for tickets in the afternoon, I was told only the most expensive
and the cheapest seats were available. I
decided to spend E260 for two tickets instead of E24, figuring the better seats
would give us a better experience.
First a bit
about the story. Figuring I won’t spend
the money for a Program I don’t understand anyway, I decided to read up a little
from the web. Les Enfants in Paradis
(Children in Paradise) is a 1945 film set in 1830-era Paris. “Paradis” refers to the cheap seats in a
theatre, and the main characters in the story are performers. The main story is about the love interests of
Garance and the unrequited love between her and Baptiste, which is confusing
enough. On top of that are several side
stories that add to the complexity. I
could only find a listing of the Acts (2) and Scenes (12) on the web and the handout
which are not that informative. The
story as told in the ballet is also different.
So I was left with the music, the dancing, and stitching the story
together the best I could. Which kept me
quite busy, it turns out.
Given the
enormous size of the palais, we were surprised at how small the auditorium is
(seats fewer than 2000). It dates back
to around 1875, and shows its age.
However, it is easy to see how opulent it was during its prime. On the ceiling is a painting by Marc Chagall
(installed in 1964), depicting scenes from ballets and operas such as “Swan
Lake” and “The Magic Flute.” Our seats
were indeed good, in the balcony but about only 20 rows from the stage. We don’t have a full view of the orchestra
though.
Jose Martinez
used to be a dancer at the Opera Ballet, and this was his invention. He danced this as his farewell performance at
the Ballet a few years ago. The original
music was written by Marc-Olivier Dupin.
But there was a lot of familiar music incorporated into the 2 hour or so
program, including some I would characterize as “Ocktoberfest” music. For some scenes individual musicians would be
on stage for the performance. I enjoy
particularly the playing of the solo violinist, so much so that I sometimes
ignored what the dancers were doing. The
orchestra was small, but produced a great sound.
Much of the
dancing is not what I would consider traditional ballet; sometimes I even
wondered if they were doing pantomines.
There are some exceptions such as the ballroom scene and the beginning
of Act 2. As expected, Garance is called
on to do a lot of the heavy lifting as the story is mostly about her, and she
got the story across well.
Anne read that
Palais Garnier was designed in such a way that the audience can interact with
the cast. There was certainly some of
that. As we entered there was juggling
and drumming going on. During the
intermission the solo violinist was playing in the atrium and jugglers were out
and about. There were instances the
dancers would come to the audience. When
Garance departed for the last time, she was lowered from the stage to the
orchestra pit, then carried across to walk away from the auditorium. The most interesting aspect was during the
intermission there were students on stage rehearsing Othello, and the action
eventually morphed into the ballet scene I mentioned above.
Curtain call was
a lengthy affair. Ballet de corps,
followed by the soloists, then the principals.
Next came the conductor, the choreographer (I assume), and the violin
soloist. Repeat. Then more applause as bouquets were thrown
onto the stage for one of the ballerinas.
We are guessing this was her farewell performance – too bad we couldn’t
tell which role she played.
Paris being at
the latitude it is, there was still light when we left.
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