Orphée et Eurydice
Choreography: Pina Bausch
Paris Opera Ballet
Palais Garnier, Paris
February 4, 2012
A woman in black held aloft by a man among a chorus of mourners, a bare tree fallen to the ground, the lifeless bride Eurydice presiding over her own musical tombeau: as soon as the curtain rises on Pina Bausch’s 1975 Orphée et Eurydice, the scale and austere beauty of her take on the myth become apparent. A true Gesamtkunstwerk, this “dance opera” set to Gluck entered the repertoire of the Paris Opera Ballet in 2005, and the current revival does it complete justice.
Indeed, Bausch has seemed more and more part of Paris Opera Ballet’s DNA in recent years. Paris tours by her Tanztheater Wuppertal in the early 1990s sparked a fertile relationship with the company, which lasted until her death in 2009; last season POB paid tribute to her with harrowing, enthralling performances of her Rite of Spring.
Orphée is another apt homage, and much more. Influenced by modern dance, this early work divides each of the three main roles between an opera singer and a dancer, who have their own understated relationship on stage. The choreography is distilled down to seemingly simple phrases, low to the ground; the stark design, by Rolf Borzik, Bausch’s then partner, adds to the atmosphere, with white walls in most scenes and long, semi-transparent tunics for the women. Eurydice’s red dress in the last tableau stands out like a symbol of hubris among the palette of nude, black and white tones, a visual emblem of the feelings that will be her downfall. (…)
» Read the full article in the Financial Times
Stéphane Bullion and the corps de ballet in Orphée et Eurydice © Agathe Poupeney
