Les Enfants du paradis
Choreography: José Martinez
Paris Opera Ballet
Palais Garnier, Paris
June 30, 2011

Have ballet’s superproductions lost the plot? Like Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice in Wonderland, which had its world premiere at Covent Garden in February, the Paris Opera Ballet’s Les enfants du paradis is a balletic reinvention of a work of art made for another medium. The appeal is obvious: the audience knows the story and, where ballet is concerned, familiarity breeds contentment, particularly at the box-office. Squeezed between lavish designs, a commissioned score and convoluted storytelling, however, neither work has much time for its raison d’être: choreography.

Les Enfants du paradis, choreographed by étoile José Martinez in 2008 and now revived for the first time, follows nearly every twist and turn of Marcel Carné’s much-loved 1945 film. Similar black and white cinema sets attempt to recreate the atmosphere of the bustling theatre life of 19th-century Paris, where the heroine, Garance, is pursued by a mime, Baptiste, and by star actor Frédérick Lemaître. From the outré crowd scenes to the mix of period costumes and stunningly original tutus (designed by another étoile, Agnès Letestu), the idea of life as theatre and theatre as life is clearly developed, and Martinez makes clever use of the Palais Garnier with an abundance of metatheatrical devices – such as the Pierrot who welcomes the audience on the majestic staircase before the performance. (…)

» Read the full review in the Financial Times

Agnès Letestu in Les Enfants du paradis © Julien Benhamou