Napoli
Royal Danish Ballet
Palais Garnier, Paris
January 6 & 7, 2012
Where ballet is concerned, things haven’t exactly been rosy in the state of Denmark recently. So it seemed at least in Paris, where the Royal Danish Ballet showed its latest production of August Bournonville’s 1842 work Napoli amid rumours of looming budget cuts and lay-offs. Its unique calling card has always been the Bournonville repertoire, but director Nikolaj Hübbe, who spent most of his dancing career with New York City Ballet before returning to head his alma mater in 2008, made the choice to rejuvenate it completely, with muddled results.
It’s not a bad idea per se: the ballet world loves modernity breathing new life into its warhorses, and while Napoli’s beloved Act III is a national treasure in Denmark, the rest of the ballet has always been problematic. In the process, however, Hübbe has turned Napoli into a triple bill of sorts, where every act comes with its own wildly different period setting and aesthetics.
Act I has been updated to accommodate a Fellinian cinematic vision of 1950s Italy, complete with streetwise young people, cigarette-puffing prostitutes and a good deal of mimed swearing. It works surprisingly well for some scenes and shows how ballet mime can be adapted beyond its usual contexts, but no sooner have we adjusted than Act II introduces a different kind of modernity altogether: a new score by Louise Alenius (whereas Act I and III retain the usual music) and new choreography by Hübbe. (…)
» Read the full review in the Financial Times
Amy Watson & Jean-Lucien Massot in Napoli (Act II) © Laurent Philippe
