Tournée du Ballet de l'Opéra au Japon 2006

[haydn]

Merci de ces précisions Petite Etoile et pardon pour l'erreur d'interprétation que j'ai commise en transcrivant les propos de Neige .
Espérons donc, comme vous le dites, que ce ne soit pas trop grave.

[neige]

Sorry for my insufficient explanation. Marie-Agnes's acceident did not occurred on the stage and she did not emerge last night on the stage. Her accident seemed to occur when she stood by for her appearance in the Act 2.
There was no further information about her injury last night and hope her injury is not serious and her quick recovery...
Emilie's dance was incredible, but it was really sorry that Marie-Agnes could not danse.

[haydn]

Un triste événement est venu endeuiller la tournée de l'Opéra de Paris au Japon, à savoir le décès subit de M. Hedwig Dewitte, Directeur de la coordination artistique et des formations musicales, survenu hier, 24 avril.

Nous avions fait le choix de ne pas divulguer cette information, mais dans la mesure où l'Opéra National de Paris a décidé de la rendre publique par la voie d'un communiqué à l'Agence France-Presse, il n'y a plus de raison de ne pas en faire part.

Par égard aux artistes, techniciens et administratifs de l'Opéra de Paris actuellement en tournée au Japon, nous vous serions reconnaissant de faire preuve de sobriété et de retenue dans vos commentaires concernant les représentations qui se déroulent en ce moment à Tokyo.


La dépêche de l'AFP, reprise par France 3, est ICI



A sad event occured during the Japan tour of the Paris Opera Ballet yesterday, April 24th. The Administrator of the Orchestra of the Paris Opera, Mr. Hedwig Dewitte, died suddenly. We chose not to speak of this event, but since the Paris Opera decided to make the news public by means of a statement through the French press agency AFP, there's no longer a reason keeping it silent.

As a mark of respect to the artists, technicians and administrators who are on tour in Japan, we kindly ask you to remain as sober and neutral as possible in your comments about the ballet performances which are currently taking place in Tokyo.

[mizuko]

Bonjour a tous.

First of all, I am sincerely sorry to hear that sad news...
And to Marie-Agnes Gillot, I hope it's not a serious injury.

Now, as for Le Lac des Cygnes on Monday evening, I was not there but my friend was. She told me what had happened. At the bigining, Melle Gillot was on the stage, so the accident might have happened when she dived off the stage at the end of the prologue. At the time when Pas de Trois was about to start, there came only Melle Gilbert and M. Thibault, then Melle Daniel, who was already on the stage as a solist of the walz, joined them. Melle Daniel replaced Melle Cozette in the role of Pas de Trois without changing costume.

In Act 2, Melle Cozette must have been very much concerned about how it's going to be without any rehearsal at all, but she (and M. Martinez) made it through. It went OK. The role of Melle Cozette in 4 grands cygnes was replaced by Melle Legassy (but not sure, sorry). As neige said, the dancers might be shocked and a little unstable. (Dommage...)

Act 3, Melle Cozette was high-sprited and just brilliant. (Maybe she was releaved.) And the Act 4, she was so beautiful and gave a great performance.

What I really wanted to tell you is about M. Martinez and M. Paquette. My friend told me that they were very very very supportive (M. Martinez was almost putting himself aside) and their dance was full of spirit. When it's finally over, they looked really exhausted. But she said she was so much impressed by their manner and touched by their (plus Emilie) performance at the ending of Act 4.

Well, I think all dancers did a great job and
Bravo, Emilie Cozette, Jose Martinez, Karl Paquette and Nolwenn Daniel!!!

[mizuko]

Another change in distribution...

Manuel Legris is not going to dance Lucien on 30th April 2006. This is announced by NBS (the organizer) today. It says that he has to go back to Paris hurriedly because his father fell into a critical condition. The replacement is still under consideration and has not yet been announced.

I sincerely hope that his father gets well soon.

[mizuko]

Jeremie Belingard is going to replace Manuel Legris in the role of Lucien on 30th April 2006.

[haydn]

Apparemment Marie-Agnès Gillot ne s'est pas blessée au genou, mais à la cheville, en sautant sur le matelas disposé en coulisses lors de son apparition furtive dans le prologue, et n'a donc pas pu entrer en scène ensuite. Souhaitons qu'elle se rétablisse très vite.

[sophia]

A l'occasion de la tournée de Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris au Japon, Asahi.com publie une interview de Miteki Kudo.

Lien vers l'article

[haydn]

Sourire de Dorothée Gilbert, à l'issue de la représentation de Paquita à Tokyo cet après-midi, qui nous est envoyé par notre amie Aya!

[haydn]

Juste un clin d'oeil à une fan Japonaise du Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris, et de Marie-Agnès Gillot - et qui lit Dansomanie!

Elle a ouvert un blog intitulé Bijouterie Marie-Agnes, c'est évidemment entièrement en Japonais mais il y a quelques jolies photos de tutus notamment.


marieagnes.blog.bai.ne.jp

[Azulynn]

Sophie Parcen a mis à jour son site avec les distributions de la tournée au Japon.

I hope Mizuko and other Japanese readers will be able to write a few words about the performances they attended I look forward to hearing from them, and I especially hope Delphine Moussin (returning to the stage) and Dorothée Gilbert (debuting as Paquita) were successful !

[mirage]

est-ce que quelqu'un aurai des photos de la tournée de l'opéra?
merci...

décidément, moi et les photos ce le grand amour...j'arrête pas d'en demander


en tout cas merci d'avance

[mizuko]

Thank you for expecting my report, Asulynn I am now working on it. So, just a moment...

[mizuko]

Bonjour.

I am sorry for being late to write. I have been really busy these days... Not only that, but I have never written any ballet report in English nor even put it into public before, so it took much time. (and now I know I am not good at it... ) There may be some wrong phrases in my writing, please excuse. Anyway, here is what I thought.

The l'ONP Japan Tour is all over. The weather had been changeable those weeks and so were the distributions. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed their performances. What good dansers and beautiful people!!!

Le Lac des Cygnes went first. This was the first time for me to attend live performance of Noureeve's Swan Lake. I just loved it so much. I saw three Odettes/Odiles, three Siegfrieds, three Rothbarts. These are about 22 matinee, soiree, and 23, April, 2006.

Delphine Moussin gave very lyric and poetic Odette with beautiful line. I was moved. I have seen her danse the Pas de deux from Sylvia (Neumeier) with Wilfried Romoli this Februrary, participating a gala performance held in Tokyo. It had been just 1 month since she gave birth to her daughter but she was unbelievably fit and no problem to dance. I hadn't been worried about her return to the grand ballet. However, it seemed she needs to build up her stamina again.

Marie-Agnes Gillot was just shining when she performed Odile. She was so beautiful and so attractive and so powerful. It was like not only Sigfried but also anyone can't resist to give in to her. I was overwhelmed. I hope she is all right by now.

Agnes Letestu's Odette and Odile was (I thought) excellent. No need to worry about technique. She had princess (almost queen) dignity, she was elegant, and I felt she precisely expressed the character of Odette and Odile.

Siegfried. Herve Moreau was kind of sensational. It was just after the nomination to etoile, and, in Japan, this was his first time to perform a big role in grand ballet. His appearance looked exactly like Siegfried. He gave us a young, naive prince with such beautiful lines and good technique. He looked very happy after the performance. We gave him a big applause, and of course there were so many people waiting to see him at the stage door.

I think I found well-constructed Siegfried in Jose Martinez's performance. I thought at first it's too reserved, but it made sense when I saw his clean and pure grand jute created strong contrast between Siegfried and Rothbart at the begining of coda of the pas de trois in Act III.

I have always wanted to see Nicolas le Riche's Siegfried. I had heard that his Siegfried is "his own Siegfried," and I was glad that I finally experienced it. Also, there is no doubt that his massive big jump impressed all the audience.

There were three Rothbart presented, too. As well as Odette/Odile and Siegfried, they were very individual. The following is just what came up to my mind. Stephane Phavorin acted cold-blooded Rothbart, personified to Wolfgang, and all was Siegfried's nightmare from the very begining. Karl Paquette as Wolfgang/Rothbart was very cool and mysterious, and from the begining through to the end I felt like we don't know if it's just Siegfried's bizarre dream or his delusion or it is real. When Wilfried Romoli performed Wolfgang, it was like at first Siegfried was having just a dream about his usual life in castle and then gradually it turned into a horrible nightmare. (Having written these, it seems the whole stage is in the hands of Rothbart. It must be a quite interesting role to male dancers.) Each Rothbart drew good attention from the audience. I liked each of them but maybe I liked Karl Paquette's best.

As to the other dansers. I have to mention about Dorothee Gilbert. She was charming and brilliant with light steps in Pas de Trios, as well as Emmanuel Thibault. There were some dansers stood out in corp de ballet, too, who were Luara Hecquet, Mallory Gaudion, Sebastien Bertaud, etc. I believe their presence of joy of dancing filled the audience with joyful atmosphere, even though Le Lac is a tragedy.

That would be all for Le Lac des Cygnes. I am very sorry for no picture, since here in Japan we are not allowed to take pictures during the performance nor the curtain call...

The report about Paquita will be tomorrow.

[mizuko]

Here is Paquita.

I attended two performances of Paquita, matinee 29th (Gilbert/Belingard) and 30th (Dupont/Belingard) April 2006.

Dorothee Gilbert had been already popular in Japan since she had been here several times, particitating the last l'ONP Japan Tour in 2003, the tour of Manuel Legris et ses Etoiles in 2002 and 2004, and the gala performance held in Tokyo last november. I've been watching these performances (except last november one). Now I feel it is a very delightful thing to be able to see her grow as a dancer. Perhaps it is not just for me but also for all of Japanese ballet fans, I suppose. That day, her stage was really a success!!! She was cute and confident. She had no fear to do pirouettes nor to make double turns during the grand fouette. Her dance was light as a feather. She floated up into the air when she did grand pas de chat at the start of the variation of grand pas de deux in Act II. I thought all she needs is some more experiences in acting.

If this performance was with Mathieu Ganio, as you know he is very popular here, it could raise a storm of excitement among the audience. I do not say Jeremie Belingard wasn't good, but actually he was just OK to me at that performance of 29th.

I found him much better the next day. His dance was smooth and, though there must have been only a few hours (or less) to rehearse, the partnership between Dupont and him was well-harmonized.

On 30th, before the curtain went up, whole the theater was a little gloomy by the announcement of M. Legris's absence. But thanks to Aurelie Dupont, she drove off the mood and it turned out to be a good performance. She was sparkling. She was amazing in dancing, in acting, and in being on the stage. I have liked her a lot, and now I like her more.

Being led by her, all the dancers looked live and vivid. And it also seemed well-connected to each other, especially between Dupont and Paquette (performed Inigo). It was such a pleasure to see.

Now, maybe I should add a few words on the premiere on 27th (by Aurelie Dupont and Manuel Legris). I heard that there was a chemistry between them and it was a great performance. I should have attended that, too...

Well, that's it. I hope you liked it.
At the time when some ballet magazines are issued, I think I could put some photos here.