Marie by the Houston Ballet: A Sumptuous Crowd Pleaser
Marie Antoinette (Melody Mennite). Photo: Pam Francis
The Houston Ballet has created Revolutionary fireworks! Using an enormous cast of colourful figures from the French and Austrian Court, they tell the story of the French Revolution as a theatrical dance narrative which fore grounds the life of Marie Antoinette , wife of Louis XVI. She evolves from the shy, innocent Austrian princess, to the bewildered wife of the young Dauphin de France, and then as both the childish and the mature pleasure loving wife of the King of France (Louis XVI) and finally as the Queen who accompanies her husband and two children to the guillotine.
This extremely talented company of highly energetic young dancers displayed magnificent artistic virtuosity with their effortless lifts, their strong leaps, their sensuously romantic pas de deux, their playful debauchery in the French court and even their Zombie like group effects that echoed ever so slightly Michael Jackson’s videos when the famished French population swarms around a lone Marie Antoinette in Act III, as she faces the revolutionary tribunal that will condemn her to death. Stanton Welch’s choreography based on pure balletic conventions of the genre using much mime and the coded gestures we see in all of Petitpas’ narrative ballet, (this one was created in 2009!!), set to the expressive , often majestic and melodically rich music of Shostakovich, turned this narrative ballet into a highly emotional performance with visually stunning costumes, and lighting effects that exploit all the drama of those violent historical moments. Kandis Cook’s sets in particular establish a real dialogue with the events performed on stage as the decorative styles, the architecture and the design details echo all the shifts in mood, and the shifting meanings of the ritualized behaviour of the French court. .
There was the austere moment when the young Marie enters the French Court surrounded by imposing grey stone walls that seem to crush her, after being so accustomed to the warmth of the wooden interiors of the Austrian court. Very good too was the proscenium arch with its gilded decorations, inherited from the Palais de Versailles perched on the top, as it foregrounds the young Queens love of creating her own playful scenarios. We see !”le Hameau” in the middle of the Gardens of Versailles where Marie played the country shepherdess surrounded by her ladies dressed as milkmaids and her flocks of sheep and birds. Also, the settings of those debaucheries and scenes of drunken dancing where she amuses herself with her friends as bread is tossed around like so much garbage while the rumbling of the people starts to vibrate off stage. The outbreak of the revolution was a most striking moment of scenographic virtuosity where the set spoke its own revolutionary language! All Worth seeing.
The choreography did not attempt any kind of experimentation because story telling (both visual and corporeal) and characterization were at the centre of this performance. Luckily the dancers also had a lot of acting ability and some of them stood out in an exceptional way when the acting and the dancing fused.
Amy Fote as the flirtatious Comtesse du Barry, one of the highlights of the court of Louis XVth appeared to be all legs and sinewy, supple grace as her feet barely seemed to touch the ground. She floated among the courtesans, fluttering her fan, lighting up the room with her smile, a weightless feather who dominates the stage whenever she appears. The various pas de deux with Melody Mennite (Marie) and Connor Walsh (her lover, Count Axel Ferson,) were ablaze with tenderness and warmth and love as they both melted into each other’s bodies with enormous feeling. The final pas de deux between Mennite and the King (Ian Casady), before he is taken away to lose his head, is a most nuanced piece of emotional dialogue between two bodies, as the Queen shows her affection but retains her passion because her relationship with Ferson has exhausted all those emotions, in this terribly moving moment in the Conciergerie where the revolutionary militia is clamoring for all their heads.
The movement of history is crystal clear, even if you only have a vague idea of French history, the programme is an excellent source of information with its brief synopsis of each of the three acts. This reading of the Revolution from Marie Antoinette’s point of view still leaves much to be desired from an historical perspective, but then ballet is never a reproduction of reality and we can’t blame them for exploiting it all as a source of exciting drama. This is the kind of show that will certainly attract the attention of non-ballet fans as well as those who might feel that ballet is not as present in the NAC dance programme as it should be. Of course this is not formalistic in the way that one thinks of Balanchine’s choreography but the Houston Ballet tells a very entertaining story and even if the rather skimpy, clunky looking guillotine that roles in at the end was not quite the horrifying symbol of the reign of terror that it might have been, the blood red lighting and the corps de ballet did the trick at the end.
A visually stunning evening of French history told through dance, a definite crowd pleaser, even for those who don’t like ballet! They will fall in love with this team of young energetic and talented dancers whose corporeal prowess can only be admired.
Marie (Antoinette) plays in Southam Hall of the NAC again tonight and Saturday. Show times at 8pm
Marie A Production of the Houston Ballet (World premiere took place February 26, 2009)
Choreography Stanton Welch
Conductor Johnathan McPhee (conducting the NAC Orchestra)
Music Shostakovich
Set and costumes Kandis Cook
Principals and soloists
Marie Antoinette: Melody Mennite
The Dauphin et later Louis XVI: Ian Casady
Maria Teresa (Marie’s mother): Katharine Precourt
Comtesse de Noailles Mireille Hassenboehler (Kelly Myernick Oct. 19)
Louis XV: Christopher Coomer
Comtesse Du Barry Amy Fote
Princesse de Lamballe: Kelly Myernick (Karina Gonzalez, 19 Oct)
Count Axel Fersen: Connor Walsh
and many more………