Debussy, Radeau, Preljocaj in Paris

We have been to three very different evening events.   The first was the Paris Opera production of Debussy's "Pelleas et Mellisande", in a production by Robert Wilson.   "Pelleas" has always been one of my favorite operas, and always something of an enigma for me.  Every time I hear it, I come away with a different idea of the opera. Our previous experience with Simon Rattle conducting the Metropolitan Opera orchestra was sublime; his sense of pacing and forward propulsion really made the opera come to life.   In this performance, all the performers and conducting were excellent.  I was very aware of how the opera moves musically, from one motive to another without any sense of forward harmonic rhythm.   The climatic moments in the last two acts were Wagnerian in their very brief intensity, but not in their length.
The production, by Robert Wilson, featured his trademark lighting and minimalist, stylized movements.   It didn't really work at all; I don't think "Pelleas" benefits from such a minimal style.  For example, in the scene where Melisande's hair is hanging out the window, and Pelleas reaches some sort of sexual ecstasy with her hair, Wilson has them 20 feet apart, on pedestals, which of course makes no sense.  You can of course justify such an approach easily, but really, "Pelleas" needs all the help it can get stage-wise to make it work dramatically.   And the poor singers who had to hold their hands and arms in very stylized ways for the whole opera, and not doing it in a very convincing way.   And the blue light virtually never changes.

These might look really cool as still images, but the actual movements were awkward and somewhat ridiculous.

We also went with our friends Michael and Pam to something called "le radeau" at a small theatre up in Belleville.   What it is is a kind of very French variety show, with a sequence of various acts, comedians, trained dogs, acrobats of sort, chansons, magic acts, etc.   The whole thing had a wonderful casual feeling about it, and some of the acts were really entertaining.  We had a great time.



Thanks to the recommendation of our friend Santa in Vancouver, we saw the Preljocaj Ballet in a piece called "Empty Words".  It was one of the best dance shows I have seen in years.   To begin with, the score is a recording that was made in Milan in the 1970's of John Cage reading a realization of his "Empty Words", which is a scheme for applying chance procedures to a text of Thoreau's.   What you get is 1 hour and 45 min. of Cage singing and mumbling syllables.  But what is interesting is that the performance caused a riot, as the 3,000 Italians present began shouting, making noise, and eventually mobbing the stage, while Cage continues as if nothing was happening.  All of this is on the recording.   This makes for a fascinating juxtaposition with the dance, which consists of four dancers who are onstage continually for the duration, and moving in constantly changing, intricate patterns involving all four dancers.  I have seldom been so impressed with such continuously inventive choreography; I was never bored.  And the dancers were truly extraordinary in the way they moved together.  I can't really fathom how they do it.   (Water bottles emerged twice as part of the choreography.)    The piece owes quite a bit to the Cage-Cunningham aesthetic.   It was interesting that the two young professional dancers with us (Maya T. and a friend) could not relate to the piece at all.   What does it all mean?  I don't really know, but I loved it.
A few web photos showing some of the few posed moments in the piece: