Vladimir Malakhov produces “La Péri” for the State Ballet Berlin
"La Peri"
Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden
Berlin, Germany
February 27, 2010
copyright 2010 by Horst Koegler
Despite its earlier appearances in dictionaries and encyclopedias (Beaumont, G.B.L. Wilson, Chujoy etc.) the classic ballet entry of “La Péri” is still the one in the “International Encyclopedia of Dance” of 1998. It is also the most concise one, reading: “Théophile Gautier´s scenario for ´La Péri´ was inspired by his attraction to the Orient and dedicated to the feet of his belovd Carlotta Grisi, who danced the Péri, a Persian fairy. She appears to the wealthy and satiated Achmet in an opium dream and he falls in love with her. To test his love, she takes the form of a runaway slave, Leila. Achmet is killed for refusing to surrender her to her owner, but in apotheosis he is seen entering heaven with the Péri. - ´La Péri´ redeemed Grisi´s reputation at a time when she was receiving bad reviews. Jean Coralli provided her with two striking dances: a ´pas du songe´ that culminated in her daring leap from a six-foot high (two meter) platform into Achmet´s arms, and a ´pas de l´ábeille´a decorous striptease prompted by the invasion of an imaginary bee.”
So far “La Péri”, which bowed at the Paris Opéra in 1843, concocted by almost the same team which had been responsible two years earlier for “Giselle”, i.e. Coralli, Grisi and Lucien (brother of Marius) Petipa as protagonists, composed, though, not by Adolphe Adam, but by Friedrich Burgmüller (who had contibuted the ´Peasant Pas de deux´´ to the original “Giselle” production). The romantic ballet in two acts was enormously successful at its time and revived in numerous productions all over the globe. Frederick Ashton´s 1956 “La Péri” version for the Royal Ballet, though, was based upon a different score by Paul Dukas for Ivan Clustine.
Lately the ballet has obviously fallen out of favour even with our reconstructionists à la Pierre Lacotte. That is until Vladimir Malakhov announced a new version to be premiered by the State Ballet Berlin on February 27 at the East Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, adapted and arranged by Roland Bittmann and Torsten Schlarbaum, choreographed and produced by Malakhov, conducted by Paul Connelly and designed by Jordi Roig, with himself as Achmet and Diana Vishneva from Petersburg as La Péri plus company members Beatrice Knop as Achmed´s favourite slave Nourmahal and Arshak Ghalumyan as Rourcem (his Eunuch friend and provider of women for pleasure), with further recruits from the troupe in the various divertissements. The first night was rapturously received by the audience, while critics were mixed. Anywy it was the last ballet production in the house, which will be closed for at least two years for renovations, during which the company will perform at various different theatres in the city.
Malakhov, when he by chance rediscovered a copy of the score, fell in love with Burgmüller's ear-catching tunes, added some pieces from various contemporaneous sources, and one must admit that its waltzes. boleros, pizzicatos, character variations, galops, ländler, menuets, jigs and polonaises sound like a potpourri assembled from the collections of piano salon music, played in the homes of well-to-do citizen of the time. It certainly tickels the feet and evokes the atmosphere of paradise gardens and opium visions, peopled by creatures of unearthly charm, lightness and purity without any sensual, let alone erotic titillations.
As no choreographic notation exists, Malakhov felt free to base his movements and arrangements on the numerous lithographs delivered which one knows so well from the publications of the romantic ballet and especially its ballerinas. It is as if he has worked with ready-mades à la Taglioni, Perrot, Coralli, Bournonville, Petipa and Ivanov, and so one has the feeling of having seen many of these arrangements before. In fact I found myself time and again wondering whether he might have taken all these litographs and fed them into a computer, adding the appropriate music excerpts and programming them according to the dramaturgy of the scenes. It really sounds and looks like some product of advanced computerology and opens up unlimited future possibilities – maybe even chances for do it yourself choreography. Try to imagine the vast amount of works forgotten but described in the books of history, which thus could be brought to life again. Even if its enchainements lack the spark of creativity which we have taken so far as the essential contribution of the individual artist.
It all looks pretty, nice, cozy, harmless and completely meaningless, with all the poetry, radiated by the originals, substituted by prefabricated clichés – well adapted to the personal possibilities of the dancers, including Malakhov´s own waning technical means. But then his part as the languorous Achmet, who is bored of his terrestrial amours and longs for their celestial sublimation which he envisions in his encounters with the Queen of the Péris, spends most of his time intoxicated by his opium dreams, dancing what may be called a slimmed down version of what the original choreography for Lucien Petipa might have been, While Vishneva as the Péri was likened by one of the critics to the ever so charming barbie dolls. Actually the dancing by what are called the Princesses of Scotland (Elena Pris), Spain (Elisa Carrillo Cabrera), France (Corinne Verdeil) and Germany (Gaela Pujol) was always accurate and enjoyable, while Beatrice Knop as the Péri´s earthen rival Nourmahal in vain mobilizes all her female stratagems to win back Achmed´s favour. But it is really the men of the company who have the more interesting dancing parts, including Arshak Ghalumyan as Achmet´s friend Roucem and the sparkling trio of Alexander Korn, Rainer Krenstetter and Dinu Tamazlacaru.
I was astonished, though, that Malakhov cut what for the audiences of the mid-19th century was the real sensation óf the production – and which Ivor Guest describes in his history of “The Romantic Ballet in Paris”, the `pas du songe´and the ´pas de l´abeille . Or rather that he used their music for different purpose – so that nobody of the today visitors wouldn't be aware of them if they hadn't been mentioned in the programme-book. The descriptions by Guest are so utterly amusing that I implore interested people to look them up in his book as they are too long to be quoted here. So it all adds up to an eminently forgettable project which must have cost a fortune – to think only of Jordi Roig´s fantastic decors and costumes which so painstakingly try to exorcise the splendours of the original Paris 1843 production,
The real scandal of this Berlin archaeological ballet exhumation is the moment of its happening. For we are writing in 2010, and this is the year of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Robert Schumann, which is celebrated over here in great style in many concerts. All of his life he was dreaming of writing an opera, but when he finally produced his “Genoveva” it proved a flop. However, there is another work “Das Paradies und die Peri”, which he has called ´a secular oratorio`, written as his op. 50 in 1843 – the same year as the Paris`”La Péri”, when he was just 33 years old. It is based on Thomas Moore´s epoch “Lalla Rookh”, which tells a somewhat different variation of the Peri legend, but is musically vastly superior to the ballet-music provided by Herr Burgmüller for Paris. Schumann has been staged as an aerial ballet by Gregor Seyffert a couple of years ago in Düsseldorf (with himself in the androgyne role of the Peri), and it proved a fascinating event – a bit like these recent Chinese films with flying performers.
Now wouldn't this have been an artistically much more rewarding undertaking for the Berlin State Opera? And especially so as it was this house which staged Sasha Waltz's sensational production of Henry Purcell's “Dido and Aeneas” opera just two years ago – partly as a submarine ballet. To think what this Berlin based choreographer, who recently created a brilliant environment choreography for the inauguration of the city's New Museum, would have made if she had been commissioned to tackle the Schumann oratorio. It´s even more perplexing if one remembers the enthusiasm with which Malakhov praised his collaboration with Waltz (who had choreographed a solo for him) when he took up his job as director of the newly established Berlin State Ballet. It is a shame to watch how Berlin, which boasts of being the home of Germany´s biggest ballet-company squanders its luxuriously endowed dance capital!
