“Emma Bovary”, “Passion”
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
November 15, 2023
by Denise Sum
copyright © 2023 by Denise Sum
The National Ballet of Canada’s 2023-2024 season opener featured two distinctly different, yet complimentary works. First was James Kudelka’s “Passion”, a plotless ballet that nonetheless depicts different types of relationships and romantic love. Second was the world premiere of “Emma Bovary” - a modern take on Gustave Flaubert’s seminal 1856 novel “Madame Bovary” choreographed by Helen Pickett. Both ballets contrast the formality and rigidity of culturally sanctioned relationships versus the exhilarating freedom (and risks) of relationships that fall outside those norms.
Artists of the Ballet in "Emma Bovary". Photo by Karolina Kuras.