London — Christopher Wheeldon’s new full-length “chocolate-like water” curtain for the Royal Ballet raises a veiled bride in twelve white robes standing still on stage. increase. Slowly the women leave and turn around. Now they are dressed in black and sit down and start knitting when the action begins.
This is the beginning of this fascinating three-act ballet painting, based on the novel by Mexican writer Laura Eskibel. Opened at the Royal Opera House here on Thursday.. In this concise image, Wheeldon (and designer Bob Crowley) suggests a fantastic and practical mix of magic and reality of life and death that pervades Esquivel’s highly beloved story. doing. Creating a ballet based on a complex plot that includes cooking, food, and magic for a moment doesn’t seem to be a terrible idea.
Wheeldon is an experienced creator of story ballet (he created “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Winter Story” for the Royal Ballet) and did his role in “MJ: Musical”. He was nominated for a Tony Award for directing and choreographing two Broadway shows, including.
His skills and a team of regular collaborators focus on food and frustrated romance, excursions to the Mexican Revolution, flashbacks to various lost love, weddings, babies, death, and ghosts. Visit like.
Joby Talbot’s commissioned score (impressively done by music consultant Alondra de la Para) is practically rich with guitars, various percussion, Mexican instruments and more. ocarina.. Inspired by Mexican architect Luis Barragán, Crawley’s decorations are discreet and original. Natasha Katz’s lighting cleverly suggests changes in time and place.
In collaboration with the American Ballet Theater, Ballet nods to the tradition of the Royal Ballet story and, judging by Thursday’s reaction, could find an enthusiastic audience. In choreography, it’s only intermittently interesting. Often it feels like it’s trapped in a story ballet land. Story Ballet Land is a world where activities are empirically communicated by telegram with a commentary service.
After an impressive opening scene, we are in the kitchen with Tita (Franchesca Hayward) and cook Nacha (Christina Arestis). Simply put, you will learn that Tita and Pedro (Marcelino Sanbe) are in love. Mama Elena (Laura Morera, scary) prohibits Tita from getting married because her family tradition requires that she take care of her mother. Pedro chose to marry Tita’s sister Rosaura (Mayaramagri) and stay close to her. Tita’s tears in the flour of the wedding cake defeat the guest with regret and nausea (and her loyal cook dies when she remembers her lost love). And that’s just the first two scenes.
However, Wheeldon becomes himself in an early fantasy sequence when Tita’s repressed desire for Pedro transforms into her other sister, Getrdis (Anna Rose Osullivan), through her cooking. Wheeldon creates great floor shows to the rhythm of Danson Tango. Getrudis is a pin-up center for a group of naked-chested men and is ambushed by (wire) horse-riding swashbuckler bandits (Cesar Corrales).
As ballet progresses, Wheeldon becomes less burdened with narrative commentary and is more free to create these types of pure dance set pieces. Both the wonderful Fiesta dance and the fun final wedding dance use naive and grounded movements that suggest folk dance without reference to any particular tradition. Music follows. These group numbers have a kind of Broadway flair in a good way. Mama Elena’s tragic awakening of the past, the story of Mini Romeo and Juliet told in a skillful five-minute ballet in ballet, and her devilish final as a giant in a huge subsequent dress. So is the reproduction.
However, ballet choreography is just an explanation, and long, often forgotten sentences often point to subplots. Wheeldon tries to find his character’s leitmotif (bends his legs for Tita and stabs a rush for Elena), but he doesn’t evoke the feeling of a real character. Beautifully danced by Hayward and Sambe, Tita and Pedro remain out of focus, and the crafted Pas de deux is blurred by the general arousal of frustration. ..
But at the last moment of ballet, there will be Pas de deux of Tita and Pedro, equivalent to those created by Wheeldon. Like his fascinating “after the rain,” it provides two figures moving in an abstract landscape.In an unforgettable song based on the Octavio Paz poem “Sunstone” sung by Cyan Griffith, Sambe and Hayward have a series of spiral crossbody swirls before being swallowed by the flame-lit clouds. Move with the beauty of liquid through a high off-quilter lift, behind which we glimpse The bride in white clothes we first saw.
It is one of the many visually breathtaking moments of ballet, the coup finale. But it’s also the place where dance shows us more than just the idea of a story. The extra purity of Pas de deux at the end gives a glimpse of the unification of the body and mind, the refinement of emotions into abstractions. There are many interesting things in “like chocolate water”. Here, Wheeldon shows that he can do more.
“Like chocolate water”
Until June 17th at the Royal Opera House in London. roh.org.uk..