BY CAROL NORRIS
Enquirer contributor
. . . one of them experienced a serious love in the course of her life, she suffered for it, and she died of it . . .
These words are spoken by a narrator at the end of the Alexandre Dumas play on which the tragic ballet Lady of the Camellias is based. They represent the story's essence.
Mr. Dumas' La Dame aux camelias was first a novel, then a play, an opera, a movie and now a ballet. Opening Cincinnati Ballet's 36th season on Friday, the work is much different from the romantic, full-length works familiar to ballet-goers.
There'll be no dancing swans, sylphs or ghostly wilis. The characters in Lady of the Camellias are based on real people. And while they may soar in traditional classical steps, their problems are the earthly kind.
|
IF YOU GO
|
What: Lady of the Camellias, Cincinnati Ballet.
When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Where: Procter & Gamble Hall, Aronoff Center for the Arts.
Tickets: $8-$20 matinees; $12-$47 evenings at Ticketmaster outlets or call 241-7469
|
"This is the most classical ballet I've done," its choreographer, Val Caniparoli, says. He's the first to put the story into steps. Ballet Florida of West Palm Beach premiered its ballet five years ago. "It's also the first full-length story ballet I've done."
Mr. Caniparoli, 47, is well-known on the West Coast, where he has danced and choreographed for San Francisco Ballet since 1973. He is noted more for his abstracts.
Maybe if he had found it first, things would have taken a different, more contemporary turn, but the ballet found him after its classical path had already been set.
"Ballet Florida started this project a number of years ago, but shelved it when the original choreographer (Norbert Vesak) died. They had already developed a scenario and bought costume fabric, so they did a search for another choreographer and decided on me," Mr. Caniparoli says.
His generous San Francisco contract allows him time to take on choreographic jobs that keep him crisscrossing the country at a steady clip. This is his first work for Cincinnati Ballet.
The fast life
The story is of a beautiful, enterprising young woman, Marguerite, living life in the fast lane of mid-1800s Paris with all its tempting pleasures -- champagne, private boxes at the theater and fancy horse-drawn carriages.
Originally a seamstress, she becomes a courtesan to support her ever-increasing appetite for the exquisite.
A young man, Armand, falls madly in love with her and sets out to save her from her sordid life. He wants her all to himself.
She loves him in return. Enter Armand's father to muddle the plan and change the course of the young lovers' lives.
When Giuseppe Verdi saw a performance of the play in Paris in 1852, he was enchanted and within a year had transformed it into La Traviata, one of his most frequently performed operas. Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor were the ill-fated lovers in the 1936 movie version, Camille. subhed:Based in real life body:
The Camellias' story is autobiographical to a point. In the early 1840s, when Mr. Dumas was in his 20s, he was captivated by a famous French courtesan, Alphonsine Duplessis. He ended their affair when she refused to give up her other liaisons for him.
A short time later, the courtesan died of tuberculosis and Mr. Dumas wrote his novel. He named the Duplessis character Marguerite and turned her from a pathetic figure to a tragic heroine by having her sacrifice her happiness and future for that of the only man she ever really loved, Armand.
Mr. Caniparoli says the story is complicated to stage, so during the years of working it, he's made cuts and combined characters, making it easier for audiences to follow.
"It would be great if they didn't have to read program notes. That's the goal," he says.
A grown-up story body
Who will enjoy this ballet?
Artistic director Victoria Morgan says she wept when she first saw it on video, saying love stories lend themselves to a telling through movement.
Mr. Caniparoli says, subject matter aside, there's nothing racy in the dancing of it, but children may be lost in the story. He adds that teens and young adults will enjoy it, if they like dancing that goes beyond the MTV variety.
But basically it's a grown-up story that addresses the conflicts between personal freedom and happiness and social convention. And at its heart, pushed along by romantic Frederic Chopin piano concertos, it is a tragic tale of passionate love and loss.
