France Theatre Newsroom Page 3

La Forza del destino is now playing at Opera National de Paris. Performances run through 30 December.

It is hard to believe that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's first ballet, Swan Lake, created in 1877 for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, was a failure, so striking is its music's melodic power. It was not until twenty years later - but Tchaikovsky was already dead - that the ballet was brought to the stage in the choreography of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.

In the wake of The Rite of Spring (1997) and Orpheus and Eurydice (2005), Kontakthof is Pina Bausch’s third piece to enter the repertoire of the Paris Opera Ballet.

The Endgame, a new play written by Joanna Pickering, is on the roster for The Big Funk Company (American Theatre in Paris) for their American Friday play reading evening on December 2nd, at Le Pave D’Orsay in Paris. 

In the wake of The Rite of Spring (1997) and Orpheus and Eurydice (2005), Kontakthof is Pina Bausch’s third piece to enter the repertoire of the Paris Opera Ballet.

In Die Zauberflöte, a prince from a far‑off land on a quest to liberate a princess meets a giant snake, a cocky bird‑seller, the Queen of the Night and a High Priest who imposes strange rites of passage.

Drawing on Oscar Wilde's scandalous play of the same name, in 1905 Richard Strauss produced the work that was to ensure his status as Wagner's successor in the history of German opera. 'Dance for me, Salome'.

First performed in 1978 by the Royal Ballet in London, Mayerling, along with L’Histoire de Manon, is Kenneth MacMillan’s most famous ballet. For this vast, three‑act fresco, the British choreographer drew inspiration from an historic event: the suicide of the archduke Rodolphe, heir to the Austrian throne, in the company of his mistress, the baroness Marie Vetsera, in a hunting lodge in Mayerling, near Vienna, in 1889.

Rohm Literary and American Blues Theater will present the European premiere of a new play, STAND UP IF YOU'RE HERE TONIGHT, written and directed by John Kolvenbach (Olivier Nominee Love Song) and starring Jim Ortlieb (Broadway's The Farnsworth Invention by Aaron Sorkin) and featuring Julie Kalya.

Salome, princess of Judea, the daughter‑in‑law of King Herod, finds life in her father‑in‑law’s palace dreary. Her curiosity is roused when she hears the voice of Jochanaan, a prophet held prisoner by Herod who is afraid of him.

Invited for the first time to create a work for the Paris Opera Ballet, choreographer, director and film‑maker Alan Lucien Øyen develops a scenario in which truth and illusion intertwine in the course of a production that plays with our perceptions. Fascinated by the infinitesimal differences between reality and fiction, Øyen creates, through theatre and dance, a truly moving dialogue between his characters.

Salome, princess of Judea, the daughter‑in‑law of King Herod, finds life in her father‑in‑law’s palace dreary. Her curiosity is roused when she hears the voice of Jochanaan, a prophet held prisoner by Herod who is afraid of him.

In Die Zauberflöte, a prince from a far‑off land on a quest to liberate a princess meets a giant snake, a cocky bird‑seller, the Queen of the Night and a High Priest who imposes strange rites of passage.

Relieved of her traditional attributes – velvet slipper and pumpkin carriage – and dominated by a tyrannical stepfather instead of a cruel stepmother, Rossini’s La Cenerentola plays with the traditional figures of the fairy tale. Cinderella lives, nonetheless, in a closed and loveless world, under the yoke of the tyrant she protects. Beneath her goodness smoulders a fire to be unleashed by her encounter with the prince...

After starting to educate the French-speaking audience of Brussels into the art of musical theater, with widely known titles such as The Sound of Music, Evita, Sunset Boulevard, and My Fair Lady, the Bruxellons! Festival has started venturing into lesser-known material with Blood Brother last year, which, despite being initially a big hit in London, had hardly been done since, let alone in a foreign language. This year's Elisabeth, originally commissioned by Vereinigte Bühnen Wien, had been seen over 10 million times throughout the world, becoming the most successful German musical of all time, but, despite having been translated 7 foreign languages, had yet to be done in either English or French.

In Die Zauberflöte, a prince from a far‑off land on a quest to liberate a princess meets a giant snake, a cocky bird‑seller, the Queen of the Night and a High Priest who imposes strange rites of passage.

The worldwide hit about the Austrian Empress performed in French at the Bruxellons! Festival in Belgium.

Relieved of her traditional attributes – velvet slipper and pumpkin carriage – and dominated by a tyrannical stepfather instead of a cruel stepmother, Rossini’s La Cenerentola plays with the traditional figures of the fairy tale. Cinderella lives, nonetheless, in a closed and loveless world, under the yoke of the tyrant she protects. Beneath her goodness smoulders a fire to be unleashed by her encounter with the prince...

When Giacomo Puccini saw a performance of Victorien Sardo's play La Tosca, whilst Sarah Bernhardt was touring with it in Milan, he was immediately captivated by the power of the drama. Love, politics, sadism and religion: all these ingredients are brought together in the story of the jealous and impulsive singer Floria Tosca, who is in love with the idealistic Mario Cavaradossi in an Italy fighting for its independence.

The 76th Festival d'Avignon officially concluded last night with Kae Tempest's The Line is a Curve at the Cour d'Honneur. This is the fifth album by Tempest. Previous works include Brand New Ancients, which I had the benefit of seeing some years back at New York's St. Ann's Warehouse. Their work in that instance was a transporting piece of storytelling. It was a very sober affair. The Line is a Curve started that way, but quickly became the cathartic rock concert to end the annual Festival.

Silent Legacy, now in performance at the Festival d'Avignon's Cloître des Cèlestins, asks questions about points of exchange. The relationship between the dancer and choreographer is complex. Literarily focused theatre's collaborative quality sometimes benefits from the boundaries made by script writing. In this way, the playwright has a product outside the performance. In most instances with dance, the work can only exist within the body of the performer. Silent Legacy presents its audience with two such points of exchange.

According to a poll taken in 2016, a little more than half of all British people have seen or read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. That number dips just below half for Macbeth and Midsummer. The Tempest rounds out the Top 10 at 22% engagement. Deep down in this list at 7%, tucked between Merry Wives of Windsor and Love's Labour's Lost, is Richard II. This obscurity was seen as a feature not a bug for Jean Vilar when he opened the first Festival d'Avignon with Richard II in 1947. Since this performance, the play has become something of a hallmark of French theatre. This year, Christophe Rauck adds his own directorial vision at the Festival's Gymnase du Lycée Aubanel with Micha Lescot in the title role.

One of the most famous images of 20th century theatre is that of Brecht's Mother Courage who, when told she needs to remain incognito when her son is shot, offers a silent scream. In Ali Chahrour's Du Temps Où Ma Mère Racontait, now in performance at Avignon Université's Cour Minérale, Laïla Chahrour similarly unhinges her jaw into a scream, though it's anything but silent. Undergirded by musicians playing behind her, she cries into the audience, her voice rising into the starry sky. In the face of all the tragedy she has explored with her family, it is a resonating moment of catharsis.

Choreographer Dada Masilo, a South African native, studied dance at Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's school in Brussels. While there she developed an appreciation for the grand patrimonial dance-works. Her company, Dance Factory Johannesburg, has made a name for itself through oftentimes-comedic deconstructions of European classics like Swan Lake, and Giselle. In Le Sacrifice Masilo has decided to address a different dance classic, Le Sacre du Printemps. It was a long road to the Festival for Le Sacrifice, now performing in Avignon's Cour du Lycée Saint-Joseph. The piece has been twice canceled due to Covid. While her movement vocabulary lacks in imagination, the performances themselves were thrilling.

Most times in Avignon, when a work is called something ominous like Blood, Bones, or, as is the case for Sophie Linsmaux and Aurelio Mergola's new work, Flesh, the worst is to be expected. The experience might be transformative, but it'll be a taxing journey. Happily, the two artists tackle questions of our relationships to our bodies with dark humor. Set in four vignettes at Avignon's Gymnase du Lycée Mistral, Flesh is Avignon's answer to Charlie Chaplin.