Don Quixote in HK

24 March

Don Quixote in HK

Last night was one of the best nights I have had for a long long time. I saw a production of Don Quixote by the Marinksy Ballet, choreographed by Alexander Gorsky after the original adaptation by that Maître de Ballet  Marius Petipa, who had the ballet performed first by the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg and then by the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in late 19th Centrury. The music by written by Ludwg Minkus and the Marinsky Orchestra was conducted by Alexei Repnikov. 

 

The Ballet was something of a misnomer. Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza figured in the ballet more as observers and chorus than as the hero and anti-hero. The real hero and heroine were Kitri and Basilio. The libretto was quite simple. The story nominally started with Don Quixote reading about Medieval romances and tales of chivalry in a scene briefer than women's bikinis nowadays , then deciding to storm into the world as a knight on horse back in search of adventure, and justice and true love. But the main action in the ballet concerned how Kitri defied his innkeeper father Lorenzo by falling in love with a barber Basilio and rejected Gamache, a rich but slightly ridiculous nobleman whom her father wished her to marry. She escaped, found herself in the company of some gypsies and joined them in their dance and theatre. But her father pursued her with Gamache. A fight ensued, Basilio was stabbed, fell and Don Quixote implored Lorenzo, whom he thought was a nobleman to whom he would offer his services, to grant a dying man's wishes to be joined with her daughter. Lorenzo relented. Basilio miraculously revived. Actually he just pretended to be dying, being taught to do so by the doting but cunning Kitri and the ballet ended with the festive dances at Kitri's marriage to Basilio. In the middle of the ballet, we experienced two scenes figuring Don Quixote: one in which he thought the proverbial windmill a monster, charged and was hurt and another in which he fell asleep and dreamt that he was amidst the forest fairies called Dryads, another pretext for further dainty and elegant steps by the female dancers..

 

As in all other ballets, the story is just a flimsy excuse for staging various occasions where the dancers may display their skill, their grace and their ability to evoke emotions with the motions of their disciplined eyes, lips, faces, fingers, arms, legs and their torsos. The dancers of the Marinsky Ballet are uniformly good, whether they do solos, duets (pas de deux), triplets, quartets, octets, pirouettes, multiple mid-air spins or group dances. The leading roles were taken by Anastasia Matvienko, who danced the role of Kitri; Denis Matvienko who danced the role of Basilio, Karen Ioanissian, who danced the role of the torreador Espada, Alexandra Iosifidi, who danced the role of the street dancer and also the Mercedes, the daughter of the Gypsy chief and Tatyana Tkachenko, who danced the role of the Queen of the Dryads and Ryu Ji Yeon who danced the Fandango with Karen Ioanissian.  I love the ballet. It seems that instead of being fitted with flesh and bones like ours, the ballet dancers' bodies are built of springs and air. They do not walk. They scamper and glide. They do not run, they fly. They do not turn their bodies. They spin and swirl. They do not stretch their arms. They describe arcs. They do not hold their hands above their heads. They form rings. All their movements seem to trace lines, curves, circles and mid-air-spins and flutters.Their bodies seem like soft, mobile, flexible, sensitive and at times rigid and taut rhythm machines which move with the rise and fall of melodies, always following the flow of the differing rhythm of the music. It is a delight to be able to watch such smooth, subtle and forceful motions, done always with perfect grace. When one sees them perform, one cannot help feeling glad to belong to the human race. The dancers did for us what we can only dream of doing. They are our dreams! I am so grateful to them!

 

Not only are the dances performed superbly and magnficently. The stage setting is also thoughtfully done. There were not really that many stage props. They were simple, yet not too bare: an arch door here, a wagon there, a small red electric bonfire in front, a few painted windmills against 4 wooden blades of a windwill at centre stage, the facades of some Medieval buildings or in the scene of the Dryads part of some "hillside" and some trees, a real horse with seat, stirrups and padding, a beautifully drawn moon obscured by an irregularly shaped shadow of a twig, a few tables with people sitting behind in what is supposed to be the town square, a few tumblers which the dancers would throw away and the atmosphere is there, skilfully helped by stage lighting.  And the dresses were simply beautiful. The men wore tight fitting pants, loose shirts, short torreador jackets, triangular hats. The ladies wear Gypsy style flowing dresses with their bold or subtle floral patterns and in the scene of the Dryads, what looked like short  inverted lotus seed pod dresses with painted feathered on fluffy materials which undulated with the up and down motions of the dances in red, pink, blue and orange whose colours gradually shade into stronger hues as they reach the dancers' dainty waists. Simply beautiful. And of course the music. I wouldn't say the music was of a class to match Mahler, Tschaikovsky etc but they are perfect. They are perfectly suited to making it easy for the dancers to follow the rhythm when they do their fairy dance, their fandango, their torreador dance etc. They are written with the choreography in mind. Above all, they know their place. They stay humbly in the background and leave the centre of attention to the dancers on the front stage. They blend perfectly with the movements on stage. Everything ties in in a seamless web of sight and sound, the sound emphasizing the sight and providing a subtle foundation for the motions on stage which on occasions does not lack a bit of humor. I like Gamache, dressed in yellow and always moving in an almost mechanical fashio, I suppose,  being puffed up with his pride which would not allow him to relax for a second. Most comical! A nice touch, although a bit exaggerated. But then who would object?!

 

A thoroughly enjoyable evening. Sitting next to me is a young lady who, like me bought the ticket at the last minute. She is studying cultural management at the HKCU. I bought the ticket one day before her. Mine was one of the last two returned tickets. And next to her were a New Zealand couple who clapped just a little less loudly than I did. All of of us enjoyed the evening thoroughly. One does run into all sorts of people who love the ballet, irrespective of age, sex and nationality.  Must go more often .