Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote has been restored at Opera Bastille

On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Rudolf Nureyev (1938–1993), which fell during the current season, the Paris Opera is reviving three ballets choreographed by him. The baton from “The Nutcracker” (see “Kommersant” on December 21, 2023) was taken over by “Don Quixote”, and at the end of the season the troupe is preparing “Swan Lake”. Tells Maria Sidelnikova.

For the Soviet fugitive and eternal wanderer around the world Rudolf Nureyev, the ballet “Don Quixote” by Minkus was both a motive of life and a talisman. On the eve of the fateful tour of the Kirov Theater in Paris in 1961, Jeanine Renguet, a selector from the French side, accidentally saw the young soloist in the role of Basil. The management did not want to take him on the trip due to problems with discipline, but Renge insisted, seeing the “greatest artist of our time” in the obstinate rebel. So Nureyev ended up in Paris, from where he never returned. And exactly twenty years later, in 1981, the same “Don Quixote” will again open a new chapter of life and become the first three-act classical ballet from the legacy of Marius Petipa, which Rudolf Nureyev will stage at the Paris Opera.

However, the story of Don Quixote’s wanderings – in the ballet it is intertwined with the love adventure of Kitri and Basil, fleeing from a greedy father who wants to marry his daughter to the rich man Gamache – Rudolf Nureyev first took up the work back in 1966 in Vienna. A few years after his escape, he began staging those ballets that he still remembered from the Kirov Theater. The libretto was updated and rewritten, the scores were either exported from the USSR in a roundabout way or ordered (as in the case of “Don Quixote” – the arrangement of Minkus’s music was made by the British composer John Lanchbury), and the choreography of Petipa, Gorsky, Gusev was supplemented with everything that fell under his irrepressible , omnivorous legs: where MacMillan and Cranko will jump out, where Balanchine is, and between them – exemplary combinations with meticulous fifth positions from the Leningrad past, from the class of teacher Pushkin. All these patchwork editions, woven in the spirit of his favorite kilim carpets to suit his own temperament, traveled around the world and eventually, together with their author, settled at the Paris Opera, becoming classics of its repertoire.

Unlike “The Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake,” where it is impossible to understand the twists and turns and interpretations of the characters without a program, the libretto of “Don Quixote” has undergone minimal edits. Even with an extended prologue and rewritten scenes in the gypsy camp and in the tavern, the ballet did not lose its plot. No matter how the dance divertissement whirls, the theatrical part does not lag behind: Don Quixote and his drunken squire hang out in search of the beautiful Dulcinea, the corps de ballet rushes from backstage to backstage, skirts rustle, castanets rumble passionately, sparks fly from under heels that betray decorative Spanishness. As an example of acting, Parisians are shown a 1973 recording performed by the Australian Ballet with Nureyev himself and Lucette Aldous. It would be good to set it as an example not only for artists, but also for conductors: Nureyev would fall asleep at the current pace.

He devoted all his energy in Don Quixote to editing the choreographic text. To the existing pas de deux, another one from La Bayadère was added at the beginning of the second act and several male variations. For the actors, especially for the performer of the role of Basil, from the first minutes of the performance it is a race without a break. No sooner has the variation ended than pantomime comes into play, followed by ensemble dances, followed by the second entrance, adagio – such fun until the end of the third act. “A marathon that ends in a sprint,” as Jean-Guillaume Barthes, one of the first performers of this killer part and now a tutor, certified Rudolf Nureyev’s version at an open rehearsal.

And this marathon was ran very worthily by the experienced Basil of the second team – etoile Germaine Louvet. Despite his height and long, intelligent legs, which are more difficult to coordinate and flicker, he playfully pronounced Nureyev’s tongue twisters, neatly accentuated all his “tics” like beaded rondas and angry skids, dashingly and without fuss performed tricks in the jumping arena and, not sparing his shins, I hit impressive convertibles, fortunately the step and jump allow. But in this theatrical, sparkling performance you can’t get by on data and technique alone, and acting, just as it was not the strong suit of the phlegmatic handsome noble Germain Louvet, never became. If even in the first act he collected his thoughts and cheekily, by his standards, flirted left and right, then from the first notes of the second act he slipped back into the usual role of a romantic prince, and an adventurous barber who is just waiting for the moment to master his Kitri (the most reliable couple with etoile Hannah O’Neill) could be forgotten.

Hannah O’Neill played for two this evening. A stylish cat ballerina with an obstinate look, a fatal smile and a seductive, but unpretentious manner of gesture and dance, she has enough charm to drive all the men crazy both in the square in Barcelona and in the Opera Bastille hall. It’s a pity that her temperament does not extend to technology. A modest step and a stiff back deprived the jump variations of their brightness, sluggish feet and a weak force in rotations betrayed a lack of endurance, stability in the arabesque in the third act was barely enough for her for a second, and she performed the fouette and the textbook “rope” – Kitri’s ballet hits – with the accuracy of a neurosurgeon . Wherever there was a lack of spark in the legs, the experienced O’Neill masterfully flicked her fan, and the audience froze: also a valuable gift.

The proximity to the younger generation in the “Dream” scene was not the most advantageous for the etoile. “First Dancer” Inez Mackintosh, the company’s most impetuous young ballerina, received well-deserved applause in the tiny role of the charming Cupid. And the beautiful arabesque line of the “plot” (of the simple soloist) Kang Hyun-ho and the majestic aplomb that she demonstrated in the perfect series of insidious “Italian fouettés” made us think again about the objectivity of the hierarchy of the Paris Opera.

The thoughts of artistic director Jose Martinez today are occupied by the fate of Rudolf Nureyev’s ballets. How to dance them forty years later, when both technical standards have changed (theaters have switched to LED lamps) and ethical ones (all the “offending” characters, it seems, have already been replaced with neutral ones), and modern artists are no longer ready to test their strength without those fragile bodies breaking their legs on Nureyev’s choreography? Diplomat Martinez is negotiating with the Nureyev Foundation. The artistic director does not intend to abandon Nureyev’s legacy – classics are classics, although he does not hide the fact that for him the French school is a priority (ballets by Manuel Legris, Pierre Lacotte, whose foundation is currently at the stage of creation), but wants to obtain permission from copyright holders for banknotes and choreography edits. Who will contribute them will again be decided by the foundation, which will have to approve new tutors.