Tchaikovsky - Maurice Bejart's The Nutcracker / Bejart Ballet Lausanne [DVD]

weird

I was thrilled to find this ballet in DVD format at Amazon; I had seen the ballet during the Ovation Channel's holiday Nutcracker series, and I wanted my fifteen-year-old grandson (a circus contortionist and francophile) to see it. I gave it to him for Christmas, and we viewed it with his cousin, my three-year-old granddaughter (who has watched videos of Balanchine's New York Ballet production and the Kiev Ballet production innumerable times). I was surprised and gratified at her interest in the Bejart production, since it is so different from the more traditional treatments she has seen. I will be buying another copy of it for her; she refers to it as "the mother statue" Nutcracker!

This is all about Bejart's life and his attachment to his mother. That said, it's a fascinating, far-out trip with some super-excellent dancing. A must for Bejart fans. For a great classic Nutcracker, get the New York City Ballet 2011 Balanchine special edition. Peter Martins ballet master. THE BEST.

This nutcracker is an exhibitionistic display of Béjart's onanistic preoccupation with and admiration for himself.Some individuals have an ungratified need for the approval of others and embark on an endless search to obtain it. These individuals come in various varieties. One of them is the seemingly pleasantly grandiose type that operates under the pervasive assumption that everyone likes them because they are so irresistible that it is impossible not to succumb to their charms. It is as if they say to the world: "suspend all judgment and adore me because c'est MOI!" This is basically a massive denial of the fear of rejection in the service of maintaining a narcissistic equilibrium.Maurice Béjart is such a cultural icon in Europe that he has his own entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica: "pseudonym of MAURICE-JEAN DE BERGER, French-born dancer, choreographer, and opera director known for combining classic ballet and modern dance with jazz, acrobatics, and musique concrète (composition by tape recordings)". His productions are known for their "flamboyant theatricality and their innovative reworking of traditional music and dance materials, often in an unusual and controversial fashion". Béjart's highly non-Balanchinean approach has been neglected and critically savaged in the United States. This nutcracker will do little to appease his American critics.The ballet features the master talking directly to the viewers between the dancing scenes that take off from the themes he introduces. He starts with his father, continues with his mother, his childhood and seems bound to develop a loosely structured personal story dedicated to the memory of his mother. The best way to describe the way one theme flows to the next is free association. As this was unfolding I began to experience a creeping suspicion of being duped. The other shoe dropped when Gil Roman appeared on stage at the act II divertissement to announce that "the choreographer did not want to change the classical choreography of the grand pas de deux so tonight it will be danced in the original version of Marius Petipa". However, Petipa wrote the libretto, but not the choreography, which was created by Lev Ivanov because Petipa was ill. I therefore assumed that this was some kind of joke. This ironic expectation was sharpened when the two dancers, Christine Blanc and Domenico Levrè, appeared both inexplicably dressed in black. Their technique and so-called style in the grand pas de deux was so inept that I thought this was some kind of parody. But no, that was not meant as a joke but rather as a statement of Béjart's claim for some special indirect connection to and reverence for Petipa.This ballet does not have much to do with Christmas, Tchaikovsky's nutcracker or even the obsession of the young Maurice with his mother who died when he was seven. It seems that what this ballet is about is Béjart's infatuation with himself. Many artists are narcissistically involved. What sets this work apart is the embarrassingly self-indulgent quality of this artist's preoccupation. There is no sense of irony here or any artistic distance from the subject. When an artist uses his own life and memories as material for his work, it is usually the result of a complicated process that involves wisdom, insight and perspective. In order to see something in perspective you need both empathy and distance. Judging by this material it seems that Béjart's mother died before he had the chance to develop the capacity to perceive her as a separate individual other than in the context of his needs. In other words Béjart never really knew his mother and therefore doesn't have much to say about her or about his relationship with her.Unlike his deceased mother, Béjart's grandmother is painfully available to comment on petit Maurice. She informs us what a wonderful little boy he was and how she was not at all surprised at his fame, as he had always been so special. Initially I was shocked by the absurdity of this. Surely this must be ironic. But apparently not. Béjart seems to assume that anything relating to himself is bound to infect us with the kind of unconditional adoration and approval that only children and lovers claim as their God-given right.Béjart has a masterly sense of theatre and he knows how to bring out the best in his dancers' personalities. They have to know how to talk, sing and dance. His weakness lies in his manipulating sensational theatricality at the expense of thematic coherence. As René Sirvin put it so well, his "Casse-Noisette" has "un peu de tout, et même parfois de trop". This disjointed mishmash is at best kitsch. With the exception of a few brilliant numbers it does not rise above the banal. On repeat viewing I felt that the major element that was missing in a work dedicated to a mother lost at the age of seven was the emotion of sadness. Children cannot conceptualize death and loss in the same way as adults, but even they can feel sadness. Béjart exposed his artistic shortcomings as an extension and expression of his own infantile self. L'Orchestre Colonne's playing is the highlight of this performance, hardly a compliment as they enjoy a growing reputation as one of the worst orchestras in France. There seems to be a constant lack of proportion between Tchaikovsky's lush score and Béjart's rehearsal-room esthetics. His style becomes at synch with the music only during the added modern pieces when the orchestra is joined by an ageing music hall accordionist, Yvette Horner, bedecked in Jean-Paul Gaultier. This amounts to Tchaikovsky abuse.Picture, sound quality and lighting are almost perfect.

One must be not only an admirer, but a disciple, of Bejart to enjoy this narcisstic display masquerading as the Tchaikovsky ballet. As a celebration of self, I suppose it works on some level, but no thanks. Bejart indulges himself in vignettes from his life replete with oedipal fantasy, prostitution, transvestites, and neurasthetic young men. Petipa's choreography for the grand pas de deux is introduced with a smarmy anouncement (in French with English voiceover) that Bejart has chosen not to update the classical choreography of the movement.Tchaikovsky's score is augmented with French cafe songs and interpolated apache dancers. Many, myself included, will find the inclusion of the onstage accordion offensive. The batty smile of the player recalls a half-snockered reincarnation of the late televangist Katherine Kuhlman. True, the dancing is technically adept and Elisabeth Roos' costumes are a welcome exception to the aggressive ugliness of the production."Eurotrash" might have been coined to describe this trainwreck. The late Walter Legge, impresario, recording executive, and founder of the Philharmonia Orchestra once commented that if comtemporary opera directors and scenic designers persisted in putting rubbish on stage they should be compelled to write the libretti and music for their work. Monsieur Bejart certainly re-wrote the scenario but the result is akin to a mustache on the Mona Lisa.

I thought it was great until they turned it into a sex act for kids. I mean really, groping a girl in the middle of a long tradition of innocence? Am I the only one outraged? I hesitate writing this thinking surely that isn't what I saw and surely people wouldn't be giving it 4 and 5 stars, but it is what I saw. How could you?

Great service. Product as described. Delivered on time. Thank you.

Enough said. AWFUL. Stick with the Bolshoi! Not sure what kind of drugs he is on to come up with this mess.