Blown Away at the Ballet - Monday, 15 October

My highly anticipated evening at the Paris Opera Ballet (at Le Palais Garnier) met every expectation!  More about that in a minute, but first a few happy words for the ticket-acquisition process.

In August I tried to buy a ticket for tonight's performance, but they were already sold out.  Happily, though, I learned that the Paris Opera has a wonderful web-based ticket turnback mechanism whereby someone who can't use their ticket can post it to the Opera's system.  Someone (like me!) who wants a ticket for a particular performance can post their request on the same system.  So I signed up.  A couple weeks later I received an email informing me that a ticket was available.  I clicked for more info, decided that the price was right, paid the Opera for the ticket, they notified the seller, she emailed the .pdf of the ticket to me, I notified the Opera that I had received it, and they released my payment to her.  Easy peasy!  And no markup - just 3.5 euro for the service.  Everything should work this smoothly.  And it was a great ticket - way up at the front of the house, with a just-slightly obstructed view - scroll down to see photos.

The performance was absolutely wonderful.  A tribute to George Balanchine, it featured three ballets in three quite different styles from three periods of his life.  Orchestre de l'Opéra National de Paris was in the pit - quite the house band!  Their playing was pretty much flawless and always beautiful in full orchestra passages, smaller ensemble passages and solo lines.  All the horn players were men though, so maybe I should audition!

The program opened with "Sérénade" performed to Tchaikovsky's sumptuous 4-movement "Serenade for Strings."  It had to be one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen (it brought me to tears more than a few times) - about 20 ballerinas in pale turquoise leotards with diaphanous sheer long skirts creating the most wonderful images of floating and swirling color and line.  Just a few male dancers in a matching unitards entered the picture supporting the ballerinas, but this was a work of the most stunning femininity, with the music and dance absolutely inseparable.  I will never again listen to Tchaikovsky's "Serenade for Strings" without seeing these spectacular images in my mind.  This piece was from the middle of Balanchine's career, in 1934, just after he moved from Paris to New York.

Next, a piece called "Agon" from later in Balanchine's career (1957); the music is by Stravinsky.  This was a masculine piece, performed primarily by male dancers in black pants, white t-shirts and white shoes/socks supported by a few women in black leotards with black shiny belts.  It was punchy, humorous, jolting, bouncy, sarcastic, aggressive, athletic, percussive, geometric - again, a perfect marriage to Stravinsky's brilliant writing for full orchestra, solo strings, blatting trombones, interrupting percussion, and ensembles of winds.  I chuckled (quietly) more than once during this performance!

Then after intermission "Les Fils Prodigue" (The Prodigal Son) in the grand Russian tradition, one of Balanchine's earliest works (1929); the music is by Prokofiev. This was more of a narrative ballet, with sets and costumes and an obvious story line.  Emotions were up-front and unmistakable, from tender compassion to rebelliousness to freedom to competition to conflict to passion to playfulness to abandonment to brokenheartedness to reconciliation.  Again, totally beautiful but in a quite different way.  And charming and insightful.

What a fabulous evening in one of the most fabulous venues anywhere.  Of course, photos cannot be taken during the performance, so the dance photos are from the program book I bought.  The others are by me!

Obviously, I highly recommend this kind of cultural experience for your visit to Paris.  You can take a tour of the spectacular Palais Garnier, completed in 1875 (wowzer...they don't make buildings like this any more!), but if you can possibly manage it, attend a performance here.  You will thank me!

My box, #4, was way down at the end of the hall.
But that's a good thing!

Many a foot has trod
this well-worn mosaic floor

The view from my chair #1

The box has its own vestibule with a fainting
couch, mirror, coat hooks and RED everywhere!
And 8 chairs

The ceiling by Chagal

The view from my chair #3

The view from my chair #4

The strings of Orchestre de l'Opera de Paris
warming up