Deletes : Coppélia
Ballet du Capitole
Orchestre national du Capitole
Nathan Fifield
Charles Jude's version of Coppelia takes place in the back alleys of some unspecified but skyscraper-outlined American port, where the male lead and his buddies are sailors on leave, in an atmosphere very much reminiscent of On the Town or Fancy Free, and the doll Coppelia wears Marilyn Monroe's iconic white halter-neck dress. The setting is the 50s, the principal characters have been renamed Swanie and Fonzie - yes, that's a deliberate reference, although this Fonzie's nowhere near as cool as the original - and Coppelius is a slick mafioso type.
As transpositions go, it's not without some charm, but there are a lot of things that don't quite gel either. To start with, the preponderance of Central European style music in Delibes's score clashes with the visibly American setting, although Jude quite successfully choreographs the Czardas as a jive dance. Except then he goes and puts the exact same steps into the final Galop, which rather spoils the impression of ingenuity. Then there's Fonzie as a sailor, along with his six friends, who all look peculiarly fey for much of the proceedings. Part of it is the traditional sailor suit, which looks frankly twee; when they change in the last act to a sort of long-sleeved waistcoat over a blue- and white-striped tee, they look much more natural. However, the rest is the choreography, and particularly the hand movements. Takafumi Watanabe, a dancer who has always stood out any time I've seen this company recently (especially for his elevation, even if the landings are sometimes a touch rough), has very noticeable hands, but in the first act they were noticeable in the wrong way.*
Jude's other choreography, while innocuous enough, is not all that original. He has kept some of the original choreography - or at least, I recognised some steps and sequences from Peter Wright's various productions, so I assume that it's probably Petipa, if not Saint-Leon - but the ensembles, and the pas de deux have all been recast by Jude, and the pas de deux lack distinction. He has also severely denatured the big Variations (in the musical sense) sequence that is the core of the first act, by forcing the pattern of a Grand Pas d'action onto it, breaking up the music where it is meant to flow without interruption. It brought proceedings virtually to a standstill, and had a depressing effect on the overall mood and receptiveness of the audience.
The most interesting part was probably Act 2, where much of the 50s Americana window-dressing became irrelevant. Coppelius is more of a Pygmalion figure, younger than we usually see him, and he also appears to possess a degree of authentic magic, bringing a touch of the supernatural into the proceedings. While we, the audience, usually know that Coppelius's dabbling in alchemy is automatically doomed to failure, here there is a moment's doubt that this Coppelius might actually be on to something, with his ideas of transposing a soul. It all plays out as usual, until the end of the act, when Coppelius comes to a gruesome, and very Hoffmann-esque end, torn apart by his own creations. He was persuasively danced by Dennis Cala Valdes while Julie Charlet's Swanie was also at her most expressive here, though her dancing throughout was charming, and her port de bras particularly noteworthy.
Another positive point was the orchestra, colourful and assured from start to finish. There were some cuts in the score, especially in the last act where some elements of the Divertissement didn't fit with Jude's re-interpretation of the story, but Fifield was an attentive conductor, responsive to the requirements of the dancers at every moment. However, although the whole was reasonably entertaining, as a version of Coppelia, I would have to rate this as more of a curiosity than an abiding memory.
* In doing a little additional reading, it appears that the role of Franz was originally a "breeches" role, danced by a woman, and that the Paris Opera retained that tradition right up until 1961. Jude, a former Paris Opera Ballet étoile, would have known this (although he's not quite old enough to have seen it), so it's quite possible it has influenced his choreography for the character.
[Next : 21st March]
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