Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Iolanta, Op. 69 (1891) [93:00]
The Nutcracker, Op. 71 (1892) [95:00]
Corps de Ballet de l’Opéra National de Paris
Choeurs et Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris/Alain Altinoglu
rec. March, 2016 Opéra National de Paris (Palais Garnier)
BELAIR CLASSIQUES Blu-ray BAC445 [240 mins]
The raison d’être for pairing these
two rather dissimilar works is that Tchaikovsky received a commission
from the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre for a double-bill, which he ultimately
filled with Iolanta and The Nutcracker, their premières
coming on December 18, 1892. The production here by Dmitri Tcherniakov,
who created a new libretto for The Nutcracker, has received
high praise from many critics, though not quite everyone was pleased.
Iolanta tells the story of a blind girl, the daughter of a
King, who in the end gains her sight because of her love for a knight
(Vaudémont). It’s a touching if simple sort of fairy tale-like
story and Tchaikovsky’s music is charming and quite masterly.
When the opera ends, and you expect the singers to take curtain calls,
Sonya Yoncheva (Iolanta) halts the applause and the The Nutcracker
begins promptly. Now, as the main characters and guests come into view
cheering, you realize that the performance of the opera was a staged
event put on as a birthday present for the ballet’s lead, the
young Marie (Clara, in some productions). You also soon realize that
characters in the opera have a counterpart in the ballet, Marie being
Iolanta’s. Actually, Marion Barbeau as Marie does appear briefly
in the opera as does Sonya Yoncheva in the ballet. Judging by clothing
and furniture styles, both Iolanta and The Nutcracker
are updated to the mid-20th century.
As The Nutcracker story unfolds we see Marie being treated
to a grand party filled with fun, games and dancing. Eventually Marie’s
family and the guests leave and Marie is left alone. She meets Vaudémont
and they kiss, but suddenly the family members and guests return, radically
changed though, as if under hypnotic control. Marie’s mother begins
casting spells and soon the house is destroyed in an explosion from
a meteorite strike. Marie finds a nearly lifeless Vaudémont in a dark,
post-apocalyptic world, where they dance before he falls dead. After
further nightmarish trials Marie reaches the Kingdom of the Sweets where
there are outsized dolls and dancers appearing as her look-alikes. After
braving more frightening places and events, like the ghostly reappearance
of Vaudémont, Marie awakens in her house, the whole horror having merely
been a nightmare! What a twist! No one ever saw that coming!
I couldn’t help but see the Wizard of Oz in this story:
young Marie taken to a strange and far-off world; characters in one
setting turning up in another; Marie’s mother transforming into
a sort of Wicked Witch of the West; the whole nightmarish second half
of the ballet being just a bad dream. Yet, while this libretto has its
weaknesses and predictable plot developments, it is fascinating in many
ways. It’s not a sugarplum version of The Nutcracker
for children, but a rather unsettling and at times quite imaginative
takeoff on it that features a clever parallel to the opera: to fulfill
her love of Vaudémont Iolanta has to overcome fear to conquer her blindness,
and Marie must also learn to defeat fear in confronting the ghastly
happenings in the latter half of the ballet.
Moreover, while you might think Tchaikovsky’s mostly chipper music
would seem out of place in this dark story, it fits in quite well, sometimes
with a cruel sense of irony, as exotic or playfully innocent music can
seem to be poking fun during moments of emotional lows. And the special
effects are excellent too: in the forest sequence the video projections
of birds in flight, large animals moving about, scenery streaming across
the floor, and the background of a netherworld in dark woods are most
effective in creating a spooky, menacing atmosphere. In addition, the
seamless transition from the opera to the ballet is a brilliant stroke.
Thus, the production has many merits and because the ballet is wedded
to an excellent version of the opera, the whole package is quite fine
after all. Indeed, not least because the performances in both the opera
and ballet are splendid.
Sonya Yoncheva, despite a supposed indisposition, sings beautifully
and is dramatically convincing as well. The rest of the cast in the
opera is quite fine, though Elena Zaremba’s mezzo voice has thickened
somewhat over the years and has lost a bit of its lustre. The dancers
in the ballet, led by Marion Barbeau, are also very impressive, despite
middling choreography in some of the sequences, as fashioned by two
of the three choreographers noted in the heading. Marie’s birthday
party, choreographed by Arthur Pita, is somewhat of a disappointment.
The opening of presents by Marie and the game played with guests switching
chairs are both uninteresting and unimaginative, hardly balletic in
any classic sense. The Kingdom of the Sweets segment also exhibits
some dull choreography by Edouard Lock: those big dolls move around
with about the elegance and sophistication of sleepy elephants. But
then, posed with the vexing task of giving those oversized toys some
kind of interesting animation, few choreographers would likely do much
better. Despite these episodes though, the choreography is overall reasonably
good.
Alain Altinoglu conducts both works with a natural grasp on Tchaikovsky’s
unique expressive character, effectively capturing the music’s
vivid colours, its plentiful lyricism, its emotional highs and lows,
and its masterly sense of drama. In the process he coaxes out excellent
performances from the Paris Opera Orchestra and gets fine singing from
the chorus.
As for the competition, there is a very fine Iolanta paired,
oddly, with Stravinsky’s Perséphone on Teatro Real Blu-ray
and DVD, but it features a sort of minimalist production approach with
barren sets and mostly dim lighting that likely won’t appeal to
a broad audience. There are very good video versions of The Nutcracker:
Gergiev/Mariinsky on Warner Classics, Pavel Klinichev/Bolshoi on BelAir
Classiques and Ermanno Florio/Dutch National Ballet on Arthaus Musik.
All of these feature more traditional productions of the ballet, with
the Gergiev effort the best. But these offer The Nutcracker
with no other work on the disc, though the Florio is in a three-disc
box with The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake.
So, this new BelAir Classiques Blu-ray is the only way to get both Iolanta
and The Nutcracker on one disc (two in DVD format). The sound
reproduction, camera work and picture clarity are excellent on this
Blu-ray disc. In addition, there is an interesting, nearly one-hour
bonus feature that contains rehearsal scenes and interviews with stage
director Dmitri Tcherniakov, conductor Alain Altinoglu, Sonya Yoncheva,
Marion Barbeau and others involved in the performances. In the end,
there are far more pluses than minuses here: you can say the opera is
a great success, the ballet a bit controversial but quite intriguing
and definitely a bold approach to a classic.
Robert Cummings
Disc details
Iolanta, Op. 69 (1891) [93:00]
Iolanta – Sonya Yoncheva; Vaudémont – Arnold Rutkowski;
King René – Alexander Tsymbalyuk; Robert – Andrei Zhilikhovsky;
Ibn-Hakia – Vito Priante; Marta – Elena Zaremba; Almèric
– Roman Shulakov; Bertrand – Gennady Bezzubenkov; Brigitta
– Anna Patalong; Laura – Paola Gardina
The Nutcracker, Op. 71 (1892) [95:00]
Marie – Marion Barbeau; Vaudémont – Stéphane Bullion; The
father – Aurélien Houette; The mother – Alice Renavand;
Drosselmeyer –Nicolas Paul; Robert – Takeru Coste; The Sister
– Caroline Bance
Corps de Ballet de l’Opéra National de Paris
Choeurs et Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris/Alain Altinoglu
Chorus Master: Alessandro di Stefano
Stage direction and sets: Dmitri Tcherniakov
Costume Design: Elena Zaitseva
Lighting design: Gleb Filshtinsky
Choreography: Arthur Pita, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Edouard Lock
rec. March, 2016 Opéra National de Paris (Palais Garnier)
Bonus: Iolanta/The Nutcracker – Behind the
Scenes
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Japanese. Booklet
notes: English, French, German.
Sound format: 2.0 PCM & 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio; Video format: 1
BD50 Full HD Colour 16:9
