Siddharta [Blu-ray]

Interesting, but hard to follow...
I am familiar with the story of Siddharta, so I thought that even if this ballet only touched on his life while being more avant garde in the interpretation of the story, I would still love this. However, throughout the ballet I kept thinking that if I saw this on stage without the title of each scene so I know what is going on I would have no clue what this story is all about.

I think abstract ballet is fine in abstract ballet, but this attempts to be a story ballet, but it is impossible to understand what is happening without the list of titles of each scene.

With this said I did enjoy much of the dancing, and I think the dancers gave their all in this production. I just think a person should be able to come off the street with no prior info and watch a story ballet and know what is going on. All the famous story ballets (La Bayadere, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, etc) are easy to follow even with very little miming and mostly just dancing.

Preljocaj's...

Interesting, but troubled.
The Paris Opera Ballet is nothing if not experimental. Siddhartha is a great example of their propensity for evolution in ballet and risk taking on stage. Having said that, one needs to be aware of the fact that experimental ballets are seldom perfect, and Siddhartha is an example of this. Dupont and Le Riche are absolutely gorgeous and fit their roles perfectly. Dupont stole the show with her ethereal, water-like movement qualities, and Le Riche is never less than magnificent (no wonder Nureyev liked him). However, the staging has some issues. The opening act stutters a few times, and even with the libretto in hand, often leaves you wondering just what is going on. When it does pick itself up and display a stronger narrative, Siddhartha becomes a very fascinating, emotional ballet. The dancers portray the scene wonderfully, and it is in ballets like this that you can really appreciate seeing a company who has all come from the same training background. Overall, this is a good...

Mon dieu! Quel Ballet! Magnifique! Plus que cinq Etoile!
Je commence avec mille fois merci a Mlle. Brigitte Lefevre (I'm sorry my computer does not allow me to insert French punctuation). Elle avait la courage de faire cet Ballet comme un travail fait sur commande. Her courage was justified! I'm writing this Review immediately after my first viewing of this marvelous Ballet. As I've noted in other of my reviews, I'm no fan of ballet, or of dance, performed on naked, or near naked stages, with subdued lighting, and where most, if not all of the dancing is barefooted. Well, all of these personal "negatives" are in Siddharta. But so what! Nicolas Le Riche as the coming Buddah, and Aurelia Dupont as The Awakening, sensitively perform their difficult roles: Armed only with their dancing skills, and the art of mime, each makes apparent to the attentive viewer the spiritual truths being expounded. No easy task. But they are assisted by a large supporting cast of gifted performers. The Ballet is told in a series of 16 Tableaux. One should...

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