Kulturkompasset | critics of culture events

Duato and Bouy at San Carlo, Naples.


San Carlo Opera House’s Dance Company

Soloists: Alessandro Macario, Corona Paone, Giovanna Spalice, Giulia Di Stefano.

1 – Without Words. Coreography Nacho Duato.

2 – Il mio angelo (My angel). Coreography Luc Bouy.

Il Mio Angelo

Il Mio Angelo

In this mild November in southern Italy, where winter seems still very far, Naples offers a dark face to the world, being on newspapers for waste problems. So it’s comforting letting people remember that the city has much other to offer, also speaking of quality and culture.

It’s not a good time for Italian culture world, money is lacking just as in the rest of the world because of the heavy economic crisis. But, while many Opera houses have reduced or cutted at all their dance seasons, it’s noteworthy that Naples’ Teatro San Carlo keeps the tradition alive. Not only they have slightly increased the number of ballet evenings in the new season – moreover, they have surprisingly organized a small but meaningful November Dance Festival.

Il Mio Angelo

Il Mio Angelo

All this could be made in a short time and with limited possibilities thanks to the brand new Company Director Alessandra Panzavolta (she’s in charge not longer than since last September), who hopefully will keep alive the Dance company of the Neapolitan theatre, one of the oldest in Europe and always in activity in all these centuries.

The November Festival will be closed hosting Alicia Alonso’s Cuban Nacional Ballet, but already this ‘Contemporary dance evening’, was an occasion not to be missed.

Spanish Nacho Duato had never before performed his works in Italy, while for Belgian choreographer and great dancer Luc Bouy it has been a come back to San Carlo, where his works were already on stage in the past, including ‘Filumena Marturano’, created for Carla Fracci from one of the masterpiece of the Italian 1900’s theatre.

Without words

Without words

The evening has been more and more electrifying, from the lyrical somber tones of Duato to the heartbreaking passion so evident in Bouy’s work. The two choreographer had a common experience in the early 1980s, when they both were in Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm
. After only one year, Duato moved to the Netherlands, while Bouy stayed there for a long time collecting honours, first as main dancer (for him Mats Ek created his very personal ‘Giselle’ that it’s still on stage in the whole world), then as choreographer.

Let’s come back to this Italian event. It has been all about love’s many faces and how feelings reflect themselves in our lives and souls
. The first part was for Duato’s ‘Without words’, that was created in 1998 for the American Ballet Theatre. The music was from selected Schubert’s Lieder in the piano/cello version (played by the great Micha Maisky); no voice for setting the atmosphere free from the leftovers of sentimentalism.

Without words

Without words

‘Without words’ had already been staged in Europe, notably in Germany, where in Berlin he had Vladimir Mayakov among the protagonists. The six number have different atmospheres and feelings and yes, there’s no hint of dusty romanticism and not real drama, but there’s tenderness, love, hirony, solitude, sadness. Tears  are just suggested and kept inside or hidden. The dancers, notably Alessandra Veronetti, Fabio Gison, Alessandro Macario, succeeded in their task: they danced ‘from inside’ the spirit of the choreography, their bodies were the human mirror of their feelings. They showed all their technical skill, absolutely necessary for the strict nervous movements required by Duato
.

For Luc Bouy’s ‘Il mio angelo’ it was the prèmiere. This is a tough work, not easy to perform and strongly involving for the audience. Here we find drama, tears, pity, violence, grief, despair. From the beginning to the end, we see how love is born, how it grows and goes through troubles and terrors in the world outside ourselves
. The dancing style here is slightly different from the first part: the space is used in its wideness for long, extended movements and a much larger ensemble is on stage. The two protagonists Corona Paone and Alessandro Macario become our faces as we recognize our same experiences of life. And for showing us hope, Bouy dedicates unforgettable moments to Giovanna Spalice, who brings the Angel to life, and embodies it in a lyrical magical way.

Without words

Without words

The last scene reminds us first to Michelangelo’s Pietà: the Woman is near the body of her Man, dead, and we can see a double meaning. She could have caused the death of her man, meaning that love is the end, followed by the starting of a new life. Or else we see the eternal human pain expressed with simple but very tense gestures, a scene that that surprise and hit our soul, showing the emotions that humans have inside since the dawn of humanity.

The music chosen by Bouy are strongly evocative for the different moments: Philip Glass’ Violin Concerto and Akhneton, then the violent and threatening Kodo’s Japanese drums and Alban Berg Violin Concert.

Alessandro Macario and Corona Paone have been the wonderful protagonists, he was free to express himself with the strong phisicity of his whole body; she had to control herself much more, and her performance was so strained and emotional that was able to seize the people.

The audience was not less than enchanted and bewildered at the end, and expressed it with endless ovations
.

Naples, Teatro San Carlo: 13/11/2010

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