Queen Bejart Ballet For Life
Rachelle Kun
Maurice Bjart's long-standing friend Gianni Versace was tragically killed in Miami shortly after the filming in Lausanne. Sadly, this departure into the world of ballet for Versace proved to be one of his last.
The production marks the ultimate fusion of QUEEN's sweeping emotional melodies, both live and studio tracks, and the timeless ethereal grace and movement of ballet. It is the first and only time a full-length ballet has been paired to rock music, albeit alongside some traditional pieces from Mozart. The theme of the choreography is about the cycle of life and life triumphing over death, which perfectly reflects the mood of the songs. Dancers fuse classical and modern ballet seamlessly to songs, including "It's a Beautiful Day", "I Was Born to Love You" and "Radio Ga Ga", closing with the spectacular "The Show Must Go On". This release also includes a substantial segment of John Deacon's final performance with QUEEN, taken from the "Queen + Bjart Ballet For Life" premiere performance with Elton John in Paris.
Bjart explained that with "Ballet For Life" he wanted to bring Freddie Mercury back to life, in doing so he created a delight for both QUEEN and ballet fans alike. Breaking with tradition, the packed audience applaud throughout the show. This is ballet as you've never seen it before, with the wild-eyed euphoria of a rock concert.
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Since it launched a series of ballet films online at the beginning of the coronavirus confinement on March 16, Bjart Ballet Lausanne has been streaming a ballet or documentary every week for free on its website, www.bejart.ch.
Following the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor, Lincoln Center and The School of American Ballet have postponed the streaming of the SAB Workshop Performance Celebration which had been scheduled to for Monday, June 1, to Friday, June 5.
The Great Pretender, The Show Must Go On, I Want To Break Free -- the titles of some of Queen's hits have an eerie resonance with the lives of the two men whose careers are celebrated in French choreographer Maurice Bejart's rock ballet Le Presbytere N'a Rien Perdu De Son Charme, Ni Le Jardin De Son Eclat, or as it is more commonly known, Ballet for Life. The Bejart Ballet Lausanne will be performing the ballet for four nights at the National Theater in Taipei, beginning tonight.
The 1997 ballet is a tribute to Bejart's great muse and the principal dancer of his company for many years, Argentinean Jorge Donn, and to the rock star Freddie Mercury, lead singer and frontman of Queen, both of whom died of AIDS at age 45.
An unlikely combination of subjects for anyone but Bejart, who has often tackled autobiographical themes in his choreography, such as his ballets on the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Charlie Chaplin and the Empress Elizabeth of Austria.
In his notes on Ballet for Life, Bejart says the idea for the ballet was sparked by his discovery that the cover of Queen's last album with Mercury was a photograph of the mountains and Lake Geneva that looked as if it had been taken right in front of Bejart's own chalet in Montreux, where he had retreated to after Donn's death in 1992.
The result is a theatrical extravaganza that runs just over 100 minutes, without interruption; a series of 20 vignettes using 17 Queen songs interspersed with music from Mozart and a film celebrating Donn's life, including footage of him in one of his great roles, Bejart's Nijinsky, Clown of God.
One unanticipated link with the ballet's theme of men cut down in the prime of their lives is that its costumes were designed by the Italian designer, Gianni Versace, a frequent collaborator of Bejart's, who was murdered in 1997.
Dancing the role of Donn is the man who stepped into his shoes as Bejart's principal dancer and deputy director of the company, Frenchman Gil Roman. His dark Gallic looks are a photographic negative to Donn's, whose blonde mane was almost a trademark.
A deliberate juxtaposition by Bejart? Perhaps, but as Roman said in a press conference on Tuesday, Bejart usually starts with a dancer and his or her talents and choreographs from there, rather than trying to pick dancers who can do the steps to a dance that is already completed.
Roman noted that Bejart is also famous for retailoring pieces when a dancer leaves the company to fit the replacement. While Roman originated the role of Donn, Favreau took on the role of Mercury after the original dancer left.
Many balletomanes find them too theatrical -- no surprise given Bejart's experience as a director of plays and operas -- and lacking in sufficient dance. Other critics have called them chaotic. Europeans and Japanese love them, while the response in Britain and the US has been more lukewarm. The one thing everyone seems to be able to agree on is that they are rarely boring.
Dancers, however, adore them. Company member Roger Cunningham, an American who spent 10 years with the Boston Ballet, said one of the reasons he wanted to join the the Bejart Ballet Lausanne five years ago was the chance to do more contemporary pieces instead of the classics that US companies focus on.
Bejart has been quoted as saying: "My ballets are first encounters ... with a piece of music, with life, death, love ... with people whose past and work are embodied in me, just like the dancer -- which I no longer am -- who each time embodies characters that go beyond him. Imagination, violence, humor, love. Everything is there."
For those who don't speak French, Le Presbytere N'a Rien Perdu De Son Charme, Ni Le Jardin De Son Eclat translates as The Priest House Has Not Lost Its Charm, Neither Has the Garden Has Lost Its Glamour.
In his notes on the ballet, Bejart says that the phrase became a cult hit among surrealists in the 1920s and he just happens to like it and wanted to use it because "it gives nothing away and has a nice rhythm when you say it."
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