Bastille Day and the Ballet!

Yesterday was Bastille Day here in France—a.k.a. La Fête Nationale. Bastille Day commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison on July 14, 1789, which marked the beginning of the French Revolution. The prison was a symbol of the absolute and arbitrary power of Louis the 16^th, and its capture by the people signaled that they were no longer willing to accept that power as absolute. Needless to say, there were celebrations all over Paris all day long, including the oldest and largest annual military parade in Europe, held on the Champs-Élysées, and what is said to be a spectacular fireworks display at the Eiffel Tower at nightfall. I, however, had a ticket to the ballet! (Unfortunately, this happy fact also meant that I had to allot my free time for the day accordingly, and so missed out on the Bastille Day festivities.)

I’ve never attended a ballet before. This was, put simply, the mother of all introductions, and might have ruined me for all other ballets for the rest of time. It was DAZZLING. From the moment I set foot inside the Palais Garnier until I left 2½ hours later, I was completely sensorially overwhelmed. The building defies description, and I am left wondering what Paris was thinking when it built the Opéra Bastille as its replacement. As if any building could replace this! Let alone the Bastille Opera…. (If I were speaking out loud right now, I would make a scoffing noise of some sort here. Maybe a snort.) I saw Othello last week at Bastille, and the biggest compliment I can muster for either is “meh.”

But Palais Garnier is more than just visually stunning. Upon entering the building, you are transported back to 19^th century Paris. The historically accurate attire of the theater attendants, the military drum procession through the halls, and the dueling soprano and bass chants of the program saleswoman and man (respectively) all contributed to the sense that you had entered another place in very different time.

And the BALLET!!!!!! I haven’t even talked about the ballet yet! I saw Les Enfants du Paris, a new ballet created by a new director, which translates the old Parisian film of the same name into dance. The ballet is set in early 20^th century Paris and tells the story of its artists, theaters, and cabarets through the memories of a mime named Baptiste. Don’t ask me how they managed to convey all that through dance, but they did. It was marvelously brilliant and kept the viewer completely engaged by blurring the boundaries between reality and fantasy. I’m still not sure which was which. But I AM sure I loved it. And I suspect I have fallen in love with ballet. And, without doubt, Paris.

Oh – and the dancing was FLAWLESS!!!!!! Here are some pictures. Unfortunately, the Palais Garnier is dimly lit and use of flash was strongly discouraged, so these are somewhat less than perfect.

Also, we obviously weren’t allowed to photograph the dancers during the performance, lest they be blinded by the flash and fall off the stage. So to offer some sense of what the performance was like, I downloaded a couple of photos from the Internet.