the essential
It’s a very beautiful season that Le Parvis presented on Saturday morning, at the opening of the 50th anniversary day. Even if the shape is perplexing.
Like every year, the public was overwhelmingly present on Saturday for the presentation of the future season. As usual, the room was full for the high mass which seals the end of a season and the prospect of the year to come. As usual, a more compact presentation had been announced. But what was not business as usual was that it actually was. In fact it was compact, exciting and we remained perplexed by the modus operandi. Compact because the presentation lasted 66 minutes, watch in hand. Surprising because it was not a live high mass but the projection on the big screen of a completely recorded sequence.
Exciting with a season which starts on October 3 with the Malandin Ballet Biarritz which comes to the Parvis stage with Lesseasons. A new creation with 22 dancers which ranges from the extremely famous Four Seasons by Vivaldi to those lesser known composed by Giovanni Antonio Guido. And we’ll be off for a year of shows. Events like Molière’s Dom Juan staged by Macha Makeïeff. Or the superb 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea brought to the stage by Christian Hecq, member of the Comédie-Française, and visual artist Valérie Lesort. Trilogies like Paul Auster’s New York by actor and director Igor Mendjisky. Or the three appearances of Tarbes Jonathan Capdevielle in the year of the Parvis. So many proposals that invite you to come to the Parvis.
We still remain perplexed and surprised by the form of this presentation. By this great promotion of live performance which chooses precisely not to do it on stage. The arguments are laudable: giving everyone the floor, mastering the timing, facilitating the organization of the presentation. If we applied the same solution with the same arguments to the shows of the season, there would no longer be a live show at the Parvis. Imagine opening the 2024/2025 season with Les Saisons du Malandin Ballet Biarritz on the big screen like the Opera in the cinema instead of actually having them on stage. And further in the season Dom Juan directed by Macha Makeïeff or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Christian Hecq and Valérie Lesort on video. Even if we have often talked about this high mass, we are left wondering if it is not ultimately essential.
