Wherever you are in the “Ravel Boléro” exhibition, in front of the artist’s desk, his travel trunk or the portraits of his parents, filmed images of one of the multiple choreographic versions of the Bolero catches our eye and ear. Distributed through a system of screens scattered throughout the space, they punctuate the visit, accelerate the cardio, divert attention. Suddenly, a Ninja attack explodes the Bolero in the incredible film Love Exposure (2008), by Sion Sono, while the voice of Maurice Béjart (1927-2007) recalls that Ravel’s score “is not Spanish Music, it is an abstract work, a violent work, an emotional work, where we see the struggle between a melody, an oriental melody, and an implacable rhythm…”
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Maurice Ravel himself said: « Mon Bolero should be highlighted: sink this into your head. » With pleasure, and we have been asking for more since its creation in 1928. It was the dancer and patron Ida Rubinstein (1885-1960) who had the idea of commissioning a ballet for her company from the composer. The production was presented on November 22, 1928, at the Paris Opera, in the absence of Ravel, who had left for a tour in Spain. In the choreography of Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972), the costumes and sets of Alexandre Benois (1870-1960), Ida Rubinstein, with her flower in her ear in gypsy style, becomes the attraction of a tavern. Climbed onto a table, she is surrounded by “twenty males fascinated by the carnal incantation of a single woman”as described by critic André Levinson.
Béjart absolute reference
Deliberately sexual in the orgasmic rise of the music, the piece was revisited in 1961 by Maurice Béjart, who created a ballet that has become cult. He takes up the idea of the table which he has painted red and places in the center of the scene. A first version is presented at the Théâtre royal de la Monnaie, in Brussels, with Duska Sifnios surrounded by 40 men from Béjart’s troupe, Le Ballet du XXe century. A second reading will be released with a shirtless dancer featured. Many performers, from Maïa Plisetskaïa to Sylvie Guillem, have tackled this inflexible work immortalized by Jorge Donn in the film Each Otherdirected in 1981 by Claude Lelouch. In 2008, the star of the Paris National Opera Nicolas Le Riche will make the 2,700 spectators at the Opéra Bastille stand up as one man at the end of his breathtaking performance.
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