The world of arts:
The Paris Opera Ballet
Gwen Herat
Michaek Renault was an infant prodigy from the Paris Opera School and
created a sensation with his first international debut.
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With a long history of classical ballet, producing some of the best
dancers from the beginning, Paris Opera Ballet is as good as the Royal
B., Bolshoi, Kirov, etc.
It dates back to 1661 when the Academie royale de dancse was founded.
In 1671, it joined the Academie royale de musique where Beauchamp was
the director of dance for its first production, Pomone. Following year,
Lully joined Beauchamp.
Mille La Fontaine was the first ballerina to appear on its stage in
Triomphe de l'Amour. After a few changes, Dupre was appointed ballet
master whose famous students were J. P. Rameau, G. Vestris, and Noverre
among others. Noverre's brilliant performance paved the way for reforms.
The first production with Noverre was Mozart's Les Petisriens in 1778.
The huge ornate Paris Opera Ballet consists of the French National
Ballet and the school. There are smaller companies in other cities as
well as companies most of whom are touring.
They also perform during various summer festivals in places like Aix
en Province and Le Boax.
The French dancers are famous for their personality, vivacity as well
as exuberance. They also have a certain air of elegance that many
dancers from other well-known companies lack.
Their outstanding costumes are the result of French designers being
the best in the world. Many fashion designers deem it a privilege to
design costumes for ballet. One good example is that Yves Saint-Laurent
designed the costumes for Roland Petit's Cryano de Bergerc.
Dancers
Two of Paris Opera Ballet’s virtuoso dancers, Gerad Ohn and
Clair Sombert who brilliantly danced in abstract, neo-classical
adagio.
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The most popular and dancers of excellence during these years were
Guimard Therese and Augusti Vestris. M. Gardel succeeded Noverre in
1781-7 and Pierre Gardel in 1787-1817.
He choreographed many mythological and historical ballets.
Later, Rossini, Auber, Adam, Myerbeer and Halevy together were
involved in F. Tagioni's La Sylphide.
In 1832, his daughter Marie created landmark in the history of
classical ballet when she introduced romantic ballet Elssler and
debutted in it.
In 1841, Saint-Leon became the ballet master followed by Mazziler in
1853. Petipa who was to become one of ballet history's foremost
choreographers, made his debut in 1858 and went on to become its
choreographer. Paris Opera Ballet suffered a major set-back towards the
1860s, the last climax being Saint-Leon's Coppelia in 1870.
The Paris Garnier which is the present building in 1875 with
Merante's Sylvia being staged. With slow movement from 1909 before the
First World War which had overshadowed its activities, a ray of hope
merged with choreographers setting the pace for new ballets. It
stabilised with the entry of Lifar who became its main dancer as well as
choreographer.
Spell
After a successful spell, Lifar retired when many choreographers took
over season after season. Many famous dancers and ballets were the
results while creative ideas pushed the Paris B to what it is today.
The annual Festival International de Danse de P commenced in 1963 and
continues each autumn since. Paris Opera B contains many outlets
throughout France that are equally excellent with great dancers emerging
from them.
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