Don Quixote is the first ballet I have ever been to. So I didn't really know exactly what to expect. Dancing, of course, but as as I have no experience with this style, you'll have to take this review with a few grains of salt. Perhaps some pepper. I'm sure I could critique it better if I had that to rely on.
I assume the ballet was pretty good. The people who sat in front of me cheered a lot and they seemed to know what they were cheering about. With their experience, they found it impressive and entertaining. They appeared especially impressed with the egregious spinning. While this is probably difficult, it wasn't what ever impressed me, however. To me, it's one of the most conservative parts of the performance, a quintessential aspect of the style but therefore somewhat boring. I was more impressed when they were working outside of the format. When they were telling the story.
I like stories. I liked Act 1, and the end of Act 2, because this was when the most story was being told. I felt "The Dream" sequence (scene 2 of Act 2) was far, far too long. This was the 'let's showoff our dancin' skillz' section. It was the 'Hmm. I have no basis to think about this with' section for me. The 'Look! They're spinnin' around in lines and squares!' section. Meh. The last act was a little like this, but more like the 'Solo time!' or 'My god I hope that some people don't have a solo...' section.
Perhaps I lack culture and refinement, but I was a little bored at times. I would have fallen asleep, I think, if I didn't start paying more attention to the orchestra. They were really good. Very enjoyable. Once I started moving with the music, I could get a little more into the showoff scenes.
I was also highly impressed with the scene design. The 17th century Spain look was pretty good and they had two full and different sets like this. I was amazed at how high those dancer people can jump. I was stunned by what they wear (like male butt? Go to the ballet). I really liked the foppish Gamache and all the other humor they placed into the voice-less acting. Humor is the way one should tell a Don Quixote story: it's inane, "foppish and funny".
However, I wasn't fully sure why this ballet is named after the deranged knight errant. He was a very unimportant part of the whole play. He was just sorta there. Another comic looking character, but overall pointless. The story is out of the book, right at a part where the Don is being more or less ignored by his creator. But, I haven't actually finished reading the arc in the book, yet. This was the part of the story where I got distracted.
If you are expecting something like the Man of La Mancha, then that is not what you are going to get. As far as I have read in the book (1/2 way though volume 1), I don't know where that story came from. What you will get (I assume another company would do this similarly) is a humorous dance routine with a small semblance of a story. If you have never been to a ballet, this might be a good one to start with, to see if you can get into it, but if you've never been to the ballet, it's probably not something you'll enjoy a lot. Ballet, I think, is one of those things which is more enjoyable if you have, at one time, been an actual dancer yourself. Kinda like Mexican Folklorico, which I have done and enjoy immensely.
No comments:
Post a Comment