The Grands Ballets Canadiens offer a very beautiful reading of La dame aux camélias, all in elegance and finesse.
The novel by Alexandre Dumas fils tells the tragic love story between the courtesan Marguerite Gauthier and the young bourgeois Armand Duval. Canadian choreographer Peter Quanz chose to illustrate the major stages of this passion with three excellent performers for the role of Marguerite. Rachele Buriassi is brilliant in a first scene, while Marguerite and Armand feel sincere love for each other and take refuge away from society.
In a second scene, Anya Nesvitaylo’s performance is marked by subtlety and distress as Marguerite agrees to leave Armand, at the request of the latter’s father, to put an end to the scandal of such an affair. Finally, Maude Sabourin is particularly moving when Marguerite sees herself isolated, abandoned, while tuberculosis condemns her.
Peter Quanz offers them a classic, romantic choreography, but he opens the door to a more contemporary dance in the transitions, while a narrator (spectacularly interpreted by the dancer Célestin Boutin) takes up the words of Alexandre Dumas fils to express Armand’s moods.
There are still some moments of joy in the choreography, and even humor, to lighten the point.
The music, mainly pieces by composers like Lili Boulanger, Louise Farrenc, Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann, fits the story perfectly. The choreographer made a particularly enlightened choice by placing the piano on the stage, near the dancers. Pianist Rosalie Asselin thus plays a direct role in the production.
Anne Armit’s costumes add to the romance of the whole thing. The dancers’ outfits are obviously very beautiful, whether ethereal or ornate, depending on the context. But it is especially the gentlemen’s clothes that enchant with their elegance. Jackets, frock coats, top hats, the dancers look great.
A final, more dreamlike painting closes the production. The three Marguerites find themselves on the threshold of death, in a particularly touching choreography. Each one literally disappears before our eyes, in a clever process.
The story of The Lady of the Camellias has been told many times in the cinema and on stage. Several great choreographers have offered their reading of the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils. The choreography of Peter Quanz and the performance of the dancers of the Grands Ballets can proudly take their place alongside these productions.