Coppélia

Coppélia ballet. Choreography by Patrice Bart after Arthur Saint-Léon. Music by Léo Delibes. Performed 2011 at the Palais Garnier, Paris. Stars Dorothée Gilbert, Mathias Heymann, José Martinez, and Fabrice Bourgeois with the Corps de Ballet of the Opéra national de Paris. Koen Kessels conducts the Orchestre Colonne. Staging by Patrice Bart; sets and costumes by Ezio Toffolutti; lighting by Yves Bernard; additional choreography by Claude de Vulpian; directed for the screen by Vincent Bataillon. Released in 2011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B-

According to George Balanchine, Coppélia is ballet's "great comedy." (101 Stories of the Great Ballets, 1975 Anchor paperback, p.75.) There have been many versions, but here's a typical plot: Doctor Coppélius invents a beautiful life-size doll, named Coppélia. Coppélius puts the doll out on the balcony, and Franz is attracted to her. This angers Franz's real-girl sweetheart, Swanilda (who looks a lot like Coppélia). The couple has a fight just before the Duke's grand ball where newly-weds will get a dowry. Swanilda and her girl friends enter Coppélius's workshop to look for the mysterious girl on the balcony. Swanilda discovers Coppélia is only a doll. Coppélius returns, and Swanilda hides. Coppélius tries to bring Coppélia to life, and Swanilda pretends she is the doll. At first the Doctor is delighted with his success, but he's later dismayed when Swanilda wrecks the workshop and runs away. Franz has learned that the girl he has is the best; he and Swanilda make up and get a gift from the Duke. The Duke gives the Doctor a purse to compensate him for the stuff Swanilda broke, and everybody is happy. There are a lot of joyful dances at the ball in which the ballet master can work to exhaustion every member of the corps.

But subject 2011 Coppélia revival, first choreographed by Patrice Bart at the POB in 1996, is more of a true-crime thriller than a comedy. Here Coppélius is a wealthy gentleman who has lost his love, a beautiful ballerina. He hires a mad-scientist who tries to create a living doll to replace the lost ballerina. Together they scheme to kidnap Swanilda so they can steal her soul and skin to complete the doll. Franz discovers the plot and arrives just in time to save Swanilda. In an ambiguous ending, Kranz and Swanilda marry, but Coppélius still hovers about. Does he plan to try for Swanilda again, or is he looking for another girl to turn into his Coppélia?

There is a good bonus film with this title (the Mystery of Coppélia), in which Bart, Brigitte Lefèvre, and the principal dancers try to explain this "darker" version of the famous comedy. The cheerful traditional score is augmented with heavier music by Delibes from several of his operas. The set looks like a Lyonel Feiniger cityscape. The costumes are a bit more urban than the rustic villages of the comic Coppélias. But I think the biggest mystery is why they didn't rename it "Swanilda" or "Franz and Swanilda" or even "Coppélius." All these names would have been more sensible because the Coppélia doll here is only a sort of skeleton and plays next to no role in the plot.

(We just did a review of the Dovřák Rusalka opera  in which mad-scientist director Martin Kušej turns a traditional fairy tale into a true-crime thriller. When Kušej updated his Rusalka, could he have been thinking about the Bart Coppélia?)

Now that you know what to expect, you will probably be pleased. José Martinez, who danced Siegfried in the POB Swan Lake is impressive as the tortured Coppélius, debonair in appearance while collapsing internally. Dorothée Gilbert, whom we saw in important supporting roles in Dame aux cameléas and Petite Danseuse de Degas, has now the lead. She is an excellent dancer and actress. Fabrice Bourgeois, an invited artist, is fabulous as mad-scientist Spalanzani. Finally, there is a great deal of fancy work from the corp, which is often large enough to make the stage seem almost crowded. The video is a bit soft but acceptable. The orchestra Colonne plays well and is well recorded.

Because the Patrice Bart angle on this ballet is so extreme and different from what most fans would expect, I start with the grade of C. But the well-drilled dancers and expert supporting artists of the POB can, through sheer competence, drag almost anything up a notch or two. So I get over the emotional paucity of the plot and wind up with a B- for this title.