KVT – Ballet at Hanoi Opera House

SCHEHERAZADE…….. THE BALLET SYNOPSIS

This one-act ballet is based on the prologue of “The Thousand and One Nights”.
When the ballet starts the Sultan, in his harem, is enjoying the attentions and lascivious entertainments of his concubines and his favorite wife Zobeide.

The Sultan’s brother supects Zobeide’s infidelity and arranges that he takes the sultan on a pretend hunting trip.

As soon as the coast is clear the concubines bribe the head eunuch to unlock the gates of the male slave quarters and this ignites an orgy in the harem.

Zobeide sets her sights on the virile Golden Slave and they have a passionate, erotically charged liaison. The slaves and concubines follow their illicit example.

Just as the revelry reaches a climax, the Sultan returns and he is so enraged that he orders that everyone be put to the sword.

Zobeide begs the Sultan’s forgiveness and when she realizes that he is not moved she takes his dagger and kills herself.

The performance by the VNOB

The premiere of Scheherazade on Friday night by the VNOB at the Opera House was faithful to the original 1910 choreography of Michel Fokine as presented by The Ballet Russe and danced by Nijinsky and Karsavina.

However, as colorful as the costumes, as lavish the set, as physically beautiful as the youthful dancers, the Hanoi production 100 years on lacked the magical sexual magnetism that has been Scheherazade’s trademark since its first performance when the graphic eroticism of the dancing and mime caused a sensation.

‘Sex is what it’s all about. Leaping slaves, undulating odalisques and an orgy that culminates in a bloody massacre. Who needs television’.

I’d suggest that the company rethinks the whole thing and when it can re-present it with the expected cat like, ejaculatory leaps of the Golden Slave and the sinuous, sensuous and lithe come-hither-ness of the sexy queen fully developed and allow the corp de ballet to mime as well as just learn the steps and smile then they’ll have a hit on their hands.

Perhaps it also needs a choreographer who can take Fokine and amalgamate his initial choreography with a sexiness appropriate to the abilities of the dancers which in the right hands could be sensational and erotically sensational and definitely not a dance performance suitable for the eyes of impressionable children.

The VNOB orchestra under the versatile and obviously demanding baton of Norwegian conductor Terje Grondahl was just about at its best ever and the solo violinist was exceptional and played sensuously.

*culturevulture.net