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Notturno Veneziano
- Thread starter l'bogo
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- dark fantasy mystery
l'bogo
Venetian Mask
But he never danced as Romeo.
GabriellaSivilla
Governor
There have been no parents, no friar, no bottles of poison, no daggers. We had no Italian Renaissance, just minimalist staging, the time reduced to an hour and twenty minutes. The musical score was based on the three Suites for Orchestra taken from the ballet in 1936 and 1944 by Prokofiev himself, interspersed with silences and whispers and rustles of wind.
It is difficult to realise fully that it has actually happened. Flying, carried by the audience, I have experienced "enthusiasm", en-theos, being filled by a deity - for tonight I never had the feeling of being involved in an earthly event, the crowd of spectators, like a collective, slowly and implacably growing electrical wave, has transported us all into another dimension.
Those who were not there will struggle to understand the extent of it. Being atoms of a vibrating, and then a pounding, mass, people all burning with the same fire, all headed towards the same impossible destination, concentrated on the same immense reality, was marvellously electrifying. The rest of the world has vanished, there only remain the brutal excitement of the epic, the heroic face of Romeo, the transfigured expression of Madame Chloé, a mystical magic that forces us to embrace, and then to pour out into the streets to dance our catharsis.
It is difficult to realise fully that it has actually happened. Flying, carried by the audience, I have experienced "enthusiasm", en-theos, being filled by a deity - for tonight I never had the feeling of being involved in an earthly event, the crowd of spectators, like a collective, slowly and implacably growing electrical wave, has transported us all into another dimension.
Those who were not there will struggle to understand the extent of it. Being atoms of a vibrating, and then a pounding, mass, people all burning with the same fire, all headed towards the same impossible destination, concentrated on the same immense reality, was marvellously electrifying. The rest of the world has vanished, there only remain the brutal excitement of the epic, the heroic face of Romeo, the transfigured expression of Madame Chloé, a mystical magic that forces us to embrace, and then to pour out into the streets to dance our catharsis.
messaline
Crucified Amazon
I thank you both, Gabriella and l'bogo, to bring us a little poetry in this world so hard...
Yet Romeo and Juliet denounces what it is unacceptable to me: the intolerance!
We live more and more in ' tribes ' and more and more these different tribes reject everything that is not their view of the world...
In France, currently, we have more and more physical aggressions, towards the Jews, towards the Arabs, towards homosexuals mainly gays...
It cannot be accepted without reaction because otherwise, it would mean that we let ' the Beast ' coming back and forcing us to live in an authoritarian world, devoid of any possibility to the difference...
I know what I'm saying here, a lot of people may think so, but few are willing to defend their right to the difference, saying, after all this old French proverb:
' To live happily, live hidden '... which for me is false because in living hidden, we are risking to disappear !
Just a few personal thoughts...
I am speechless... this is the most beautiful piece of work, then the ballet, and then such insightful thoughts from Messaline...
I don't usually....feel this way.... at 11 o'clock on a Monday evening.
Tribal conflict in the past, in the future beauty and harmony, as shown in this thread? I do hope so, Messa.
Well done Gabriella and l'bogo, and thank you both!
I don't usually....feel this way.... at 11 o'clock on a Monday evening.
Tribal conflict in the past, in the future beauty and harmony, as shown in this thread? I do hope so, Messa.
Well done Gabriella and l'bogo, and thank you both!
l'bogo
Venetian Mask
Thank You very much Wragg, for the beautiful words and appreciation! But don't forget the great work of Eulalia with her translation and interpretation of text...
GabriellaSivilla
Governor
THE DAY AFTER
We are reading the reviews in the newspapers eagerly, and in the specialist magazines that deal with dance - everyone is talking about it, about this extraordinary performance: a real success, a triumph!
Interviews with Madame Chloé, interviews with Romeo - judged 'divine' in his interpretation. For me, only a few lines. Yes, Gabriella-Giulietta, excellent performance but, as ever, a woman has to do anything twice as well as a man to be judged half as good.
But I have to settle for that, until yesterday I was a complete unknown, even if I have put all my soul, and especially my body, into achieving this little bit of fame - it has cost me sacrifices, voluntary sacrifices, but burning humiliations too, when I recall how I have had to trade in my dignity through the long, dark years of anonymity.
Et in cauda venenum, and there’s a sting in the tail ...
Certain newspapers, which defer to the patriarchy, have the headline: 'Juliet Scandal’, and they go on, 'Yesterday evening at the Teatro La Fenice, we witnessed such a show that calling it obscene is no exaggeration. Juliet, completely naked, hoisted up on a cross ... blasphemy ... pornography ... On stage there was an embrace ... The dancer rode the hero like a drunken bacchanal ... she devoured the raw meat with frenetic movements, prey to the ecstasy of an orgasm.’
Another rag, always priest-ridden, even publishes a photograph supposed to be of me, naked, posing in front of the water-gate of the theatre. No! I'm not the one there. You can’t just find a photo of a naked blonde who looks a bit like me, make a photomontage, and say it's me! Look at it well, that model has vulgar tattoos on her arms! It’s not me! Unless someone has stuck them on me while I was hugging my beloved Romeo ... So, don’t believe what they say about you, just believe what you know: you are not guilty of anything, nor are you dirty, nor provocative. Nor are you less important than he is, you’re not inferior. Nor are you a liar, a hysterical woman, a beast. Nor are you little, fragile, insignificant... You are what you choose to be!
Repeat performances follow from day to day; in the afternoon the matinée for young people is staged, where I dance fully dressed. Queues for tickets at the box office are already forming at the first light of day in the square in front of the theater.
The poisonous polemic that exploded in the pro-clerical sheets did nothing but trigger curiosity – I’d somewhat morbid curiosity. Spectators, even ones who wouldn’t normally dream of coming to a ballet are now queuing to get hold of a ticket. Success is guaranteed!
The frontal attack that I’ve provoked immediately arouses a movement of solidarity, both among my fellow dancers, and especially in Madame Chloé and Ruslan, who has defended my honour with a drawn sword! Also Frau Helga and the Director have exerted themselves in singing my praises.
It has also stoked up the interest of the national press. A well-known television journalist has asked me to give an interview, a short film will be broadcast this evening, during which I shall have to answer some of his questions, as well as a longer interview that will give me the opportunity to go more deeply into the several artistic aspects of my interpretation, and this will then be turned into a full-length documentary feature.
We are reading the reviews in the newspapers eagerly, and in the specialist magazines that deal with dance - everyone is talking about it, about this extraordinary performance: a real success, a triumph!
Interviews with Madame Chloé, interviews with Romeo - judged 'divine' in his interpretation. For me, only a few lines. Yes, Gabriella-Giulietta, excellent performance but, as ever, a woman has to do anything twice as well as a man to be judged half as good.
But I have to settle for that, until yesterday I was a complete unknown, even if I have put all my soul, and especially my body, into achieving this little bit of fame - it has cost me sacrifices, voluntary sacrifices, but burning humiliations too, when I recall how I have had to trade in my dignity through the long, dark years of anonymity.
Et in cauda venenum, and there’s a sting in the tail ...
Certain newspapers, which defer to the patriarchy, have the headline: 'Juliet Scandal’, and they go on, 'Yesterday evening at the Teatro La Fenice, we witnessed such a show that calling it obscene is no exaggeration. Juliet, completely naked, hoisted up on a cross ... blasphemy ... pornography ... On stage there was an embrace ... The dancer rode the hero like a drunken bacchanal ... she devoured the raw meat with frenetic movements, prey to the ecstasy of an orgasm.’
Another rag, always priest-ridden, even publishes a photograph supposed to be of me, naked, posing in front of the water-gate of the theatre. No! I'm not the one there. You can’t just find a photo of a naked blonde who looks a bit like me, make a photomontage, and say it's me! Look at it well, that model has vulgar tattoos on her arms! It’s not me! Unless someone has stuck them on me while I was hugging my beloved Romeo ... So, don’t believe what they say about you, just believe what you know: you are not guilty of anything, nor are you dirty, nor provocative. Nor are you less important than he is, you’re not inferior. Nor are you a liar, a hysterical woman, a beast. Nor are you little, fragile, insignificant... You are what you choose to be!
Repeat performances follow from day to day; in the afternoon the matinée for young people is staged, where I dance fully dressed. Queues for tickets at the box office are already forming at the first light of day in the square in front of the theater.
The poisonous polemic that exploded in the pro-clerical sheets did nothing but trigger curiosity – I’d somewhat morbid curiosity. Spectators, even ones who wouldn’t normally dream of coming to a ballet are now queuing to get hold of a ticket. Success is guaranteed!
The frontal attack that I’ve provoked immediately arouses a movement of solidarity, both among my fellow dancers, and especially in Madame Chloé and Ruslan, who has defended my honour with a drawn sword! Also Frau Helga and the Director have exerted themselves in singing my praises.
It has also stoked up the interest of the national press. A well-known television journalist has asked me to give an interview, a short film will be broadcast this evening, during which I shall have to answer some of his questions, as well as a longer interview that will give me the opportunity to go more deeply into the several artistic aspects of my interpretation, and this will then be turned into a full-length documentary feature.
l'bogo
Venetian Mask
Thanks Madiosi for the picture!
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GabriellaSivilla
Governor
THE INTERVIEW
It's like the first night of a ballet! Only in a dance I have no problem untangling myself, in an interview it's like walking through a minefield. With the microphone poked into my face, the camera pointed at me like a bazooka, I don't know where to look, if I look at the camera I miss the expression of the interviewer, if I look at the journalist I cannot 'look' at the audience’s eyes. I had never considered this situation before today. I'll have to get used to it.
After the brief presentation made by my interviewer, she starts with the first question:
‘How did you feel, dancing such a difficult and unusual choreography?'
'I was full of doubts, I meditated for a long time before accepting the role, but day after day I gained the conviction that if I could break out of the patterns of traditional classical dance, I could come out of the shell in which I was imprisoned. The emotion of playing Juliet in this choreography galvanised me, I experienced this period of preparation so intensely that I could hardly distinguish myself from Juliet!'
'How could you play such a demanding character?'
'I had experienced it myself, the loss of my partner was the wound that scarred my life, I was Juliet when seeing romeo lifeless on the stage.'
'Is your partner dead? So this explains many things ... '
'It's a piece of your soul that is torn from you, it's as painful as if someone was ripping your heart out of your chest.'
'You danced naked, did you have difficulty accepting this?'
'When this requirement was presented to me, I wanted to pull out right away ... But I didn’t dance completely naked, I wore a protection that hid my private parts... and, anyway, what are those a few, or so many, inches of exposed skin? It's just skin.’
'Some local newspapers have strongly criticised the fact that you have danced like that.'
'Why didn’t they criticise Romeo, why do they only criticize Juliet?'
'Why do you think?'
'Because religions hate women!'
'Are you a feminist?'
‘What does it mean, to be a feminist? I'm just saying that they want to draw a distinction between an inch of female skin and an inch of male skin.’
'Do you think there’s no difference?'
Absolutely none! See, from the hair down to the feet, through the breasts, the abdomen, the genitals. The religions - Christian, Islamic and Hebrew - dissect, constrict and imprison the female body ... '
'Are you a believer?'
'Not any more. Until I was thirteen I prayed every night, and slept with a rosary under my pillow. I prayed every night, without really understanding why, but it was a kind of ritual. At the orphanage, where I lived after the death of my grandparents until I was eighteen, I had to take part in religious services.'
'So you're against religion?'
'I don’t mind if others believe, or what they believe in, but none of those three religions, none of them is benevolent regarding the female body or the feminine mind, it’s a daily war against the freedom of more than half of mankind. Every part of the body is a symbol of injustice, violence and repression we’ve suffered, brutality that take your breath away, both in the religious texts and in the real consequences on our flesh.’
'Let's go back to the dance. How would you judge this interpretation?’
'”Romeo and Juliet” is one of the great myths of literature, where love is, inevitably, both liberating and devastating. Suffering and antagonism find a solution on the night, in death. Hatred combines with extreme passion, and the music unites lovers, but then separates them ... '
It's like the first night of a ballet! Only in a dance I have no problem untangling myself, in an interview it's like walking through a minefield. With the microphone poked into my face, the camera pointed at me like a bazooka, I don't know where to look, if I look at the camera I miss the expression of the interviewer, if I look at the journalist I cannot 'look' at the audience’s eyes. I had never considered this situation before today. I'll have to get used to it.
After the brief presentation made by my interviewer, she starts with the first question:
‘How did you feel, dancing such a difficult and unusual choreography?'
'I was full of doubts, I meditated for a long time before accepting the role, but day after day I gained the conviction that if I could break out of the patterns of traditional classical dance, I could come out of the shell in which I was imprisoned. The emotion of playing Juliet in this choreography galvanised me, I experienced this period of preparation so intensely that I could hardly distinguish myself from Juliet!'
'How could you play such a demanding character?'
'I had experienced it myself, the loss of my partner was the wound that scarred my life, I was Juliet when seeing romeo lifeless on the stage.'
'Is your partner dead? So this explains many things ... '
'It's a piece of your soul that is torn from you, it's as painful as if someone was ripping your heart out of your chest.'
'You danced naked, did you have difficulty accepting this?'
'When this requirement was presented to me, I wanted to pull out right away ... But I didn’t dance completely naked, I wore a protection that hid my private parts... and, anyway, what are those a few, or so many, inches of exposed skin? It's just skin.’
'Some local newspapers have strongly criticised the fact that you have danced like that.'
'Why didn’t they criticise Romeo, why do they only criticize Juliet?'
'Why do you think?'
'Because religions hate women!'
'Are you a feminist?'
‘What does it mean, to be a feminist? I'm just saying that they want to draw a distinction between an inch of female skin and an inch of male skin.’
'Do you think there’s no difference?'
Absolutely none! See, from the hair down to the feet, through the breasts, the abdomen, the genitals. The religions - Christian, Islamic and Hebrew - dissect, constrict and imprison the female body ... '
'Are you a believer?'
'Not any more. Until I was thirteen I prayed every night, and slept with a rosary under my pillow. I prayed every night, without really understanding why, but it was a kind of ritual. At the orphanage, where I lived after the death of my grandparents until I was eighteen, I had to take part in religious services.'
'So you're against religion?'
'I don’t mind if others believe, or what they believe in, but none of those three religions, none of them is benevolent regarding the female body or the feminine mind, it’s a daily war against the freedom of more than half of mankind. Every part of the body is a symbol of injustice, violence and repression we’ve suffered, brutality that take your breath away, both in the religious texts and in the real consequences on our flesh.’
'Let's go back to the dance. How would you judge this interpretation?’
'”Romeo and Juliet” is one of the great myths of literature, where love is, inevitably, both liberating and devastating. Suffering and antagonism find a solution on the night, in death. Hatred combines with extreme passion, and the music unites lovers, but then separates them ... '
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