Saw it on Saturday night March 2nd. Or rather, saw Act One. Walked out before Act Two, along with a musician friend, who spent the hour scrutinishing the cupola's Chagall fresco. He found it more action-packed.

Terribly boring. So boring, that events in orchestra pit more worthwhile. Vello Pahn conducting. Turgid, difficult score. Orchestra wide awake - unusually - to navigate serried ranks of obstacles.

Pahn regularly conducts for the ballet, had clearly sat in on rehearsals, and realised that the ballet was a/ unmusical and b/that the dancers were going strictly by the counts, so no worry about their phrasing, rubato etc.

He accordingly did not raise his eyes to look at the on-stage debacle once. Conducted straight through, on automatic pilot. Seemed to be enjoying himself.

Had been looking forward to Mr. Belarbi's new work. Sorry news: this particular piece is warmed-over Pina Bausch, with snatches of Agnes B. de Mille.

Incidentally, the world has had enough of Bum Lifts. A Bum Lift is a thing "pioneered", if that is the word, by that woman Pina Bausch. The man picks up the girl, who is folded in two like a tea-towel, and presents her bum to the audience. She then straightens her legs, going from tea-towel, to shower-curtain. Strictly for cellulite lovers, as Clement Crisp has remarked on another memorable occasion.

Bournonville did not like lifted at all. Perhaps there was something of the prophet about him after all. Perhaps he knew that Pina Bausch was in the pipeline.

Cannot blame the dancers, but every one on stage save for the Misses Pujol and Daniel staggered about as though they'd rather be out night-clubbing.

Two hours of bedlam, with roughly two minutes worth of actual steps. The current "Directeur de la danse", Brigitte Lefebvre, is one of the Popes of Modern Dance. It shows.

Katharine - that has brightened my day considerably. Thank you! I particularly loved your account of Vello Pahn's conducting.

One question about 'bum lifts'. Isn't there one in Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardee? Or are you referring to something quite different?

Good God. And to think I nearly booked to go and see this. Narrow escape, eh?
Brendan, I don't think Nadia Nerina or Lesley Collier could ever be compared with a tea towell

hmmm...the Chagall cupola is gorgeous...only a pity he doesn't fit into the Opéra ! If it wasn't signed 'Chagall' I'm sure you'd hear other sounds !

LAST EDITED ON 05-03-02 AT 04:18 PM (GMT)

There may be a Bum Lift in La fille Mal Gardée, but if there is one, I don't want to think about that right now.

Have not read Wuthering Heights since (cannot give number of decades or someone will realise how very ancient the present writer is)...suffice it to say that the ballet resembles nothing at all, and certainly does not seem to be set in England.

The sets are however quite lovely, though minimalist, some clever ideas, like those cliffs torn through by a wall of fire, achieved with few, but effective, means.

Kader Belarbi is a first-class dancer and mime, and a highly sympathetic individual withal, which is why I believe the entire city of Paris appears to have turned up at the Opera. There's not a single ticket save for standing room to be had.

Is there a solution to all this drab dullness ? Well, Nureyev gave an interview to a Paris newspaper, "Libération", roughly sixteen years ago (Yikes ! ), whilst he was POB Director. He said that he wanted to bring Bournonville's classes back to the Opera School, to bring back a true choreographic language, with advanced step combinations. It never happened. There were just too many feathers about, eagerly waiting to be ruffled.

The paucity of steps, of step combinations, that is what gets me down, down down. People do not choreograph today in balletic language, where the steps spring from the music like a branch from a tree, but rather in flotsam and jetsam, like the notorious Bum Lift.

Please, fellows, let us get those dancers up off the floor, up off sofas, up out of the dust-mites, or dog poo, or whatever it is, bowling about on the streets !

If there's no money for costumes, or sets, fine, let us get back to basics. Let us have jumps, let us have beats, let us have steps, let us have real enchaînements ! That is the craft of the choreographer. Living Theatre has been done already.

After searching for other reviews, I'm not so sure it's a 'total' rotten production. Seems the second part was totally different ?

I feel totally convinced that the Bum Lift as desribed by Katharine is totally different to the one that I think is being referred to in Fille. In this (pioneered of course by David Blair with Nadia Nerina) Lise rises up from a crowd of girls, lifted triumphantly by Colas who holds her high above his head on one arm (i.e. his hand is supporting her bum)- rather different I think to the description Katherine gives of being folded like a tea-towell.