Home Page


Home Page
L’Eventail
  • M-G Massé



  • Exhibition Parcours Baroque
    NEW

    Le Ballet de l’Amour Malade

    Saynètes des rues, des rivières et des bois

    Prologue au Cabinet des Fées

    Don Juan

    Voyage en Europe

    Carnaval ou la Fête à l’Envers

    Les Caprices de la Danse

    Ballet des Masques



    Press Review

    Links in Baroque Dance

    [Version française.]



    L’EVENTAIL  BAROQUE  DANCE  COMPANY


    presents


    Don Juan, created by L'Eventail 2001

    Don Juan. Model for the costume of Don Juan. Olivier Bériot

    Two ballets d’action for 10 dancers


    Music by

    Jean-Féry Rebel Les Elemens, 1737
    Christoph Willibald von Glück Don Juan or le Festin de pierre, 1761

    A creation by L’Eventail Baroque Dance Company
    in residence at Espace Carpeaux in Courbevoie

    Created on May 11, 2001 at the Théâtre Montansier in Versailles




    Design and choreography Marie-Geneviève Massé
    Costumes Olivier Bériot
    Production and lighting Véronique Guidevaux

    Length of the performance: 1 hour and 15 minutes with intermission

    Don Juan. Act III

    Presented in one evening, the two ballets “les Elemens” by Jean-Féry Rebel and “Don Juan or le Festin de pierre” by Christoph Willibald Glück, representing two major stages in this history of dance.

    In the 18th century, the creation of both ballets was revolutionary: by the concept and the pieces, by the music and their choreography, now unfortunately lost. Magnificent subject of creation situated in the confines of a baroque period, they offer all the mobility and liberty renowned in important productions that punctuate art history.



    First Part

    Les Elemens, 1737

    Music by Jean-Féry Rebel (1661-1747)
    Choreography by Marie-Geneviève Massé
    Ballet for 8 dancers


    Les Elemens

    The most famous ballet by Jean-Féry Rebel, “les Elemens” consists in an amazing opening - The Chaos - followed by nine dances on the theme of imitation of nature.

    Forward to Les Elemens, Jean-Féry Rebel, 1737.  Click to enlarge.

    I - The Cahos
    II - Loure I: Earth & Water
    III - Chaconny: Fire
    IV - Song: Air
    V - Nightingales
    VI - Loure II
    VII - Tambourins I & II
    VIII - Siciliano
    IX - Rondeau: Air for Love
    X - Caprice

    Les Elemens. Allegory for Love

    During a magic night, a young man assists to a series of apparition: fairy characters, gods, goddesses, allegories of Fire, Water, Air and Love always present.

    As if by magic, all these marvelous and colorful characters appear from depths of the night, coming back to life on the subtle and intoxicating musics by Jean-Féry Rebel.

    Characters

    Allegory of Love
    Allegory of Dreams
    The Young Man
    Allegory of Air
    Allegory of Fire
    Allegory of Water
    The Three Fates




    Second Part

    Don Juan ou le Festin de pierre, 1761

    Music by Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714-1787)
    Choreography by Marie-Geneviève Massé
    Ballet for 10 dancers



    Following the revolution initiated with the Symphonies chorégraphiques by Jean-Féry Rebel, Don Juan ou le Festin de pierre by Gluck is the first ballet d’action or dramatic ballet.
    It was created at the Burgtheater in Vienna on October 17, 1761.

    This ballet in 3 acts was written in French by the choreographer Angiolini, dancing master at the court of Vienna and rival of Noverre. Gluck composed for Angiolini a very descriptive score where music is not just a simple background music, but becomes a complete element of ballet. This use of music, later known as ballet d’action, for the first time in ballet history will have a great influence on all music composers.

    Don Juan. Model for the costume of Dona Ana. Olivier Bériot



    The Plot

    Act 1

    As in a small theatre of the Comedia dell’Arte, all the characters are set up for the comedy in advance: Pantalon, the greybeard married to the very young and very pretty Angelique and mocked by his maidservant, Toinette, will marry off his daughter, Elvire.

    Elvire is helped by her two maidservants, Charlotte and Mathurine, who are finishing the preparations for her wedding in spite of the ill-timed presence of the smitten Pierrot, Charlotte’s “shadow.”

    The noble Don Juan - followed by his valet, Sganarelle - readies to marry the virtuous Elvire. The marriage celebrations have hardly begun when the glorious Don Juan sets a wandering eye on Angelique while Charlotte and Mathurine also make him turn his head. Outraged, the very old Pantalon stops the wedding, making everyone leave, and provokes his son-in-law, Don Juan.


    Don Juan. Model for the costume of Don Juan. Olivier Bériot

    Act 2

    Ignorant of the clash between Pantalon and Don Juan, the guests return to their celebrations. Slipping in among the guests to prepare her revenge, the beautiful Dona Ana is exposed by Don Juan as the murderer of his father, the commander.

    The party is then once again interrupted by a loud knocking on the door. To everyone’s astonishment, the commander has come to ask Don Juan to repent for having trampled and defied his paternal authority and dishonouring his rank.

    In a rebellious and disrespectful manner, Don Juan refuses. Then, accompanied by the now recalcitrant and terrified Sganarelle, Don Juan leaves for the cemetery to answer the call of the commander.

    Act 3

    At the cemetery, the commander opens the gates of hell where Don Juan is led to death, encircled and brought down by the menacing ghosts of his past.


    Don Juan. Act III, Last scene

    Characters

    Pantalon
    Angélique
    Toinette
    Sganarelle
    Don Juan
    Elvire
    Mathurine
    Charlotte
    Pierrot
    Dona Ana



    Jérôme Lourdais, Ouest France, August 27, 2001

    In essence, a production packed with energy and emotion, passing gracefully from comedy to drama, with a finale of incredible power: in a decor dominated by red, Don Juan, in the hell, falls, overcome by the terrifying shadows of this past. The public flew to paradise.

    Florence Loyez, Le Maine, August 27, 2001

    Marie-Geneviève Massé is an architect of these two ballets performed with brilliant grace by eleven male and female dancers of prodigious talent. Marie-Geneviève Massé, a name to remember.


    Don Juan, Bowing. Created by L'Eventail, 2001



    [Back to top of page.] [Version française.]

    Number of visitors




    Copyright © L’Eventail 2004