Symphonie Fantastique Was the Catalyst for an Equally Passionate Ballet

Madeleine Eastoe, Robert Curran and Remi Wörtmeyer in Symphonie Fantasique Photography—Jim McFarlane Kirsty Martin and Robert Curran in Symphonie Fantasique Symphonie Photography—Justin Smith Fantastique Described as “the first psychedelic musical trip”, Hector Berlioz’s passionate Symphonie Fantastique was the catalyst for an equally passionate ballet. By Valerie Lawson. In Paris, Hector Berlioz fell in love with his beloved’s death, then is swept up in an The balletic adaptation of Symphonie Both critics and audiences loved the the idea of love. His infatuation led to orgy with a coven of witches and evil spirits. Fantastique had to wait for more than a production which was chosen by public the creation of a revolutionary symphony century, when Massine was experimenting ballot to be part of the programme for that ushered in the Romantic age of the The symphony predicted the bleak end of with the then-controversial idea of using the company’s last performance on that nineteenth century. The symphony was an Berlioz’s eventual life with Smithson. They symphonic music for ballet. That year, tour. Symphonie Fantastique returned to artistic triumph, both in the concert hall and married in 1833 but the couple broke up for Colonel de Basil’s Ballets Russes, he Australia during the Original Ballet Russe much later, at The Royal Opera House in eight years later. A document in the Clare choreographed Les Présages to Tchaikovsky’s tour, with the leading roles danced in 1940 Covent Garden where it came to life visually in County Library in Ireland explains how the Symphony No. 5 and Choreartium to by Paul Petrov and Tamara Toumanova. a ballet choreographed by Léonide Massine. marriage between Harriet and her husband Brahm’s Symphony No. 4. When Les But for Berlioz, one moment of infatuation became strained, largely due to Harriet’s Présages was presented in Paris critics, In the mid-1950s, the work was restaged led to eventual tragedy both for himself and failure as an actress, her mounting debts musicians and balletomanes angrily debated in Australia by the Borovansky Ballet. the woman with whom he was obsessed. and her jealousy of her husband’s success the merits of using such music for ballet, But many years followed before its and his popularity with other women he met arguing that a symphonic work was complete reincarnation when The Australian Ballet’s Had he been born a hundred years later, in the course of his work: “They separated, in itself, and was corrupted by its use for Artistic Director, David McAllister, asked the young French composer might have and Harriet began to suffer from a paralysis dance. Les Présages was not well received Polish choreographer Krzysztof Pastor to heard the lighthearted but deeply felt lyrics which left her unable to talk or move”. She in New York and three years passed before create a new Symphonie Fantastique as of Lorenz Hart, who warned: “Falling in love died in 1854. Berlioz, who later married his Massine was ready to premiere his third part of the company’s four-year celebration with love is falling for make-believe, falling mistress Marie Recio, went on to compose symphonic ballet, Symphonie Fantastique. of the Ballets Russes tours to Australia. in love with love is playing the fool”. Berlioz his masterpiece, the opera Les Troyens. Pastor, the resident choreographer of was smitten at the Thèâtre de l’Odéon, Unlike Les Présages and Choreartium, which the Dutch National Ballet, was given the where in 1827 he saw the actress Harriet The overwrought narrative of Symphonie were abstract representations of the music, brief in 2005, and the ballet opened in Smithson playing Ophelia in Hamlet. The Fantastique encapsulated the concepts and Symphonie Fantastique closely followed Melbourne on August 30 last year, with pretty Irishwoman spoke in a melodious themes of the Romantic age, many of which Berlioz’s scenario. At the premiere in 1936, Robert Curran as the Artist, (the Musician voice. Her long dark hair fell from her heart- found expression in the works of Chopin and Massine himself played the role of the in Massine’s ballet), Kirsty Martin as shaped face over her voluptuous shoulders, Lizst and the artist Delacroix. The symphony Young Musician while the beautiful Tamara the Idée Fixe (or Beloved), and set and and down to her tiny waist. Berlioz told a was completed in 1830. Had it been simpler Toumanova danced the role of the Beloved. costume design by Amsterdam-based friend he was stricken like a thunderbolt in form and story, it might have found its The writer Cyril Beaumont has described Tatyana van Walsum, who has collaborated with a “delirium which takes possession of way to the ballet stage of the time. After all, the opening moments: “The curtain rises to often with Pastor. The images she has all one’s faculties, which renders one capable it shared the same supernatural creatures reveal a bare room in which a young musician, created – among them vibrant red poppies, of anything”. He went on to stage concerts in and the concept of an unattainable woman whose dress belongs to the Romantic swollen raindrops and the menacing visage Smithson’s honour but she failed to attend a number of Romantic ballets, such as period, is seated at a table, wrestling with of the Idée Fixe – are a window into the them. When her visiting Shakespearean La Sylphide and Giselle. his thoughts”. Massine was so engrossed in Artist’s tortured mind. troupe returned from France to Britain, Berlioz the role that, according to the former Ballets poured all his heartache into Symphonie With Giselle, it also shared a musical Russes dancer Tamara Tchinarova Finch, Interviewed before the Australian premiere, Fantastique. Subtitled Episodes in the Life of device. As Peter Guttmann writes in his “he seemed to live the part to such an Pastor told me, “I was scared to do an Artist, it was the story of his obsession. website Classical Notes, Berlioz used “a extent that he became withdrawn, brooding Symphonie Fantastique. It’s an inspiring recurrent and strikingly complex theme” to and morbid”. The reaction to the ballet work, a musical obsession. The music is very Described by Leonard Bernstein as “the first symbolise the Beloved or the composer’s was mixed with one dance writer, AV Coton big, very complex. For me, the music became psychedelic musical trip”, the symphony in idée fixe. “Long, jagged and deeply calling it “a grave disaster” while another, obsessive. I’ve been listening to it since David five movements tells of a lonely musician chromatic, it keeps yearning upward only to Arnold Haskell, found it “fully successful”. commissioned me, one and a half years ago”. who sees his beloved in a series of visions, fall back in despair ... Berlioz’s innovation first in a daydream in which the music of using the same theme throughout De Basil’s company, the Covent Garden There was no chance of Pastor following in reflects his various moods, from happiness paved the way for Wagner’s leitmotifs that Russian Ballet, presented the work in Massine’s literal footsteps. “It would look to melancholy, then at a ball, and then in the would soon transform opera”. In Giselle, Australia in 1938. At the premiere in ridiculous now”, Pastor said. “The audience countryside. In the final two movements, the the leading characters each have their Melbourne, Yurek Shabelevsky appeared would laugh. I paid no attention to the musician tries to end his life with an overdose own musical theme, as did the ballets of as the Young Musician and Irina Baronova Massine version. I tried to do it a different of opium but rather than killing him, the Tchaikovsky later in the nineteenth century as the Beloved while Anton Dolin danced way, and tried to follow the spirit of the music”. drug makes him hallucinate. He dreams of and Prokofiev in the twentieth. the role on subsequent dates on the tour. Valerie Lawson is an arts writer for The Sydney Morning Herald.

Load more