THE BLUE GOD Ballet in one act

{LE DIEU BLEU} REYNALDO HAHN LÉON BAKST

SEASON 17/18 WINTERREISEA NEW COMPAGNIE REVIVAL THÉÂTRE PROJECT

WINTERREISE COMPAGNIE THÉÂTRE BALLET IN ONE ACT Direction : Olivier Dhénin « A warm evening in

105 rue Louis Thiers - 17300 mythical India. The MAIN CHARACTERS Rochefort The Blue God [email protected] outer court of temple The Bayadere www.winterreise.fr The Young girl hewn out of rock and The Goddess The Youth open to the sky. A The High Priest The Peacock bearers basin in the centre in

which floats the PRODUCTION The Company is supported by Lotus. In the public funds from the Rochefort City Department of Cultural background, behind Affairs and the French Ministry of Culture and Communication a grating which with the support of Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs shuts off the of Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

sanctuary, the plain ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE of the Ganges. Wild 105 rue Louis Thiers 17300 Rochefort flowers and creepers France Tel. +33(0)5 1725 1745 covering columns LE DIEU + Financial director and cornices in PIERRE LAZARUS BLEU [email protected] heavy masses. A Tel. +33(0)6 9911 8681 Choregraphy + NICOLAS PAUL from Paris young man is about www.winterreise.fr National Opera [email protected] to be made a @Winterreise_Cie Libretto priest… » JEAN COCTEAU LE DIEU BLEU Music was a ballet in 1 act REYNALDO HAHN Stage director choreographed by OLIVIER DHÉNIN to Costume design music by Reynaldo HÉLÈNE VERGNES d’après Hahn, set to a LÉON BAKST libretto by Jean

Cocteau & Federico de Madrazo y Ochoa. Léon Bakst designed

the sets and Creation costumes. 2017/2018 The ballet was first presented by Diaghilev’s in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 13 May 1912 and was created for Nijinsky in the lead role.

BACKGROUND The orientalist exoticism of CLEOPATRE and SCHEHERAZADE continued in LE DIEU BLEU. Bakst’s set, with its massive carved faces, showed the influence of those of the Bayon Temple of Angkor Thom in Cambodia, which had been popularised in France through engravings in Louis Delaporte’s VOYAGE TO CAMBODIA : KHMER ARCHITECTURE, published in Paris in 1880. The French fascination with the cultures of its colonies had given audiences the opportunity to see several troupes of Cambodian court dancers in performance at the 1906 Colonial Exposition in Marseille. Earlier, in 1900 a troupe of Siamese dancers had performed in St Petersburg, forming an impression on Fokine that would take form in his choreographic work on LE DIEU BLEU. These influences are encapsulated in Bakst’s design of the LIBRETTO original skirted costume for the Blue Set in mythical India, the ballet opens God (Krishna) worn by Nijinsky. Made at a shrine of the Blue God, which is of watered silk and satin, it is surrounded by rocks and cliffs with a embroidered with a closed lotus flower lotus pond in the centre. Worshippers and rays of gold thread and metallic and a young neophyte, soon to become a studs. The stiff conical skirt’s priest, gather and wait for the background fabric is a contemporary ordination ceremony to commence. printed pattern, overlaid with After the high priest arrives the embroidered arabesques, while its hem ceremony begins but is interrupted by is decorated with pearlised pink and the novice’s lover, attempting to rescue white gelatin discs. The intricately him from priesthood. She is captured decorated bodice was most likely and imprisoned in the shrine, where designed to suggest the body jewellery she threatened by its resident monsters. seen in Hindu sculpture, while the stiff While trying to escape she formality of the costume was echoed in inadvertently lets loose a plethora of Nijinsky’s performance of sculptural monsters. She appeals to the shrine’s poses rather than active dancing. As deity for help and the Blue God and Krishna, Nijinsky had worn bright Goddess both rise from the lotus pond. blue make-up in continuance of the The Blue God subdues the monsters, tradition of the god’s skin being turned the lovers are reunited and the gods blue as a result of being bitten by a return to their celestial abodes. poisonous serpent. Traces of this blue make-up are impregnated in the lining of the costume, giving it a particularly

intimate connection to Nijinsky.

PRODUCTION & ARTISTIC COORDINATION .

OLIVIA LAURET / production delegate courriel: [email protected] tel. +33(0)6 2381 7070

PUBLIC RELATIONS . GABRIELLE TALLON / development manager courriel: [email protected] tel. +33(0)6 8488 8040

TECHNICAL DIRECTION . THIBAUT LUNET / stage manager courriel: [email protected] tel. +33(0)6 1477 0392