La mégère apprivoisée (The Taming of the Shrew) ballet. Music by Dmitri Shostakovich. Choreographed and directed 2020 by Jean-Christophe Maillot (with faithful assistant Bernice Coppieters) at Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. Stars Ekaterina Petina (Katherine), Matèj Urban (Petruchio), Katrin Schrader (Bianca), Jaeyong An (Lucentio), April Ball (The Housekeeper), Daniele Delvecchio (Gremio), Anna Blackwell (The Widow), Simone Tribuna (Hortensio), Christian Tworzyanski (Baptista), and Adam Reist (Grumio). The Maids are Ksenia Abbazova, Portia Soleil Adams, Chelsea Adomaitis, Taisha Barton-Rowledge, Anissa Bruley, Candela Ebbesen, Juliette Klein, Gaëlle Riou, Anne-Laure Seillan, Kaori Tajima, and Hannah Wilcox. The Servants are Jaat Benoot, Koen Havenith, Alexandre Joaquim, Artjom Maksakov, Zino Merckx, Roger Neves, Christian Oliveri, Lennart Radtke, Francesco Resch, Alessio Scognamiglio, and Benjamin Stone. Igor Dronov conducts the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. Scenography by Ernest Pignon-Ernest; lighting design by Dominique Drillot; dramaturgy by Jean Rouaud; costumes by Augustin Maillot assisted by Jean-Michel Lainé. Directed for TV by Louise Narboni. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A
This show premiered 2014 at the Bolshoi and became a hot ticket. It’s modern dance based on classic steps with the women on point. The show is a favorite at Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, and many other ballet companies have staged it. Maillot is French. There’s a lot about this production on the Internet in French, but little in English. Since this is Shakespeare, there are many characters in a complicated story. But few people know the story because the Taming of the Shrew play is out of fashion. Thanks to Opus Arte for a nice synopsis in the keepcase booklet (in English only).
Meet Katherine the shrew. She’s an older daughter who is not married because of her terrible temper and love of striving with men. She is sexy, but also has extra testosterone in her blood:
Katherine will be tamed by Petruchio, whose is even crazier than she is:
Below left is Bianca, Katherine’s younger sister. Bianca is sweet and pleasing—the opposite of the shrew. Bianca has 3 suitors. Of these, Bianca will pick Lucentio (below right) because he is young and likes poetry:
Below left is Gremio, another of Bianca’s suitors. He is too old for her. But Maillot loves to play matchmaker. The Housekeeper, below right, will quickly latch onto Gremio:
Below left is Hortensio, the most handsome of Bianca’s suitors. Bianca rejects him a too self-important. But Shakespeare provides a widow at court who is lonesome and not as picky as Bianca. The widow will latch onto Hortensio:
Finally, below left is Baptista, the father of yummy Bianca and the exasperating Katherine. Maillot doesn’t have older character dancers in his company, so the father doesn’t look any older than his daughters. On the right below is Grumio, Petruchio’s manservant. Grumio provides comic relief. Why comic relief in a comedy? Well Adam Reist happens to a gifted physical comedian. Any time you see a dancer acting like Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean choking to death on rock candy, it’s Adam at work:
This is a two act show in 17 scenes. The keepcase booklet has a good synopsis for each scene. This is a huge help in following the fast-paced action. Below, as the show opens we are in the mansion of wealthy father Baptista. The maids and servants are having fun. One of the maids acts like the shrew abusing her father, played by a servant:
The corps reacts in mock horror:
The fun is interrupted when Father Baptista enters with his two daughters. Katherine is on the left and on the right is the younger daughter Bianca:
Bianca wants to get married. 3 suitors appear. Gremio already has a wandering eye for the Housekeeper:
Bianca wows the 3 suitors:
But custom demands that the older daughter must be married before the younger daughter is given away. The shrew makes it clear she’s not interested in any of Bianca’s suitors:
One of the suitors invites Petruchio to court. Petruchio is as aggressive as Katherine is obstinate:
So Petruchio makes more progress with Katherine than any other man before him:
The courtship of Bianca continues. She thinks Gremio is gross with all his bling:
When Bianca turns down Gremio’s gift of a ravishing necklace, the housekeeper makes her move:
The widow jumps in to protect Bianca from overbearing Hortensio. The widow knows that the best defense is a good offense:
Timid Lucentio wins over Bianca with a gift of poetry:
Now we have 3 couples who want to wed, but the shrew is holding things up:
Under duress, Katherine agrees to marry Petruchio. But he messes things up by getting drunk at the wedding!
A strange honeymoon results in an accommodation—the shrew and Petruchio slowly learn they were made for each other:
It time now for the triple wedding. Everyone is astonished when Petruchio and Katherine arrive as a happy couple—the shrew has been tamed!
Baptista finally gets rid of all his daughter problems:
But at the wedding party, one begins to see signs of discord among the newly married couples. They will have to work things out also:
But that shouldn’t be too hard with the taming of the shew as inspiration. By the way, “That’s all folks!” is a quote from the popular Looney Tunes movie cartoons that were produced in the United States between 1930 to 1969:
I was curious about the assistant choreographer Bernice Coppieters. That’s Bernice below. She seems to be a kind of alter ego who is always present to keep the boss under control. Here he explains in the especially interesting bonus extra how breaking his knee was a blessing that allowed him to become a dance maker. He says, “We always need someone to undertake things.”
English language critics haven’t paid much attention to this title. Maillot did a magnificent job of extracting Shostakovich melodies from his many works. It’s like having free tokens to a celestial jukebox. After 7 years of tinkering with the show, Maillot has perfected his choreography and personal directing to make the taming work as an exciting ballet. SQ and PQ are fine. I did a Wonk Worksheet to check on the content of Loise Narboni’s video file. She includes long clips along with others that are too frantic. The overall pace of 8.93 seconds per clip is a little disappointing . Also, only 57% of her clips show the full bodies of the dancers. Considering the number of characters in this fast-moving story, I don’t diagnose the dread disease of DVDitis. But Narboni missed a chance to produce an elegant video such as those we now get from, say, Miriam Hoyers. I start with an A+ and reduce the grade to an A for the weak pace and ratio numbers.
Here’s the official Opus Arte trailer:
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