Nice Opera Ballet.

December 23-31, 1994 Reviewed by Roslyn Sulcas

Eschewing Christmas season Nutcrackers or operettas, Nice Opera Ballet presented Leonide Massine's Parade, the rarely seen Le Beau Danube, and the real prize, the choreographer's Le Sacre du Printemps. Last seen in Florence in 1973, the work was staged by two dancers from that production, Susanna Della Pietra and Enrico Sportiello, for the Nice troupe, which is directed by Jean-Albert Cartier.

Massine created his first version of Sacre in 1920, just seven years after Nijinsky had shocked audiences with his revolutionary response to Stravinsky's score. Massine hadn't seen the 1913 ballet, but the young choreographer (only 24 at the time) worked with many dancers who had performed the original version. Massine's Sacre retains the general "look" of Nijinsky's ballet, as well as its delineation of pagan rites culminating in sacrifice. But it uses broader outlines, moving groups in massive blocks with simpler contrapuntal responses to the music, than those seen in Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer's reconstruction of the Nijinsky.

This Sacre proves, however, to be fully engaging in its own right, with some masterly choreographic touches in the detailed hand movements, the stationary, vibrating bodies of the groups that surround the Chosen One (with an accordion-pleat effect as they pull away and toward one another), and a final solo--superbly performed here by Agnes Letestu of Paris Opera Ballet--full of dislocated, flung limbs and uneven jumps that seem to be products of internal impulses.

The version presented in Nice is that of a 1948 production that Massine staged at La Scala, and for which Nicholas Roerich, the original designer, created new costumes and decor, strongly influenced by a sojourn in India. Reconstructed here in glowing, appliqued detail by Archer, they provide an additional point of historical interest to a fascinating piece, performed with great rigor and energy.

The dancers also looked good in the charming Beau Danube. Why don't more ballet companies perform this work? It is a period piece, but no more so than many others. Letestu and partner Jose Martinez (like her, a premier danseur at the Paris Opera) gave delicious, technically brilliant interpretations of the Street Dancer and the Hussar, and were well supported by Carole Pastorel, Charlotte Chapellier, Michael Pulcini, and a competent corps de ballet.