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National Ballet of ChinaSeptember 2005 Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall by Renee Renouf |
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Sunday Matinees at UC Zellerbach start at 3 p.m., allowing for a leisurely brunch. Current weekend construction disrupting Bay Bridge traffic prompted CAL Performances to arrange shuttle buses to the campus, advising the audience BART was the best way to arrive. Seated in new delft blue velvet seats, the curtain was dotted with several rows of evenly vertical spaced lights. When the aged lamp lighter arrived, these became red lanterns to be lit when the master chose his woman for the night. Props for tip-toeing hand maidens in murky lighting, dancer/lantern patterns circled, moved on the diagonal and traveled horizontally while a high pitched female voice wailed over the audio system in the fluted lamenting style of feminine Peking Opera roles. The lights rose when prospective Second Concubine with small suitcase emerged behind vertical rows of panels of medallions and corner ornaments which lighting rendered tasteful ornate, decadent. This China in the ‘Thirties had outlawed bound feet but other customs lingered ergo concubines. Remembering her lover, a Peking Opera actor, provides a pas de deux complete with opera regalia. Then oblong panels arrive in henchmen’s hands; Second Concubine is buffeted against them, horizontally, diagonally, their flip side scarlet revealed as they encase her in the palanquin and apply the ornate top with its scarlet tasseled corners. A melody is heard which asserts itself periodically. The costumes with traditional collars and side fastenings, skirts slit like cheong sams, elaborate embroidery according to scene, same color leotards and tinted pointe shoes; a dull mint green for first Chinese wife; peach for Concubine 1; colors reinforced by handmaidens continued. Wife and Concubine pace each other off in front of the scarlet palanquin. It seems First Chinese Wife has accepts the prospect; Concubine 1 is disturbed by the prospective newcomer. One intuits First Chinese Wife may have provoked the arrangements. Two cats spar. The Master of the House arrives; it is clear Concubine 1 effectively exercises her wiles with him; he rewards with a peach-colored scarf. Released from confinement, Concubine 2 is dressed in scarlet adorned with I Ching trigams, appropriately demure, apprehensive, posture a shrinking willow wand. The Master touches her face, she looks down, he strokes her arm, she moves away. He soon abandons gentleness; pursuit ensues behind the ornate oblong walls, illumined like a puppet show. As the percussion heightens its raucous clashes, pursuer and pursued burst through the ornate setting, dash through it, emerge again, until finally a silken scarlet sheet is drawn over them. Her head emerges from the scarlet folds; as the curtain falls, she gathers the fabric around her disconsolate torso, after one of the most powerful scenes in recent ballet history.
After intermission Peking Opera is performed by the Peking exponents traveling with the company. The scene displays an extraordinary evocation of old style Chinese aristocratic life, assembled guests in cheongsams and bankers coats, cuffs flipped back to display contrasting colors. The Master, the Wife, and Concubines 1 and 2 are arrayed stage right on a slight dias. Concubine 1 is fast working to keep her position intact while Concubine 2 could not care less. She and Xi Ban see each other. The tension builds as an elaborate dance commences with the women in coats with long white butterfly sleeves, used entwining partner and woman within the garment, the Master on one side with Concubine 1, Xi Ban and Concubine 2 on the other.
Concubine 1 tattles, the Master rushes out, the lovers are caught, the Master turns on the informant. A darkened scene with male figures rushing and leaping echoes the turmoil of the Master before First Wife enjoys her innings with Concubine 1. Beside herself, she lights, then slashes the lanterns; the handmaidens drop their peach scarves at her feet. She fingers the puddle they make while one can’t help thinking, “Yea, what a peach!” Peach pleads with the lovers for forgiveness after they dance an elegaic pas de deux. Tugs and agonizing gazes precede reconciliation before the henchmen arrive with long staves dipped in red to strike against the black banded neutral screen. As the red strikes increase in frequency and density on the screen the trio crumbles into a heap. That high pitched voice is heard again. The male ensembles provided edge and power, but the choreography comes in second to the brilliance of set and lighting. Most movement seemed right dominated. Scarcely surprising given Chinese traditions; the beautifully etched port de bras echo the filigree and body postures associated with notions of Chinese feminine beauty. Added to Western ballet, a cultural presence in Chinese just over a half century old, with the traditional reticence of emotional display in Chinese cultural norms, this relative thinness is not surprising. Anthony Tudor Raise Raise The Red Lantern is definitely not. Despite situational cliches, the handsome use of Chinese traditions marks the ballet as one of evolving skill. The program indicated the two male roles were danced by soloists; while excellent, they seemed more foils than forces of fate. Lu Na, The First Wife and still a coryphee, exhibited a containment transformed into cold triumph as Concubine I tumbles from favor; her steely spine and gunfire fan whip expressing her icy relief. Meng Ningning exuded a Joan Crawford allure as Concubine 1, her downfall wretched as any woman relying on failed female skills for survival. Zhang Jian’s Second Concubine was illumined by an innate poise of torso, a face illumined by eloquent eyes, the gentle completion of her port de bras provided innocent need and lucid emotion.
Master of the House: Yang Lei |
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