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If you have been wondering what is wrong with the Paris Opera Ballet these days, don't miss Siddharta. This lavish creation is the latest and perhaps most obvious symptom of the derailment of a system – a state-funded institution with a budget most other companies can only dream of, but with no artistic control other than that of its long-time director. A lot of money has obviously been thrown at this season's major premiere, created in the large Opéra Bastille – with a commissioned new score, splendid sets, shiny new costumes and gorgeous promotional images, how could it go wrong? Well, it did, with some of the most blindingly mediocre choreography I have seen in a long time. Is there a captain onboard?
Siddharta is based on the mystical journey of the man about to become the first Buddha. We witness him unhappy at his father's court and with his wife Yasodhara; an immaterial being, the Awakening, impersonated on stage by a woman, appears and persuades him to leave his material life behind to commit himself to an ascetic existence. In the end, having overcome tentation, he becomes one with the Awakening. Spirituality should shine through in this story, but the production does the opposite: it sacrifices content to form. The commissioned score by Bruno Mantovani, difficult and dark, is not without interest, and yet Preljocaj only ever uses it for cheap effects - the entrance of Siddharta to guitar riffs, for instance. The stunning sets created by Claude Lévêque are another missed opportunity. The enormous sphere hanging over the initial scene of decay, swaying back and forth like a monstrous reminder of time, filling the air with incense-like smoke, is the most striking image of the ballet. Without a choreographic response, however, it is little more than an empty vessel.
Nicolas Le Riche and Stephane Bullion in Preljocaj's Siddharta
© Anne Deniau
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Angelin Preljocaj cannot have been caught by surprise with this high-profile commission, his fourth for the Paris Opera Ballet. He chose the subject of the Buddha, and we are told he had been thinking about it for several years. He also had access to some of the best dancers in the company - the premiere was danced by Aurélie Dupont, Nicolas Le Riche, and Alice Renavand as Yasodhara. Yet his creativity seems to have dried out since his successful creations of the 1990s. There are glimpses of beauty, such as the entrance of the messengers surrounding the Awakening, in floating white dresses, suggesting the possibility of a modern ballet blanc which never materialises. At the performance I saw, sadly, no one in the second cast could make sense of Siddharta - Clairemarie Osta as the Awakening had little of the mystery she usually conveys, despite flying over the hero courtesy of very visible wires (she's unreachable, silly). The charismatic Jérémie Bélingard did what he could with the title role, but the dancers are hampered here by the fact that Preljocaj rarely allows them to act or even look at each other during pas de deux. As a result, their relationships are nonexistent - when Siddharta tells his wife he's leaving with his cousin on a spiritual quest, he might just as well be telling her he is gay.
Aurelie Dupont and Nicolas Le Riche in Preljocaj's Siddharta
© Anne Deniau
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The choreography is generally textureless in Siddharta, not least because it never changes pace throughout. The use of weight is vague, neither drawing strength from the floor nor pulling away from it, and not even Alice Renavand, always striking in contemporary choreography, could save this excruciatingly slow muddle of poses. You can sense something is not quite right just by the corps de ballet scenes. There is an interminable introduction in which ten dancers in black clothers and bikers' helmets go through the motions in standard, fill-in-the-blanks choreography; later they return with six poor corps girls meant to represent the victims of the epidemics devastating the world, who are manipulated by the men for a solid five minutes (you think the MacMillan scene in which Romeo throws around the lifeless Juliet is bad? For all we know, they seem to be raping the corpses). Angelin Preljocaj doesn't quite seem to know what to do with all the music the composer has given him, and when the corps dancers are not just walking, they are depicting orgies - the tentation faced by Siddharta and Ananda, his cousin, is pictured at particular length on the skeleton of a truck that conveniently comes down from the sky. (As an aside, it is no wonder Siddharta chooses spirituality, because sex is a very boring business in Preljocaj's world: let's strike this pose with your legs around my hips because it shows off my best profile, shall we?)
Aurelie Dupont and Nicolas Le Riche in Preljocaj's Siddharta
© Anne Deniau
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Siddharta is but the latest example in a series of failed collaborations and expensive designs going to waste in the caves of the Paris Opera. Sasha Waltz's Romeo and Juliet was the last full-length offender, but let's not forget the short-lived creations of Susanne Linke, Abou Lagraa, Robyn Orlin or Laura Scozzi. Experimentation is essential, but in the past few years very little attention has been paid to the content and coherence of the works created - even the greatest companies are liable to sink under such circumstances, and if the Paris Opera Ballet wants to uphold its heritage and tradition of true creativity, it is high time for a wake-up call.
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