Cyrano de Bergerac attacks his opponents and your feelings

Cyrano de Bergerac. Photo: Pavel Hejný.

Author Lucie Dercsényi

Cyrano as a ballet

The famous verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (1868-1918), who was inspired by the real-life hero Hector-Savinien de Cyrano who lived in the first half of the 17th century, was also given a dance treatment. With his play, Rostand paid tribute to this courageous man with a flair for the muses, some of whose life's vicissitudes became part of the drama, which was first performed at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris on 28 December 1897.

Cyrano de Bergerac was brought to the dance stage by Roland Petit (1959) and one of the most recent versions is the production by Anna Vita, premiered in Germany in 2013. In the Czech Republic, the ballet has received attention twice this year, with Filip Veverka creating Cyrano for the Liberec Ballet in the spring and the original choreography by Jiří Bubeníček currently being performed by the National Theatre Ballet Brno at the Janáček Theatre. 

This is the first time that Jiří Bubeníček has had the opportunity to stage a production on such a large scale in the Czech Republic. His dazzling dancing career could only be seen from afar, when right after graduating from the Prague Conservatory, he and his twin brother Otto got an engagement at Ballet Hamburg under the artistic direction of John Neumeier and later moved to Dresden, where he said goodbye to the audience in 2015 with the role of the Knight Des Grieux in Kenneth MacMillan's Manon. Many may also recall the Hamburg company's guest appearances in Prague with A Midsummer Night's Dream and several Galas in Les Ballets Bubeníček productions. 

As a choreographer, Bubeníček has been looking for a way onto the Czech stage for a long time, considering that he has been working in this field since 1999 and his portfolio includes Romeo and Juliet, Anita Berber, Doctor Zhivago, The Trial, Cinderella and Carmen. His first ballet for a domestic company this year was the hour-long La Strada, which he created for the Prague Chamber Ballet. The next big opportunity came from the NdB Ballet when the choice fell on Cyrano de Bergerac.

Lightly I toss my hat away

Jiří Bubeníček is not only responsible for the choreography, but he also directed and collaborated on the dramaturgical concept with Nadina Cojocaru, who is also the author of the imaginative costume designs. Bubeníček sticks to the theatrical subject, the timeline and the period setting in the 17th century. If the story is historically linked to the reign of the French monarch Louis XIII, the selected pieces are more representative of the time of Louis XIV, The production design also respects this period, with Otto Bubeníček's scenic design hinting at interiors and exteriors in muted shades that make the chosen colours of costumes, make-up and wigs stand out. 

Compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, Allesandro Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Antonio Caldari and Antonio Vivaldi, performed live by the orchestra under the baton of Jakub Klecker, accompany the ballet in two acts, while opera arias performed by singer Romana Kružíková are heard in tense moments. A couple of excerpts from the play, which are recited in direct relation to the action, are accompanied by the actor Vojtěch Blahuta, who plays the role of Montfleury, a member of the acting troupe, who is mocked and driven off the stage by Cyrano in the opening scene, perhaps the most famous. Blahut accompanies the subsequent confrontation between the Vicomte de Valvert and Cyrano with a quotation from Ronsard's play, where the choreographer shows at the very beginning that the recited, verse dialogue can be boldly accompanied by dance-movement action; even the choreography dispenses with text, for in ballet it can be read like a book, and in keeping with the line "I cast my shroud far and wide with grace", Cyrano naturally does so on stage. 

In the prologue, the four main protagonists - Cyrano, Baron Kristian de Neuvillette, Count de Guiche and Roxana - dressed in white, neutral clothing, choose their roles. Cyrano reaches for his nose, Roxana for a fan, De Guiche for a cord. The play begins.

It's the Gascon cadets

On stage, we see the culminating preparations of Cloris, a play within a play set in a baroque setting with cute cupids. There's a lively bustle as young Kristian arrives, in love with the lovely Roxane, cousin of Cyrano, who is also in love with her. The beauty is accompanied by Count De Guiche, who is also very keen to win her favour. While it is not entirely easy to know who is who immediately, each of the characters is given enough space for the action and situations to become fully comprehensible, and moreover, everything that the programme booklet states in its contents actually happens on stage. 

Bubeníček had the difficult task of translating a well-known play from drama, film and musical into an understandable but not banal dance form. And he succeeded. He added a new dimension to the drama, played on a humorous note, a romantic string to the unfulfilled love of the Gascon swordsman Cyrano, hopelessly infatuated with Roxana, to whom he never showed his feelings, and confessed his love by writing letters on behalf of Christian, who, despite his rival Count De Guiche, takes the promising girl as his wife.

In addition to the vicissitudes of this love quartet, Bubeníček has set a number of other images in the ballet that reveal Cyrano's delicacy, fragility and pain as he sees his big nose as a target of ridicule and an obstacle to love. Beautiful and moving is the duet between Cyrano and his friend Le Bret, to whom Cyrano confides his infatuation. Already at these moments the choreographer's inventiveness, imagination and originality flow fully into the dance texture, getting under the skin of Shoma Ogasawara in the title role and Arthur Abram as a patiently listening companion. The men's bodies intertwine, sharing a present moment of happiness, however fleeting. The courageous Gascon, enticed by Roxane's invitation, takes off his nose, at least for a little while, getting rid of what others think disgusts him. The harshness, bon vivantism and provocateurism he puts on display is not a reflection of his inner experience and perception. He is literally drunk with love, lying down on the table that Le Bret (A. Abram) had previously turned out, and he writes a love confession on it; his knees buckle and his sharp sword swings are replaced by a relieved resting of his forehead on the ground, letting the bent weapon behind his back be thrown out into space as much as his body, imbued with contradictory feelings. 

There are countless such powerful and moving moments in the almost two-hour production, and it is impossible to capture them all in one viewing. The scene where Cyrano whispers love verses to Christian under the balcony is one that sticks in my mind - a raised window is set in the back of the stage, with a staircase at the rear, where Roxana runs up and appears behind a drawn curtain. The trio of performers intertwine, the petite Anna Yeh slides down the bodies of her partners, floats through the air, rests in their arms, remains suspended for a moment by the hands of the dancers standing at the window, and sways. 

Bubeníček composes with opulence, working out choruses, duets and trios to the smallest detail, his neoclassical shaping clearly anchored in the 21st century. The choreography demands of the dancers a self-evident technique, precise execution, the ability to immerse themselves in the role and to connect all their inner potential with challenging combinations of jumps and pirouettes, with rapid transitions from ground positions upwards, and above all with meaningful shading of dynamic changes of phrasing. All movement and gestures are subordinated to the characters of the individual figures who speak to us through the dance. And this is thanks to the brilliant performance of the aforementioned S. Ogasawara, fully immersed in the experience of a role that requires technique and acting, which the dancer spontaneously lends to the character - Ogasawara's Cyrano moves, irritates and its physicality is palpable in the audience. João Gomes, too, shines with verve as Christian, certainly executing the difficult weaves, and his acting is not lacking in believability. 

What I used to love, I am now losing twice!

The movement paths wind in spirals at a rapid pace, the grand gesture stops suddenly, the hands tremble, the head lowers, calmness sets in and the emotions subside to flare up again in full force. And this contrast is evident throughout the opus, maintaining tension and constantly surprising. The seamless transitions of the individual images complete the compactness of the stage form, into which the creative tandem of Jiří and Otto Bubeníček and Nadina Cojocaru have invested talent, taste and the gift of retelling a dramatic story full of situational twists and turns, but also comic moments - the scene from the bakery in white decorations and costumes, in which the staff under the direction of Ragueneau, exuberantly danced by Jacopo Iadimarco, prepares delicacies, bakes bread (1. Act 2). Quotations from the play are used sparingly, illustrating the chosen actions, since the main means of expression here is dance, through which the theatrical images come to life, whether to the live accompaniment of the Janáček Opera orchestra or guitarist Adam Truneček seated on the playing area.

Romana Kružíková's soprano then accompanies the final scene in which Cyrano dies, and it is only at this moment, fifteen years after the death of Christian on the battlefield, where he was sent by the jealous and disgraced Count De Guiche, that Roxana learns who the author of the letters with which she consoled herself in the convent where she had gone after her husband's death. She, the sisters superior no longer mourn and are the only ones still dancing on tiptoe with Dueña (Adéla Kulíšek). The stager makes considerable demands on all the performers. No one is spared, whether it is a solo or choral part. The dance structure pulsates in space, the chorus is a living and functioning organism, often with several game plans happening on stage at once. 

Jiří Bubeníček's Cyrano de Bergerac is attractive, spectacular in the best sense of the word. Each of the images evokes emotions, even though all the scenes may not be intellectually comprehensible to everyone. The ballet contains many nuances that demand your attention, and one can also see in it a message that even life is playful and ambiguous. How else to explain the epilogue, in which Cyrano, Kristian, De Guiche and Roxana reassemble at the table, stepping out of their roles and smiling ruefully? Cyrano puts his nose away, but quickly returns for it. After all, without him, he wouldn't be the famous Gascon who attacks the enemy's army as well as your feelings in Bubeníček's ballet.

Written from the premiere on 27 September 2024, Janáček Theatre, Brno.

Cyrano de Bergerac

Choreography and direction: Jiří Bubeníček

Dramaturgy, libretto, concept: Jiří Bubeníček, Nadina Cojocaru

Music: Johann Sebastian Bach, Allesandro Scarlatti, Georg Friedrich Händel, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Antonio Caldara, Tomaso Albinoni, Antonio Vivaldi

Conductor: Jakub Klecker

Scene: Otto Bubeníček

Costumes: Nadina Cojocaru

Lighting design: Jiří Bubeníček, Petr Kozumplík

Assistant choreographers: Ivan Příkaský, Ivan Popov