On Monday, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy held a press conference in their sumptuous Payne Whitney building headquarters to announce that the New York City Ballet is returning to Paris for the first time since 1995. The two-week season, which begins September 9th, will be the first time City Ballet has been presented by the Opéra National de Paris since 1965. City Ballet will be the first non-French dance company to perform at the Opera Bastille, which opened in 1989, and the visit will coincide with the premiere of a new work (with Nico Muhly score) by the French choreographer and City Ballet principal dancer Benjamin Millepied.
L to R: Peter Martins, ballet master in chief of New York City Ballet; Darci Kistler, City Ballet principal dancer; Benjamin Millepied, City Ballet principal dancer; Brigitte Lefèvre, dance director of the Opéra National de Paris; Nicolas Le Riche, Paris Opera Ballet etoile; Marina de Brantes, chairman of the American Friends of the Paris Opera & Ballet; Gerard Mortier, director of the Opéra National de Paris; and Maria Kowroski, City Ballet principal dancer
It’s exciting news for French fans of City Ballet, but hardly the sort of standard announcement I would drag myself all the way to the Upper East Side to hear in person.
Except, of course, to see Gerard Mortier, the iconoclastic, pot-stirring intellectual who is set to succeed Paul Kellogg as general manager and artistic director of New York City Opera. The Mortier reign doesn’t begin until next year, but the city has been abuzz ever since the news broke last February.
“We wait with a lot of excitement,” Mortier said on Monday, closing his hand in a loose, raised fist and smiling in reference to the September visit of City Ballet. But this excitement can’t hope to match the Big Apple’s anticipation of Mortier. With Peter Gelb already settled in - and shaking things up - across the Lincoln Center plaza at the Metropolitan Opera House, people are expecting an operatic slug fest.
But I’m as intrigued to see what sort of relationship will develop between Mortier and Peter Martins, the City Ballet chief. Mortier is apparently no fan of Martins, and some City Ballet folks are giddy with hope that Mortier’s waves will at least cause ripples for them.
Toward the end of his opening speech on Monday, Martins turned to Mortier and said, “I’m looking forward to Gerard coming to New York, and working with you on a more daily basis. We have a lot to do.”
Gerard, a charmer if ever there was one, responded only by stretching out his hand, which had been cradling his chin, in an enigmatic gesture that I took to mean “We shall see” or “Time will tell.”
Indeed. Who knows how these two will share the State Theater? Perhaps they’ll get along famously and engage in some fabulous interdisciplinary collaborations. Perhaps a new ice age will begin. Either way, it should be as good a show as anything happening on stage.
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