Interview with Ion’s aunts
The performance in Paris was a triplebill with Czeheresada, Gizelle and Ciocanul.
This was in a period when Securitate and the sencorship was more relaxed.
Bradiceanu was both the conductor of the orchestra and the director of the opera.
Stere was an architecht. He was friend with all the avantgardists of the time.
They were all interested in doing something else than ballet.
He worked very hard. The period was very long and therefor things were kept undesided. Ciocanul was the debut and the end of Stere’s career. He was an amateur: he would teach them movements one day, and then the next day he would come and change them.
He really had to insist on the movements that he proposed, No ballet movements were allowed, but ”the woman with blue eyes” (Adina Cezar?) might have been dancing on point shoes. He was given space and time: 3 houres a day for six months. All that time for creating a 20-25 minutes long performance. The choreographer/ballet master (Stere) was the absolute boss. He desided how often and how long they would rehearse.
He didn’t necessarily know about the posibility to present the work in Paris when they started, so in that sense he didn’t have a deadline. (not sure)
There might have been a preview of Ciocanul before the tour to Paris. There was possibly some problems with this showing in terms of the work gaining support from the opera and passing the sencorship, but the manager from Paris might have been here and seen it and by inviting it, encouraged a continues support for the creation. I think there was..
We were able to do everything, but the movements was something copletely different.
There was a net with spoons, forks and knifes hanging down from above. The Manequin (Marius) was sometimes playing on this cutlery net like it was a harp. He was listening to it like there was sound coming from it. The duet between the manequin and the opulent woman in which they never touched, no they did touch, in fact it was quite erotic. It was very erotic.
The most beautiful woman in the world (Ion’s aunt)’s dress was move/bleu with a corsett. The dress ended below her brest, and the upper part was of skin in the color of pink.
On her head she had a big wig, Brigitt Bardot-like. She was moving down in grand plie, and her hand movements was like this.. (shows) hand movements abrupt, held still, qick again, a bit like a reptile or a gekko. Dancing like a bird, a bird that excite the others.
Omul Opulenta (Tugiaru) danced after her, very excited. With his hands like this (shows) pack-pack: jumps forward with his lower arms pointing forward from his lower belly,
his hips.
The piece started to take shape when they had the costumes and the set.
It was revolting that Stere didn’t communicate what everything meant.
Stere structured the different characters on the musical score.
There was a libretto, but the piece was more based on sympbols. Not so much on a story.
There was very little interaction between the different characters, at least until Omul de Fier appeared. Then there was interaction between the different characters.
It was with live music, directed by Bradiceanu.
The Rumanian Opera played two nights in Paris, but Ciocanul Fara Stapand was only presented once. There was a different program the other night.
Emediatly after the curtains fell, there were a few moments of silence, stupified, nobody knew how to react. Then there broke out a civil war in the audience where one half were applauding like they were going to break their hands, and the other half was booing, whisteling and shouting dissapproving comments. For Stere, this was a great success.
It was written about in the newspaper.
I (Ion’s aunt) entered into the creation around halfway-through. Stere thought of her as a very classical dancer. She sustained the pressure, and in the end she had a good communication with Stere. He told her to move low in grand plie all over the floor, and to find some feminine movements and to move her hands in a bird-like way. She found it.
-I improvised a little bit.
Musically it was absolutely fixed. We knew what we were doing.
-Ask Adina if she was dancing on point or not. Amato did a few arabesques.
-Someone was wearing basked shoes? I think it was Marius.
There was no décor. There was only this net with cutlery hanging from above, and lights.
Simona Stefanescu had an extra ordinary part. She was the only person that worked with Stere from from the beginning until the end. She didn’t abandon the project. A lot of the people who worked with Stere from the start, left during the creation. You have no idea how diffecult he was to work with: He was nervous, he had tiques, and his hands were shaking like this.. (shows*).
There was a second presentation of the performance in Bucharest after Paris for the polititians, the Securitate and a few audience members who managed to sneak in for the closed showing. There was no big applause or appresiation of he work. It was a kind of finishing off because of the scandal. Stere had defected. Bradiceanu got fired. But still it was not as badly punished as in some other ”trials” where they publicly staged artist spitting on other artists.
Stere had been arrested for being a homosexual earlier in the 50ies, in the same period as Trixi Cascais. He got married with a woman to avoid being replaced to some remote village.
Stere was dancing in the ballet Macu Rosu about Sovjetic-Chineese relation. He played the owner of a brothel and was supposed to represent american imperialism. He had one of his girls try to seduce the russians and to poison them. In the choreography Stere had to beat one girl, and he beat her for real. The girl came of stage in shock.
No comments:
Post a Comment