Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Kaguyahime (Ballet at Palais Garnier)




When I heard that there was a ballet performance included in our program I was very excited. I love going to the theater and I have seen my fair share of musicals and Broadway shows.  The only ballet I have seen is The Nutcracker so I was very intrigued to see what I thought would be a classic French ballet performance. 
I was very shocked when the performance started and I realized it was a modern ballet.  Since this is not what I had expected I do not think I liked it as much as I thought I was going to.  Don’t get me wrong the whole experience was very interesting and the performers were amazingly talented.  What I liked most about this show was the lighting. Since it was a modern style of ballet there was a lot of strong, bright, and harsh lights strobe like even and it made the show very dramatic.  One of my favorite parts was when they played with the gold material because it had a cool fluid movement and you could see everything from our seats way at the top.



Even if the ballet wasn’t my favorite show, Palais Garnier itself was incredible.  My mom had told me that it was one of her favorite buildings in Paris so I knew it was going to be amazing.  From the outside it was glowing with all of the lights shining on it and the gold statues at the top, but it’s nothing compared to the inside.  The main room where the staircase is was full of people when we walked in and everyone was in awe of the detail of the room.  Ours seats inside the theater were at the very top, which was nice because we got to be right up next to the ceiling.  The seats were red velvet and the whole place seemed to take me back in time.  We snuck into a box seat after the show and the view from there was insane and we took many pictures.  

Overall I think this opera house deserves more of a classic ballet because of its ancient design and Kaguyahime should have been performed somewhere more modern like the Opéra Bastille.

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