Seductive truth of the real Casanova
Casanova, Northern Ballet (Festival Theatre, Edinburgh) Man behind the sexual myth ★★★★✩
EVERYONE knows what a Casanova is. Far fewer, however, could tell you very much about the Casanova.
The man behind the sexual myth is as much a mystery to us as he was to his 18th century contemporaries.
Which makes him a perfect subject for the latest in Northern Ballet’s long-running series of literary-based narrative works.
Giacomo Casanova was born in 1725 in Venice, although by then Europe’s only republic was fast sinking into a still glamorous degradation. It was the perfect place for a future roué to learn the tricks of his trade.
Over the next seven decades, he would embrace a cornucopia of careers, including trainee priest, scholar, musician, librarian and writer. Though lauded – and loathed – as a Lothario, he longed to be an intellectual.
Choreographer Kenneth Tindall’s first full-length ballet attempts to reconcile the contradictions of his character and present a more rounded, more nuanced view of a man he clearly regards as a truly significant figure of the Enlightenment.
In many ways, Dundee-born Tindall’s ballet is a tour de force. Visually, it is a delight for the senses.
The dancers are uniformly excellent. It’s not exactly a one-man show but Giuliano Contadini seems seldom to be offstage. He exudes a powerful sexual allure but not at the expense of a rocksolid, though lyrically sensuous, technique. Casanova is a role made for him.
Unusually for a full-length narrative ballet, there is no female lead as such. Some may see this as a weakness, others as an opportunity to allow a farrago of females to create a series of sensual vignettes with our hero.
Abigail Prudames and Minju Kang are precociously, almost disturbingly, sexy as the twin Savorgnan Sisters, the teenage convent girls who take trainee priest Casanova’s virginity.
As aristocratic nun MM, Ailen Ramos Betancourt seduces Casanova while her hidden voyeuristic lover Cardinal de Bernis, a lascivious Dale Rhodes, watches.
Unsurprisingly, Casanova manages to fall foul of the Holy Inquisition and is imprisoned, ending Act One.
Act Two sees the action (not the wrong word) transported from Venice to Versailles, where Casanova’s life takes turns for the better and the far, far worse.
He meets two women, either – or both – of whom may be the true love of his life. To complicate things, Bellino (Dreda Blow) has disguised herself as a boy to obtain work as a castrato. Not to be outdone, Henriette (Hannah Bateman) has dressed as a soldier to escape her abusive husband. Needless to say, love fails to conquer anything, let alone everything.
Turning to the world of the intellect, Casanova explains his theory of cubic geometry to no less than Voltaire – and is roundly mocked.
On the brink of suicide, a single page of paper flutters down, inspiring Casanova to cast thoughts of death aside and write his History of My Life, now recognised as one of the great 18th century memoirs.
APART from superb choreography and dancing, almost everything else about this production is absolutely top drawer.
Christopher Oram’s sets and costumes are truly magnificent. Monumental columns and mirrors dominate vast spaces of crimson and gold. His costumes are 18th century with a modern twist, allowing the dancers freedom of movement without compromising the historical context.
The lighting, by Alastair West, is, if anything, even better, illuminating darkly atmospheric shadows with bursts of shining light.
The steepling period wigs are designed by Richard Mawbey and are as special as you would expect from a man who is personal wigmaker to Sir Sean Connery and Dame Edna Everage.
The only disappointment, unusually for Northern Ballet, is the core narrative itself.
I know it is distilled from 12 volumes of memoirs, that this is Tindall’s first full-length narrative ballet and that it is deliberately episodic in structure.
Nonetheless, the narrative does not drive the action as it should. If it did, this would undoubtedly be a five-star show.