Soirée Maurice Bejart

The partnership between Maurice Béjart and the Paris Opera lasted for over forty years and provided the institution with more than twenty pieces. In a tribute to this choreographer who died fifteen years ago, the Paris Opera Ballet presents three works initially created during the seventies and which all shine with equal choreographic and musical intensity. For The Firebird, an ode to youth designed for the company’s dancers, the choreographer took up Stravinsky’s powerful score bringing out its quintessence. Young “partisans” recharge their ardour and their energy at the well‑spring of life represented by the Firebird. Written for two male dancers, Le Chant du compagnon errant is an intimate work to a song cycle by Mahler highlighting all the rigour and grace of Béjart’s language. Finally, the mythical Boléro espouses Ravel’s eponymous score. Surrounded by dancers, alone on a table, the principal performer – male or female – is transported by the voluptuous rhythms into an erotic and hypnotic dance that is like a vibrant call to life.