The Hunchblog of Notre Dame

21Mar 2017

The Visual Emotions of Ballet and the Story of Esmeralda

by jess

Esmeralda & Phoebus, La Esmeralda, Kremlin Ballet Company, Moscow

Ballets unlike movie have to convey all the story element through only motions and gestures. This makes ballets more like a silent movie without the intertext panels. For the most La Esmeralda does tell the basic story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame/Notre Dame de Paris however it does have some weird differences that don’t really impact the narrative but should be mentioned.

Esmeralda begging Phoebus o spare Quasimodo, La Esmeralda, Kremlin Ballet Company, Moscow

There is no pillory scene and so Quasimodo is never punished for Frollo’s crimes. He does nearly get arrested and Esmeralda begs for his release. This takes the place of the pillory scene as it’s the kindness of Esmeralda he falls in love with. Is it as impactful? No but it’s gets the job done.

Quasimodo as The Pope of Fools, Kremlin Ballet Company, Moscow

Quasimodo is crowned the Pope of Fools nearly halfway through the performance. Not sure why they bothered moving this scene so late in the show. Would have been better easier as at this point the division of Quasimodo and Frollo have already started and this felt tacked on and unnecessary. Sure it’s a very important scene in the story but to place it after Quasimodo expresses a love and loyalty for someone other than Frollo shows a misunderstanding of the characters.

Frollo and Esmeralda, La Esmeralda, Kremlin Ballet Company, Moscow picture image

Frollo & Esmeralda, La Esmeralda, Kremlin Ballet Company, Moscow

Another weird odd change is the movement of the Red Door scene. I didn’t even recognize it as the Red Door scene, or the scene where Frollo tries to force himself on Esmeralda during her sanctuary in Notre Dame, I thought it was an additional scene for the Ballet and I JUST figured it out was the Red Door scene. It’s a bizarre placement as it occurs right after Frollo tries to abduct Esmeralda and she returns to her dwelling. Frollo hasn’t even stab Phoebus yet, his torture, lust and lack of self control hasn’t gotten to this point yet. It comes off like an old cartoon from the 1930’s where the villain chases an innocent maiden around a room till the hero bursts in and Quasimodo does bursts in saves Esmeralda. Don’t misconstrues this, the choreography is lovely but it shows that the people who originally did this Ballet lack an understanding of the characters, mostly Frollo and Quasimodo.

Artemis & Apollo(?), Kremlin Ballet Company, Moscow

One thing that was really annoying about the ballet is the padding out it does especially with Fleur de Lys’ party scenes. There is one scene where Fleur de Lys is have a performance done of Artemis and maybe Apollo. I can only guess at Apollo because it would be a clever call back to Phoebus. Performances in performances are intriguing as it makes the audience part of the performance but here it just dragged things on. It could be for a practical purpose of allowing the principal dancers a ten minute breather but again I do not know the ins and outs of ballet. As beautiful as the performance of the myth was it interrupted the flow of the story.

Esmeralda & Quasimodo, La Esmeralda, Kremlin Ballet Company, Moscow

For most people these changes are not going to impact their overall enjoyment of the ballet as it does capture the emotional impact of the story but the seemingly minor changes does suggest that someone in charge at some point didn’t have a great working knowledge of the finer points of the characters and the story.

(Note- Not all the ballet version of La Esmeralda depict the story like this.)

16Mar 2017

Once Upon a Time Season 2 Episode 15 & 16 Review

by jess

Episode 15: The Queen is Dead

Bailee Madison as Young Snow White & Rena Sofer as Queen Eva

We got that three story structure in this episode, so let’s just start with Character’s past. This one centers on young Snow White. Snow White’s mother, Queen Eva is dying and Snow White ventures to find the Blue Fairy. The Blue fairy says the only way to restore the queen’s life is for someone else to die in her place and gives Snow a candle that will switch the lives. Very Game of Thrones. However young Snow can’t bring herself to do it and Snow’s kind mother dies. Turns out that Eva was poisoned by Cora who also disguised herself as the Blue Fairy to test Snow White and to lead Snow on a path of darkness. It also seems like Eva and Cora have a little bit of a history.

In New York, everyone is awkwardly trying to bond and then Hook stabs Rumpelstiltskin with a poison tipped Hook. Rumpelstiltskin says he will die unless they can make it back to Storybrooke. Neal/Baelfire says that the fastest way is to steal Hook’s boat and says he can captain it. Basically Neall did go to Neverland! Was he Peter Pan? Seems like it? Would make sense though Pan learning to sail a Pirate boat? Seems a little off. Maybe he was rouge lost boy? Don’t know I asked that question back in episode 4. Also Emma meets Neal’s fiancee Tamara.

The trouble is back in Storybrooke, Regina and Cora are after Rumpelstiltskin’s dagger. Snow calls Emma asking Rumpelstiltskin to reveal the location of the dagger. He tells them and they find in the clock tower of the library but Cora and Regina show up and threaten one Snow’s former loyal servant Johanna. Snow trades the dagger for Johanna’s life but Cora kills Johanna anyway. Snow then vows to kill Cora for what she did to both Johanna and her mother as she just learned of Cora’s manipulations and murder of her mom.

First off, there is a huge Star Wars reference. Snow White/Mary Margaret says the classic Leia line to Mother Superior, “Help Me Mother Superior, you’re my only hope.

Generally, I liked this episode. It was good to see a young Snow White be the focus of an episode and yet more character motivations in play.

Episode 16: The Miller’s Daughter

Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin & Rose McGowan as Cora

This has to be one of the strongest episodes yet. It explores Cora’s backstory and her rise of a Miller’s daughter to royalty and her lust for power. So in the character’s past, Cora is a Miller’s daughter or more specifically the Miller’s daughter from the Rumpelstiltskin story. She is delivering flour to the King but Princess Eva trips and her and forced to kneel and apologize for doing nothing wrong.

Cora attends a ball for the hand of Prince Henry, who is being whored out for a wealthy alliance. Cora tells the king that she can spin straw into gold. So he locks up in a tower and should she produce gold she can marry Henry. Rumpelstiltskin shows up and offers to spin the straw into gold for her if she gives him her first born. She agrees but on the condition that he teaches her how spin gold instead, he agrees. Their lessons gets a bit sexually charged but she masters the process.

Cora and Henry become engaged but he is fifth in line to be King which doesn’t suit Cora. Her and Rumpelstiltskin are also having an affair. Rumpelstiltskin offers her love and asks her to run off with him. They amend their contract so that she would own him his child and he teaches her how to remove hearts so she can kill the king. She instead removes her heart as “love is weakness” and tells Rumplestiltskin she will not be going with him and any child she have will not be his.

In Storybrooke, Rumpelstiltskin is dying and Cora seems like she wants the power of the Dark one. Rumpelstiltskin manipulates Snow to use that candle to exchange his life for Cora’s and tells her that the heart is in the vault. Snow manipulates Regina to give Cora’s heart back so that Cora will finally be able to love her. Right before Cora is about to kill Rumpelstiltskin, Regina restores Cora’s heart thus killing her and saving Rumpelstiltskin.
Both plot were great, one of exciting and somewhat suspenseful and the other was intriguing. Personally I prefered Cora’s and Rumpelstiltskin’s past. It was great to see what motivated Cora to her icy yet power hungry persona and also it gave the reason behind Rumpelstiltskin and Cora’s relationship which has been hinted at for a while. It does beg the question is Rumpelstiltskin Regina’s father? If Cora was pregnant in that instance, which it vaguely hints at it would make Regina Baelfire’s half sister and Henry’s aunt. But there is not clear indicator as of yet how much time passed between Rumplestiltskin and Cora’s affair and Regina’s birth and with Cora now dead it could be hard to answer that question if it is indeed true though it’s probably not true. Anyway great episode, one my favorites so far.

15Mar 2017