National Ballet of Canada Premieres 'Le Petit Prince' in Toronto, Polarizes Critics
The National Ballet of Canada opened their production of Le Petit Prince this week in Toronto to mixed but mesmerized reviews. Led by choreographer and dancer Guillaume Côté, the ballet version of the famed French novella The Little Prince by writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry received much scrutiny in the press upon its premiere.
The Globe and Mail correspondent Martha Schabas felt the show's abstraction was clouded in distraction, indicating that subpar dancing was masked by various theatrical supplements:
"[Le Petit Prince] felt like a magician's gamble in distraction. The thinking seemed to be that if the costumes were lavish enough, the set clever enough, the music swelling enough, then the audience wouldn't notice (or perhaps care) that very little was happening at the level of dancing, concept and emotion."
John Terauds at Musical Toronto praised the show's talent and technical team, but he also agreed that the overall presentation was perhaps lacking of a certain artistic substance:
"Saturday night's opening performance was a showcase of remarkably fine choreography by principal dancer Guillaume Côté, an engaging score by composer Kevin Lau, and a brilliant set and costumes by Michael Levine, alongside impressive lighting by David Finn." [...] "I'm not entirely sure that the whole of this Petit Prince is greater than the sum of its parts, but the parts do assemble into two hours of arresting dance with striking visuals and music to make it come alive."
Le Petite Prince is Saint-Exupéry's most famous work and the fourth-most translated text in the world. Besides ballet, it has been adapted for nearly every theatrical entertainment enterprise, including its multiple renditions in television, radio and film. The book tells the poetic story of a prince who has fallen to Earth and meets a stranded pilot, its content interweaving delicate topics of philosophical heartiness among the profound realization of the mundanities of adulthood.
Le Petit Prince runs until Sunday, June 12 at Toronto's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Below, watch a preview of the National Ballet of Canada's production.
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