New ballets to ancient music masterfully performed by Jordi Savall

The Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse and Jordi Savall, leading his ensemble Le Concert des Nations, starred on Sunday at the Liceu in the premiere of a show that revives two old ballets by Christoph Willibald Gluck, Semiramis and Don JuanAlthough the original choreographies have been lost, the two works are considered the first ballets in the strict sense of the term, since until then, in the 18th century, dance was merely a form of pantomime accompanying music.

The orchestral suite Iphigenia at Aulis opened the evening as a musical prologue to the two ballets, Semibranches, with choreography by Angel Rodríguez, and Don Juan, By Edward Clug, two approaches to two myths, a woman and a man, who defied the laws of men and gods.

A Semiramis, Rodríguez eliminates any plot references to offer a ballet focused on women that has nothing to do with Greek tragedy, but rather makes them flow on stage as beings emerged from Mother Earth in a piece of great choreographic simplicity, very poetic and light, where the man is the support that makes them fly. The company's dancers, with clean and enthusiastic technique, offer a dance in which everything is legs, elevations and great jetés, long and stylized arms with small gestures of the head and hands that break the lines providing a touch of modernity.

Quite different was the Don Juan, by Edward Clug, which does delve into the character but without becoming narrative. With 28 dancers on stage, Clug relies on crisscrossing and angular movements, scenic elements such as the convent's railings or a sculptural horse to create heroic images of the protagonist, as well as adding humorous touches that border on parody, such as a man on the floor due to a simple kiss on the hand, or the people applauding the hero on horseback. The ballet works as such, with a dedicated and technically fantastic corps de ballet, with Don Juan played by Alexandre de Oliveira Ferreira who knows how to play the unsympathetic, unscrupulous seducer required by the character, and an immense Marlen Fuerte Castro as Elvira. It's a shame the final scene doesn't work. Don Juan doesn't kill his father or descend into hell, but the music does. While the dance troupe moves aimlessly around the stage, the avalanche of intensity emanating from Gluck's music, which Jordi Savall energetically conducted, turned the finale into one of the most powerful musical moments of the evening. And the audience, with a standing ovation, acknowledged Savall's mastery.