TV Reviews : ‘Paris Dances Diaghilev’ on A&E; Cable

Taped last year after Rudolf Nureyev’s dismissal as director of the Paris Opera Ballet, “Paris Dances Diaghilev” finds many of Nureyev’s young proteges cast in four 20th-Century masterworks familiar to American audiences from productions by the Joffrey Ballet. The two-hour telecast is scheduled on A&E; cable tonight at 6 and 10.

Besides the Joffrey connection, “Petrushka,” “Le Spectre de la Rose,” “L’Apres-midi d’un faune” looks visually lush but and “Les Noces” are strongly identified with Paris (where three of them premiered), with Nureyev (who danced three of them on Broadway and PBS a decade ago) but most of all, of course, with Diaghilev and the Nijinskys, brother and sister.

Bronislava Nijinska’s propulsive “Les Noces” receives the most accurate and persuasive production of the four--one enhanced by Colin Nears’ enlightened TV direction. Nijinska’s severe, architectural compositions remain startling, but the camera also clarifies the relationship between isolated (often passive) soloists and the dynamic corps.

Mikhail Fokine’s neo-Romantic “Le Spectre de la Rose” receives an extraordinarily sensitive and accomplished performance from Manuel Legris opposite the capable Claude de Vulpian. Legris understands Fokine didn’t want rigid, classical arm positions but a flow of motion, and he makes this concept the key to a memorably mercurial, poetic interpretation. Unfortunately, he wears a disastrously incomplete reconstruction of the celebrated 1911 costume: pink petals down to his waist, but very bare rose hips and stems below.

Full of historically dubious bits of action and some questionable design elements, Nicholas Beriosov’s restaging of Fokine’s “Petrushka” offers a sentimental performance by Thierry Mongne in the title role: childlike, uncomprehending and more pleading than defiant at the end. In contrast, Monique Loudieres makes an icy Ballerina and Jean Guizerix a fatuous Moor.

Vaslav Nijinsky’s “L’Apres-midi d’un faune” looks visually lush but suffers from a perfunctory performance by Charles Jude. No sensuality, no animal instinct, no real electricity between him and the Nymph (Marie-Claude Pietragalla). All four ballets boast vibrant conducting by Michel Tabachnik and brilliant recorded sound.