Friday, 6 January

I read Refeng. Zhang Fakui also contributes articles to it. This bi-monthly is naturally the publication of the so-called Third Party. During this present time, there are few prospects, but they still mutually criticize. This is just like when people are thrown together into a hot pan, they would still fight with each other.

[Private matter, one paragraph, not available online]

In the evening, I went with Kitty to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées to watch Roland Petit’s Ballet de Paris.

Act 1. Deuil en 24 heures.

It depicts a young woman followed by her husband to the market. She sees a mourning suit in the display window of a funeral clothing shop. She quite likes it and demands that her husband buy it for her. Her husband reluctantly does so accordingly. After they leave the shop they go to a café. They come across a young man at the next table, who is playing with two young girls. The young woman shows her admiration towards the young man. Her husband cannot stand it so he makes an appointment with the young man to have a duel. As a result, the woman’s husband is killed by the young man. The young woman is sad. When she returns home, she places her husband’s picture in the centre of all her previous husbands. But her sadness does not last long.  She feels lonely. Wearing her mourning dress she takes a car to Maxim Hotel. The doorman does not want her to enter as she is in mourning clothes. But she forcefully enters and sees the handsome young man who killed her husband.  She immediately dances with him. She takes off the black mourning clothes, one by one, until only the underwear remains.

This is a ballet that was written by Roland Petit, and the music is based on Maurice Thiriet’s Blue Waltz and Mattchiche. The lead female character, Helene Constantine is young, and she dances with sophistication. She performed well to show a young woman showing her overt female charm, nevertheless it was a pity that she is not very beautiful.

Act 2. La Chambre

By Georges Simenon, music by Georges Auric, choreographed by Roland Petit. The choreography constructs a ‘pas de deux’ of the crime, which is really path-breaking. But I think it is perhaps too much. The detail is that the story shows a man doing nothing in his bedroom. When he opens the window, he sees a beauty dressed in red. He invites her to come inside. They have a happy time together. The beauty embraces him, kisses him, hates him, and finally kills him. The lead female character, Veronika Mlakar, performed well the changeability of love-hatred feelings of a woman, as well as the mood swings from extreme fondness to extreme hatred. She is also young and pretty. The lead male character, Buzz Miller, also danced quite well.

Act 3. Le Loup

By Jean Anouilh and George Neveux, music by Henri Dutilleux, choreography by Roland Petit. This was the best Act tonight. The story depicts a young man and a girl on their way to their wedding when they encounter a wizard, who brings with him a beauty and a wolf. The wizard can turn the face of a human into the head of a wolf, or turn the head of a wolf into the face of a human. The groom found the underworld girl so beautiful that he decided to abandon his fiance and elope with the girl. The bride tries to find him and the wizard hides the bride and changes the wolf into a handsome man. The bride is delighted to see him and dances with him. Later, when she discovers he is really a wolf she becomes quite scared. But she loves his appearance and muscular strength so she does not want to leave him. When the village people come to hunt the wolf they launch a major attack. The wolf escapes to the forest and the bride follows. The village people and the bridegroom manage to separate the girl from the wolf, and the attack the wolf with spears. As the bride loved the wolf she uses her body to shield him. Both are killed. The lead male was Roland Petit. His wolf dance and his love as a wolf was good. These are difficult pieces to act. The lead female character, Violette Verdy, is the best in the whole troupe. She danced very well. Also, she is young and pretty. Monique Vence who acted as the underworld woman was also good.

Act 4. Les Belles Damnees

By Roland Petit, music by Michel Legrand.  This act depicts a beauty who did many evil things when she was alive. After her death, she was burnt to deformity in hell. The lead male character was Buzz Miller and the female lead was Tessa Beaumont. Both were very good.

Guo Zhijie went to a female dentist. He said she was twenty-seven. She was not bad.