Equestrian opera premieres in U.S.
By Tracey L. Miller
NEW YORK (UPI): A beautiful Indian girl leads a romantic pas de deux with a white horse by the waterside.
A muscle-bound horseman performs dazzling tricks aboard his bareback steed, and a comical one-man band pantomimes an intricate conversation with a receptive stallion.
No, it's not the circus, modern dance or traditional theater, but Chimere, the latest offering from France's Zingaro equestrian troupe.
The brainchild of artistic director Bartabas, the show cobbles together ancient Gypsy music from India's Rajastan, acrobatics and other art forms to showcase the beauty and splendor of the troupe's raison d'etre, horses.
"It's a work about the relation between man and horse," Bartabas said as he prepared for the troupe's U.S. premiere. "You can say anything with a horse. It's like a dancer with his body or a musician with his instrument."
The breathtaking show, performed for the next two months under a tent at New York City's Battery Park, features 26 horses, 22 performers and 10 musicians.
Over the past 12 years, Bartabas has traveled the globe seeking new performers and inspirations for his troupe, which has built up a fervid following in Paris and throughout Europe. Chimere is its fifth production and the first one to travel outside Europe.
The troupe lives in a caravan with its horses outside Paris, an important distinction for Bartabas.
"We don't live like this because our parents did, it's because we choose it," he said. "The idea of Zingaro is to reduce the differences we have with artistic and private life. Zingaro is not just artistic, it's a way of life."
"Zingaro is like an iceberg," he added. "The part up on the water is the performance, the little part, but the big part is down in the water, the life we live every day. If this life is not interesting, the performance cannot be interesting."
There have been some adjustments to that lifestyle for the New York engagement. The performers are staying at a nearby athletic club, while at least one member stays nightly with the horses at Battery Park.
The two-hour experience has no plot and seemingly drifts from vignette to vignette, mixing mystery, music and comedy.
For those looking for thrills, daring horsemen jump effortlessly on and off their mounts, acrobats perform magical flips over a pool of water and elegant women in bright silk perform intricate dances on barebacked steeds.
But the performers in nearly every instance are upstaged by the horses themselves.
One comes away with a new appreciation for the beauty, intelligence and majesty of horses the way Bartabas sees them. A series of performances in Germany is planned for next May.