PBT starts season with classical spectacular

Last weekend, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre opened its 2010-11 season with the production “The… Last weekend, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre opened its 2010-11 season with the production “The Three Musketeers.”

This classical show kicks off a season that will gradually become more contemporary, featuring pieces like “Dracula,” “A Gershwin Fantasy” and  “Balanchine.”

Originally choreographed in 1980 by André Prokovsky offers a preview of “The Three Musketeers” is an over-the-top caricature of the classical ballet formula. It plays on many of the themes and devices of such masterpieces as “Swan Lake,” “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Don Quixote” and essentially anything else choreographed by Petipa, particularly in collaboration with the music of Tchaikovsky.

“The Three Musketeers” pays homage to and simultaneously mocks traditional ballet. This works quite well as it provides opportunities to jab at many of the aspects of ballet that seem ridiculous — both to its fans and to those who are turned off by the art form — while still retaining the aspects of ballets that are more successful.

One place where this sardonic approach is especially effective is in the choreography of fight scenes. Those who are not well-versed in ballet are often only familiar with “The Nutcracker.” Something that might stand out in people’s minds about the holiday favorite is its absurd fighting. It simply isn’t gratifying, or plausible, to watch two people trade blows while prancing and leaping in circles around each other.

But, “The Three Musketeers” lays bare the device. Sometimes the musketeers themselves are so deft that they simply take out minions in the course of performing solos, completely oblivious to the fact that they’re being attacked.

Other times, the male dancers demonstrate their virtuosity by executing huge jumps over their adversaries. Rather than attempting to maintain any gravity, these scenes embrace their absurdity.

The ballet makes sure to throw equal jabs at 17th-century French aristocratic culture. The King, in particular, may be one of the funniest characters I have ever witnessed in a dance. Played by Gilles Maidon, who helped perfect the choreography at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the King is not only a pretentious fop, but also an oblivious cuckold to boot. His dancing is blundering and awkward, his affectations are effeminate, and he is so enamored by the spotlight that he forgets even his own rules of courtly decorum.

Nonetheless, the ballet is not always farcical, and some of its most sincere moments are also its best. The pas de deux between D’Artagnan and Constance is exquisite, and the scene which portrays the Duke of Buckingham longing after his distant lover the Queen is both evocative and graceful.

The producers mocked the trend in traditional ballet of one show trying to outdo the ones preceding it in extravagance, so “The Three Musketeers” is brimming with gratuitous corps sections, props, lavish sets and elaborate costumes. During the coda, they even throw in a few classic moves that are absent from the rest of the performance.

Yet here is where the ballet falters the most. During the performance, the production’s extravagant layout led to multiple staging mishaps. At one point, a stagehand accidentally walked on stage and removed a piece of the set before the scene ended. At other points, the dancing was muddled and out of sync.

This must have been a very costly production for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre — however, they would have done better to spare some of that expense. Without such clumsy staging, “The Three Musketeers” would have made a funny, and also nostalgic, parody of the classic.