Marie Challet as painted in 1737, two years after Louis Michel Van Loo’s “Alcina” Scandal.
The scandal of the distant 1735 in London, when Georg Friedrich Handel’s new opera, Alsina, was first performed in Coven Garden, is one of the most inspiring moments for the great German who lived in England.
A masterpiece successfully transferred in 2016 by the “Rafi” group to the Cyclades Street Theater (transcribed for string quartet and harpsichord).
However, the premiere had a scandal. And this had to do with the use of ballet, which was common in operas of the time. And here we come to a special female character who seems to have stepped out of a novel: the French dancer Marie-Sally.
According to testimonies, Shalit danced “without a skirt, without a dress, leaving her natural crown uncovered, without a single ornament on her head.” For English audiences of the time, Salé danced nude.
The English public endured it for eighteen nights, but in the last performance it was booed furiously.
Born in 1707 (she was 28 when she danced the “Alquina”), Challet defied the male-dominated world of ballet, and traditionally “annoying” women’s costumes. At the age of 20 she danced at the Paris Opera to the music of the great Jean-Philippe Rameau, entered In conflict with the administration, he took refuge in London in 1734.
There she presented her most famous work, “Pygmalion”: herself in the role of the statue coming to life, she was the first to choreograph, dressed in ancient Greek gowns and sandals, and left her hair loose, something unheard of in the age of the wig.
Then came Sienna. The English public endured it for eighteen nights, but in the last performance it was booed furiously. Angry, Challe left England forever, and since then Handel has removed ballet parts from the famous opera. Chalet returned to Paris, danced several times at Versailles, and left this absurd world in June 1756.
Mr. Gray proposes a classical recording of the opera, from 1959, with Joan Sutherland in the title role and the Cologne Radio Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Ferdinand Leitner (Company: Membran Music Ltd). Listening to this excellent performance, Mr. Gray is saddened by the dance of the half-naked Mary, who has been swallowed up by time forever. Her choreography faded as the performances faded, surviving only in the memories of her viewers. However, the defiant personality of this Frenchwoman in London lives on beyond the memories of those who were fortunate enough to see her alive.
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