Nicolas Le Riche, Paris Opera Ballet - Caligula (Vivaldi music), 2011

Live recording from the Palais Garnier, Opéra national de Paris Story by Nicolas Le Riche and Guillaume Gallienne Music by Antonio Vivaldi (The Four Seasons) and Louis Dandrel (electro-acoustic creation) First performed in 2005, “Caligula” is Étoile Dancer Nicolas Le Riche’s first choreography for the Paris Opera Ballet. Intrigued by the complex and troubling personality of the Roman emperor, the choreographer evokes the torments of a frail man capable of loving the moon and idolizing his horse, a man impassioned by theatre and constantly playing a role himself. Constructed as a tragedy, the choreography follows the inexorable progression of this solitary hero towards death. Accompanied by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which illustrates the irremediable passage of time, the dance, in all its depth and energy, translates the poetry and the violence inherent in a life consumed at lightning speed by excess.