These notes compiled by Gerard Charles, BalletMet Columbus, February 1998

Mr. Nixon believes that you cannot hide realities from people; if we do, they do not have the chance to learn from these realities. The importance of telling this story is not to promote a way of living but is a moral statement to not live as these characters. Although he had read the book numerous times, it was the film Dangerous Liaisons that showed David Nixon the possibilities of translating the book into a dance. He was inspired by the tension that could be created visually between two people.

The story takes place at the end of the 18th century, a time in many ways different from ours and yet in many ways similar. Human emotions and society may have changed faces but remain elementally the same.

In the ballet a woman recalls the tale of the beautiful and powerful Marquise de Merteuil. The Marquise, displeased with a former lover, Gercourt, sets out to seek revenge by the spoiling of his intended virginal bride to be, Cecile Volanges. Unable to engage her accomplice and ex-lover Vicomte de Valmont in the game, she employs the innocent services of the young Chevalier Danceny. Meanwhile, Valmont has otherwise engrossed himself in the seduction of a faithfully married woman with devout and stern principles.

The game is now set for the dark forces of human nature to enact upon the innocent and unsuspecting. All must be transcribed in letters, which themselves become the messengers of our tale.

Mr. Nixon first choreographed his Dangerous Liaisons in 1990 as a part of an evening of his own work in Berlin. He presented the tale from the point of view of Valmont’s aunt, who in the book is the final keeper of the many letters. This choice, in part guided by his wish to give a sizable role to the dancer who played the aunt, changed the perspective of the story. Although the many pas de deux worked well for him, Mr. Nixon found there was insufficient spoken information to truly provide the facts necessary to move the story forward . As a result, when he remounted the work in 1991 he shortened the ballet and made it tighter and more theatrical, telling the story from the Marquise’s point of view. There was still spoken word, but recorded, as if they were voices inside the Marquise’s head.

As Artistic Director of BalletMet, Mr. Nixon found the multitude of characters in Dangerous Liaisons and their character development would present a valuable challenge to the company dancers. In remounting the work for BalletMet he also had more dancers at his disposal and so expanded the ballet to full evening length, including new group dances. As he sought to refine his ballet further, much of the choreography of the duets changed. He also always wanted to incorporate an actress into the ballet, not just to tell the story, but to provide insight on the reasons for the Marquise’s actions. The actress’ character would also serve, in the end, to clearly state the moral point of view from which the choreographer was working.

In the dancing Mr. Nixon has chosen to incorporate period qualities mostly in the group scenes. Through elegant and flowing upper body moves, the women exude liveliness, elegance and femininity while the men are slightly more reserved. For the main characters, he has sought to find movements that are particular to each character. The Marquise maintains exaggerated, florid, Rococo arm movements as a part of her facade to society. Tourvel, in contrast, is much simpler in character and gesture. Danceny has a lot of "batterie" in his choreography, a symbol of his youth. For Valmont, Mr. Nixon has concentrated on the different ways he handles each of the women he encounters. With the Marquise he is playful and suggestive; with Cecile he is much more forthright and domineering; with Tourvel he is probably at his most sincere and truly passionate; with Emilie he just indulges his own pleasure.

It is Valmont that is maybe the most interesting character to Mr. Nixon, as within the ballet, and within his life, Valmont comes to understand himself. He realizes what he is and seeks in his sacrifice through death to heal the wounds of his deeds. This is visually bolstered by the set changing from blood red back to its pure white upon his death. The Marquise, however, knows her evil yet chooses to continue on her way. In the end she must always live in the shadow of the knowledge of what she has chosen to do. As the Marquise controlled life, that same control now dictates her eternity.

Mr. Nixon conceived the plot and choreography for Dangerous Liaisons and also the design. The stage setting is a white room, a clean and unspoiled place into which the characters bring their color and their actions. The most focal, and architecturally correct, portion of the set is the central doorway. It is the entrance and exit of reality, and it draws our focus to important moments.

The costumes are inspired by the period of the story, but are not historically correct due to the demands the dancers’ movements. The Marquise is first seen in society dressed in white and gold, a symbol of her outward image of being kind, warm hearted, pure, and in every sense "proper." We soon see her in her true color, red - a flamboyant and passionate color, the color of blood. She is the only character that changes costume to underscore her character; the others have changes that are relative more to place than to action.

The music of Antonio Vivaldi is from a period very close to the setting of the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. David Nixon was first drawn to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons as a possible score for his ballet not only because of its period, but also for its very rhythmic and dramatic qualities. Upon repeated listenings, however, Mr. Nixon found several of the lighter, more frivolous sections to be inappropriate to the ballet’s theme. He therefore listened to a wider range of music of the period, eventually settling on a compilation of solely Vivaldi’s music. This selection of music has varied to suit each production of the ballet.

As with most composers of his time, Vivaldi’s music is characterized by vastness of proportion, rich counterpoint, great splendor and a highly ornamented melodic line. There is a breaking away from the severity of Medieval and early Renaissance music with its emphasis on the use of great vocal and instrumental color.

During the Baroque the orchestra began to take shape, with strings, woodwind, brass and percussion - though still not an orchestra in the modern symphonic sense. Ensembles of several groups of instruments or of one or more instruments together with an orchestra led to the development of the musical form known as the concerto (three movements, two allegros with a slow movement in between). Vivaldi was a prolific composer and a pioneer of orchestral music. His expressive lyricism and deep emotional content quickly distinguished him from his predecessors.

The Four Seasons, "Summer", Concerto in G minor. Opus 8 No. 2 RV 315. Ist, 2nd and 3rd movements.

The Four Seasons, "Autumn", Concerto in F major. Opus 8 No. 3. RV 293. 2nd movement.

The Four Seasons, "Winter", Concerto in F minor. Opus 8 No. 4. RV 297. 1st and 3rd movements.

Concerto a 5, "L’Inquietudine", RV 234. 1st, 2nd and 3rd movements.

Cello Concerto in C minor. Opus 20 No. 3. RV 401. 1st and 2nd movements.

Concerto " La Notte" for flute, strings and harpsichord in G minor. Opus 10 No. 2. RV 439 1st and 2nd movements.

Concerto for 2 violins in D major. Opus 21 No. 8. RV 511. 3rd movement.

Concerto for 2 violins in D major. RV 513. 3rd movement.

Concerto a 6 for 2 violins, strings and continuo in A minor. Opus 58 No. 2. RV 523. 2nd movement.

Concerto for 2 violins in B flat. Opus 9 No. 9. RV 530. 1st, 2nd movement.

Concerto in G minor for 2 cellos, strings and continuo. Opus 58 No. 3. RV 531. 1st and 3rd movements.

Concerto in F for 3 violins, strings and continuo. Opus 23 No. 1. RV 551. 2nd movement.

Concerto in B minor for 4 violins. Opus 3 No. 10. RV 580. 2nd movement.

Vivaldi was a noted venetian violinist and considered one of the foremost composers of the Italian Baroque. Born in Venice in 1678, he was so weak at birth that the midwife baptized him right away in case he died without a name. His father, Giovanni Battista, was a barber and a violinist in the orchestra of St. Mark’s, Venice; his mother, Camilla Caicchio, was the daughter of a tailor. He had three sisters and two brothers who were a rowdy collection, two of them eventually being banned from Venice. Antonio was taught the violin by his father, and it is believed that he wrote his first composition at age thirteen. Being the youngest son he entered the church in 1693, aged fifteen, in order to better his prospects. It took him ten years to become a priest in 1703, but after only two years he stopped saying mass because of congenital chest complaint. Apparently it was not uncommon for him to leave a service in mid-celebration, complaining of chest pains, only to rush out and scribble down a new tune for a concerto.

From 1703 he also began to teach violin at the Ospedale della Pietà, a charity for orphaned girls - of which there were literally hundreds in Venice at the time. The children were educated with a definite bias towards music, and the orphanage became internationally known for its orchestra. Vivaldi began composing for their recitals and maintained his association with the Ospedale throughout most of his life, with many interruptions due to his changing political standing with the institution.

At age twenty five, Vivaldi concentrated on composing music. He published Trio Sonatas Op. 1 in 1705 and his first opera, Ottone in villa was performed in Vicenza in 1713. Always a composer who liked to be closely involved with the rehearsal process as well, Vivaldi became an operatic impresario in Venice where he conducted and played for opera performances. His Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons) was published in 1725 by which time Vivaldi was well respected in Europe. Vivaldi became known as the "Red Priest" not on account of any political leanings, but due to the color of his hair and his original profession. The production of a new opera of his in 1737 was forbidden by papal authorities on the grounds that Vivaldi was a priest who did not say mass and who had a relationship with a female vocalist.

Better known outside of Venice in his lifetime, he was particularly admired in France, Holland and England. In 1741 he decided to leave Venice for Vienna, presumably in search of a court appointment. He died there on July 28, the same year. Despite having earned a good amount during his lifetime, he was buried in a pauper’s grave.

Vivaldi’s music fell into obscurity over the years but was subject to a strong revival of interest in this century. His prolific output numbered an astonishing 750 works. Vivaldi claimed that he wrote 94 operas, only 49 of which can be proven today. He is probably best known today for his concertos, many for violin and orchestra, which number some 450.

OTHER BALLETS TO VIVALDI MUSIC

Ballet Choreographer Company and premiere

Ondine William Dollar New York City Ballet, 1949

Persephone Robert Joffrey Ballet Rambert, 1955

Square Dance George Balanchine New York City Ballet, 1957

L’Estro Armonico John Cranko Stuttgart Ballet, 1963

Madrigalesco Benjamin Harkarvy Nederlans Dans Theatre, 1963

Viva Vivaldi Gerald Arpino Joffrey Ballet, 1965

Cello Concerto Gerald Arpino Joffrey Ballet, 1967

Saltarelli Jacques d’Amboise New York City Ballet, 1974

Four Seasons Flemming Flindt Royal Danish Ballet, 1975

The Four Seasons James Kudelka National Ballet of Canada, 1997

 Dangerous Liaisons began as the novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, by French author Choderlos de Laclos. Originally published over two hundred years ago Les Liaisons Dangereuses was widely read at the time as a succès de scandale (50 editions were published in his lifetime) and admired by readers such as Marie Antoinette, André Gide and Charles Baudelaire. However, the story did not regain popularity until Christopher Hampton created the play of the same name that was premiered in 1985 by the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-on-Avon and later transferred to London’s West End and New York’s Broadway. Wider popularity was assured by the release of the Stephen Frears’ film Dangerous Liaisons with screenplay by Christopher Hampton in 1988, and Milos Foreman’s 1990 Valmont.

The reasons for the book’s neglect have less to do with its qualities but more with its reputation. While famed as a lurid account of aristocratic sexual high jinks, it is also an example of an outmoded form of writing. Serious readers in search of tragic uplift were disconcerted by the brilliant comedy, and those seeking a more basic thrill were put off by the attention to psychological detail. The book is a series of one hundred and seventy five letters through which the tale is recounted. The eighteenth century, in its leisure and literacy, was a great age of letter writing. It is not surprising that the epistolary novel was one of the age’s most characteristic literary forms, permitting a character to confide their innermost thoughts without the intervention of a formal narrative. Letters could also be monotonously repetitious and contrived. Being an all important method of communication and a permanent proof of deeds, the letter remains central to the action even in the ballet.

Christopher Hampton’s adaptation underlines the qualities an audience expects of the eighteenth century, i.e. beautiful clothes and settings, witty dialogue and aristocratic frivolity. This is in contrast to de Laclos who wrote in Mock-heroic style, which allows the writer to treat the most serious romantic subject - sexual desire - in a most rigorous and classically comic manner.

Valmont is the nearest the novel comes to a hero. Though we soon discover that Madame de Merteuil is really in charge of the plot, Valmont dominates the action. He is certainly the most attractive figure in the book. Valmont perceives his rejection of Tourvel, for whom he has a real love, as a sign of his freedom and power over women; in fact it is quite the reverse. When he claims his prize of favors from Madame de Merteuil she refuses him pointing out that the victory is hers, for it was her strength of will that persuaded Valmont to give up Tourvel. In the novel death is Valmont’s release, Cecile becomes a nun, Danceny takes a vow of celibacy and joins the Knights of Malta and Mme. de Merteuil is financially ruined and becomes hideously disfigured by smallpox.

Pierre Ambrose Francois Choderlos de Laclos was born in 1741 and pursued a military career, becoming an accomplished artillery commander. It was while he was assigned to a boring duty on a Bay of Biscay island at age forty that he determined, as he wrote to a friend, to use the time to create something "out of the ordinary, eye-catching, something that would resound around the world" and live after de Laclos’ death. The result was Les Liaisons Dangereuses, his first and only, and immediately successful, novel. (His two other writings were a treatise on women’s education and an attack on Maréchal de Vauban.) His sources for the story came from the time he spent in the garrison in Grenoble (1769 -75). There he observed the local nobility, whose morals were extremely lax, although de Laclos himself did not have a reputation for behaving badly. Instead he liked to talk with ladies and have them confide to him their love affairs.

In 1784 de Laclos married the sister of an admiral, Solange Marie Duperré, who had stated, after reading his book, that "Monsieur Laclos will never set foot in our drawing room." On hearing this statement de Laclos declared that "Within six months I will marry Mademoiselle Duperré." His seduction and conquest of Mlle. Duperré is probably the closest he ever came to being like his character Valmont. He proved to be a devoted husband writing, "For nearly twenty years now I have owed my happiness to you..."

During the French Revolution de Laclos was a Jacobin, a friend of Danton, secretary to "Philippe-Égalité" the Duc d’Orléans. He was twice jailed, but the fall of Robespierre and the end of the Reign of Terror saved him from the guillotine. At the turn of the century, Napoleon made de Laclos a brigadier general and assigned him to the Army of the Rhine and then the Army in Italy. He was transferred to Naples and placed in charge of the defense of Taranto, where he died of dysentery in 1803.

1776

• American Declaration of Independence

1778

• Laclos begins work on Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
• France recognizes American independence. England declares war on France.
• Captain James Cook discovers Hawaii naming them the Sandwich Islands.
• Deaths of Voltaire, Rousseau and composer Thomas Arne.
• Mozart’s ballet Les Petits Riens ballet opens in Paris; he is 22.
• Beethoven, at age 8, is presented by his father as a 6 year old prodigy.
• Act of Congress prohibits import of slaves into the U.S.

1782

• 2000 copies of Les Liaisons Dangereuses printed and 2000 more reprinted.
• Spain completes conquest of Florida.
• The Montgolfier brothers construct a hot air balloon.
• James Watt invents steam engine in which pistons both push and pull.
• J.C. Bach dies.
• First Catholic parochial school founded, in Philadelphia.
• Great Seal of the United States is adopted.
• Worcester, Mass. opposes liquor tax because it feels liquor is necessary for the morale of farm workers.

1789-99

• The French Recolution

Christopher Hampton was born in the Azores at Fayal, Jan. 26, 1944. He finished his education at New College, Oxford, and his first play, When Did You Last See My Mother?, was mounted at the Royal Court Theatre, London in June 1966 and transferred to both the West End and Broadway. His Les Liaisons Dangereuses was first produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Other Place in Stratford on Avon, 1985, transferring to London in 1986 and New York in 1987.

There are countless good recordings of Vivaldi’s music. The following list is but a small sample. Due to record companies continually changing their offerings, all recordings listed may not be currently available.

The Four Seasons / Le Quattro Stagioni

- Nigel Kennedy, English chamber Orchestra. Angel CDC-49557

- Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Shlomo Mintz, Israel Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta. Deutsche Grammophon

- Simon Standage, The English Concert, Trevor Pinnock. Archiv 400 045-2

I Musici. Philips 422 212-2

Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Choderlos de Laclos, translated by Richard Aldington. Everyman Library, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1992

Le Général Choderlos de Laclos, auteur des ‘Liaisons Dangereuses’, 1741-1803 by Emile Dard

The Eighteenth Century French Novel by Vivienne Mylne. Manchester University Press, 1965

Laclos: Les Liaisons Dangereuses, by Simon Davies. Grant and Cutler, London and New Hampshire, 1987.

Intimate, Intrusive, and Triumphant: Readers in Liaisons Dangereuses, by John Benjamin. Philadelphia, 1987.

Two versions of this tale are available on videocassette.

Dangerous Liaisons - Script by Christopher Hampton. Directed by Stephen Frears and featuring Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Micelle Pfeiffer. Warner Brothers.

Valmont - Directed by Milos Foreman and featuring Colin Firth, Annette Bening and Meg Tilly. Orion Home Video.