Hunchback of Notre Dame

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

This may be a bold statement, but with the opening night performance of Colorado Ballet’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, no one anywhere, anytime, any place could have performed this epic drama any better. Transforming the classic tale by Victor Hugo into a ballet stands as a brilliant scheme. With the power punch of unrequited love, the emotion that tears at the heart in empathy and sympathy, between Esmeralda, a gypsy and Quasimodo, the horribly disfigured bell ringer at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the story will never be the same.

In a Colorado premiere, the same creative team who brought Dracula to life last year designed Hunchback. Directed and choreographed by Michael Pink, Hunchback weds ballet with the depth and richness of drama. No words spoken. No words needed. The dancers just don’t dance; they wear the characterizations from inside out. Everything melds together in this production: lighting by Paul Pyant, original costumes and production design by Les Brotherston, music by Philip Feeney. The sound so astute, one was nearly certain the orchestra was hidden somewhere in the Buell Theatre rather than having been recorded.

Double cast with the principal dancers, Koichi Kubo shares the role of Quasimodo with Nathan Vander Stoep. Fans of Kubo can catch him on nights he does not dance Quasimodo he switches gears to bring to life the character of Clopin. Combining his power and strength, grace and beauty as a dancer, behind the tortured mask of the shunned Quasimodo, on opening night, Kubo proclaimed a angst-ridden shunned man experiencing kindness for the first time when Esmeralda (Maria Mosina, another Colorado Ballet favorite) offers him a drink of water. The moment is breathless. On alternate nights, Sharon Wehner performs Esmeralda.

A defined classic tale of deep on the sleeve raw emotion, fear, torment, injustice, ego, greed, jealousy, and love that has no where to go, the artistic beauty, the expertise of the Colorado Ballet, every character becomes well defined, the scenes crystal clear. If one is familiar with the story, this production contains no question of what is happening and when. If per chance, one is not familiar with story, it would be in their best interest to read at least a synopsis, before attending or arrive early enough to read the program’s synopsis. It seems strange anyone would be unfamiliar with this classic story, but two conversations heard at Intermission and at the end of the performance concerning confusion over what was going on revealed there are those unfamiliar with Hugo’s classic tale.

John Henry Reid wears the cloak and ballet shoes of the Archdeacon Frollo immersed in his ecclesiastical robes, tainted with lust and jealousy, so powerful in his execution of dance, and his execution of Esmeralda.

Esmeralda becomes awestruck by the handsome, dashing, brave soldier, Phoebus, brought to bigger than life status by Igor Vassin and Chauncey Parsons, two very popular and awesome powerful dancers.

Quasimodo lives in the bell tower of the Cathedral of Notre Dame as the official bell ringer, imprisoned in his hideous deformed body, but he shows up at Paris’ Feast of Fools. Feeding a crowd frenzy for the Ugliest Face, he is crowned Pope of Fools. With lust speaking louder than Justice, Frollo condemns her as depraved when she dances for sheers joy. She offers Quasimodo water. He saves her life. Even when the stage is packed with dancers, each one has found and captured his/her own identity.

Taking classic stories and transforming them into ballet becomes a popular mode of expression. Astonishing how it works, and spectacular under the Colorado Ballet banner. Denver is extremely fortunate to have these actor/dancer artists in its midst.

Hopefully there will be more, much more of the ballet classic drams. Imagination already tastes the development of Phantom of The Opera and Les Miserables telling the inside-out stories by Colorado Ballet. To miss Hunchback will be an affront to cultural experience. Artistic Director Martin Fredmann and his team have brought to life a an enthralling, absorbing masterpiece.