Brisbane review - Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon: simply sensational
By David Wilson
Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon
Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
Artistc Collaborator Nancy Meckler
Stager Luis Torres
Composer Peter Salem
Costume and set design Jerome Kaplan
Conductor Nigel Gaynor
Music performed by Camerata - Queensland Chamber Orchestra
4 - 19 October 2024
Playhouse QPAC
Neneka Yoshida as Coco Chanel and Kaho Kato as Shadow Chanel_Photographer David Kelly
The French fashion icon, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, epitomises the classic rags-to-riches tale, rising from poverty to high society by building an enduring brand that remains stylish, modern, comfortable and instantly recognisable. Ahead of her time, she personified a new generation of women who were intelligent, ambitious and non-conformist.
This Australian premier of Coco Chanel - the Life of a Fashion Icon is a co-production between Queensland Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet and Atlanta Ballet, which was first performed in Hong Kong in 2023. The most modern of ballets, this is sure to become a timeless classic, just as the protagonist herself.
This production is simply sensational. The opening night audience was fully engaged from the outset, and were rewarded with 2 hours of magnificent entertainment in all respects. The orchestra, the set and the costuming were all wonderful, with the fascinating storyline brought to life brilliantly by the performers themselves who were all of the highest standard. This is a visual and aural delight.
While Coco Chanel is best known as a trailblazing, creative icon of the fashion world, one of the more fascinating aspects of the production was how it embraced her almost ruthless ambition, opportunism and the resulting controversies that she was embroiled in throughout her life. Her fashion liberated women from restrictive clothing, granting them seductive power, a tool used by Coco Chanel repeatedly to get ahead. These aspects were very sensitively balanced against the great love stories of her life, resulting in a beautifully layered and nuanced production befitting the complex lady herself.
It almost goes without saying that the performers were absolutely magnificent. The hand of choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa was brilliantly evident throughout. The interactions and synchronicity between Coco Chanel (Neneka Yoshida), as guided by her future self Shadow Chanel (Kaho Kato), were both conceptually clever and wonderfully performed. And the way in which the iconic interlocking C logo was given life by Georgia Swan and Edison Manuel was magnificent.
The ability of the storyline to embrace her desire to succeed at any cost, set against the loss of Boy Capel (Patricio Reve), the great love of her life, brought great dimension to this wonderful character, aided by the wonderfully colourful depiction of her relationships with the German diplomat and Gestapo spy Baron von Dincklage (Vito Bernasconi), the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (Joshua Ostermann), the Jewish company director Pierre Wertheimer (Luke DiMattina) and the wealthy heir Etienne Balsan (D’Arcy Brazier).
In addition to the wonderful performers themselves, what raises this production to the highest level is that the entire visual spectacle is very much ‘on brand’. Jerome Kaplan has done a magnificent job of capturing the essence of brand Chanel and delivering it emphatically through every aspect of costume and set design. The deliberate, refined simplicity and minimalist nature of the costuming and set design also left the perfect amount of space to be filled by the wonderful orchestra (Camerata conducted by Nigel Gaynor) which made its presence felt throughout the entirety of the performance.
The Queensland Ballet production of Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon is of the highest quality and will be equally appreciated by ballet aficionados and novices alike. I thoroughly encourage you to see it.
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