Based on the book “Les Marceliers” by Felix Gras about two siblings on the road to revolution.

In 1789, Jeanne and her brother Jerome leave their home city of Marseille to give their support to the revolution taking place in Paris. On their way to the country’s capital city and the freedom it promises, they also find love.

Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, The Flames of Paris (1932) is the sort of Soviet-era piece that might easily have sunk forever into the murky realms of history. The brillant choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky  transformed the original  Vasily Vainonen’s soviet era work into an immensely enjoyable double love-story.

Captivating from the opening image – Marseilles peasants on a smoke-filled stage, stolidly silhouetted against a backdrop of revolutionary forces embarking on the journey to Paris – the action gets going instantly, with Philippe and peasant girl Jeanne catching each other’s eye, and her brother Jérôme also soon falling ill-fatedly for the Marquis’s tender-hearted daughter Adeline.

It is a super piece of work to the lively score by Boris Asafiev, Ratmansky repeatedly brings the classical vocabulary in new directions,he achieves organic-feeling lyricism everywhere. The crowd scenes course with revolutionary zeal, the intimate exchanges with great intimacy, and particularly impressive is Ratmansky’s talent for setting one against the other: how expertly he uses the full depth of the stage, counterpoints solos and duets with ensembles.