Aerys Merrill and Julie Nunès in Casanova
(Picture: Riku Ito)A big life merits a big ballet, and this applies doubly for Casanova. Created in 2017 by former Northern Ballet dancer Kenneth Tindall (also the Leeds-based company’s resident choreographer) and spread across two acts, this is a stylish and sumptuous dive into some of the amorous exploits and political intrigues attached to the 18th century Italian whose name will forever be associated with hedonistic sexuality and predation.
Working from an original scenario devised by himself and Ian Kelly, author of an acclaimed 2008 biography of Casanova, Tindall is keen to show us a man who was more than one of history’s great libertines. Casanova’s memoirs, stretching to a dozen volumes, sealed his reputation as a lothario. But he was also a would-be cleric, philosopher, musician, gambler and adventurer who spent much of his relatively long life (he died age 73) on the move.
