As part of our ongoing ‘Musical Destinations’ series Music-News.com jumped on the Eurostar heading to Paris with one sole aim, to visit the Moulin Rouge.
It’s a destination that’s familiar to us all, be it through the decadent and provocative images immortalised by Toulouse-Lautrec or the more recent Baz Luhrmann film of the same name, the Moulin Rouge (red windmill) is a doorway that continues to entice.
Found in Place Blanche at the foot of Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge has become the unofficial ruby of Paris. As the red light establishments surrounding it become ever fewer, it’s neon lit sails become ever more dominant.
On entering the first thing that strikes you is the red crushed velvet surroundings, the decadent opulence of a bygone era. To the sound of Champagne corks popping the audience is ushered in to their tables and as the lights dim, the show begins with an explosion of light, colour and sound.
The stage is so vast that from every corner this 800 capacity venue seems intimate. The sixty strong chorus, stunning specimens of human form are marching in silver suits one minute and drifting across the stage in glimmering ball-gowns the next. Dancers all have a classical ballet training and have to fulfil precise weight and height criteria – girls at least 5’8' and boys over 6’3' with astonishing figures and costumes that leave nothing to the imagination.
If you’re getting a bit comfortable with topless dancing and feathered costumes, without warning, an aquarium emerges from the ground and a nearly naked Amazonian beauty dives into a pool of huge snakes where she writhes around seductively (the snakes seem a little disgruntled it must be said) and a stage hand is quick to capture a sneaky serpent, making an attempt to escape onto the nearest table.
The costumes are elaborate and absurd, the sets constantly changing and the dancers mesmerising but it is the acrobatic acts with that element of danger that inevitably arouse the loudest gasps. Whatever your taste, ‘Joie de vivre’ truly describes the attitude of the Moulin Rouge, with its elegant concoction of burlesque, can-can, circus acts, music and dance.
The Moulin Rouge inspires a sense of history, a playfully provocative poke in the eye to the prudes of the world, it’s a glorious bubble of time that has yet to pop.
Moulin Rouge
Website Moulin Rouge
Facebook 