Ronaldo likes Ballet

I am a bit of a fan of the TV series "Spiral" or "Engrenages" as it is called in France. It is about the Paris underworld and the French criminal justice system.  The heroine of the series is Captain Laure Berthaud, a plain clothes officer played by Catherine Proust while her arch enemy is a really nasty Latin American psychopath by the name of Ronaldo Fuentes. Here's a photo of him behind his red headed counsel at what I seem to remember was his bail application.  Known as "the butcher," he kills and mutilates women in the most horrid way.

Incensed by his viciousness Captain Berthaud makes it her personal mission to hunt him down.  In the series that was shown on British television the Captain eventually corners him but, rather than take him into custody, she discharges two bullets at him at point blank range. 

And that, mes amis, one might think was the end of that.  But one would be wrong for it seems that Ronaldo has survived and has an account on twitter. Not only that but he seems to like ballet.  Last week he mentioned my article on Dave Tries Ballet as well as another article on a music industry convention in Dubai in The Dark Shadows Daily. Naturally, I thanked him for the mentions.  He replied:

"@nipclaw Even though I have to lie low from les flics, I do enjoy a bit of nutcracking at l'Opéra de temps en temps"

I was a bit surprised that a serial killer should like a ballet about a pre-pubescent girl's dreams of a battle between mice and toy soldiers and an excursion through the land of sweets.  Giselle with its ghosts of women who had died horrible deaths seemed to be more in his line.  So I replied:

"@Ronaldo_Fuentes J'aurais pensé que vous preferez <<Giselle>> avec toutes les femmes mortes sauf Myrthe vous rappelle une certaine policiere."

which I translate as

"@Ronaldo_Fuentes I'd have though that you would prefer Giselle with all those dead women unless Myrthe reminds you of a certain woman police officer."

 Myrthe, in case the allusion is not obvious, is the Queen of the Wilis (the ghosts of these poor, unfortunate women) and she sees it as her mission to revenge herself on mankind (and I do mean MAN kind and not humankind) just as Captain Berthaud saw it as her mission to avenge the women Ronaldo had butchered.

Ronaldo replied to my tweet:

"@nipclaw C'est drôle ça. J'adore Laure et Giselle, mais Carmen est ma danseuse préférée. Oublie pas que je suis un latino, gringa:) A toute!"

Again, I translate loosely.

"@nipclaw That's so funny. I adore Laure and Giselle, but Carmen is my preferred dancer. Don't forget I'm a Latino, "Gringa" (Limey) :) See you!"

Now Carmen is a popular opera but it is not quite so well known as a ballet, at least not in the English speaking world. However, Roland Petit did choreograph a version for his wife, the remarkable Zizi Jeanmaire. Jenmaire was a very sensuous dancer and I can just imagine her dancing the Hanbanera.

"L’amour est un oiseau rebelle
Que nul ne peut apprivoiser,
Et c’est bien in vain qu’on l’appelle
S’il lui convient de refuser."

I translate as:

"Love is like an untamed birdThat nobody can cage.It is pointless calling after himIf it suits him to stay away."

However, I did find this clip of Ulana Lopatkina which in my humble opinion is more than acceptable.

I have tweeted it to Ronaldo:

"Pour @ronaldo_fuentes, je cherchais le habanera de Zizi Jeanmaire mais cette danseuse russe va assez bien a mon avis http://youtu.be/f7xYnXb7WTg"

 "For @ronaldo_fuentes. I looked for Zizi Jeanmaire's Hananera but I think this Russian dancer is at least OK."

I wonder if he agrees.