Artiklar från 2008 – till idag
Don José and Carmen. Photo Erik Berg
OSLO: Liam Scarlett is at present about the hottest name in British choreography and Carmen is his first full length ballet. It is full of innovation of classically based choreography and a flurry of complex characters.
The Norwegian National Ballet had the joy of giving it life and has filled it with their special blend of talent and enthusiasm.
An irresistible Carmen. Photo Erik Berg
The work is spread over three diverse acts: the realism of a Spanish pre-Civil War street scene is followed by a steamy interior in the tavern and it culminates in a surreal setting of a bullring and sacrificial death, a fascinating but unorthodox climax. The disconnect between the second and third act is unsettling but there is plenty to compensate.
Scarlett’s Carmen is a woman full of contradictions: vacillating between fiery hot and icy cold she’s a complex and intelligent woman who knows how to survive in a world of brutal men and vulnerable women. In the role, Melissa Hough gave a tremendous performance. As queen of the streets, she lords it over her own class and when she is at the mercy of the law she uses her seductive charms ruthlessly. She slowly extends her bare leg and arches her body against Don José. Despite her chains, it is he who is now the prisoner.
Kaloyan Boyadjiev’s Don José is a doomed man from the moment he lights her cigarette and his fate is sealed when she thoughtlessly tosses him a red rose. His opening solo is carefully classical, his duets with Michaëla are restrained while his encounters with Carmen are drenched in passion. But there is little of the preening peacock that Roland Petit brought to the role, this Don José is as much the lovesick fool as the hero.
Escamillo is the man who knows to get what he want. Photo Erik Berg
The overt male display is left to Aarne Kristian Ruutu as Escamillo, an interpretation with the impudent self-confidence of a Johnny Depp. Ruutu’s relish in the role is palpable as he plays the audience like a master gigolo assured in his masculine magnetism.
Eugenie Skilnand has the difficult role of Michaëla. Sadly, goodness is always less sensational and less theatrical than wickedness but to compensate, she has the most elegant and lyrical of the choreography. Dressed in delicate pastels, she interprets it superbly in a sincere and moving portrayal of the lovelorn women.
Scarlett has given the soloists and corps plenty of scope technically and dramatically. The gypsies, notably the spirited Leyna Magbutay and Miharu Maki, as Carmen’s confidents, and Gakuro Matsui, outstanding in the trio of devilish street lads, gave vibrant performances.
The ballet has an unprepossessing start. Soldiers doing ballet drill always raises a problem of credibility as does the incident of anti-Franco militancy and unconvincing rescue of the perpetrator. Likewise dancers who casually push rifle butts aside have obviously never met a loaded gun.
Scarlett, in his recent ballet No Man’s Land, choreographed an extremely effective scene in a munition factory but here the drudgery of work in the tobacco factory is less successful and might best be left to the imagination. However the drama of the seduction scene between Carmen and Don José and her subsequent escape sends the audience out in good spirits at the first interval.
Don José is trapped by Carmen's seduction arts Foto Erik Berg
It is in the second act at Lilas Pastia’s Tavern that the ballet ignites. Escamillo parades in tight black leather surrounded by a bevy of sexy and savvy beauties clothed in Jon Bausor’s flamboyant gypsy costumes. Carmen sits on the side watching her prey before stepping forward and turning on her charm, an aphrodisiac of such potency it takes your breath away. The scene builds through slow burn to reach combustion point as Scarlett’s highly charged choreography pairs Carmen and Escamillo in a duet of rock hard desire. Don José’s late arrival at the almost empty tavern results in a more ambiguous and intriguing duet that moves through rejection, to passion and fulfilment.
Martin Yates, who conducted the performance, is also responsible for the arrangement of Georges Bizet’s music. It is masterful scoring that comes alive in the fine detail, particularly in Act 2, where he shapes the dynamics brilliantly.
The third act is a brave move to a surreal Giorgio de Chirico type landscape. Bausor has designed a somewhat off-kilter bullring where the spectators are all women shrouded in black gauze; frozen in exaggerated poses. The banderillas piercing the carcass of the bull lying downstage introduce the only tufts of bright colour in the muted setting. The scene is played as a ritual slaughter: first the bull, then Carmen.
She arrives veiled in bridal white, exquisitely dressed and perfectly groomed. She is wedded to Escamillo and you know she is doomed. Their grand pas de deux is a parody of the usual celebratory finale. Clinical and loveless, though technically well performed, it is not the highlight that tradition demands but so much more interesting dramatically. The crowd exits with their hero Escamillo, Don José enters and the decisive battle begins. Finally he has his Carmen but it is only her lifeless body that he embraces.
There is an enormous hunger in Opera Houses for three act narrative ballets. Liam Scarlett’s Carmen with a slew of fine roles, masses of good dance and a well-loved score fits the bill and will surely enjoy a long and successful life despite the unorthodoxy of the drama.
Maggie Foyer
30 March 2015
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