Trailer: (but not cast I saw in stream…)
First things first. This was a Calixto Bieito production which always carries with it certain expectations - for me, usually very positive, for others…not so much. With him, these questions usually arise.
How will he re-interpret the work?
Will I be baffled by what I see?
What will he ask his performers to do?
Will I be shocked/revolted/traumatised by what I see on the stage?
As far as this production was concerned the answers are:
Very thoughtfully and stimulatingly.
No - only very mildly on two occasions - the prologue appearance of Zinuga (?) doing a magic trick and a naked posing man at the opening of Act 3 (attractive eye candy though that was!)
Be superbly committed performers whose acting skills put many stage actors to shame.
Not in the least.
The setting was updated to be at the very end of the Franco era. The stage was very spare - a flagpole in the first act, one (rather cool) retro car in Act 2, several in Act 3, with the use of their headlights being very effective in evoking the freer world of the smugglers and in Act 4 an almost entirely bare stage with just a large oval drawn on it as a representation of the bullring where the final duel take place between Don Jose and Carmen. From the opening the society was shown to be pretty brutal and harsh - the soldiers were in rigid ranks on the stage (the chorus often were too as well - no happy mixing and mingling here. Morales was a thuggish shade-wearing and sjambok wielding figure who took advantage of his position, with Micaela - who, in this reading, had something more to her than is often the case. Too frequently she can come across as a sentimental sap which at times has made me think ’Well, if the alternative is Carmen I am not surprised at the choice Jose has made’! The harshness of this world was also shown in the appearance of the children. Not the cute little opera kiddies f yore but grubby-looking barefoot orphans.
From the start, women often seemed to have the upper hand, particularly when the girls came out of the factory and the soldiers were edgily uncertain about approaching them - and then Carmen epitomised this approach with her relaxed utter confidence and assuredness not least in the way the moved. There was one other item on stage in Act 1, a telephone box in the lower right-hand corner of the stage (shades of A View From the Bridge!). This was only used once but very smartly as Carmen had been having a very agitated conversation with someone on it and it was from there she visibly entered the stage and sang the Habanera. This was a really smart move as it gave a context (she had just broken up with someone) and I realised that the traditional appearance of Carmen form the factory who then immediately starts to sing about love for no real dramatic reason whatsoever, other than to establish her character of course. here there was a clear (if only implied reason. It also makes the queries of the factory girls (where is Carmen?) much more plausible. Its all about motivation, people! THIS is what iImean when I say that B’s production was thoughtful; everything we saw on stage was motivated - and this must have helped the performers as well.
Act 2 continued the good work. Escamillo (bearing a more than passing resemblance to a young Frank Sinatra), had a marvellous sexy swagger that was natural and not forced - again, good acting to convince us about these people and their nature. The passionate drive of the story-telling continued and there was a marvellous stage picture given at the end of the act with Carmen and Don J curled, foetally, around each other - perhaps the only moment when there was an indication of true love - but then, I wonder if a key part of Carmen’s character is that she will not allow herself to be loved…Again the virtually blank stage allowed us to focus on the people and their story.
Act 3 (once the image of the naked male figure had disappeared continued the thrilling experience - and as indicated earlier, the arrival of many cars as the main focus for the ‘set’ was highly effective - and the nature of the smuggle’s society compared with, say the soldiers and the ‘official world, was very well shown by the relaxed and natural movements and positioning of the chorus members. And with them, as with any really good production, one had the sense that each chorus member was able to create a character and one could find some detail that was interesting to observe all the time they were onstage. In this act the different dynamics between Jose and Escamillo were further explored. Jose was very edgy, often reflected in his jerky movements and the way he tore E’s jacket off Carmen once he had left - and these details made his actions at the end more plausible, while Escamillo remained very sexily suave.
We plunged straight into Act 4 without a break and this scene, normally an excuse for a lavish spectacle, was wonderfully joyful - about the only moment of pure unalloyed joy in the production. We saw nothing other than the chorus, with the children front and centre, behind a rope thrilled and excited by the procession into the bullring. And normally having a large group of people jumping up and down in time to the music is NOT a good idea but here is was utterly wonderful - and they had clearly the chance to improvise some moves as well which made it even better. this raucously joyous outburst, Then the bare stage as the chorus depart and the final encounter between Jose and Escamillo - both glitteringly dressed (Escamillo in gold with link tights on his leg and Carmen’s dress the same pink) the two pooled in film noir lighting, no movement. Magical.And then after this, the bare and spare final confrontation in perfect context and contrast- a bare stage with the ‘bullring’ represented by a white oval and Carmen and Jose circling each other. So simple. So effective. And the brutal final image, Jose, still alone on stage, dragging Carmen off like a bull killed in the corrida. Wow!
So the sort of production that makes any other one VERY hard to compete with. Watch it while you can.
Cast:
Don José Arturo Chacón-Cruz
Escamillo Marko Mimica
Le Dancaïre Nicolò Ceriani
Le Remendado Cristiano Olivieri
Moralès Vittorio Albamonte
Zuniga Mariano Buccino
Carmen Varduhi Abrahamyan
Micaëla Maria Katzarava
Frasquita Marina Bucciarelli
Mercédès Annunziata Vestri
Lillas Pastia Piero Arcidiacono
Giovane toreroAlessandro Cascioli
Conductor: Not known