‘Carmen’

Music: Georges Bizet
Choreography and Staging: Mikhail Venshchikov
Costumes: Tatiana Korolyova
Video Projection: Victoria Zlotnikova

The story of Carmen replays the perennial choice between love and death, passion and devastating apathy. The love triangle, where every side is replete with danger, ensnares everyone involved. Carmen, the audacious beauty, Jose, the soldier tormented by jealousy, the Toreador on his deadly quest – all of them are puppets in the hands of Fortune. Every move, gesture and glance is charged with the deadly sneer of doom.

Carmen as staged by the St. Petersburg Company Arts Center Saint-Michel speaks the language of the classical dance. The Spanish color is amply added through the allusions to the traditional dance styles – flamenco, seguidilha, farandole, pasadoble. Vigorous variations and intensely dynamic monologues of the characters, Carmen’s sensuous duets with Jose and Torero, stunning ensembles – all of these are tied together into a pulsing fabric of the plot by the brilliant music by Georges Bizet. Apart from the fragments from the homonymous opera, music from the drama L’Arlesienne and the composer’s symphony pieces are used in the ballet.

More info www.artsmichel.com