Dance
Carmen (Sadler's Wells)
Theatrical hybrid
Giannandrea Poesio
In the introductory note to a memorable recording of Bizet's opera Carmen, the celebrated Spanish mezzo Teresa Bergan- za explains her reading of the eponymous heroine, claiming that the quintessential seductress is neither an 'easy' woman nor a prostitute. In Berganza's view, the pro- tagonist of both Merimee's novel and Bizet's opera is the dramatic and literary sublimation of a true gypsy who, because of her nature, does not know any con- straining rule, especially when it comes to love. And, as such, she then becomes the perfect tragic impersonation of the archetypal rebel. Unfortunately, not all those who tackle the drama of the cigarette-girl go for such a deep explanation, and there are still many who keep insisting on the conve- nient stereotypical images commonly and erroneously associated with it. In North- ern Ballet Theatre's Carmen, neither the late Christopher Gable, the creator of the dance-drama genre the company is famous for, nor the other two members of the creative team, director Patricia Doyle and choreographer Didy Veldman, seem to have delved too deeply into the story. Their balletic modern-day adaptation focuses on a safe and straightforward re- telling of the opera that uses a great deal of popular images, in the rather vain attempt to make it more accessible to the general public. It's a pity that the opera's libretto, with all its sub-plots, does not lend itself particularly well to a realistic and credible — in 21st-century terms — revisitation.
Unimaginatively set to a rather obnox- ious arrangement of Bizet's score that manages to elicit all the possible tackiness of the various tunes, the far too literal choreographic rendition of the narrative,
and of the sub-plots in particular, detracts considerably from the dramatic build-up. The result is a theatrical hybrid that sits somewhere between the umpteenth varia- tion on the West Side Story theme, as revealed by the sets and the action of the various gangs, and a rather tame soap opera that has little in common with the enthralling action one finds these days in either EastEnders or Emmerdale.
The passionate love story between the two protagonists, therefore, is soon lost amidst a great deal of annoyingly superflu- ous and distracting dramatic incidents that contribute to the already preposterous local colour. Consequently, the steamy action promised by the blatant advertising campaign is reduced to a rather tame and disappointing bedroom duet. Indeed, the conversion of Bizet's intoxicating sensuality into dance has always been problematic, as the many and far more illustrious balletic precedents reveal.
Oddly enough, the opera's subtle eroti- cism does not translate well into theatre dance, and the various sexual references become either too gratuitously overt — as in Roland Petit's 1949 'scandalous' creation — or utterly ridiculous. The allegedly steamy moments in Northern Ballet The- atre's Carmen, belong, alas, to the latter category. I found it quite ludicrous that within such a contemporary reading of the old text, with mobile phones ringing con- stantly in tune with Bizet's music and two gullible young American jocks being stripped and robbed, Carmen and Don Jose have to go to bed with their trousers on. Such an improbable end to the love- making scene is not the only oddity in the whole ballet, though. With no apparent reason Don Jose's fiancee, Micaela, becomes a sort of wandering idiot who can- not walk straight and keeps bumping, as if awfully short-sighted, against any possible obstacle. Similarly, it is difficult to accept a spinning gun as a good substitute for the fortune-telling cards Carmen uses in Act III and to take seriously the entire 'fore- boding' episode.
These dramatic flaws impinge greatly on an appreciation of Veldman's choreogra- phy. The movement vocabulary, based on the typical formulae of the so-called North European modern dance school, stands out for its fluidity, its readability and its expres- sive potential, without ever being too literal or predictable. I found the various duets much stronger than the numerous choral moments, even though the tension created by well-chosen movements was constantly thwarted by the prudery that informs the whole work.
The company danced well, with gusto and stamina, displaying a rare combination of acting and technical skills. I was not sur- prised that they were given, at the end, an enthusiastic ovation.
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