Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
On March 28, Ballet Moscow, together with the orchestra and choir of the Moscow Theatre Novaya Opera named after E.V. Kolobov, the Moscow Choreographic School named after L.M. Lavrovsky, and the chamber choir of the Moscow Conservatory, presented their own reimagined version of Prosper Mérimée’s novella, which became the basis for Georges Bizet’s famous opera Carmen. The creators of the performance include winners of the Golden Mask award, architectural and music competitions. In a short documentary film especially for Kultura Moskvy, they talked about their work on the production, which shows the story of Don Jose’s all-consuming passion and tormented love for the brilliant Carmen from a new angle.
“For me, Carmen is, first and foremost, the rage that lies behind all things, and Carmen in this sense is not a woman, but a principle. When I wrote the music for the ballet, I was in my element, because I like to explore rage – I am writing a book of rage for the Chelyabinsk State Philharmonic. This is also a kind of book of rage, but transferred to a plot related to Carmen. I am not talking about a specific plot, because this ballet does not have one – at least, in the usual sense. But there is something important here – Carmen in her symbolic-sublimated form, in the absolute,” says composer Nastasya Khrushcheva.
Classics in the language of modern dance
According to Anton Getman, director of the Novaya Opera theater, the idea came to him quite a long time ago, when Ballet Moscow had just become part of the theater. In search of new themes and forms, he turned to Carmen. Then there were discussions with choreographer Tatyana Baganova, who later took on the production. According to her, the most conceptually important theme for her was the theme of the environment: “Jose was placed in Carmen’s environment, where there was absolutely nothing of his. Jose will not survive in it – this was predetermined from the start.”
Nastasya Khrushcheva also speaks about the clearly expressed masculine and feminine principles in the play, as well as the need to unite them to create a certain alchemy, transmutation: “But they still remain masculine and feminine, and for me this is the goal of music in general, so I was happy to use it here. Both in the costumes and in Tatyana’s production we see masculine and feminine, brought to the limit, symbolically elevated.”
In the proposed version, the composer deliberately does not focus on Bizet’s opera and distances himself from Spanish, although there are obvious allusions in the costumes and some mise-en-scènes, as there is something in common between the Spanish and Russian cultural codes. But the music really goes to a deeper level, which is not expressed by specific parameters.
It is noteworthy that the compositions were written during the process of creating the play, and they became a guide, a catalyst for the further assembly of the production. Step by step, thought by thought, a staircase was built, which later twisted into “Carmen in my head”.
Deep work with archetypes
Costume designer Galya Solodovnikova emphasizes the importance of the attunement of her work with the architectural scenography of Larisa Lomakina: “This is a geometric structure within which the characters must live. Accordingly, there is an environment – it is formed not only by architecture, but also by music, movement and costumes. We populate the environment with characters. Yes, this is to some extent a story of the confrontation of two genders – we are working with archetypes here, so we specifically tried to get away from everyday costume.”
Jose is a military man, which is why he is characterized by geometricity, strictness, precision of lines, and a certain rigidity of the image (which cannot be said about the amazing plasticity of the artist, who shows the slightest changes in the face and trembling of the fingertips in micro-details). Carmen is a mobile element, specially enclosed in a pencil dress, as if barely containing her passion. Rehearsal fittings, choosing and reworking samples, tracking the cut in motion – a colossal amount of work. The costumes turned out to be not the most comfortable for dancing, but very recognizable. “And thanks to the fact that we can identify ourselves, it stops being just an abstract ballet, it becomes something that gets into us more,” adds Galya Solodovnikova.
And who said it had to be Bizet?
Anton Getman recalls that at some point it was decided to abandon the libretto and not involve the playwright in creating the production. A new rethinking of the idea occurred when Larisa Lomakina came up with the idea of the space.
“Creating a new ballet performance, especially on such a topic, is quite difficult, because all the authors must have some common basis, a base from which to push off, to fantasize. And the base suddenly appeared when the first sketch, so to speak, appeared in pencil – the idea of endless space, endless movement, stairs up, which in fact lead down, and stairs down, which you can climb up,” says the director of the Novaya Opera theater.
Larisa Lomakina admits that she always wanted to make ballet not just a plane on which people dance, but a kind of volumetric-spatial element, where almost everything is involved. Among the sources of inspiration are Ricardo Bofill with the La Muralla Roja complex and Maurits Escher with his endless staircases. Infinity reflects the incomprehensible, the struggle between a man and a woman, their characters and emotions. That same hopeless labyrinth in the head, the familiar “thought mixer”, chasing worn-out records in circles and having no chance to stop, except by finally and irrevocably breaking down.
The color of the mood is rage
The process of creating the play was synchronous in all respects: Tatyana Baganova would utter themes to Nastasya Khrushcheva, who would clothe them in music. From such an unconventional approach both Carmen’s tenacity and her frenzy were born, Carmen emerged in depression and melancholy, Carmen anxious and triumphant. The music here breathes, sings, whispers and screams out loud.
“Perhaps, rage for me here is not quite in the direct psychological sense, but rather in the Platonic sense. Plato spoke of three components of the soul: rational, lustful and furious. In my opinion, in music, furious is the most important,” explains Nastasya Khrushcheva, setting the goal of “exploding the banality of everything that can be called musical dust.”
As the creators of the performance emphasize, it is very important not to see the plot that is familiar to everyone, but to feel the state that is transmitted to the audience. “Carmen is a virus, she never goes anywhere, she always comes back,” Anton Getman quotes Tatyana Baganova. And the principle of “man or woman” is erased, as it were, the language of modern dance scales the story to a certain generalization, philosophically highlighting completely new meanings. And what is difficult to tell can be danced, getting into the music, mood, space, state.
“Because it’s a relationship. What happens to people when they are happy in a relationship – and when the opposite happens?” – Anton Getman reasons.
The next performances of the dance performance “Carmen in My Head” will take place on May 27 and 28.
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