Carmen will seduce you with its eroticism and charged dance performances in this reimagined version of Georges Bizet’s 1875 opera turned ballet. Swedish choreographer Johan Inger’s multifaceted production is a reflection of creative genius and succeeds in all directions. Carmen culminates with a highly stylized set and lighting design to support a modern setting for the classic narrative. The straightforward story is enveloped with pathos and psychological shifts that leave the audience breathless. The stripped-down set includes multiple rolling panels used as mirrors, doors, a tobacco factory, a party and ultimately a prison. Although the narrative, inspired by the 1845 novella by Prosper Mérimée, is dark, it leaves room for playfulness and humour. The choreography works like a dialogue with a sharp quickness that catches the eye.
The Australian Ballet dancers truly embody the choreography’s quirky moves and harsh gestures with an impressive flow and ease. Principal Artist Jill Ogai radiates the stage dancing the role of Carmen to perfection with a raw vulnerability and frolicsome jocularity. She skips around the stage and pouts in a childlike way one moment and then evolves into a sexual predator the next moment. She can make lewd and contorted poses look natural and flirtatious. Dressed in a ruffled crimson frock, Ogai’s onstage presence is powerful. Her dancing is grounded in self-confidence while making use of her flexible back, holding poses that seem to defy gravity. In a ballet season marked with a lot of stand-out male roles, for example Nijinsky and Oscar Wilde, Ogai’s Carmen is refreshing and feminine with a beauty of movement and defiant character that is absolutely captivating.
Returning from his role in Nijinsky, Principal Artist Callum Linnane once again displays his emotional depth and mastery of contemporary dance in the role of Don José, Carmen’s primary love interest. Linnane and Ogai entwine in a rapturous dance of cat and mouse, playful and ultimately deadly. Most of the steps are low to the ground with an earthy quality suggesting a desire to connect. There are not a lot of high lifts in their pas de deux but rather the dance settles into a back and forth of support and abandon. While fully embracing their characters Ogai and Linnane command the complex choreography.
Ogai’s Carmen extends her amorous desires to the glittering Toreador, danced with poise and the perfect amount of kitsch by Principal Artist Marcus Morelli. Carmen toys with a love triangle that includes a superlative Principal Artist Brett Chynoweth as officer Zúñiga. In a more difficult to define role Lilla Harvey deftly dances the role of “Boy.” This pivotal character acts as a witness to the action while representing Don José’s innocence and inner child. Eventually Don José’s character becomes corrupted and shadowed by rage and jealousy. The small cast dances with impressive execution and unison. The gritty moves are perfectly in time with the music and most satisfying to watch. It feels like the dancers truly enjoy dancing this ballet.
The music in Carmen is complicated to describe. Bizet’s score is immersed in popular culture and instantly recognisable even if you have not seen the opera. This production of Carmen uses a different interpretation of the original score. It is, like the narrative, a blend of old and new sensibilities with supplemented music. The overture begins with a lot of percussive instruments, especially the xylophone, which initially seems underwhelming. But the arrangement brings a sort of whimsy to the score that counters some of the ballet’s tragic themes. The second act features more synthesized-sounding music with original compositions by Marc Álvarez. Most of the whimsy of the first act is replaced by darker undertones reflecting the murderous storyline. The music works in a very unexpected way. The fusion aligns perfectly with Bizet’s familiar melodies, like the Habanera and Toreador Song, to better support Inger’s plot and character development. Conductor Joel Bass does a phenomenal job blending the different music genres starting with Rodion Shchedrin’s 1967 Carmen Suite further re-imagined by composer Álvaro Domínguez Vázquez. A lover of Bizet should prepare to temper their expectations and accept the new music and arrangement as a support to the dance and storyline.
Rounding out the stellar production is the stark lighting design by Tom Visser, which thoughtfully contributes to design team Curt Allen Wilmer and Leticia Gañán Calvo’s minimalist set. It is stark and cold, constantly revolving and incasing the dancers, ultimately imprisoning them. The dramatic finale of Carmen centres around Don José’s tortured soul fighting inner demons with an inevitable downward spiral. Inger brings all of the intricate elements of the production together with a profound ending.
This magnificent production marries the classicism of Mérimée’s novella and Bizet’s opera with a further depth of vision and elite contemporary dancing. Catch Carmen while you can with performances in Melbourne running through Tuesday, March 18.
Photo credit: Kate Longley
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Paris Wages reviewed The Australian Ballet’s production of “Carmen”, presented at the Regent Theatre, Melbourne on Friday, March 7, 2025.
