Festival Ballet's Carmen
RI
Dance Review
October 2003
Well, Carmen was another Festival Ballet slam-dunk. Outstanding modern choreography, strong dancing and powerful acting combined to make a terrific performance. Director Misha Djuric has demonstrated a true generosity of spirit to bring in Viktor Plotnikov as choreographer. Misha's a tremendous choreographer, himself, bubbling over with ideas and full of delightfully curvy surprises, but he's never been given his head to do a full-length modern piece at FB. He probably felt his contemporary style wouldn't wash with the old time ballet folk and he was probably right, but both performances I attended, resulted in standing ovations with 'Bravos' for the choreographer. What might have looked too pushy for Misha to do was greeted with cheers for an out of town choreographer.
The two casts were very strong, and the leads played the parts so differently that it's a shame everyone didn't get a chance to see both versions. Jennifer Ricci's Carmen is just plain mean - a force of evil. Her mouth twisted with spite, she insults and fights with women, she taunts men; her contempt is palpable but the men are still unable to save themselves. Surely her Don Jose could have resisted the whole stupid mess if he had paid attention to the way Carmen threw away her apple (and Jennifer did this with such a destructive spirit - it was breath taking) or how she threw the rose down at his feet (as if she were spitting).
Leticia Guerrero's Carmen is sexier and more complex - a fiery temperamental flirt in the Latin tradition and perfectly willing to cross the line from legal to criminal. Encouraging and enjoying the attention of men, never really interested for very long (but so what - she's young), she doesn't particularly deserve her fate or no more so then the rest of us. When she needs help from a guy she finds mildly interesting, she has no compunction about sleeping with him to save herself and have a little fun too. I have to assume he wasn't very good in the sack because she was off before the sun rose. Leticia's Carmen would have stayed if the man was worth her while, Jennifer's demon version had no interest in love.
Jennifer's Don Jose was played slackly by Davide Vittorino, as if he were a bug trapped in a web lost to hope from almost his first meeting with the monstrous Carmen. His tender opening duet with Heather Halloran's excellent Micella was a thing of beauty; his relationship with her makes complete sense, but his relationship with Carmen is inexplicable. He never seems to care enough about Carmen to leave his beloved Micaela and certainly not enough to wreck his life over. This is a dance noir version of Carmen where Don Jose and the audience never really know what moves him to behave the way he does.
Gleb Lyamenkoff, sometimes lack-luster in his previous romantic hero roles, here shone as a man tormented and driven mad by unreturned passion. He loses all moral ground, but his behavior is clear. It comes as no surprise that his Don Jose kills Carmen after raping her - he is trying to reestablish his innocent life, but even as he stabs her, he has to know there is no redemption. When the guards put the black bag over his head, the audience was in direct contact with the power of that moment.
On Saturday, Piotr Ostalov played a rather bland Captain, a character who's just a pawn destined to become a corpse. Piotr did make a delightfully convincing corpse as the guards dragged his limp body off stage. However on Friday and Sunday, he was wonderful as Escamillo. Exciting and sexy, he cut a dramatic figure and was totally believable as the center of the women's attention.
The female chorus was glorious - full of passionate dance - having a great time flirting and emoting with the aid of their skirts - long swirly skirts with tight tops in Spanish colors. They revel in their youth and dangerous passions - enjoying the drama they are part of - the fights, the murder of the Captain and Carmen and the destruction of Don Jose. Life is good! The male chorus was equally adept in their quirky movements and quick changes from comic to intense.
Festival Ballet has been growing rapidly in the last couple years and has been specially capable at turning out excellent dancers. One of their young home grown, Heather Halloran is turning into (heck - she's already there) the most amazing dancer. Beautiful in form and divine in her dance expression - she grows stronger and better with every performance. Another dancer worth special note is the amazingly talented James Brown. FB would be the poorer without Jim perking up the tired ballet comedy bits and delineating choreography with which other classical dancers struggle. In Carmen, he's dealing with powerful choreography and surrounded by dancers who can hold their own, but he's dancing his kind of dance and no one can touch him for acting ability, creativity and uniqueness of movement. Beth Petkus also stood out as Mercedes, the woman who chose to take on Carmen and lost, but she almost had her and Beth's tough presence and flashy dancing made her a perfect foil for Carmen.
This version of Carmen is not without flaws. The fight scene between Don Jose and his Captain was weak for both casts. Here, the choreography was not fleshed out (a problem which showed up in a few other locations) resulting in what looked like an under-rehearsed scene. The bigger problem for this staging is the use of Micaela to close the show. Thematically correct but dramatically poor, this non-musical ending must have seemed like a good idea on paper, but it dampens the audience's enthusiasm, which is at fever pitch as Don Jose is led off. It's a testimony to the overall power of this work and the tremendous talent displayed by the dancers that they, the choreographer and the performance still got the standing ovations they deserved.
The movement was so strong, the performances so compelling
(especially Jennifer, Leticia and Gleb) that any criticisms can only be quibbles.
Along with the rest of the audience, I was on my feet at the end of both shows
cheering myself hoarse. On Sunday, shouts of approbation could even be heard
during the performance. Congratulations to Festival Ballet for another extraordinarily
well done show. How lucky is Rhode Island to have this dance company! And
how lucky for us all that Misha Djuric holds its reins!
