tantsulavastus - Vanemuine

Läbi aastakümnete on Carmenist loodud rohkesti ballette ja kaasaegseid
koreograafilisi adaptsioone. Enamus neist Bizet/Štšedrini muusikale, aga näiteks
John Cranko 1971. aasta versiooni koreograafia on loodud Wolfgang Fortneri ja
Wilfried Steinbrenneri muusikale. Hilisematest lavastustest võiks mainida veel
Antonio Gadesi 1983. aasta flamenkofilmi, Richard Alstoni 2009. aasta versiooni
Šoti Balletile (Štšedrini muusikale) ja Davide Bombana 2009. aasta lavastust
Kanada Rahvusballetile, kus kasutati Carmen-süidi remixi (Tambours du Bronx,
vokaal Meredith Monk).
Carmen
The story of “Carmen” starts in 1845 after the publication of Prosper Mérimée’s
novella in the periodical La Revue des deux Mondes and as a book in 1847. The
author wrote “Carmen” during the most mature and creative period of his literary
career. Mérimée was not getting carried away by the first rush of romanticism
when he wrote the novella – he studied the Iberian Peninsula and its people
very thoroughly before he set to work. “Carmen” is also a good representation
of the uniqueness and style of Mérimée’s work, as it clearly shows why he
has often been called both a romantic and a realist. On one hand the novella is
exotic, full of strong characters and wild passion, robbers, smugglers, the Roma,
witchcraft and superstition; on the other hand it is matter-of-fact and calm, sometimes
almost scientifically passionless, full of comments and detours to history,
linguistics, and so on.
Mérimée’s “Carmen” is a manifestation of the love Europe felt for the Orient
and everything exotic in the 19th century. Setting the story in Andalusia creates
a colourful background for the collision of European and Roma cultures –
the Roma were an ethnic group despised by the public in real life, but who provided
plenty of material for romantic literature and art. The difference, which
leads to both attraction and violence, is the subject that Mérimée studies in
“Carmen” at every level.
The author describes the events that take place in Andalusia in southern
Spain in autumn 1830 as if he had participated in them. It seems like Mérimée
is investigating the geographical problem of Andalusia that kept the whole of
learned Europe on its toes – the location of the mysterious Munda – and that he
is planning to write an article that will shake up the world of science.
The novella consists of four parts. In part I, the author meets José, who he
is told is a robber and a smuggler. The events in part II describe the meeting of
Mérimée and the beautiful Roma girl Carmen, where Carmen tells the author
his fortune and steals his watch. The situation ends with Don José escorting
the author away from Carmen. A few months later, the author hears that Don