Mediterranean Splendour in Music & Vision del 5 gennaio

Mediterranean Splendour
Dancing to Bizet's 'L'Arlésienne' and 'Carmen',
by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

I do not generally review ballet performances, but this Roland Petit show on Bizet's music is really a special combination of music and vision as it marries top-class music (the suites from L'Arlésienne and from Carmen) with superb dancing and excellent stage sets based on Van Gogh (L'Arlésienne) and Picasso (Carmen). The carefully crafted sets place both dramatic actions under a bright Mediterranean sun (albeit with different shading).
It is not a brand new production but a joint venture of the three major Opera Houses -- La Scala where the double bill was presented in 2008 (and most likely, it will return in 2012 because it was acclaimed by the audience), the Teatro dell'Opera of Rome (until 2 January 2011) and the Teatro Petruzzelli of Bari (until 10 January 2011). Also, the original conceptions of two ballets date many years back: Carmen was unveiled in Paris in 1949 and L'Arlésienne in Marseille in 1974. They have travelled all over the world -- often, however, without conductors and orchestras up to the level of Bizet's score, and occasionally -- oh dear! -- with taped music.
In this joint effort by three major houses, justice to Bizet's music is given by a good full-sized orchestra, conducted in Rome and Bari by the versatile American Nik Kabaretti, often a guest at the Vienna Staatsoper and at the Florence Maggio Musicale. Under his baton, Bizet's complex score was caressed. In addition, eighty-six-year-old Roland Petit, the choreographer, come to the rehearsal to oversee the quality of the performance: on 22 December 2010, the opening night in Rome (on which this review is based), he received accolades from the audience where Zize Jeanmaire, his wife and lifelong dancing partner, was in row fourteen of the orchestra.

Erika Gaudenzi and Ivan Vasiliev in 'L'Arlésienne'. Photo © 2010 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
Overseeing the quality meant also giving a fresh new coat of paint to the sets (by René Arlio for L'Arlésienne and by Antoni Clavé for Carmen) where the references to van Gogh and Picasso brightened in their full Mediterranean splendour, still more stunning because outside the theatre it was raining cats and dogs. (Since early November, Rome has constantly, and depressingly, been wet.)

Erika Gaudenzi and Ivan Vasiliev in 'L'Arlésienne'. Photo © 2010 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
Bizet's L'Arlésienne was originally conceived as stage music to Alphonse Daudet's play about passion driving a young man to suicide in a small provincial village in Provence. The two scenes are based on a strong musical and visual contrast: a very sunny country courtyard where two families are re-united for the long-awaited wedding of their two children (Fréderic and Vivette); it's very dark (like a tomb) in the attic of the barn where Fréderic, unable to forget l'Arlésienne, 'a woman of prohibited passionate love', flings himself into space in a desperate suicide. In the several scheduled performances, three couple take the main roles: Erika Gaudenzi and Ivan Vasiliev, Eleonora Abbagnato with Benjamin Pech, and Sara Loro with Alessandro Riga. On 22 December, Erika Gaudenzi and Ivan Vasiliev not only danced but acted superbly.

Ivan Vasiliev in 'L'Arlésienne'. Photo © 2010 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
The Carmen suite is an abridged forty-five minute summary of the opera. The plot has been slightly changed. The Micaela character, for instance, is not included, and Escamillo appears only in the last of the five scenes. A bedroom scene is added (Scene III) to enhance sex and sensuality to Carmen and Don José's relationship. Also, there is no travel to the Sierra (Act III of the opera), but Don José is driven by Carmen's friends to become a killer during a night robbery on a deserted Seville street.

Polina Semionova and Robert Tewsley in 'Carmen'. Photo © 2010 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
The crux of Prosper Mérimée's novel and of George Bizet's opera is all there. Two dancing couples alternate in the main roles: Polina Semionova with Robert Tewsley, and Gaia Straccamoree with Mario Marozzi. On 22 December, Polina Semionova and Robert Tewsley were enthusiastically applauded by the audience.

Polina Semionova and Robert Tewsley in 'Carmen'. Photo © 2010 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
The performance was Micha von Hoecke's début as director of Rome Opera's corps de ballet, and it was a very good start.
Copyright © 8 January 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

GEORGES BIZET
CARMEN
LA SCALA
TEATRO DELL'OPERA
ROME
ITALY
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