Tickets to the bolshoi theater of russia. How the ballet "carmen suite" was created Message about carmen suite

Tickets to the bolshoi theater of russia.  How the ballet was created
Tickets to the bolshoi theater of russia. How the ballet "carmen suite" was created Message about carmen suite

For the first time in Israel, a one-act ballet "Carmen Suite" by the stars of the Russian ballet will be presented, dedicated to the memory of the greatest ballerina of our time - Maya Plisetskaya. The great ballerina is remembered and honored by millions. Her whole life was devoted to ballet.
The brightest stars of the Bolshoi Ballet, as well as the Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky theaters of St. Petersburg, hastened to pay tribute to the memory of the famous ballerina.

The Israeli audience will be able to visit the ballet performance "Carmen Suite" at the end of November and fully appreciate all its beauty and splendor of the production. The program will be presented by two branches, which include:

  1. The first part - in Israel for the first time will present the ballet "Carmen Suite", consisting of one act based on the opera "Carmen" by Georges Bizet (1875) based on the novella by Prosper Mérimée. Composer Rodion Shchedrin.
  1. The second part - includes the Gala Concert, which includes the best performances created by Plisetskaya during various life periods at the world's leading venues. The performers of the masterpieces will be the soloists of the ballet of the Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky Theaters of St. Petersburg.

The artistic direction of the project is entirely the merit of Yuri Petukhov, People's Artist of Russia, professor at the Vaganova Academy.

Plot and story

The production of the ballet Carmen Suite to music by Georges Bizet and orchestrated by Rodion Shchedrin has a rather rich history. For the first time, viewers were able to see this masterpiece of art on April 20, 1967. Maya Plisetskaya brilliantly played the passionate and full of life Carmen on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater.

Recall that the plot of the legendary ballet performance of Carmen is tied to the tragic fate of the gypsy Carmen and the soldier Jose, who fell in love with her. However, fate decreed that Carmen preferred the young Torero to him. The action takes place in the vastness of Spain in the 1920s. The relationship of the heroes and even the fact that Carmen eventually dies at the hands of Jose are predetermined by Fate.

Thus, the story of Carmen, if compared with the original source in literature and the opera by J. Bizet, is performed symbolically and is enhanced by the unity of the scene. The tragedy of love in Carmen is in many ways reminiscent of other modern productions or films. Among them - "West Side Story" and "Tabor Goes to Heaven."

Plisetskaya as the personification of Carmen

Saying “Plisetskaya is Carmen. Carmen is Plisetskaya ”means a lot. It could not be otherwise, but few know that the birth of Plisetskaya's main ballet happened by chance. Maya Plisetskaya says that this is how the card was laid, but she dreamed of the role of Carmen all her adult life.

She could not even imagine back in 1966 that the choreographer of her dreams would meet her in the winter at the Luzhniki Stadium at an evening of Cuban ballet. Barely waiting for the first bars of incendiary flamenco, Plisetskaya hurried to break into the backstage during the intermission. Seeing the choreographer, she asked: "Will you stage" Carmen "for me?", To which he, smiling, replied: "I dream about it."

The newly-minted production was characterized by an innovative character, and the main character was sexy. No one dared to ban the choreographer from the Island of Freedom, as it would mean a quarrel with Fidel Castro. Ekaterina Furtseva, Minister of Culture, called M. Plisetskaya a "traitor to the ballet" and the fact that "Your Carmen will die!"

40 years later, Alexei Ratmansky, the ballerina's last stage partner, became the director of the Bolshoi Ballet. November 18, 2005, on the day of the resumption of "Carmen" on the main stage of the country, Maya Plisetskaya said: "I will die. Carmen will stay. "

A production full of life

The production of "Carmen" itself is very lively and full of life. Great music, a stellar cast of performers that viewers trust, empathize and be inspired by the mood.

The staging of the performance is thought out down to the smallest detail. From beginning to end, the flavor of Spain is felt, authenticity is present in everything.

Each movement of Carmen has a special meaning, protest and challenge. A mocking movement of the shoulder, a set hip, a sharp turn of the head, a piercing glance from under the brows become characteristic and recognizable. Just what is the observation of Carmen, like a frozen sphinx, at the Toreador's dance, when, with the help of all the staticness of her posture, a colossal level of internal tension is transmitted.

The tour will be organized by the Producer Center

Carmen suite- a one-act ballet by choreographer Alberto Alonso, staged on the basis of Georges Bizet's opera Carmen (), orchestrated especially for this production by the composer Rodion Shchedrin (the musical material was substantially rearranged, compressed and re-arranged for an orchestra of strings and percussion without winds). The libretto of the ballet based on the novella by Prosper Mérimée was written by its director, Alberto Alonso.

The premiere of the play took place on April 20, 1967 at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow (Carmen - Maya Plisetskaya). On August 1 of the same year, the premiere of the ballet took place in Havana, in Cuban National Ballet(Carmen - Alicia Alonso).

At the center of the ballet is the tragic fate of the gypsy woman Carmen and the soldier Jose who fell in love with her, whom Carmen leaves for the young Torero. The relationship of the heroes and the death of Carmen at the hands of Jose are predetermined by Fate. Thus, Carmen's story (in comparison with the literary source and Bizet's opera) is solved symbolically, which is reinforced by the unity of the scene (bullfighting ground).

Performance music

Maya Plisetskaya turned to Dmitry Shostakovich with a request to write music for "Carmen", but the composer refused, not wanting, according to him, to compete with Georges Bizet. Then she asked Aram Khachaturian about it, but was again refused. She was advised to turn to her husband, Rodion Shchedrin, also a composer.

The order of musical numbers in the transcription of Rodion Shchedrin:

  • Introduction
  • Dance
  • First intermezzo
  • Divorce of the guard
  • Exit Carmen and Habanera
  • Scene
  • Second intermezzo
  • Bolero
  • Torero
  • Torero and Carmen
  • Adagio
  • Divination
  • The final

Production history

After the premiere performance, Furtseva was not in the director's box, she left the theater. The performance did not look like the “short Don Quixote” she expected, and it was raw. The second performance was supposed to be staged in the "evening of one act ballets" ("troika") on April 22, but was canceled:

“This is a great setback, comrades. The play is raw. Solid erotica. The music of the opera is disfigured ... I have big doubts whether the ballet can be improved. " .

After arguing that "You will have to cancel the banquet" and promises "Cut all erotic supports that shock you", Furtseva gave up and allowed the play, which was staged at the Bolshoi 132 times and about two hundred around the world.

Reviews from critics

All of Karmen-Plisetskaya's movements carried a special meaning, challenge, protest: both a mocking shoulder movement, and a set hip, and a sharp turn of the head, and a piercing glance from under the brows ... It is impossible to forget how Carmen Plisetskaya - like a frozen sphinx - looked at the Toreador dance her static posture conveyed colossal internal tension: she fascinated the audience, attracted their attention, involuntarily (or consciously?) distracting from the effective solo of the Toreador.

The new Jose is very young. But age itself is not an artistic category. And does not allow for discounts on inexperience. Godunov played age in subtle psychological manifestations. His Jose is wary and distrustful. Trouble awaits people. From life: - dirty tricks. Injured and proud. The first exit, the first pose - a freeze-frame, heroically sustained face to face with the audience. A living portrait of the fair-haired and light-eyed (in accordance with the portrait created by Mérimée) Jose. Large, strict features. The look of the wolf cub is sullenly. Expression of alienation. Behind the mask you guess the true human essence - the vulnerability of the soul, thrown into the world and the world hostile. You contemplate the portrait with interest.

And so he came to life and "spoke." The syncopated "speech" was perceived by Godunov precisely and organically. No wonder the talented dancer Azary Plisetsky prepared him for his debut, who perfectly knows both the part and the whole ballet from his own experience. Hence - the carefully worked out, carefully polished details that make up the stage life of the image. ...

Screen adaptations

  • 1968 (1969?) - film directed by Vadim Derbenev, staged by the Bolshoi Theater with the participation of the first performers (Carmen - Maya Plisetskaya, Jose - Nikolai Fadeechev, Torero - Sergei Radchenko, Corregidor - Alexander Lavrenyuk, Rock - Natalia Kasatkina).
  • 1978 - film-ballet directed by Felix Slidovker (Carmen - Maya Plisetskaya, Jose - Alexander Godunov, Torero - Sergei Radchenko, Corregidor - Victor Barykin, Rock - Loip Arauho).
  • 1968, 1972 and 1973 - film adaptations of the production of the Cuban National Ballet.

Performances in other theaters

The production of Alberto Alonso's ballet was transferred to many stages of ballet theaters in the USSR and the world by choreographer A.M. Plisetskiy:

Performances by other choreographers

“Listening to this music, I saw my Carmen, which was significantly different from Carmen in other performances. For me, she is not only an outstanding woman, proud and uncompromising, and not only a symbol of love. She is a hymn to love, love, pure, honest, burning, demanding, love of a colossal flight of feelings that none of the men she met is capable of.

Carmen is not a doll, not a beautiful toy, not a street girl with whom many would not mind having fun. For her, love is the essence of life. No one was able to appreciate, understand her inner world, hidden behind a dazzling beauty.

He fell in love with Carmen Jose. Love transformed the rude, narrow-minded soldier, opened up spiritual joys for him, but for Carmen his arms soon turn into chains. Intoxicated by his feelings, Jose does not try to understand Carmen. He begins to love not Carmen, but his feelings for her ...

She could also fall in love with Torero, who is not indifferent to her beauty. But Torero - exquisitely gallant, brilliant and fearless - internally lazy, cold, he is not able to fight for love. And naturally, demanding and proud Carmen cannot love someone like him. And without love there is no happiness in life, and Carmen accepts death from Jose, so as not to embark on the path of compromise or loneliness together. "

Choreographer Valentin Elizariev

Links

Sources of

  1. Ballet Nacional de Cuba "CARMEN" website (unspecified) Archived March 9, 2012.
  2. V.A. Mainiece. Article "Carmen Suite" // Ballet: Encyclopedia. / Chief ed. Yu.N. Grigorovich. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia, 1981 .-- S. 240-241.
  3. “Bizet - Shchedrin - Carmen Suite. Transcriptions of excerpts from the opera "Carmen". " (unspecified) ... Date of treatment April 1, 2011. Archived March 9, 2012.
  4. M.M. Plisetskaya."Reading my life ...". - M.: "AST", "Astrel",. - 544 p. - ISBN 978-5-17-068256-0.
  5. Alberto Alonso / Maya Plisetskaya died for the Bolshoi Theater website Archived September 1, 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  6. M.M. Plisetskaya./ A. Proskurin. Drawings by V. Shakhmeister. - M.: JSC "Novosti Publishing House" with the participation of Rosno-Bank,. - S. 340 .-- 496 p. - 50,000 copies. - ISBN 5-7020-0903-7.
  7. E. Nikolaev. The ballets "Playing Cards" and "Carmen Suite" at the Bolshoi
  8. E. Lutskaya. Portrait in Red Archived February 13, 2005 at the Wayback Machine
  9. Carmen-in-Lima - "Soviet Culture" of February 14, 1975
  10. One-act ballets “Carmen Suite. Chopiniana. Carnival" (unspecified) (unavailable link)... Retrieved April 1, 2011. Archived August 27, 2011.- Mariinsky Theater website
  11. Carmen Suite at the Mariinsky Theater (unspecified) ... Date of treatment April 1, 2011. Archived March 9, 2012.- Internet TV channel "Art TV", 2010
  12. A. Firer."Alicia in the Land of Ballet". - "Rossiyskaya Gazeta", 08/04/2011, 00:08. - Issue. 169. - No. 5545.
  13. Official site of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus Archived copy of September 2, 2010 at

Maya Plisetskaya turned to Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso, who was on tour in Moscow, with a request to stage a ballet about Carmen for her based on a story by Prosper Merimee.

Her cherished idea coincided with an old dream of Alonso, and he very quickly composed the choreography of the future performance.

The question arose about music. Plisetskaya asked to write the music for "Carmen" by Dmitry Shostakovich, but the composer refused, not wanting, according to him, to compete with Georges Bizet. Another refusal came from Aram Khachaturian.

"Do it on Bizet!" - Alonso advised ...

The deadlines were running out, the music was needed "already yesterday." Then Shchedrin, who perfectly mastered the profession of orchestration, substantially re-arranged the musical material of Bizet's opera. The music for the ballet consisted of melodic fragments from the opera Carmen and Arlesienne by Georges Bizet. The rehearsals began to the piano. In record time - in twenty days - Shchedrin transcribed the opera by J. Bizet. In Shchedrin's score, percussion instruments, various drums and bells gave a special character ... In the thirteen numbers of the suite, the idea of ​​opposing two worlds developed: a light, impetuous, filled with human feelings and suffering and a cold, dispassionate, inexorable world of masks.

In his brilliant orchestration, the composer assigned the main role to strings and percussion instruments. The percussion group was intended to imitate Spanish folk instruments, the string group, in turn, played the role of voice.

Although in a hurry, the play was prepared. But the workshops did not keep up, the costumes were finished only by the morning of the premiere day. Only one day was allotted for the dress rehearsal (orchestral, lighting and assembly) on the main stage.

The magnificent, metaphorically accurate scenery for the play, the main idea of ​​which was formulated by the choreographer with a capacious phrase: "Carmen's whole life is a bullfight," was created by the famous theater artist, Plisetskaya's cousin Boris Messerer.

The world premiere took place on April 20, 1967 at the Bolshoi Theater, conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

The extremely passionate, erotic character of the production aroused rejection among the Soviet leadership, moreover, in the USSR, Alonso's ballet was performed in a censored form. According to the memoirs of Maya Plisetskaya: “... the Soviet authorities allowed Alonso into the theater only because he was“ their own ”, from the Island of Freedom, but this“ islander ”just took and staged a play not only about love passions, but also about that there is nothing higher in the world than freedom. And, of course, this ballet got so great not only for the eroticism and my “walking” with all my feet, but also for the politics, which was clearly visible in it ”. Discouraged by the novelty of the ballet, the audience reacted coolly to the premiere. One of the few spectators who unconditionally accepted the new performance was D. D. Shostakovich. The creators of "Carmen Suite", which was too unusual, erotic, (obviously, it was understood that it was politically not entirely trustworthy) needed support, since they immediately fell into disgrace. “You are a traitor to classical ballet,” the Minister of Culture of the USSR Ye.A. Furtsev. After the premiere performance, Furtseva was not in the director's box: she left the theater. The performance did not look like the “short Don Quixote” she expected, and it was raw. The second performance was supposed to be staged in the “evening of one act ballets” (“troichetka”) on April 22, but was canceled: “This is a great failure, comrades. The play is raw. Solid erotica. The music of the opera is disfigured ... I have great doubts whether the ballet can be improved. " Furtseva invited Plisetskaya through the press to confess about her mistake with the "Carmen Suite".

The most expensive for Plisetskaya was the recognition of the Spanish public:

"When the Spaniards shouted 'Ole!" To me, I realized that I had won. "

The libretto for Carmen Suite was written by Alberto Alonso. At the center of the ballet is the tragic fate of the gypsy woman Carmen and the soldier Jose who fell in love with her, whom Carmen leaves for the young Torero. The relationship of the heroes and the death of Carmen at the hands of Jose are predetermined by Fate. Thus, Carmen's story (in comparison with the literary source and Bizet's opera) is solved symbolically, which is reinforced by the unity of the scene (bullfighting ground).

All of Karmen-Plisetskaya's movements carried a special meaning, challenge, protest: both a mocking movement of the shoulder, and a set hip, and a sharp turn of the head, and a piercing look from under the brow ... transmitted colossal internal tension. Fascinating the audience, she attracted attention to herself, involuntarily (or consciously?) Distracting from the effective solo of the Toreador.

In addition to Maya Plisetskaya, the premiere cast (and for a long time the only one) included N.B. Fadeechev (Jose), S.N. Radchenko (Torero), N.D. Kasatkina (Rock), A.A. Lavrenyuk (Corregidor).

Alexander Godunov became the new Jose. His Jose is reserved, wary and distrustful. It is as if he is always in anticipation of human betrayal, misfortune, a blow of fate. He is vulnerable and proud. Jose's choreography begins with a freeze-frame with Jose facing the audience. A living portrait of Jose, fair-haired and light-eyed (in accordance with the portrait created by Mérimée). Large, strict facial features, a cold gaze express aloofness. However, behind the mask, the true human essence is guessed - the vulnerability of the soul, thrown into a cruel world. The portrait is psychologically interesting in itself, but now the movement begins. The syncopated "speech" was perceived by Godunov precisely and organically. Thoroughly worked out nuances have added the stage relief of character and image.

The role of Torero was performed by the brilliant character dancer of the Bolshoi Theater Sergei Radchenko. The artist is stylish, subtly aware of the peculiarities of Spanish dance, temperamental and scenic charm, created the image of an outwardly dazzling spectacular, but empty bullfight winner.

The triumphal procession of the "Carmen Suite" on theatrical stages of the world continues to this day.



Plan:

    Introduction
  • 1 Production history
  • 2 Music
  • 3 Ballet content
  • 4 Screen adaptation
  • 5 Performances in other countries and cities
  • 6 Reviews from critics
  • 7 New production at the Mariinsky Theater
  • 8 Elizariev's version
  • Sources of

Introduction

Carmen Suite- one-act ballet to music by Georges Bizet (1875) orchestrated by Rodion Shchedrin (1967).

Based on the opera "Carmen", the musical material of which Shchedrin substantially re-arranged, compressed and re-arranged. Based on the novella by Prosper Mérimée, which formed the basis of the opera, the libretto of the ballet was written by its first director, the Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso.

First staged on August 1, 1967 at the National Ballet of Cuba (Spanish. Ballet nacional de cuba, Havana) by choreographer Alberto Alonso for Alicia Alonso as Carmen(filmed in 1968, 1972 and 1973) and on April 20, 1967 at the Bolshoi Theater for Maya Plisetskaya (filmed in 1969 and 1978).


1. Production history

At the end of 1966, the Cuban National Ballet (sp. Ballet nacional de cuba). Rachel Messerer, dreamed of a new development of the original talent of her daughter Maya Plisetskaya, whose characteristic talent might have liked Alberto Alonso. She made an appointment and Maya came to the show. Behind the scenes, Alberto promised to return with a finished libretto if an official invitation from the Soviet Ministry of Culture arrived by the deadline. During this period, Maya received the Stalin Prize not at all for the ballerina part. persians in the opera "Khovanshchina". She persuaded Ekaterina Furtseva to invite Alberto to stage the ballet Carmen, whose plans already included the image of a freedom-loving Spanish gypsy, which he tried on his sister Alicia Alonso. Ekaterina Alekseevna helped organize this event: “- A one-act ballet for forty minutes in the style of a holiday of Spanish dance, like Don Quixote, right ?. This can strengthen the Soviet-Cuban friendship. " Alberto remembered a few words in Russian from his youth, when he danced in the Russian ballet Monte Carlo. He began rehearsals for his ballet, a version "for the Soviet stage". The performance was prepared in record time, the workshops did not keep up, the costumes were finished by the morning of the premiere day. Only one day was allotted for the dress rehearsal (orchestral, lighting and assembly) on the main stage. In a word, the ballet was done in a vain haste.

The world premiere took place on April 20, 1967 at the Bolshoi Theater (production designer Boris Messerer, conductor G. N. Rozhdestvensky). At the same time, the extremely passionate nature of the production, not alien to eroticism, aroused rejection among the Soviet leadership, and in the USSR Alonso's ballet was censored. According to the memoirs of Maya Plisetskaya:

the Soviet government let Alonso into the theater only because he was “their own”, from the Island of Freedom, but this “islander” just took and staged a play not only about love passions, but also about the fact that there is nothing higher in the world than freedom. And, of course, this ballet got so great not only for the eroticism and my "walking" with all my feet, but also for the politics, which was clearly visible in it.

After the premiere performance, Furtseva was not in the director's box, she left the theater. The performance did not look like the “short Don Quixote” she expected, and it was raw. The second performance was supposed to be staged in the "evening of one act ballets" ("troika") on April 22, but was canceled: “This is a great setback, comrades. The play is raw. Solid erotica. The music of the opera is disfigured ... I have big doubts whether the ballet can be improved. "... After arguing that "You will have to cancel the banquet" and promises "Cut all erotic supports that shock you", Furtseva gave up and allowed the play, which was staged at the Bolshoi 132 times and about two hundred around the world.


2. Music

Maya turned to Dmitry Shostakovich with a request to write music for "Carmen", but the composer refused, not wanting, according to him, to compete with Georges Bizet. Then she turned to Aram Khachaturian, but was again refused.

Do it on Bizet! - said Alonso ... The deadlines were running out, the music was needed "already yesterday." Then Shchedrin, who perfectly mastered the profession of orchestration, substantially re-arranged the musical material of Bizet's opera. The rehearsals began to the piano. The music for the ballet consisted of melodic fragments from the opera Carmen and Georges Bizet's Arlesienne. In Shchedrin's score, percussion instruments, various drums and bells gave a special character

The order of musical numbers in R. Shchedrin's transcription:

  • Introduction
  • Dance
  • First intermezzo
  • Divorce of the guard
  • Exit Carmen and Habanera
  • Scene
  • Second intermezzo
  • Bolero
  • Torero
  • Torero and Carmen
  • Adagio
  • Divination
  • The final

3. The content of the ballet

At the center of the ballet is the tragic fate of the gypsy woman Carmen and the soldier Jose who fell in love with her, whom Carmen leaves for the young Torero. The relationship of the heroes and the death of Carmen at the hands of Jose are predetermined by Fate. Thus, Carmen's story (in comparison with the literary source and Bizet's opera) is solved symbolically, which is reinforced by the unity of the scene (bullfighting ground).

4. Screen adaptation

Based on this production in 1969, the director Vadim Derbenyov made a film with the participation of the first performers: Carmen - Maya Plisetskaya, Jose - Nikolai Fadeechev, Torero - Sergei Radchenko, Corregidor - Alexander Lavrenyuk, Rock - Natalya Kasatkina.

For the second time, Alonso's production was screened in 1978 by director Felix Slidovker with Maya Plisetskaya (Carmen), Alexander Godunov (Jose), Sergei Radchenko (Torero), Viktor Barykin (Corregidor), Loipa Arauho (Rock).

In 1974 choreographer Valentin Elizariev rewrote the libretto based on the cycle of poems by Alexander Blok "Carmen" and staged a new performance to the music of J. Bizet, arranged by R. Shchedrin at the Bolshoi Theater of the Belarusian SSR, Minsk.


5. Performances in other countries and cities

Alberto Alonso's version of the ballet was staged in academic theaters in more than twenty cities by A.M. Plisetskiy, among them:

Helsinki (1873) Kharkiv, Opera and Ballet Theater. Lysenko (November 4, 1973) Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater, together with A.M. Plisetskiy (1973) Kazan (1973) Minsk, Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus (1973) Kiev, Opera and Ballet Theater of Ukraine. Shevchenko (1973) Ufa Bashkir Opera and Ballet Theater (April 4, 1974) Lima, Teatro Segura (1974) Buenos Aires, Colon Theater (1977) Sverdlovsk, Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater (May 13, 1978 and February 7, 1980) Dushanbe (1981) ) Tbilisi, Opera and Ballet Theater named after Paliashvili (1982)

6. Reviews from critics

All of Karmen-Plisetskaya's movements carried a special meaning, challenge, protest: both a mocking shoulder movement, and a set hip, and a sharp turn of the head, and a piercing glance from under the brows ... It is impossible to forget how Carmen Plisetskaya - like a frozen sphinx - looked at the Toreador dance her static posture conveyed colossal internal tension: she fascinated the audience, attracted their attention, involuntarily (or consciously?) distracting from the effective solo of the Toreador.

The new Jose is very young. But age itself is not an artistic category. And does not allow for discounts on inexperience. Godunov played age in subtle psychological manifestations. His Jose is wary and distrustful. Trouble awaits people. From life: - dirty tricks. Injured and proud. The first exit, the first pose - a freeze-frame, heroically sustained face to face with the audience. A living portrait of the fair-haired and light-eyed (in accordance with the portrait created by Mérimée) Jose. Large, strict features. The look of the wolf cub is sullenly. Expression of alienation. Behind the mask you guess the true human essence - the vulnerability of the soul, thrown into the world and the world hostile. You contemplate the portrait with interest. And so he came to life and "spoke." The syncopated "speech" was perceived by Godunov precisely and organically. No wonder the talented dancer Azary Plisetsky prepared him for his debut, who perfectly knows both the part and the whole ballet from his own experience. Hence - the carefully worked out, carefully polished details that make up the stage life of the image. ...


7. New production at the Mariinsky Theater

The performance was resumed by choreographer Viktor Barykin, former soloist of the Bolshoi Ballet and performer of the part Jose.

The first cast of performers at the Mariinsky: Irma Nioradze - Carmen, Ilya Kuznetsov - Jose, Anton Korsakov - Torreodor


8. Elizariev's version

“The suite is a picture from the life, or rather, the spiritual fate of Carmen. The conventionality of the ballet theater easily and naturally shifts them in time, making it possible to trace not external everyday events, but the events of the heroine's inner spiritual life. No, not the seducer, not the femme fatale Carmen! We are attracted in this image by the spiritual beauty of Carmen, the integrity, uncompromising nature of her nature. " Conductor Yaroslav Voshchak

“Listening to this music, I saw my Carmen, which was significantly different from Carmen in other performances. For me, she is not only an outstanding woman, proud and uncompromising, and not only a symbol of love. She is a hymn to love, love, pure, honest, burning, demanding, love of a colossal flight of feelings that none of the men she met is capable of. Carmen is not a doll, not a beautiful toy, not a street girl with whom many would not mind having fun. For her, love is the essence of life. No one was able to appreciate, understand her inner world, hidden behind a dazzling beauty. He fell in love with Carmen Jose. Love transformed the rude, narrow-minded soldier, opened up spiritual joys for him, but for Carmen his arms soon turn into chains. Intoxicated by his feelings, Jose does not try to understand Carmen. He no longer begins to love Carmen, but his feelings for her ... She could also love Torero, who is not indifferent to her beauty. But Torero - exquisitely gallant, brilliant and fearless - internally lazy, cold, he is not able to fight for love. And naturally, demanding and proud Carmen cannot love someone like him. And without love there is no happiness in life, and Carmen accepts death from Jose, so as not to embark on the path of compromise or loneliness together. " Choreographer Valentin Elizariev


Sources of

  1. Ballet Nacional de Cuba "CARMEN" website.
  2. M.M. Plisetskaya"Reading my life ...". - M .: "AST", "Astrel", 2010. - 544 p. - ISBN 978-5-17-068256-0
  3. Died Alberto Alonso / Maya Plisetskaya for the site of the Bolshoi Theater
  4. M.M. Plisetskaya/ A. Proskurin. Drawings by V. Shakhmeister. - M .: JSC "Novosti Publishing House" with the participation of Rosno-Bank, 1994. - S. 340. - 496 p. - 50,000 copies. - ISBN 5-7020-0903-7
  5. “Bizet - Shchedrin - Carmen Suite. Transcriptions of excerpts from the opera "Carmen."
  6. V.A. Mainiece. Article "Carmen Suite" // Ballet: Encyclopedia. / Chief ed. Yu.N. Grigorovich. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia, 1981 .-- S. 240-241.
  7. Official site of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus
  8. Carmen-in-Lima - "Soviet Culture" of February 14, 1975
  9. E. Nikolaev. The ballets "Playing Cards" and "Carmen Suite" at the Bolshoi
  10. E. Lutskaya. Portrait in red
  11. One-act ballets “Carmen Suite. Chopiniana. Carnival".- Mariinsky Theater website
  12. Carmen Suite at the Mariinsky Theater.- Internet TV channel "Art TV", 2010
  13. Summary of the ballet on the website of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus

It was written by its director, Alberto Alonso.

The premiere of the play took place on April 20, 1967 at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow (Carmen - Maya Plisetskaya). On August 1 of the same year, the premiere of the ballet took place in Havana, in Cuban National Ballet(Carmen - Alicia Alonso).

At the center of the ballet is the tragic fate of the gypsy woman Carmen and the soldier Jose who fell in love with her, whom Carmen leaves for the young Torero. The relationship of the heroes and the death of Carmen at the hands of Jose are predetermined by Fate. Thus, Carmen's story (in comparison with the literary source and Bizet's opera) is solved symbolically, which is reinforced by the unity of the scene (bullfighting ground).

Performance music

Maya Plisetskaya turned to Dmitry Shostakovich with a request to write music for "Carmen", but the composer refused, not wanting, according to him, to compete with Georges Bizet. Then she turned to Aram Khachaturian, but was again refused. She was advised to turn to her husband, Rodion Shchedrin, also a composer.

The order of musical numbers in the transcription of Rodion Shchedrin:

  • Introduction
  • Dance
  • First intermezzo
  • Divorce of the guard
  • Exit Carmen and Habanera
  • Scene
  • Second intermezzo
  • Bolero
  • Torero
  • Torero and Carmen
  • Adagio
  • Divination
  • The final

Production history

At the end of 1966, the Cuban National Ballet (sp. Ballet nacional de cuba ). Rachel Messerer dreamed of a new development of the original talent of her daughter Maya Plisetskaya, whose characteristic talent might have liked Alberto Alonso. She made an appointment and Maya came to the show. Behind the scenes, Alberto promised to return with a finished libretto if an official invitation from the Soviet Ministry of Culture arrived by the deadline. During this period, Maya received the Lenin Prize not at all for the ballerina part. persians in the opera "Khovanshchina". She persuaded Ekaterina Furtseva to invite Alberto to stage the ballet Carmen, whose plans already included the image of a freedom-loving Spanish gypsy, which he tried on for his brother's wife Alicia Alonso. Ekaterina Alekseevna helped organize this event:
“- A one-act ballet for forty minutes in the style of a holiday of Spanish dance, like Don Quixote, right ?. This can strengthen the Soviet-Cuban friendship. "

Alberto remembered a few words in Russian from his youth, when he danced in the Russian ballet Monte Carlo. He began rehearsals for his ballet, a version "for the Soviet stage". The performance was prepared in record time, the workshops did not keep up, the costumes were finished by the morning of the premiere day. Only one day was allotted for the dress rehearsal (orchestral, lighting and assembly) on the main stage. In a word, the ballet was done in a vain haste.

The world premiere took place on April 20 at the Bolshoi Theater (production designer Boris Messerer, conductor GN Rozhdestvensky). Maya Plisetskaya (Carmen), Nikolai Fadeechev (Jose), Sergei Radchenko (Torero), Alexander Lavrenyuk (Corregidor), Natalia Kasatkina (Rock) took part in the play. At the same time, the extremely passionate nature of the production, not alien to eroticism, aroused rejection among the Soviet leadership, and in the USSR Alonso's ballet was censored. According to the memoirs of Maya Plisetskaya:

the Soviet government let Alonso into the theater only because he was “their own”, from the Island of Freedom, but this “islander” just took and staged a play not only about love passions, but also about the fact that there is nothing higher in the world than freedom. And, of course, this ballet got so great not only for the eroticism and my "walking" with all my feet, but also for the politics, which was clearly visible in it.

After the premiere performance, Furtseva was not in the director's box, she left the theater. The performance did not look like the “short Don Quixote” she expected, and it was raw. The second performance was supposed to be staged in the "evening of one act ballets" ("troika") on April 22, but was canceled:
“This is a great setback, comrades. The play is raw. Solid erotica. The music of the opera is disfigured ... I have big doubts whether the ballet can be improved. " .
After arguing that "You will have to cancel the banquet" and promises "Cut all erotic supports that shock you", Furtseva gave up and allowed the play, which was staged at the Bolshoi 132 times and about two hundred around the world.

Reviews from critics

All of Karmen-Plisetskaya's movements carried a special meaning, challenge, protest: both a mocking shoulder movement, and a set hip, and a sharp turn of the head, and a piercing glance from under the brows ... It is impossible to forget how Carmen Plisetskaya - like a frozen sphinx - looked at the Toreador dance her static posture conveyed colossal internal tension: she fascinated the audience, attracted their attention, involuntarily (or consciously?) distracting from the effective solo of the Toreador.

The new Jose is very young. But age itself is not an artistic category. And does not allow for discounts on inexperience. Godunov played age in subtle psychological manifestations. His Jose is wary and distrustful. Trouble awaits people. From life: - dirty tricks. Injured and proud. The first exit, the first pose - a freeze-frame, heroically sustained face to face with the audience. A living portrait of the fair-haired and light-eyed (in accordance with the portrait created by Mérimée) Jose. Large, strict features. The look of the wolf cub is sullenly. Expression of alienation. Behind the mask you guess the true human essence - the vulnerability of the soul, thrown into the world and the world hostile. You contemplate the portrait with interest.

And so he came to life and "spoke." The syncopated "speech" was perceived by Godunov precisely and organically. No wonder the talented dancer Azary Plisetsky prepared him for his debut, who perfectly knows both the part and the whole ballet from his own experience. Hence - the carefully worked out, carefully polished details that make up the stage life of the image. ...

Screen adaptations

  • 1968 (1969?) - film directed by Vadim Derbenev, staged by the Bolshoi Theater with the participation of the first performers (Carmen - Maya Plisetskaya, Jose - Nikolai Fadeechev, Torero - Sergei Radchenko, Corregidor - Alexander Lavrenyuk, Rock - Natalya Kasatkina).
  • 1978 - film-ballet directed by Felix Slidovker (Carmen - Maya Plisetskaya, Jose - Alexander Godunov, Torero - Sergei Radchenko, Corregidor - Victor Barykin, Rock - Loip Arauho).
  • 1968, 1972 and 1973 - film adaptations of the production of the Cuban National Ballet.

Performances in other theaters

The production of Alberto Alonso's ballet was transferred to many stages of ballet theaters in the USSR and the world by choreographer A.M. Plisetskiy:

  • 1973 - Helsinki Theater, Kharkov Opera and Ballet Theater. Lysenko (premiere - November 4, 1973), Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater (together with A.M. Plisetskiy), Kazan Opera and Ballet Theater, Belarusian Opera and Ballet Theater, Opera and Ballet Theater of Ukraine. Shevchenko
  • April 4, 1974 - Bashkir Opera and Ballet Theater (Ufa), Teatro Segura (Lima)
  • 1977 - Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires)
  • May 13, 1978 - Sverdlovsk Opera and Ballet Theater (February 7, 1980 - renewal)
  • 1981 - Dushanbe Opera and Ballet Theater
  • 1982 - Theater of Opera and Ballet. Paliashvili (Tbilisi)

Performances by other choreographers

“Listening to this music, I saw my Carmen, which was significantly different from Carmen in other performances. For me, she is not only an outstanding woman, proud and uncompromising, and not only a symbol of love. She is a hymn to love, love, pure, honest, burning, demanding, love of a colossal flight of feelings that none of the men she met is capable of.

Carmen is not a doll, not a beautiful toy, not a street girl with whom many would not mind having fun. For her, love is the essence of life. No one was able to appreciate, understand her inner world, hidden behind a dazzling beauty.

He fell in love with Carmen Jose. Love transformed the rude, narrow-minded soldier, opened up spiritual joys for him, but for Carmen his arms soon turn into chains. Intoxicated by his feelings, Jose does not try to understand Carmen. He begins to love not Carmen, but his feelings for her ...

She could also fall in love with Torero, who is not indifferent to her beauty. But Torero - exquisitely gallant, brilliant and fearless - internally lazy, cold, he is not able to fight for love. And naturally, demanding and proud Carmen cannot love someone like him. And without love there is no happiness in life, and Carmen accepts death from Jose, so as not to embark on the path of compromise or loneliness together. "

Choreographer Valentin Elizariev

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Links

  • // newsreel studio Pathé, 1967

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Excerpt from the Carmen Suite

- Quand un officier fait sa ronde, les sentinelles ne demandent pas le mot d "ordre ..." Dolokhov shouted, suddenly bursting into flames, running into the sentry. "Je vous demande si le colonel est ici? [When an officer goes around the chain, the sentries do not ask recall ... I ask if the colonel is here?]
And, without waiting for an answer from the straying sentry, Dolokhov walked up the hill at a step.
Noticing the black shadow of a man crossing the road, Dolokhov stopped this man and asked where the commander and officers were? This man, with a sack on his shoulder, a soldier, stopped, approached Dolokhov's horse, touching it with his hand, and simply and amiably told that the commander and officers were higher on the mountain, on the right side, in the yard of the farm (as he called the master's manor).
Having passed along the road, on both sides of which the French dialect sounded from the fires, Dolokhov turned into the courtyard of the manor house. Having passed through the gate, he dismounted from his horse and walked over to a large, blazing fire, around which several people were sitting, talking loudly. Something was boiling in a pot on the edge, and a soldier in a cap and a blue greatcoat, kneeling, brightly lit by fire, was stirring in it with a ramrod.
- Oh, c "est un dur a cuire, [You can't get along with this devil.] - said one of the officers sitting in the shade on the opposite side of the fire.
- Il les fera marcher les lapins ... [He will go through them ...] - another said with a laugh. Both fell silent, peering into the darkness at the sound of Dolokhov and Petya's footsteps approaching the fire with their horses.
- Bonjour, messieurs! [Hello, gentlemen!] Dolokhov said loudly, distinctly.
The officers stirred in the shadow of the fire, and one, a tall officer with a long neck, avoiding the fire, approached Dolokhov.
“C" est vous, Clement? "He said." D "ou, diable ... [Is that you, Clement? Where the hell ...] - but he did not finish, having learned his mistake, and, slightly frowning, as if he were a stranger, he greeted Dolokhov, asking him how he could serve. Dolokhov said that he and his comrade were catching up with their regiment, and asked, addressing everyone in general, if the officers knew anything about the sixth regiment. Nobody knew anything; and it seemed to Petya that the officers began to examine him and Dolokhov with hostility and suspicion. Everyone was silent for a few seconds.
- Si vous comptez sur la soupe du soir, vous venez trop tard, [If you are counting on dinner, then you are late.] - said with a restrained laugh the voice from behind the fire.
Dolokhov replied that they were full and that they had to go on at night.
He handed the horses over to the soldier in the bowler hat and squatted down by the fire next to the long-necked officer. This officer, without taking his eyes off, looked at Dolokhov and asked him again: what kind of regiment was he? Dolokhov did not answer, as if he had not heard the question, and, lighting a short French pipe, which he took out of his pocket, he asked the officers how safe was the road from the Cossacks ahead of them.
- Les brigands sont partout, [These robbers are everywhere.] - the officer answered from behind the fire.
Dolokhov said that the Cossacks are terrible only for such backward ones as he and his comrade, but that the Cossacks probably did not dare to attack large detachments, he added inquiringly. Nobody answered anything.
"Well, now he will leave," Petya thought every minute, standing in front of the fire and listening to his conversation.
But Dolokhov began the conversation that had stopped again and began directly asking how many people they had in the battalion, how many battalions, how many prisoners. Asking about the Russian prisoners who were with their detachment, Dolokhov said:
- La vilaine affaire de trainer ces cadavres apres soi. Vaudrait mieux fusiller cette canaille, [It's a bad thing to carry these corpses with you. It would be better to shoot this bastard.] - and laughed loudly with such a strange laugh that it seemed to Petya that the French would now recognize the deception, and he involuntarily stepped back a step from the fire. No one answered Dolokhov's words and laughter, and the French officer, whom he could not see (he was lying wrapped in his greatcoat), got up and whispered something to his comrade. Dolokhov got up and called the soldier with the horses.
"Will the horses be served or not?" - thought Petya, involuntarily approaching Dolokhov.
The horses were served.
- Bonjour, messieurs, [Here: goodbye, gentlemen.] - said Dolokhov.
Petya wanted to say bonsoir [good evening] and could not finish the word. The officers were whispering something to each other. Dolokhov sat for a long time on a horse that did not stand; then he walked out of the gate at a step. Petya rode beside him, wanting and not daring to look back to see whether the French were running or not running after them.
Having left on the road, Dolokhov drove not back into the field, but along the village. At one point he stopped, listening.
- Do you hear? - he said.
Petya recognized the sounds of Russian voices, saw the dark figures of Russian prisoners by the fires. Going down to the bridge, Petya and Dolokhov passed the sentry, who, without saying a word, walked gloomily across the bridge, and drove into a hollow where the Cossacks were waiting.
- Well, now goodbye. Tell Denisov that at dawn, at the first shot, ”Dolokhov said and wanted to drive, but Petya grabbed him with his hand.
- No! - he cried, - you are such a hero. Oh, how good! How wonderful! How I love you.
- Good, good, - said Dolokhov, but Petya did not let him go, and in the darkness Dolokhov saw that Petya was bending over to him. He wanted to kiss. Dolokhov kissed him, laughed and, turning his horse, disappeared into the darkness.

NS
Returning to the guardhouse, Petya found Denisov in the entryway. Denisov, agitated, worried and annoyed with himself that he had let Petya go, was expecting him.
- God bless! He shouted. - Well, thank God! - he repeated, listening to Petya's enthusiastic story. “And why take you, I didn’t sleep because of you!” Denisov said. “Well, thank God, now go to bed. Another vzdg "let's eat until utg" a.
- Yes ... No, - said Petya. “I don’t feel like sleeping yet.” Yes, I know myself, if I fall asleep, it’s over. And then I got used to not sleeping before the battle.
Petya sat for some time in the hut, joyfully recalling the details of his trip and vividly imagining what would happen tomorrow. Then, noticing that Denisov fell asleep, he got up and went into the yard.
It was still completely dark outside. The rain had passed, but drops were still falling from the trees. Not far from the guardhouse were the black figures of Cossack huts and horses tied together. Behind the hut were two wagons with horses, and a dying fire blushed in the ravine. The Cossacks and hussars were not all asleep: in some places one could hear, together with the sound of falling drops and the close sound of horses chewing, quiet, as if whispering voices.
Petya came out of the entrance, looked around in the darkness and went up to the wagons. Someone was snoring under the wagons, and around them were saddled horses, chewing oats. In the darkness Petya recognized his horse, which he called Karabakh, although it was a Little Russian horse, and approached her.
“Well, Karabakh, we'll serve tomorrow,” he said, sniffing her nostrils and kissing her.
- What, sir, are you awake? - said the Cossack, who was sitting under the wagon.
- No; and ... Likhachev, it seems, is your name? After all, I have just arrived. We went to see the French. - And Petya told the Cossack in detail not only his trip, but also why he went and why he believes that it is better to risk his life than to do Lazarus at random.
- Well, they should have nap, - said the Cossack.
- No, I'm used to it, - Petya answered. - And what, you have no flints in your pistols? I brought with me. Isn't it necessary? Take it.
The Cossack leaned out from under the truck to take a closer look at Petya.
“Because I'm used to doing everything neatly,” said Petya. - Others will not get ready so, somehow, then they regret it. I don't like that.
“That's for sure,” said the Cossack.
- And what's more, please, my dear, sharpen my saber; blunt ... (but Petya was afraid to lie) she was never honed. Can I do this?
- Why, you can.
Likhachev got up, rummaged in his packs, and Petya soon heard the warlike sound of steel on a block. He climbed onto the wagon and sat on the edge of it. The Cossack was sharpening his saber under the wagon.
- Well, well fellows are sleeping? - said Petya.
- Who is asleep and who is like that.
- Well, what about the boy?
- Spring then? He collapsed there, in senets. Sleeping with fear. I was glad that I was.
For a long time after that, Petya was silent, listening to the sounds. Footsteps were heard in the darkness and a black figure appeared.
- What are you sharpening? - asked the man, approaching the wagon.
- And here's the master to sharpen his saber.
“It's a good thing,” said the man who seemed to Pete to be a hussar. - Do you have a cup left?
- And over there at the wheel.
The hussar took the cup.
“It’s probably light soon,” he said, yawning, and walked somewhere.
Petya should have known that he was in the forest, in Denisov’s party, a mile from the road, that he was sitting on a wagon, beaten off from the French, near which horses were tied, that Cossack Likhachev was sitting under him and sharpening his saber, that a big black spot to the right - a guardhouse, and a red bright spot below to the left - a burning fire, that the person who came for a cup is a hussar who wanted to drink; but he knew nothing and did not want to know it. He was in a magical realm in which there was nothing like reality. A big black spot, maybe there was a guardhouse, or maybe there was a cave that led to the very depths of the earth. The red spot may have been fire, or perhaps the eye of a huge monster. Maybe he is as if sitting on a wagon now, but it may very well be that he is not sitting on a wagon, but on a terribly high tower, from which if he fell, he would fly to the ground all day, a whole month - all fly and never reach ... It may be that just a Cossack Likhachev is sitting under the wagon, but it may very well be that this is the kindest, bravest, most wonderful, most excellent person in the world, whom no one knows. Perhaps it was as if the hussar was passing by for water and went into the hollow, or perhaps he had just disappeared from sight and completely disappeared, and he was not there.
Whatever Petya saw now, nothing would have surprised him. He was in a magical realm in which anything was possible.
He looked up at the sky. And the sky was as magical as the earth. It was clearing in the sky, and clouds flew quickly over the tops of the trees, as if revealing the stars. Sometimes it seemed that the sky was clearing and showing a black, clear sky. Sometimes it seemed that these black spots were clouds. Sometimes it seemed that the sky was high, rising high above the head; sometimes the sky descended completely, so that you could reach it with your hand.
Petya began to close his eyes and sway.
The drops were dripping. There was a quiet talk. The horses laughed and fought. Someone was snoring.
- Burning, burning, burning, burning ... - whistled a sharpened saber. And suddenly Petya heard a harmonious chorus of music playing some unknown, solemnly sweet hymn. Petya was musical, just like Natasha, and more than Nikolai, but he never studied music, did not think about music, and therefore the motives that suddenly occurred to him were especially new and attractive to him. The music played louder and louder. The melody grew, passed from one instrument to another. What is called a fugue was happening, although Petya had not the slightest idea of ​​what a fugue was. Each instrument, sometimes similar to a violin, sometimes to trumpets - but better and cleaner than violins and trumpets - each instrument played its own and, without having finished playing the motif, merged with another, which began almost the same, and with the third, and with the fourth , and they all merged into one and again scattered, and again merged, now in the solemn church, now in the brightly brilliant and victorious.
“Oh, yes, because it’s me in a dream,” Petya said to himself, swinging forward. - It's in my ears. Or maybe this is my music. Well, again. Go ahead my music! Well!.."
He closed his eyes. And from different sides, as if from afar, sounds fluttered, began to harmonize, scatter, merge, and again everything combined into the same sweet and solemn hymn. “Oh, what a charm it is! As much as I want and how I want, ”Petya said to himself. He tried to lead this huge choir of instruments.
“Well, quieter, quieter, freeze now. - And the sounds obeyed him. - Well, now it's fuller, more fun. Even more joyful. - And from an unknown depth rose the intensifying, solemn sounds. - Well, voices, bother! " - Petya ordered. And first, from afar, male voices were heard, then female. The voices grew, grew in a steady solemn effort. Petya was scared and joyful to listen to their extraordinary beauty.
The song merged with the solemn victorious march, and drops dripped, and burning, burning, burning ... the saber whistled, and again the horses fought and whinnied, not breaking the chorus, but entering it.
Petya did not know how long this went on: he was enjoying himself, all the time he was amazed at his pleasure and regretted that there was no one to tell him. Likhachev's gentle voice woke him up.
- Done, your honor, spread the guardian in two.
Petya woke up.
- It’s dawn, really, dawn! He cried.
Horses previously unseen were visible to their tails, and a watery light could be seen through the bare branches. Petya shook himself, jumped up, took out a ruble from his pocket and gave Likhachev, waving, tasted the saber and put it in its sheath. The Cossacks untied the horses and tightened the girths.
“Here's the commander,” said Likhachev. Denisov came out of the guardhouse and, calling Petya, ordered to get ready.

Quickly in the semi-darkness they dismantled the horses, tightened the girths and sorted them out according to commands. Denisov stood at the guardhouse, giving the last orders. The party's infantry, plopping with a hundred feet, walked forward along the road and quickly disappeared among the trees in the predawn fog. Esaul ordered something to the Cossacks. Petya kept his horse on the bit, eagerly awaiting the order to sit down. Having been washed with cold water, his face, especially his eyes, burned with fire, a chill ran down his spine, and in his whole body something was trembling quickly and evenly.
- Well, are you all ready? - said Denisov. - Come on horses.
The horses were served. Denisov got angry with the Cossack because the girths were weak, and, scolding him, sat down. Petya took hold of the stirrup. The horse, out of habit, wanted to bite him on the leg, but Petya, not feeling his own weight, quickly jumped into the saddle and, looking back at the hussars who had started behind in the darkness, drove up to Denisov.