Review: a Carmen in dialogue with Mérimée with Rome Opera Ballet

Marta Mele sees Rome Opera Ballet in Jiří Bubeníček’s Carmen – “An indomitable woman exploring her sensuality and power of attraction over men.”

Carmen at Rome Opera House is not a new production. Eleonora Abbagnato commissioned the ballet from Jiří Bubeníček in 2018, looking to rejuvenate the repertoire. Jiří Bubeníček, together with his twin brother Otto, was an outstanding dancer whose powerful stage presence was connected to a profound psychological depth. His commitment to choreography since 2015 promised to transmit something of his long collaboration with John Neumeier in many important works.

For Carmen, he decided to detach himself from Bizet’s opera to give space to an incarnation of Prosper Mérimée (the author of the novella Carmen) who is placed on stage to reveal new aspects of Carmen’s character and her savage spirit. Indeed, it is Don José who asks Mérimée to tell his story.

Here there is no sentimental conflict with Micaëla, but just a man in front of an indomitable woman exploring her sensuality and power of attraction over men. At first, she is just coquettish in her floaty costume, but she becomes savage when she confronts the other cigar rollers. In the reworking of the music, great space is given to sensual accents and the lyricism of the strings.

The choreographic movements flow throughout the body giving many possibilities for the extension of the legs and rotation of the hips, but there is also emphatic gesturing with the arms over the tables and forceful infighting among the women.

In her relationship with Don José, Carmen tries to abandon herself, but always creates some resistance, which in certain moments become explosive. She never misses a chance to flirt with other men, challenging the psychological strength of Don José. Indeed, in some moments he almost seems a loser – when in prison, he rolls on the floor with heightened romanticism holding a flower from his beloved. But at the end of the first act, we are tragically in front of a murder.

In the second act, the dances become more theatrical, and a highlight in the ballet is the appearance of Don José’s principal rival, Lucas (Bizet’s Escamillo) played by Alessio Rezza. His charismatic performance is astonishing with sharp and precise steps. The antagonism with Don José sets the ballet alight. In the musical redaction alongside the sensuousness of the strings are the bright tones of the trumpets, above all for the vigour of the bullfight. Costumes twirl in the air before the conclusive tragic end, with the killing of Carmen and the death of Don José. But the narrator, Mérimée, intervenes to soften the tone.

Among the various casts, Rebecca Bianchi shone as Carmen, her softness seducing us as she did Javier Rojas as Don José. For the last performance, Marianna Suriano as Carmen infused the whole atmosphere with her energy and vivacity, dancing with Giacomo Castellana.

The scenes were quite basic, but a big human-operated horse gave a fantastic nuance to the whole show.

Marta Mele

Graduating with honours in “Literary and Linguistic Studies” at La Sapienza University of Rome with a thesis on ballets inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s works, Marta Mele subsequently specialised in “History and Theory of Choreographic Art” at the Vaganova Academy in St Petersburg.

She translated from Russian the autobiography of the dancer Natalia Makarova for Gremese publishing house, and edited the Italian edition of the book Swans of the Kremlin by the scholar Christina Ezrahi.

After participating in two conferences dedicated to the bicentenary of the birth of Marius Petipa, she won the La Sapienza University’s PhD competition in Music and Performing Arts, and in 2022 received her doctorate with ‘eccellente’, her thesis entitled Ballet in Leningrad between avant-garde and ideology.

Marta participates in national and international conferences in performing arts research and writes for scientific reviews such as Danza e Ricerca, Biblioteca Teatrale and SigMa. As a dance journalist, she began by collaborating with the Russian dance magazine PROTanec, and she also writes for GBOpera.