The history of the creation of the ballet carmen suite summary. Tickets to the Bolshoi Theater of Russia

STEP ONE

In the town square in Seville, near the cigar factory, there is a guard post. Soldiers, street boys, cigar factory workers with their lovers flicker in the lively crowd. Carmen appears. Temperamental and courageous, she is used to rule over everyone. Meeting with the dragoon José awakens passion in her. Her habanera - a song of free love - sounds like a challenge to Jose, and a flower thrown at his feet promises love. The arrival of José's fiancee, Michaela, temporarily makes him forget about the impudent gypsy. He remembers native village, house, mother, indulges in bright dreams. Once again, Carmen disturbs the peace. This time, she turns out to be the culprit of a quarrel at the factory, and José must deliver her to prison. But the spell of the gypsy is omnipotent. Subdued by them, José disobeys orders and helps Carmen escape.

ACT TWO

In the Lilas-Pastya tavern, the fun is in full swing. This is a secret meeting place for smugglers assisted by Carmen. Together with her friends, Frasquita and Mercedes, she has fun here. The welcome guest of the tavern is the bullfighter Escamillo. He is always cheerful, confident and bold. His life is full of worries, the fight in the arena is dangerous, but the hero's reward is sweet - the glory and love of beauties. It's getting dark. Customers leave the tavern. Under the cover of night, smugglers gather for a risky trade. This time, Carmen refuses to go with them. She is waiting for José. The sergeant arrives, but the joy of their meeting is short-lived. The war horn summons a dragoon to the barracks. In his soul, passion fights duty. A quarrel breaks out between lovers. Zuniga suddenly appears - Jose's boss. He hopes for the favor of Carmen. In a fit of jealousy, José draws his saber. The military oath has been broken, the way to return to the barracks has been cut off. José stays with Carmen.

ACT THREE

In the dead of night, in the mountains, the smugglers made a halt. With them - Carmen and José. But the quarrel in the tavern is not forgotten. There is too much difference between lovers. Dreaming of a quiet life, the peasant Jose suffers from betrayal of duty, from longing for home. Only passionate love to Carmen keeps him in the camp of smugglers. But Carmen no longer loves him, the gap between them is inevitable. What will the cards tell her? She predicted happiness to her friends, but fate does not bode well for Carmen herself: she read her death sentence. She contemplates the future with deep sorrow. Escamillo suddenly arrives - he hurries to a date with Carmen. José blocks his way. Jealousy and resentment flare up in his soul. Carmen stops the duel of rivals. At this moment, Jose notices Michaela, who, overcoming her fear, came to the smugglers' camp to take Jose away. But he does not heed her words. Only the news of his mother's fatal illness makes Jose leave Carmen. But their meeting is ahead ...

ACT FOUR

Bright sunny day. The square in Seville is full of people. The audience is looking forward to the start of the bullfight. Noisily and joyfully they greet the procession of bullfighting heroes, led by the universal favorite Escamillo. Greets him and Carmen. She is attracted to the cheerful, courageous Escamillo. Frasquita and Mercedes warn Carmen of impending danger: José is following her relentlessly. But Carmen does not listen to them, she rushes to the bullfight. Jose stops her. Gently, with love, he addresses his beloved. But Carmen is relentless: everything is over between them. “I was born free - I will die free,” she proudly throws in the face of Jose. In a fit of anger, he stabs Carmen to death. By death, she asserts her freedom.

Production history

After the premiere performance, Furtseva was not in the director's box, she left the theater. The performance was not like the "short" Don Quixote "as she expected, and was raw. The second performance was supposed to go in the "evening of one-act ballets" ("troychatka"), April 22, but was canceled:

“This is a big failure, comrades. The performance is raw. Sheer erotica. The music of the opera has been mutilated… I have serious doubts whether the ballet can be improved.” .

After arguing that "have to cancel the banquet" and promises “reduce all erotic supports that shock you”, Furtseva gave in and allowed the performance, which was held at the Bolshoi 132 times and about two hundred around the world.

Music

Screen adaptation

Buenos Aires, Colon Theater () Sverdlovsk, Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater (May 13 and February 7) Dushanbe () Tbilisi, Opera and Ballet Theater. Paliashvili ()

Reviews of criticism

All the movements of Carmen-Plisetskaya carried a special meaning, a challenge, a protest: a mocking movement of the shoulder, and a retracted hip, and a sharp turn of the head, and a piercing look from under the brows ... It is impossible to forget how Carmen Plisetskaya - like a frozen sphinx - looked at the dance of the Toreador, and all her static pose conveyed a colossal inner tension: she fascinated the audience, riveted their attention to herself, involuntarily (or consciously?) Distracting from the spectacular solo of the Toreador.

The new Jose is very young. But age itself is not an artistic category. And does not allow discounts for inexperience. Godunov played age in subtle psychological manifestations. His Jose is wary and distrustful. Trouble awaits people. From life: - dirty tricks. Vulnerable and selfish. The first exit, the first pose - a freeze-frame, heroically sustained face to face with the audience. A living portrait of a fair-haired and light-eyed (in accordance with the portrait created by Merimee) Jose. Large strict features. The look of the wolf cub is frowning. An expression of alienation. Behind the mask you guess the true human essence - the vulnerability of the soul thrown into the World and the world is hostile. You contemplate the portrait with interest. And then he came to life and "spoke." The syncopated "speech" was perceived by Godunov accurately and organically. It was not for nothing that he was prepared for his debut by the talented dancer Azary Plisetsky, who knows both the part and the whole ballet perfectly from his own experience. Hence the carefully crafted, carefully polished details that make up stage life image. .

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 line-up of performers at the Mariinsky: Irma Nioradze - Carmen, Ilya Kuznetsov - Jose, Anton Korsakov - Bullfighter

Alicia Alonso in Moscow

Elizariev's version

“The suite is a picture of the life, or rather, the spiritual fate of Carmen. convention ballet theater easily and naturally displaces them in time, allowing us to trace not external everyday events, but the events of the heroine's inner spiritual life. No, not a seductress, not femme fatale Carmen! We are attracted in this image by the spiritual beauty of Carmen, the integrity, uncompromising nature of her nature. Conductor Yaroslav Voschak

“Listening to this music, I saw my Carmen, 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, which 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 like to have fun. For her, love is the essence of life. No one could appreciate, understand her inner world hidden behind dazzling beauty. Passionately fell in love with Carmen José. Love has transformed the rough, limited soldier, revealed spiritual joys to him, but for Carmen his embrace soon turns into chains. Intoxicated with his feeling, Jose does not try to understand Carmen. He begins to love not Carmen, but his feeling for her ... She could also love Torero, who is not indifferent to her beauty. But Torero - subtly gallant, brilliant and fearless - is internally lazy, cold, he is not able to fight for love. And of course, 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

1. Ballet Nacional de Cuba "CARMEN" website. archived
2. M.M. Plisetskaya"Reading my life..." - M .: "AST", "Astrel", . - 544 p. - ISBN 978-5-17-068256-0
3. Alberto Alonso / Maya Plisetskaya died for the Bolshoi Theater website
4. M.M. Plisetskaya/ A. Proskurin. Drawings by V.Shakhmeister. - M .: JSC Publishing House Novosti with the participation of Rosno-Bank, . - S. 340. - 496 p. - 50,000 copies. - ISBN 5-7020-0903-7
5. Bizet - Shchedrin - Carmen Suite. Transcriptions of excerpts from the opera "Carmen". . Archived from the original on March 10, 2012. Retrieved April 1, 2011.
6. V. A. Mainietse. Article "Carmen Suite" // Ballet: Encyclopedia. / Chief editor. Yu. N. Grigorovich. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1981. - S. 240-241.
7. E. Nikolaev. Ballets Playing Cards and Carmen Suite at the Bolshoi
8. E. Lutskaya. Portrait in red
9. One-act ballets Carmen Suite. Chopiniana. Carnival". (unavailable link - story) Retrieved April 1, 2011.- website Mariinsky Theater
10. "Carmen Suite" at the Mariinsky Theatre. Archived from the original on March 10, 2012. Retrieved April 1, 2011.- Internet TV channel "Art TV", 2010
11. A. Firer"Alicia in Balletland". - "Rossiyskaya Gazeta", 08/04/2011, 00:08. - V. 169. - No. 5545.
12. Summary of the ballet on the website of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus

Works by Rodion Shchedrin
operas	Boyarynya Morozova (2006) Lolita (1992) Dead Souls (1977) Not only love (1961) The Enchanted Wanderer (2002)
ballets	Anna Karenina (1972) Lady with a dog (1985) Carmen suite 1 (1967) Little Humpbacked Horse (1960) Seagull (1980)
Symphonies	No. 1 (1958) No. 2 "25 Preludes for Orchestra" (1965) No. 3 (2000)
Concerts	for orchestra No. 1 "Naughty Ditties" (1963) No. 2 "Rings" (1968) No. 3 " early music Russian Provincial Circuses (1989) No. 4 Round Dances (1989) No. 5 Four Russian Songs (1997) piano No. 1 (1954) No. 2 (1966) No. 3 "Variations and Theme" (1973) No. 4 "Sharp Keys" (1991) No. 5 (1999) No. 6 "Concerto lontano" (2003) other Trumpet Concerto (1993) Cello Concerto "Sotto Voce" (1993)
Chamber music	Frescoes of Dionysius (1981) Musical Offering (1983)
Note	1 music arrangement

Carmen suite - one-act ballet choreographer Alberto Alonso, based on the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet, orchestrated especially for this production by composer Rodion Shchedrin. The libretto of the ballet based on the novel by Prosper Mérimée was written by its director, Alberto Alonso. In the center of the ballet is the tragic fate of the gypsy Carmen and the soldier Jose, who fell in love with her, whom Carmen leaves for the sake of the young Torero. The relationship of the characters and the death of Carmen at the hands of José are predetermined by Fate. Thus, the story of Carmen (in comparison with the literary source and Bizet's opera) is resolved in a symbolic way, which is strengthened by the unity of the scene.
For the sake of staging the famous "Carmen" by Bizet-Shchedrin, the first choreographer of Plisetskaya, Alberto Alonso, arrived from Cuba.

"Plisetskaya is Carmen. Carmen is Plisetskaya." However, few now realize that main ballet Plisetskoy was born by chance. “So the card lay down,” Maya Mikhailovna recalled. Although I dreamed of this role all my life. Back in 1966, she could not even imagine that she would find the choreographer of her dreams in the middle of winter at Luzhniki at an evening of Cuban ballet. After the very first bars of the incendiary flamenco, Plisetskaya could hardly stay in her chair and literally burst into the backstage during the intermission. All she could say, seeing the choreographer: "Will you put on Carmen for me?" "I dream about it," Alberto Alonso replied with a smile. The production was defiantly innovative, and main character- damn sexy, but no one dared to ban the performance of the choreographer from the Island of Freedom - it meant a quarrel with Fidel Castro. “You are a traitor to ballet,” Minister of Culture Furtseva threw in Plisetskaya’s face. “Your Carmen will die!” "Carmen will live as long as I live," Plisetskaya proudly replied then.

All the movements of Carmen-Plisetskaya carried a special meaning, a challenge, a protest: a mocking movement of the shoulder, and a retracted hip, and a sharp turn of the head, and a piercing look from under the brows ... It is impossible to forget how Carmen Plisetskaya, like a frozen sphinx, looked at the dance of the Toreador, and all her static posture conveyed a colossal inner tension: she fascinated the audience, riveted their attention to herself, involuntarily (or consciously?) distracting from the spectacular solo of the Toreador.

Almost 40 years later, fate laid out a new solitaire. Her last stage partner Alexei Ratmansky became the director of the Bolshoi Ballet. And on the day of the resumption of "Carmen" on main stage countries November 18, 2005 Maya Plisetskaya said: "I will die. Carmen will remain."

Maya PLISETSKAYA

Every artist has her own dream. Sometimes sales accurate, sometimes unrealistic. Here is such a long-awaited dream for me all the years of my creative activity was the image of Carmen, but necessarily

associated with the music of J. Bizet. The opera "Carmen" can be danced all the way, it is so "dancingon”, figurative, expressive, plastic. Even myKitri in "Don Quixote" I endowed with the features of Carmen:her love of freedom, courage, although Kitri is completelyNot tragic heroine, but lyric-comic.

It must be said that the plot of "Carmen" attracted the attention of choreographers from the earliest times. In 1846 - a year after the publication of the novelProspera Merimee as young Marius Petipa, workerwho was then an artist in the ballet troupe of Madridand choreographer, staged on the Madrid stage one act ballet "Carmen and the bullfighter"with great success. It was 29 years before the premiere of Georges Bizet's famous opera! novella, as it werecreated to translate it into the genre of ballet.

Somehow I ended up at a Cuban concertballet, which toured in Moscow, and sawdance numbers choreographed by AlbertoAlonso. And although, it would seem, not a single numberthe plot did not correspond to my dream of Carmen, I immediatelythought: - Here is this choreographer with his talentthat temperament can carry out my givinglower aspiration. At intermission I approached Albert then Alonso asked: - Did he think about "Carmen"on ballet stage? It immediately caught fire, feelingwav your topic. Soon Alberto Alonso arrived to Moscow with the already composed libretto of the ballet, and on rehearsals began. Finally the dream came truemy artistic life - Carmen! I waitedhis ballet. Not every ballerina can say that, this is a rare artistic happiness.

Alberto ALONSO

Carmen! What can be said about this image?He is extremely interesting to me.

Carmen wants to take from life everything that is in it. If her condition is to play with death, she accepts that too. Therefore, Carmen's life seems to me like an arena where she leads her everydayfight for their freedom with all who infringeon her. The fate of Carmen is like the fate of a bullfighter and a bull, always on the verge of life and death. It is no coincidence that the action of the ballet takes place in the circus arena and in it. a personified image of rock appeared.

Carmen's desire for freedom of feeling, thought, act leads her to a conflict - to a tragedy. One cannot live the truth of feeling among people whodo not follow the logic of feeling.

I was attracted by the thought of Maya Plisetskaya choreo to tell the story of the gypsy Carmen in graphic language. Do not shift the brilliant opera to the danceGeorges Wiese and a novella by Prosper Mérimée, no! -but to create a ballet for this passionate, temperamentalmusic, solve it all through the image of Carmen, one one of the greatest in world musical and literary classics.

I am infinitely happy that I am going to do this work.celebrated with outstanding ballet troupe Greattheater of the USSR, whose art is famous throughout the world.

booklet cover

Rodion SHCHEDRIN

The image of Carmen has become a household name thanks tomusic by Georges Bizet. "Carmen" outside Bizet, I thinkwill always carry some disappointment. slish whom our memory is firmly connected with musical images immortal opera. Thus came the idea of transcription.

Once upon a time, this genre, almost forgotten today,musical art was one of the most

common. I will refer, for example, to the transcriptions of violin concertos by Vivaldi Bach, Sochi nenie Paganini - Liszt and Schumann, on the bannertye transcriptions of Busoni, Kreisler, and others.

Having chosen a genre, it was necessary to choose an instrumentriy. We had to decide which tools

symphony orchestra will be able to quite convincingly make up for the lack of human voices,which of them will most clearly emphasize the obvious ho rheography of Bizet's music. In the first case, this the task, in my opinion, could only be solved by stringinstruments, in the second - percussion. So it happenedthe composition of the orchestra - strings and percussion.

The score of "Carmen" is one of the most perfect nyh in the history of music. In addition to the amazing

subtlety, taste, mastery of voice leading, in addition tounique in musical literature"prudentlysti” and “frugality”, this score is primarily impresses with its absolute opera. Here at measures of ideal comprehension of the laws of the genre! Bizet's orchestra is transparent and flexible. Bizet's orchestra helps the singers, "gives" their voices to the listener, masterfully using the natural overtones of stringed instrumentscops. I have repeatedly drawn attention tothat in the opera "Carmen" the singer's voice sounds stronger,cleaner, more effective than in any other composition.It is this ideal operatic scorewas another argument "for transcription". Furs nical transfer of the part of the voice to one or anotherinstrument would break all the harmony of the partitary, would break the finest threads of Bizet's entire musical logic. Opera and ballet - art forms, imp controversial, fraternal, but each of them requires its own patterns. Ballet orchestra, I thinkshould always sound a few degrees of "woeChee” opera. He must "tell" wheremore than an opera orchestra. Forgive mesuch a comparison that the "gesticulation" of music in basummer should be much sharper and more noticeable.

I worked with sincere enthusiasm on the partyballet tour. Bowing before the genius of Bizet, I tried to worship it was always not slavish but creative. Wanted to use everythingvirtuosic possibilities of the selected composition. How succeeded - to judge our viewer and listener.

________________________________________ _____

The information is taken from the premiere booklet of the Bolshoi Theater (staged in 1967)

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

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

1. The first part - for the first time in Israel will present the ballet "Carmen Suite", consisting of one act based on Georges Bizet's opera "Carmen" (1875) based on the novel by Prosper Mérimée. Composer Rodion Shchedrin.

1. Second part - includes a Gala concert, which includes the best rooms, created by Plisetskaya during various life periods at the leading venues in the world. The soloists of the ballet of the Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky theaters in St. Petersburg will perform the masterpieces.

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

Plot and story

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

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

Thus, the story of Carmen, when compared with the original source in literature and the opera by G. Bizet, is performed on a symbolic plane 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 "The camp goes to the sky."

Plisetskaya as the personification of Carmen

The saying “Plisetskaya is Carmen. Carmen is Plisetskaya” means a lot. It cannot be otherwise, but few people know that the birth of Plisetskaya's main ballet happened by chance. Maya Plisetskaya says that this is how the card "lay down", but she dreamed of the role of Carmen all her adult life.

She could not even think back in 1966 that the choreographer of her dreams would meet her in the winter at Luzhniki at an evening of Cuban ballet. Having barely waited for the first bars of the incendiary flamenco, Plisetskaya hurried to burst backstage during the intermission. Seeing the choreographer, she asked: “Will you stage Carmen for me?”, To which he replied with a smile: “I dream about it.”

The newly-minted production was characterized by an innovative character, and the main character - sexuality. No one dared to ban the choreographer from the Island of Freedom, since this would mean quarreling with Fidel Castro. Ekaterina Furtseva, Minister of Culture, called M. Plisetskaya "a traitor to ballet" and the fact that "Your Carmen will die!" great ballerina was not taken aback and answered: "Carmen will live as long as I live."

40 years later, Alexei Ratmansky becomes director of the Bolshoi Ballet - last partner ballerinas on stage. On 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 play full of life

The production of "Carmen" itself is very lively and full of life. Great music, a stellar line-up of performers whom the audience believes, empathizes with and is inspired by the mood.

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

Each movement of Carmen already has a special meaning, protest and challenge. Characteristic and recognizable are a mocking movement of the shoulder, a retracted hip, a sharp turn of the head, a piercing glance from under the brows. What is worth watching Carmen, like a frozen sphinx, watching the dance of the Toreador, 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