Cleveland Ballet begins their fifth season with the awe inspiring ‘Carmen”
Passion, seduction, drama, love and tragedy...No it is not the latest press release or tweet from the oval office. This is the story found in the ballet Carmen which will be staged by Cleveland Ballet in the Mimi Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square on October 18 and 19, 2019.
Cleveland Ballet began not too many years ago as a small company and in a short time of only four years has grown by leaps and bounds. This is by far is one of their most ambitious projects to date. They now have twenty eight professional dancers in the company representing fourteen different countries.
This production is choreographed by artistic director Gladisa Guadalupe with music by George Bizet and Manuel Penella arranged by Yury Tyurin and featuring classical guitarist Yury Nugmanov. The featured vocalists include Zoya Gramagin “Habanera”, Michael Urosov “El Toreador” and Mykhaylo Katrych. The beautifully rendered costuming designs comes from Sam Meredith, Irina Mochalova and Marie Quintana with the costume construction by Kitty Drops, Irina Mochalova, Marie Quintana and Pro Tutu Studio.
Scenic design and construction is by Tim Haas with lighting design by Dennis Dugan. The show features dancers Daynelis Muñoz as Carmen, Rainer Diaz as Don José, Damian Coro as Escamillio and Elena Cvitkovich as Manuela.
The story of Carmen is a tragic one. In the city of Seville in southern Spain a group of gypsy women eek out a living in the tabacalera (tobacco) factory. They are pushed to exhaustion by Manuela the gypsy leader. Into this hornet’s nest flies Carmen who quickly challenges the labor leader with tragic consequences.
Soon, Don José arrives with two of his officers to arrest Carmen but soon finds himself under seductive spell forcing the man to choose between duty and love. He wrongly chooses love not knowing that Carmen is simply stringing him along with short bursts of seduction and eroticism due to her inability to recognize and appreciate true love.
When the bull fight comes around, Carmen finds herself hopelessly attracted to the young toreador, Escamillio. This throws Don José into a jealous rage. During an argument the two fight and Don José’s rage gets the better of him with fatal consequences ending two lives with one fatal stroke.
Cleveland Ballet recently invited members to the media for a sneak preview of the work. Everyone present went away extremely impressed. The costuming when completed will be gorgeous and colorful, the music inspiring and the precision dancing athletic and spell binding. After too long a drought of a Cleveland, Ohio based ballet company we now have a company that everyone can be proud of.
Further plans for the 2019-2010 season include the holiday classic The Nutcracker, December 5-8 and 12-15, 2019 and The Magic Flute May 8-9, 2020.