Cleveland Ballet’s ‘Carmen’ is a good ballet...but

I am going to compare the latest evolvement of Cleveland Ballet to that of the Cleveland Browns. Both “teams” are blessed with tremendously talented athletes. Both show real sparks of promise. The problem lies in the fact that whenever you gather a group of young professionals it takes time for the team to jell and become 100% error free.

In the case of the Browns this has been a series of costly penalties at crucial moments in the game along with turnovers and dropped passes that have resulted in their 2-4 season thus far. They are better than the record shows. With Cleveland Ballet it is missed cues, slightly less than perfect synchronicity and mechanical like movements during segments that should emphasize passion.

With the Cleveland Ballet season opening of Carmen the overall performance was good but could not be considered “world class” by any means. The show begins with a closed curtain overture with a half dozen gypsy girls frolicking between the stage and the front row. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for their being there and little coordination in their movements. They skipingly depart and the curtain rises for the first scene in the tobacco factory.

A group of young women are pushed to exhaustion by their overseer Manuela (Elena Cvetkovich). It is a soul crushing environment. Enter Carmen (Daynelis Muñoz) who arrives late and whose free spirit gives encouragement and hope to the other workers. A heated argument breaks out between the two antagonists when in a fit of rage Carmen kills Manuela just as the local police arrive to see what all the fuss is about.

Taken to the local jail, Carmen manages to seduce the head of the constabulary, Don José (Rainer Diaz) who falls head over heels in love with the exotic beauty. He is quickly stripped of his rank and sent on his way. The unlikely couple become an item as Don José becomes fascinated with Carmen’s passion, unpredictability and seductive personality.

Carmen tries desperately to control Don José through a torrid affair as her fear of love makes any long term relationship impossible. They quickly become embroiled in a love/hate relationship as Carmen continues her freewheeling lifestyle as she falls for a local toreador, Escamillio (Damian Coro) with tragic results.

As for the performance, it is passable but lacking certain elements. In years past, local contemporary dance companies have performed Carmen as a part of a larger program making for an evening of two shorter pieces, an intermission then the main work for a total of at least an hour and a half or more. In this case in less than an hour as the stage went black and the curtain descended then was raised for the curtain call it caught members of the audience by surprise. “Oh...goodness, I guess that is it!” was heard as audience members left the theater with half full cups of wine (never a good sign at Playhouse Square).

On the plus side, most of the dance company was on cue and gave an energetic showing of skill. The costuming designed by Sam Meredith, Irina Mockalova and Marie Quitana is exquisite. Dennis Dugan’s lighting design sets the proper mood for each scene from the brightly lit tavern to Carmen’s secret boudoir. Vocalists Zoya Gramagin “Habanera”, Mikhael Unosov “El Toreador” and Mykhalo Katrych do a splendid job of supplying onstage performances off center of the action with classical guitarist extraordinaire, Yury Nugmanov giving an inspired performance. One problem arose when the music tried to segue from soft flamenco guitar to full blown orchestra with predicable results.

Just like the Cleveland Browns a series of miscues, out of sync group moves and dropped capes took points off the board. While the scenes involving Carmen and Don José were danced correctly it seemed mechanical and lacking true electric passion. In short, their “clutch scenes” needed more oomph.

With each passing year Cleveland Ballet seems to be improving and if the core members of the company stay in Cleveland the future looks bright. While this show was a nice taste of ballet it could have been expanded to better fill the evening. If I were to give this a grade I would put the performance at a C+ or B-, good not great, but still worth seeing.

The Cleveland Ballet season continues with The Nutcracker, December 5-8 and 12-15, 2019 and The Magic Flute, May 8-9, 2020