Carmen May 24, 2000

By La Cuadra di Sevilla

State Theatre, Arts Centre, May 23-28, 2000

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Spanish director, Salvator Tavora, is obviously passionate about rescuing the myth of Carmen from the romantic opera traditions of Bizet and other writers.

In fact, as an Andalusian, he sees his revitalisation of the story as not merely a theatrical challenge, but a social and political one. He remembers his grandmother telling the tale of the original model for this feisty "cigarrera" (cigar maker) called Carmen.

Tavora creates a dance theatre production that integrates flamenco dancers and singers, dialect, guitarists, a bugle and drum band and a spare stage design.

The piece has the fire of the flamenco on stage but it left me astonishingly unmoved. The formalism of the flamenco style of dance removes the story from the real and present. It employs a mimetic style that seems related to classical ballet and equally unmoving

The singing of two women, (Ana Pena, Nuria del Rocio) and one man (Manuel Parrilla Vera) on stage, has more emotional power than the skillful but conventional dancing. Their voices echo the Islamic, Jewish and Christian musical history of Andalusia.

As Carmen, Lalo Tejada is exotic, lean powerful and sensual. She glides and stamps her way through the life of this firebrand who was, according to Tavora, an advocate for women workers' rights despite her own poverty and disenfranchisement.

Marco Vargas, playing her soldier lover, Don Jose Lizarrabengoa, has a princely stature and great physical prowess.

The love scenes between them are so stylised, however, that there is little of the vivid passion that Tavora claims to bring to the stage.

The music is mostly played by the buglers and drummers of the Banda de Cornetas y Tamores Santisimo Cristo de Las Tres Caidas. conducted by Julio Vera. It has a gypsy flavour but is much more militaristic and less dramatically  interesting than the provocative gypsy music of Eastern Europe we hear in Kustirica's film, Underground.

There are several memorable moments in the production, not the least being the appearance of a highly trained horse carrying the picador (Jaime de la Puerta) with whom Carmen is enamoured. Other memorable scenes are Carmen's death and the execution of a dissenter.

Tavora's direction is click and seamless with crisp lighting and fine design. It does not, however, challenge our preconceptions of Carmen. It is a very conventional production that obscures, in its formalism, its political intent.

By Kate Herbert