 |
   |
Northern Ballet Theatre‘Carmen’ March 2000 London, Sadler's Wells by Lynette Halewood |
|||||||
|
NBT are back at Sadler’s for two weeks, and it’s London’s first opportunity to see their production of Carmen, which has already toured extensively. NBT are in a perhaps slightly uncertain phase at the moment: they had a very definite image and style under the directorship of Gable, and a very devoted following. Obviously their new AD, Stephano Gianetti, wants to make his own mark on the company, and it will be interesting to see how this turns out, though fans may regret some of the departures. Gable created the scenario: the choreography is by Didy Veldman of Rambert, who usually works in a rather different idiom to NBT’s. There are no pointe shoes in evidence, and the dance vocabulary is not balletic, but has a much more off centre, contemporary feel. It sat on NBT’s dancers with varying levels of success - Charlotte Broom as Carmen seemed completely at home in it, but some of the men didn’t quite have the fluidity the style demanded. In purely technical terms, I can imagine the dancers of Rambert, Veldman’s own company, moving through it in a cleaner, clearer way. But NBT is about theatre as much as dance. However, it’s probably not Rambert that many of the audience might have thought of as an obvious reference point, but Adventures in Motion Pictures, whose retelling of the classics in contemporary guise has proved so popular. The designer of Carmen is Lez Brotherston, who has also worked on many of AMP’s (and NBT’s) most popular works. His work here again is striking stylish. Carmen has been relocated to the present day in the dingy industrial outskirts of Rio. She still works in a cigarette factory: Jose is a policeman: Escamillio a rock star in leather trousers (…er…hasn’t this already been done…). Brotherston’s sets are simple but remarkably stylish. Costumes are everyday street style. The work rattles along at a great pace and its narrative is admirably clear and easy to follow. Veldman is an experienced choreographer, but has never made a full evening narrative work before. The first and third acts are taut and crisp: the second act seemed to sag slightly, with the scene in the bar rather too drawn out, but does conclude with a good pas de deux for Carmen, Jose and a bed. There is a tremendous performance from Charlotte Broom, effortlessly dominating the stage and her men, always slithering from their grasp. Daniel de Andrade as Jose was perhaps less convincing at first, but he did become more compelling as the work progressed. Christopher Giles as the rock star played the role way over the top: possibly the only way to go. The women in the company seemed to have got into the spirit of the work rather more than the men: somehow the men looked resolutely English, as if they were out for a night on the town in Leeds or in the West End - but not, somehow in Rio. They needed a bit more flash and passion to be persuasive.
The music takes a little getting used to at first - mentally, you keep waiting for the singing to begin, and it never does. But the narrative (and Broom) rapidly grabs all your attention. It’s an enjoyable and inventive production, both in design and in dance terms. It was hugely popular with the audience. It may not be the direction that NBT head from here, but it will be interesting to see what Veldman comes up with next.
|
||||||||
|
 |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
