Ballet

Georges Bizet, Rodion Shchedrin, Deep Forest: CARMEN

With the consent of Musikverlag Hans Sikorski GmbH & Co.KG, Hamburg.

The birth of one of the most important works in history was actually preceded by a not very important short note in a newspaper. It was about a Spanish sergeant who succumbed to the seduction of a beautiful Gypsy, but ended up as her killer. Significant writer Prosper Merimée found out about this story on his travels around Spain in 1830. Master, several times inspired by life of the Gypsies in his works, decided to write a novella based on this tragedy. It happened fifteen years later, in 1845. In 1872, another great creator Georges Bizet, got an order for an opera for Parisian Opéra Comique. He chose Merimée’s passionate story of a young sergeant and a wild Gypsy.

“Strong dramatic story, color of the Spanish environment, complexity of relationships and their development, influence of social conventions, all ending in drama... I like meetings of present with history, controversial situations but also certainties and constants. Shchedrin’s music is a certainty for me - a good basis for a dance theater. However, I was somehow missing more earthiness, passion and space for truth of this deep topic. I was searching for a long time until I came across music of Deep Forest group which filled the gap in Shchedrin’s basis for me. With combination of Shchedrin and Deep Forest, I have “prepared” the ground on which I tried to introduce Carmen, her passion, earthiness and freedom and also the whole rural community in as convincing way as possible. I made a story of four main characters - Carmen, José, Escamillo and Micaela - by letting go a few characters from the novella of P. Merimée. Role of the Death is the catalyst of their fateful situations. However, notoriously famous story does not change in its basis.”

Ondrej Šoth