The female counterpart of Don Juan
But what role in all this is played by Carmen herself? She begins by turning the head of Corporal Don José, before persuading him to join the smugglers. He finally kills her when he cannot bear to think that she has found a new lover in the bullfighter Escamillo. As a character she seems hard to grasp. Like her male counterpart Don Juan she is almost a mythical figure: both characters serve first and foremost as surfaces on which we can project individual longings, wishes and desires. “The idea of thinking about Carmen and Don Juan together is interesting,” says Aletta Collins. “In both cases it is true that we rarely see them alone but generally in relation to other characters to whom they react in some way or other. But what is honest and genuine in such reactions? And what is deception, disguise and role playing? It is fascinating to distil the real character from this grey area and get closer to their true nature.”
In Carmen, Aletta Collins sees a woman who needs to feel that she is a gypsy and, hence, an outsider. To a certain extent this makes it easier for her to avoid being controlled by men. “At that time women had a dominant position in only a few walks of life, including dance. Carmen exploits these spaces. In the process she has no problem using her body to achieve her ends. She knows that men find her attractive and that her body is a form of capital. She has learnt to exercise power over her body and chooses to do so. Throughout all this, she is a woman who invariably follows her own instinct, no matter what the consequences may be.”
From opéra comique to grand opera
Carmen was written as an opéra comique: in other words, the musical numbers were sung in French and interspersed with passages of spoken dialogue. At the first performance in Paris in March 1875, the audience reaction was polite but by no means enthusiastic. The work began its conquest of the world’s opera houses only some six months later, following the first performances in Vienna in October 1875. Bizet himself did not live to enjoy this success as he had died in the June of that year. The Viennese production started a tradition that increasingly transformed his opéra comique into a grand opera. His friend Ernest Guiraud replaced the spoken dialogue with sung recitatives for Vienna, and a series of dances was introduced using music from some of Bizet’s other works. With few exceptions this version - with sung recitatives, although not always with the ballet numbers - remained in the repertory until the 1960s, when it was gradually replaced by the original version with spoken dialogue. Aletta Collins and Sir Simon Rattle have opted for the original version with spoken dialogue for their 2012 Salzburg Easter Festival production. “We are performing Carmen as an opéra comique,” the director confirms. In spite of her background in ballet, she was not tempted to include the ballet movements that are written in the style of a grand opera. “There will be ballet, but not as a divertissement that interrupts the action. Instead, it will be integrated into the story. We first hear a motif in the overture that returns again and again in the course of the opera and that is heard for the last time in the closing duet, when Don José stabs Carmen. It is sometimes described as the Fate motif. This is something that can we associate with dance. More specifically, it will be performed by a group of dancers who on the one hand are closely connected to Carmen’s world - the world of the gypsies - while at the same time their function is to serve as a link between the individual scenes.”
The director is enthusiastic about the cinemascope dimensions of the stage
Aletta Collins has long since proved that she has something to say not only in ballet but also in music theatre. She has directed successful productions of Jesus Christ Superstar and other great musicals and, at the other end of the spectrum, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. It was with her production of Stravinsky’s Les noces with the Berlin Philharmonic that she attracted Sir Simon Rattle’s attention. Throughout all this, she has learnt to work with large stages, a gift that will stand her in good stead with the Großes Festspielhaus in Salzburg. Indeed, she is positively enthusiastic about the stage’s cinemascope dimensions: “It’s an incredible space. It has inspired me and my designer to pay tribute to this stage as an arena and to celebrate it as such. But we shall also use the opportunity to reduce the space. With its vast scale of possibilities this house will at all events be a part of the production.”
Peter Blaha’s text is based on an interview that he held with Aletta Collins in London in September 2011. Translation: Stewart Spencer.
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