Carmen Sweet

Photo: Benjamin Chapman, Riannon McLean and Jack Ziesing in Carmen Sweet. Image by Dylan Evans. 

At times intensely passionate and with a surprising touch of humour throughout; Carmen Sweet is a short, sharp and very entertaining interpretation of a classic tale.

Georges Bizet’s four act opera set in Seville has been compressed with great effect into an up-tempo, hour-long contemporary dance performance by award-winning choreographer Natalie Weir; giving it just enough length to feature both the light and the dark of the tale.

Thursday evening saw a successful opening night at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre – so successful that the heavily-worked bar staff ran out of celebratory sparkling wine before the show.

Much like another tragic love story, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, this is a story which has stood the test of time, and Weir’s version sees it presented in cabaret mode; with the aesthetic featuring a heavy, but effective, reliance on red and black.

A love triangle between the gypsy Carmen, the solider Don José, and the bullfighter Escamillo that that descends into jealousy, a quest for revenge and finally death – the primal nature of the central themes are well-suited to this kind of presentation.

In Carmen Sweet, instead of one lead in the title role, there are three dancers taking on various facets of arguably opera’s greatest femme fatale. Elise May (whose dramatic, structured and beautiful black gown deserves a mention of its own) features as a ‘classical’ Carmen, with Michelle Barnett representing a more joyful turn, and Riannon McLean as a seductress.

All the dancers exhibited great skill and affinity with their characters – including the young guest ensemble who heralded the entry of Escamillo – but Daryl Brandwood’s Fortune-Teller was perhaps the most striking performance. He displayed great strength and poise in his solos, with the choreography well-suited to his physique and technique.  

That said; the best moments without a doubt are when the Carmens danced as part of an ensemble with the male leads. The lifting and hurling and the passing of bodies between bodies was intimate and intricate, but at the same time also exciting.

Some elements of the earlier solo choreography for the Carmens involved some slightly clumsy incorporation of the prop sofa, but this was almost instantly forgotten once the story moved on.

While some traditionalists (as ever) may hold concerns about this contemporary retelling of the love triangle, they would surely be won over by the incorporation of Bizet’s much loved and robust musical score, reinterpreted here by Rodion Shchedrin – with instantly recognisable classics The Toreador Song and Habanera featuring prominently throughout the piece.

Rating: 4 stars