Carmen - Ballet Julien Lestel

While staying faithful to the original storyline, this new adaptation of Carmen, with a strongly urban colouring and a resolutely contemporary feel, resonates with the current awareness of women's place in our society, of their emancipation and their demand for equality, and raises the question of femicide.

The four main characters, whose personalities are very distinct, are treated on an equal footing in constant interaction: Carmen, an actress of her own life, in search of freedom, will stop at nothing to keep it; Don José, of a sensible temperament, possessed by a mad love, abandons his well-ordered life, already mapped out, and, driven by murderous jealousy, will go as far as committing the irreparable; Micaëla, his betrothed, a young woman who would never think of questioning the traditional life assigned to her; Escamillo, a famous and adored bullfighter to whom everything succeeds, feels himself on the side of the powerful.

The different themes are developed through a choreography without narrative. We witness street scenes full of great vitality. Furthermore, bodies intertwine in aerial love scenes whose energy is drawn from the ground.

The gestures, at once dynamic and fluid, reveal new forms of movement. The musical choice, in harmony with the choreography, finds its originality in the alternation of Bizet's instrumental work with two sung pieces, alongside a contemporary creation by Iván Julliard.

The performers wear street clothes, and the sparse set design is stripped of all theatricality. The lighting by Lo-Ammy Vaimatapako is architectural and plays with contrasts in order to highlight each movement of the dancers.

It is a Carmen transposed into today's world, beyond all borders. The Ballet Julien Lestel receives the support of the City of Marseille and the Region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.