As part of the massive Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity, The National Ballet of Canada is performing a re-imagining of Bizet's classic opera Carmen.This piece is choreographed by Italian Davide Bombana, and Carmen shares the bill for the evening with Dominique Dumais's Skin Divers, a dark and gothic-tinged work. The leads for the opening night performance are Noah Long as Don Jose, and Heather Ogden as Carmen. Sonia Rodriquez is cast as Michaela.Paula Citron of The Globe And Mail found Carmen 'Striking, but not satisfying'.I found it striking and flat out amazing. The hard driving pace of the production, and intricate movement between characters was fascinating to watch.While she didn't feel any heat between the performers, I thought there was a nice sensual edge to the evening's performance as characters intertwined suggestively, and lust and carnality were in the air throughout.Some photos from Carmen's dress rehearsal. The Cigarette girls, with whom Carmen works.One of the dancers from the company.Lise-Marie Jourdain as Carmen's romantic rival faces off here against Heather Ogden, as the gang lounges in the background.Sonia Rodriguez plays the role of Michaela who has been recast as Don Jose's ex-wife in this version.The main characters, Noah Long as Don Jose and Heather Ogden as Carmen. Chemistry between the two is quite solid, and there's an aching, doomed sensuality to their performanceIn this sequence Don Jose and Carmen are alone for the first time and share intimate embraces.But soon Carmen returns to her flirtacious ways and jealous rage drives Don Jose to kill his love. Here he mourns her loss.
Carmen continues from June 10 - June 14 at The Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts.
All photos done with the Olympus E30 with Digital Zuiko 35-100mm f2 lens
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