Mats Eks Carmen (1992) is a retelling via Don José, his tragic life unfolding in a series of kaleidoscopic events leading to his execution. The piece depicts a series of powerful emergent images, featuring groups of gypsies and soldiers as well as all the famous characters: Micaëla, Escamillo and Zuniga (Don José’s rivals) and at the center of the action is Carmen herself.
While Georges Bizet conceives of Carmen as a sympathetic, freedom-loving young woman in his opera, Mats Ek chose to also include other traits that Prosper Merimée writes of in the original 1847 short story. In Ek’s telling, Carmen can be both cruel and treacherous in nature, possessed of a singular fidelity to herself, despite her outward infidelity.
Marie-Louise De Geer Bergenstråhle (née Ekman), a frequent collaborator of Ek’s, designed the striking costumes and sets. The music is Bizet’s / Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite in a Russian orchestration.
Carmen was danced by a total of eighteen of the Cullberg Ballet’s dancers. A Swedish / Spanish co-production, Carmen marked the a unique collaboration between by the Cullberg Ballet and the Spanish Quinto Centenario.
In 1994, SVT (Swedish National Television) recorded Carmen. The film went on to win an Emmy award in the category Performing Arts. Producer: Gunilla Wallin
Music:
Bizet / Shchedrin: Carmen Suite
Conductor: Vladimir Spivakov
MCD108