Bookings for Cape Town City Ballet's Spectacular CARMEN Now Open

Bookings for the spectacular ballet, CARMEN, are now open at Computicket. Choreographed by South Africa's foremost ballet choreographer, Veronica Paeper, Carmen will be performed by star dancers of the Cape Town City Ballet from 25 to 31 March.

This much anticipated production will feature Laura Bösenberg with Thomas Thorne and Kim Vieira with Ivan Boonzaaier in the leading roles of Carmen and Don José. Audiences can also look forward to seeing the award-winning couple, Tracy Li and Daniel Rajna, appear as guest artists in these roles at selected performances.

The role of the dashing toreador, Escamillo, will be danced by Jesse Milligan, Daniel Szybkowski and Conrad Nusser and that of Micaela, loyal and trusting fiancée of Don José, by Jane Fidler, Frieda Mennen and Elizabeth Nienaber.

Of the two main characters in the ballet, Veronica Paeper says: "Carmen is a gypsy and an absolute free spirit. She is possessed of a wild and rebellious nature, combined with a highly seductive and charismatic appeal for the opposite sex. Don José, on the other hand, is a soldier, disciplined, with strong principles, but very naïve - two people, poles apart, who become lovers, but in whose lives fate intervenes".

Premiered in Cape Town in 1987 and considered to be one of her masterpieces, CARMEN is one of many full-length ballets created by Veronica Paeper during her three decade tenure as resident choreographer for the CAPAB Ballet Company and then the Cape Town City Ballet. The ballet accentuates Paeper's ability to tell a story in the balletic idiom, this time in Spanish style, drawing the audience into the dramatic action while never losing sight of the ultimate intention - to entertain.

In the original production, the roles of Carmen and Don José were created by Carol Kinsey and Johan Jooste, with Janet Lindup as the first Micaela and the dashing Eduard Greyling dancing the role of Escamilio. Over the years, audiences have seen the role of Carmen danced by, among others, Nicolette Loxton, Juanita Yazbek, Desiree Samaai and Marianne Bauer, and Don José by Nicholas van der Merwe, Francois Joubert and Coert Grobbelaar. The role of Escamilio has seen performances by Keith Mackintosh, Philip Boyd, Hisham Omardien and Robin van Wyk, while Micaela has been interpreted by Phyllis Midlane, Candice Brathwaite, Simone Muller and Leanne Voysey.

The doomed love affair is played out against formidable scenic backdrops by set designer Peter Cazalet, realistically depicting life in and around an Andalusian town of the late 1800s. In his designs, Cazalet tried to show the harsh background against which this doomed love affair is played out by setting the story in the oppressive plastered walls of a naturalistic Andalusian town and not a clichéd picture book Spanish backing.

With original music by Georges Bizet arranged by Michael Tuffin, the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Allan Stephenson, will accompany the dancers at all six performances. In terms of arranging Bizet's original opera music, the musical arranger, Michael Tuffin, said he approached the task with great trepidation. He felt that much of the music in the dramatic dialogues in the opera were not suitable for dance, so he slipped some of the composer's lesser-known pieces into his CARMEN, creating the ideal musical vehicle for the ballet.

CARMEN, the ballet, will be performed at the Artscape Opera House in Cape Town. Tickets range from R100-R220. Book now at Computicket or Artcsape Dial-a-Seat on 021 421 7695.

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