
Ballet to Music of
George Bizet
Libretto
Nataliya Osipova
Choreography and Staging
Nataliya Osipova



An eternal story about a man and a woman entwined by the threads of fate - a story in which every human being finds something of himself.
Concept
"Carmen" is a work born from the pen of Prosper Mérimée, which has excited many directors and choreographers many times since its creation until today. For the first time as a ballet, the plot was interpreted by Marius Petipa in 1845. After the creation of the opera "Carmen" by Georges Bizet, the choreographers' interest in this plot increased enormously. In the world of ballet, the ballets of Kassian Golezovsky, Roland Petit, Alberto Alonso and composer Rodion Shchedrin, choreographers Mats Ek and Matthew Born were born.
One of the latest interpretations is by the choreographer Natalia Osipova, who in 2013 offered the European audience her reading of the story of the captivating Carmen in her ballet "Carmen".
It is set to an original musical collage of Bizet's music - the timeless fragments of his opera, from his opera The Arlesian, supplemented with fragments of his little-known symphonic and chamber works. In the light of her choreographic appearance, Osipova combines the brightest features of classical dance and neoclassical, refracted through the expressiveness of modern dance.
The ballet "Carmen", with the libretto and staged by Nataliya Osipova, illuminates on stage the invisible force fueling Carmen's spirit, which predetermines her life and her death. In the combination of images, the contours of the image of Fate come to light - strong, irresistible, driving the drama to its fatal end, both respectful with its fearsome presence and fascinatingly seductive.
Like sparks born from the fire of Fate, the souls of all the characters of the drama flash and die - the soul of Jose - hopelessly in love with Carmen, the soul of the Toreador - in love with his own image and the soul of Carmen - in love with life and therefore forever doomed with the judgment of the time in which it is destined to exist.
Shadows and images, with which Fate plays the cruel game of life and death, rise in relief, through the power of music and dance, and, condemned to her all-powerful subjection, sink in the eddies of their characters.






"Carmen is chosen by Fate for Love. This woman drives many crazy, she is passionate, beautiful, charming, you can say femme fatale... but at the same time she is naive like a child and no one really knows how lonely she is. How is looking for Love, Feelings, Mutual Understanding... but the most important thing for her is to remain herself, to search and find Love - not to lose herself... and not to become dependent... "I was born free, I will die free.''
Fate pursues each of us... Throughout life, she often laughs at us, Fate is wayward and capricious, Fate can be evil and unfair, treacherous and cruel... "Oh, how can I understand the game of Fate?" We often call fate what is beyond our control...
Freedom in love is very important to Carmen. In our life we always have choices, but we don't always make the right choices. My Carmen struggles with her destiny - therefore the price of her freedom is her life.
Nataliya Osipova
Production Team and Cast
The young ballet artists from the troupe of
State Opera Ruse:
Carmen
Irena Barbukova
Don José
Giuseppe Sorrentino
Toreador
Davide Diodato
Fate
Thiago Victor Santana
With the special participation of:
Petya Tsoneva in the role of Carmen
Petar Kostov in the role of Don José
Alexander Krunev in the role of Toreador
Scenography – Sebastian Malash
Costumes – Natalia Osipova
Multimedia – Kasiyana Angelova, Kate Hester
Artistic lighting - Boyan Georgiev
Tutor - Anton Ivanov
Artistic director – Vesela Vasileva
Assistant director - Elena Koleva
