Hong Kong Ballet’s Carmen is powerful and superbly danced - when will its choreographers get a full-length ballet to work on?
Production tells Bizet’s story of love, betrayal and revenge from standpoint of an older Jose - danced stunningly by Liang Jing and Wei Wei – looking on as his younger self gives in to jealousy and despair
The high point of Hong Kong Ballet’s latest programme, Carmen and More, was Carmen, a new work from the company’s own young choreographers, Yuh Egami and Ricky Hu Songwei. Following their dazzling Bolero in 2015, this is another commission from outgoing artistic director Madeleine Onne. If it doesn’t quite match its predecessor (a soul-searing 20 minute tour de force), Carmen confirms the team’s strengths – the ability to think outside the box, make brilliant use of music and design and, above all, generate dramatic and emotional power.
Egami and Hu have transposed the story from Bizet’s 19th century Spain to a present-day Asian textile factory where Carmen and her lover José are workers. Carmen seduces the boss of the factory to advance herself and, as in the opera, the piece ends with José killing her when she refuses to go back to him.
The choreographers’ stroke of inspiration is to tell the story through the eyes of José as an older man. Released from prison after serving time for Carmen’s murder, he returns to the now abandoned factory where his memories flood back. At the heart of the piece is the pain of guilt and regret as José looks on helplessly while his younger self gives way to jealousy and despair, embodied in a profoundly moving scene where the older and younger men dance together.
The use of music (Rodion Schedrin’s 1967 reworking of Bizet plus some excellent original music by Hong Kong musician Mike Orange) is extremely effective. Those familiar with the opera will note some neat ironies, like having Escamillo’s Toréador music (the ultimate in machismo) accompany female dancers and setting Carmen’s betrayal of José with the boss to the aria where José expresses his love for her, La fleur que tu m’avais jetée.