This week, in addition to the Higdon Percussion Concerto, we’re doing Rodion Shchedrin’s remarkable arrangement of a suite from Bizet’s opera Carmen for strings and percussion. Instruments take up the vocal lines in addition to the full complement of orchestral lines, so the strings and percussion do find themselves very busy. The arrangement was made for a ballet set by the Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso and premiered in Moscow in 1967 (hence, the Cuban Overture of Gershwin on this same program!). It includes two additional bits of other works of Bizet: his famous farandole from the Arlisienne Suite, and the Danse bohémienne from his opera La jolie fille de Perth.
Other choreographers have taken up Carmen, among the most noteworthy being the Enlishman Matthew Bourne (who famously set Swan Lake for two male leads) in a version called Car Man. Here’s a taste:
2 replies on “Car Man Suite”
and, there’s carlos saura’s schmokin’ hot flamenco version of “carmen” from 1983.
antonio gades, laura del sol (ouch!) & one of my all-time music heroes, paco de lucia, burn through this one, mis amigos.
d-bob sez, check it out.
Wow! That’s a little “West Side Story” meets “Rocky Horror” meets Bizet. Strangely appealing.