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The Café du Vieux Conseil harbours an elusive Carmen
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The Café du Vieux Conseil harbours an elusive Carmen
It may seem difficult for the younger generation to picture the famous performance of George Bizet’s Carmen by an English group to celebrate Elizabeth II’s coronation in the 1950s in Mauritius. The one to which the public is invited until 1st June at the Café du Vieux-Conseil, Port-Louis, obviously isn’t in the same league. It may even spoil everything for some that not a single sound comes from the throat of the indomitable gypsy, of her lovers, or of the crowd gathered at the bullring in Seville. But what harm is there in enjoying the near-perfect soundtrack (probably Lorin Maazel’s recording) to which the group, led by Guy Lagesse and trained by Eva Dalais, perform ?
One can imagine the characters and setting of an opera when listening to a CD. Here, in the bucolic atmosphere of the old French Cafe du Vieux Conseil it is as if the magic of the recording brings them to life before our eyes. True, the music comes from the four corners of the stage, and the spectator’s eyes are submitted to a confusing to-and-fro movement as actors and dancers burst in from everywhere.This may in fact have distracted certain spectators at times from more essential aspects of the action on stage.
But, most importantly, the opportunity is there to listen to and love the wonderful airs, subtly interwoven by Bizet, with the same hypnotic attraction and sense of doom. Among the best moments of Guy Lagesse’s shortened adaptation, where Carmen is played by Ingrid Blackburn and Don José by Fabien de Commarmond, are Micaela’s appearance in the third act and the parade of the garde montante, touchingly staged.
<B>Florence BERVOIX</B>
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