Gades/ Saura: Carmen (Teatro Real: TR97004BD) [Blu-ray][Region Free]

This has been something of an adventure for me amounting to almost a baptism of fire. Like many, I am very familiar with the story of Carmen as found in Bizet's well-known and popular opera and I thought that, as an introduction to an extended example of flamenco, this would be fairly straight-forward to follow. In addition, as the story is red-blooded to say the least, I thought it would be a natural partner for flamenco which I anticipated, would also be red-blooded.

In all of these expectations I was on the right lines. What I had not anticipated was the extraordinary degree to which this example of the flamenco art is able to extend the rawness of the emotional impact to an almost frightening degree.

Some background may be of help at this stage: Gades, as a young man, studied classical dance as well as all the Spanish popular dance idioms. This dual interest and skill enabled him, uniquely, to fuse together the two art forms of ballet and flamenco. He believed that flamenco must also be shorn of all extraneous distractions in order to bring the essence of the dance to light. At this early stage he was also providing the choreography for classical ballet such as Bolero, Carmen and El Amor Brujo for companies such as La Scala. From 1981 he formed the collaboration with Carlos Saura, the film director, which resulted in some of his flamenco-based creations being filmed. These films had an enormous effect on ballet companies around the world and Gades became very influential in this way while continuing as a ballet dancer in Giselle for example.

This production brings the 1983 Carmen to our screens in an amazingly effective performance. The music includes specially pre-recorded Bizet extracts played by the Suisse Romande orchestra with considerable brio. The majority of the music however is pure flamenco - two guitars, solo singers and clapping. Precision ensemble dance to massed multi-rhythmic clapping has to be seen to be believed! The scenarios presented crackle with sexual tensions and competitiveness and an unmistakable underlying and ever-present threat of violence. This is not just between men but also between women and between the sexes. This is an artistic statement beyond any of my previous experiences and I found it gripping. This is not the same as comforting. There is not a moment of tenderness to be seen - not even in the highly disciplined acknowledgement of the final applause.

I am sure that I have failed to pick up or begin to understand many of the underlying meanings in all of this - subtitles would have been invaluable in the frequent sung parts, but I cannot see any reason to deny this the full 5 stars. Anything less would be my fault for failing to comprehend fully or properly. The recording is all you could wish for and there is a bonus in the form of interviews with members of the team. The sleeve notes are particularly informative. I personally would highly recommend this issue as an unforgettable experience and essential guide to a dramatic art form.

For someone like me who thinks that Flamenco expresses our innermost feelings, this Flamenco Carmen is like being in heaven.Gades is a Genius and Saura was a director who put this vision onto the screen.Hense,Flamenco became popular via Laura Del Sol,Paco de Lucia,a great Spanish guitarist and Cristina's Hoyos,Gades Dance partner for 20 years.Now the theatrical version is available filmed on the stage of the Teatro Real Madrid in Bluray in 6th May 2011.Based upon Bizets version and Merimee's novel. A brief selection of music from Bizet's Carmen is used which comes from the Decca Schippers conducted version,with Mario Del Monaco and Regina Resnik,also bull ring music.

Premiere 1983.The script, Choreography and lighting is by Antonio Gades who died in 2004 and Carlos Saura.Cast. Carmen in the red dress Vanesa Vento, Don Jose Angel Gil, Bullfighter Jairo Rodriguez. Flamenco woman singer Angela Nunez"La Bronce". Four men singers, men and Women dancers. Guitarists Antonio Solera, Camaron de Pitita.No subtitles, you do not need any for the plot is self evident.However,in the extras there are interviews which explains all with English subtitles. I will explain Gades intensions and the history of Flamenco and what the art form is about.

Andalusian dance is an independent language and this Gades has managed to achieve with his group named after him. The stage performance seems as though it is spontaneous,but it is not and incorporates all the classic elements of Flamenco singing and dancing.Though dancing together the dancers have not lost their own identity, for Gades allows them to show this during Carmen. For example, at the beginning you see the dancers warming up and practicing their movements.The dance master takes them through their motions and back they go to stretch and strut their stuff. Then the story of Carmen follows. Gades goes against the thesis that dancers must all be the same,good looking and well proportioned. Living beings whether they are old, ugly, bald men, like to dance. Hense, two guitarists, a couple of singers and two dancers fit into this catagory, amongest the good looking well proportioned. This is noticable in Fuenteovejuna where the cast is dressed in 16th century costumes. The lighting is all important. At times the dancers etc sit in a circle,other times a group at opposite ends of the stage with lighting shone upon them,with blackness everywhere else. A voice will sing, hand clapping,or simply a dancer will appear. It is cleverly done, for you feel at times that you are in a intimate space like a bar, or a room where Flamenco is played. Where there are two guitarists,a singer and one dancer. A couple shouting and claping to egg on the singer to reach that space of infinity. One has to understand that Flamenco is a way of life almost a religion.You must suspend logic and allow the music and sounds to envelope you like a sunbeam. You and it are one,almost without knowing you will shout Ole! Play the bluray loudly.It is about feeling, joy and suffering.

The roots of Flamenco have evolved in Southern Spain from many sources:Byzantine, Morocco, Egypt,Greece,and India where Gypsies made their way down to Europe with women wearing their distinctive colourful dress and ended up in Spain with their music in the 15th Century. In the following century,it was fused with elements of Arabic and Jewish music in the Andalalucian mountains,where Jews, Muslims and pagan Gypsies had taken refuge from the forced conversions and clearances effected by the catholic kings and Church. The main Flamenco centres and families are still to be found today in towns of gypsy and refugee origin,such as Alcala, Utrera,Jerez and Cadiz,and the Triana barrio of Sevilla. Flamenco is a mispronunciation of the Arabic words Felag(fugitive) and mengu (peasant),as Arabic was a common language at the time, a hangover from Moorish Spain. This music comes from a people forced to survive on the edges of society,which offered them no real staus. Flamenco reflects their need to perserve,and agressively their self esteem.

In addition to Tabloas,Flamenco is played at Fiestas,in bars,and at informal,more or less private parties.Great artists sing cante jondo(deep song),outpourings of the soul,delivered with an intense passion,expressed through elaborate vocal ornamentation.They evoke emotions from the audience, who shout encouragement. This response is essential for an artist,as this"talking it up" lets them know they are reaching deep into the emotional psyche of their audience. They may achieve the rare quality of "duende". An ethereal quality: moving,profound when expressing happiness,mysterious but felt, which stops listeners in their tracks. Garcia Lorca wrote that duende could only be found in the depths of abandonment-"in the final blood filled room of the soul" Its power allows you to transcend time. Is dragged crying and spitting from the soul. The artist becomes what they are singing,one minute they are there and then they disappear,its impossible to describe.This state can be achieved by dancers and their audience.

There is a classical repertoire of more than 6o flamenco songs and dances-some solos,group numbers,others with instrumental accompaniment.The basics are sileares,tangos and fandango's. The variations are endless and are often referred to by their place of origin, Malaguenas from Malaga for example. The Andualuz provinces of Cadiz, Sevilla, Malaga and Granada are responsible for most.Flamenco songs often express pain,and with a fierceness that turns that emotion inside out and beats it against violent frontiers. Generally,the voice closely interacts with the improvising guitar,the two inspiring the other,aided by hand clapping,finger snapping and shouts from participants at certain points in the song. This sets the tone for the singer or dancer to begin.

The flamenco performance is filled with pauses.The singer is free to insert phrases on the spare of the moment. The guitar serves one single purpose-to mark the measures of a song. The Flamenco guitar is of lighter weight than most acoustic guitars and often has a pine table and pegs made of wood rather than machine heads. This is to produce the perferred bright responsive sound which does not sustain too long as a classical guitar.

Flamenco dance can reduce the onlooker to tears in an unexpected flash. What is so visually devastating about the Flamenco dance is the physical and emotional control the dancer has over the body:the way the head is held,the tension of the torso and the way it allows the shoulders to move,the shapes and angles of seemingly elongated arms and the feet,which move from toe to heel,heel to toe,creating rhythms. These rhythms have a basic set of moves and timings but they are improvised as the piece develops and through interaction with the guitarist.(From World music-the Rough Guide 1994).

To end this long review because I assume you the reader know nothing of Flamenco, I shall finish with a poem I wrote 30 years ago when walking and hitching through the non tourist areas of Spain, sleeping in fields. SOUL OF FLAMENCO-Espana 1978. No bugles nor drums played, while this wild being raped by barbed wire and glass,crawling on its belly,cries, ole! A beast with lips of dust and muffled voice, proud as it pounds its life away. Singing, "I am the Earth,of the Earth,briefly becoming the sun" Ole! In my review on Bodas de Sangre I have provided titles of Flamenco CDs you might like.

ALL REGIONS-Dts HD master Audio

You might like to now try the DVD Carmen Flamenco,which is a mixture of Traditional Flamenco dancing, singing and Guitar playing, with a modern variation. Music and arias from Bizets Carmen. Pablo Sarasates(1844-1908) Carmen Fantasy with violin. Bolero. Ballerinas using Castinets dancing to a flute. Bull ring band music and the end is a combination of the music of De Falla and Stravinsky. Flamenco dancing both traditional and modern.Women dressed in traditional dresses. Different to the more purist Gades who uses authentic Flamenco.No subtitles.Spanish.See my review.