Banderillas? Forget the folklore: François Mauduit summons a Carmen for our time.
A feminist parable ahead of its time, the revolutionary Carmen has already driven a few fine banderillas into the flanks of patriarchy.
A former dancer with the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and now at the head of his own company, the choreographer reshuffles the cards of gender and desire in an intense and sensitive contemporary adaptation for twelve performers. The opera’s original storyline is preserved, yet profoundly re-examined. The leader of the smugglers is replaced by a female figure of power, a mirror image of Carmen herself. Together, these two heroines form a fascinating duo—two figures of revolt and emancipation confronting a masculine world that each defies in her own way.
The dance—elegant, expressive, and theatrical—powerfully conveys the full complexity of romantic feeling: attraction, rejection, fusion, betrayal. The music, too, overturns boundaries. The iconic score by Georges Bizet enters into dialogue with lesser-known works by the composer, revisited through contemporary arrangements blending jazz, electronic music, guitar, piano, and voice. A rich, vibrant sonic texture that resonates with the burning modernity of this Carmen.
