Carmen, one of the emblematic pieces of the Cuban National Ballet Company’s repertoire, is back on Cuban stages, after having been absent from the Cuban scene for 15 years.
Under the general direction of company director, ballet legend Alicia Alonso, the famous piece by one of the founding fathers of Cuban ballet, Alberto Alonso, was staged at the National Theater on June 20, 21, and will be on 26, 27 and 28. The performance on the 26th specially celebrates another anniversary of the establishment of the Cuban University Students Federation, FEU, the 70th anniversary of entrance of the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, into the University of Havana, and the 10th Congress of the Young Communist League.
Along with Carmen are other pieces of the company’s repertoire, including Les Sylphides, choreographed by Alonso after Mikhail Fokin and Celeste, by Annabelle López Ochoa. Alberto Alonso’s Carmen was premiered in Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater in 1967, starring Maya Plisetskaya in the leading role. The piece was danced at Havana’s Grand Theater on August 1st 1967, with Alonso as Carmen. Alicia Alonso was an exceptional interpreter of the role.
On this season of Carmen, premier dancers, Anette Delgado and Viengsay Valdés, are again playing and dancing the emblematic part, while Sadaise Arencibia is doing it for the first time. A cast of very young dancers are assuming the rest of the parts: Estheysis Menéndez, Ginett Moncho, Dayesi Torriente, Dani Hernández, José Losada, Víctor Estévez, Alfredo Ibáñez, Luis Valle and Leandro Pérez are dancing Don José, Escamillo, the bullfighter, Zúñiga and Fate, all of them supported by soloists and the corps the ballet.
