Carmen, a triumphant ballet in an archaeological area

The choreographer Fredy Franzuti offers a ballet-version of the famous Opera “Carmen” in the middle of the ancient Lucan ruins in Rossano di Vaglio (Italy).

Classical ballet is not, after all, a “dead genre”.

In fact, sometimes we can assist to very good, creative and artistically important performances. To demonstrate it, we can think to the popular choreographer Freddy Franzuti who, according to the thought of Donatella Bertozzi” he is even “one of the few choreographers who knows how to compose a ballet”. The last ballet he directed was “Carmen”, whom last performance has been the 11th July in Rossano di Vaglio (Italy).

Freddy Franzuti is the head of the Italian company “Balletto del Sud” (which means “ballet of the South”, on referring to the South of Italy). Franzuti, who was born in 1971 in Lecce, founded this company in 1995 with which he created the incredible number of 33 ballet (from the “Nutcracker” to “Romeo and Juliet” to just “Carmen”).

The poetic of this choreographer is very interesting. In fact, he, according to the critics and to himself, continuously experiments with the fundamental finality to invite a necessarily heterogeneous public. In doing so, he developed a very personal aesthetic in which the sarcasm and the naiveté combines with an ethical point of view which the ballet conveys.

Even before the starting of the performance in Rossano, he talked to the public about the intrinsic value of the ballet, complaining, maybe with a note of nostalgia, about the fact that ballet is, as it is well-known, an artistic genre not sufficiently appreciated. Significantly, his choice to say also that to assist to a proper ballet is different to assist to a scholastic “dance recital”.

Despite the agreement or disagreement of the public to this poetics, it seems undeniable that Franzuti is one of the leading personalities in creating ballets, at a national and international level.

Furthermore, it is appreciable his effort to present his ballet in the open-air theatre of Rossano di Vaglio. This last is, in fact, an archaeological site (where it has been discovered a sanctuary for the Lucan goddess of the sources of river, Mefitis) where the space is limited and the temperature not ideal.

However, fundamentally, he did a remarkable job and it is also very fascinating and suggestive to assist to this performance surrounded by ancient history, in an idyllic union of history and nature, music and dance.

Frazuti directed a triumphant performance of “Carmen”, thanks also to the young and talented dancers. Particularly remarkable was the protagonist, Carmen, who acted in a state of grace, but also the minor actors were very professional.

However, the major and most beautiful characteristic of this performance has been that it preserved the fresh spirit of the joyous homonymous opera “Carmen”. The Opera is composed by Bizet (who collaborated also in the writing of the libretto) and it is set in Spain, a very used artistic set in ‘800 because of its exotic fascination. Franzuti adds, as he explained before the starting of the performances, music of Albeniz, Chabrier and Massent to the ones of Bizet. these musical pieces are consistent with the global spirit of the ballet, which looks fascinated just to the exotic Spain.

Probably, the story of Carmen continues to attract people from all over the world and to fascinate them also because (in addition, obviously, to its music) because there are themes frequent also in contemporary theatre and cinema: destiny, homicide, superstition, passion.

The experiment of Franzuti is fundamentally a triumphant one, appreciable also because very risky: he dared to create a new ballet on the basis of one of the most famous operas in the world, and to perform it in a “difficult” set as Rossano di Vaglio.

The audience seemed to appreciate it and it is to hope that these performances will continue, to reinvigorate the artistic culture in the South of Italy.