My Carmen, Again…

“Will there be another production? Who knows…”

This is how My Carmen stories ended three years ago.

My Carmen, Again…

It looks like I made it onto the list of men Carmen is rather fond of, and she didn’t want to stay away from me for too long. I have to say that my relationship with Carmen, or more exactly, with Prosper Mérimée’s wonderful story and Georges Bizet’s genius music, has brought me only interesting artistic encounters, exciting moments of creating a new production, and the joy of success.

Will there be another one? Yes. There is!

It all started with an unexpected letter from the Israel Ballet, offering me to create a new two-act production.

It was completely unexpected, and the company’s management was very convincing. After a very short discussion of all the details that always come up in these negotiations, I received a contract a year before the premiere. A year! You don’t often see such good organization these days, even when everything has already been agreed on verbally.

And, as always, I started looking for something new, something I had not yet noticed, uncovered, or seen in Mérimée’s story, which I had already read so many times. And Carmen came back to intrigue me again, with all her Spanish-Gypsy energy and the tricks known only to her (and, of course, to Prosper).

Let me jump a little ahead. Rehearsals were scheduled to start in early April 2026, but before that I had to write an updated libretto and, together with the composer, create a new adaptation and orchestral arrangement of Bizet’s score for the production.

The creative team was put together by the director of the Israel Ballet, and we started working ahead of time with the designers on ideas for costumes and sets, and with the composer on the music.

Doing this kind of work from a distance, even with today’s internet, is not easy. More exactly, not having the possibility to be together, to talk, share thoughts, think and search for ideas, creates many difficulties and slows down the whole process. It breaks the work into separate pieces in different corners. And you really want to get everyone together and simply share your thoughts.

Every time I have to face the challenges of working from a distance, the memoirs of the people who were part of and created the Diaghilev seasons come to mind. They describe how deeply the creative process was respected and supported. Maybe that is why the masterpieces created in those years are still unique today.

But we have what we have. And the work took off.

I really enjoyed working with the well-known Israeli composer Gil Shohat. From our first conversations and messages, we both felt that we understood each other, and I found a creative partner in him. He brought so many interesting and new things to the production! Our discussions, going through the plan I had proposed and the musical numbers from Bizet’s score, became exciting moments that I always looked forward to.

The score was ready on time, which also doesn’t happen so often these days.

This work brought me a new wave of ideas. Scenes and choreographic combinations were already starting to build in my head. I always sketch and write down my ideas (of course, only I can understand what I wrote), and my new notebook was already almost completely full, not to mention all the notes on my phone.

The time had come to share all of this, to bring it into the dancers’ bodies and build it in the rehearsal studio. This is always my favorite part.

And then… war.

Israel and the United States entered into military action with Iran.

To be continued…

Photos by Elena Zapassky