Carmen back on Cuban stages

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, will be staged at the National Theater on June 20, 21, 26, 27 and 28.

The performance on the 26th will specially celebrate 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 will be 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, will again play and dance the emblematic part, while Sadaise Arencibia will do it for the first time. A cast of very young dancers will assume the rest of the parts: Estheysis Menéndez, Ginett Moncho, Dayesi Torriente, Dani Hernández, José Losada, Víctor Estévez, Alfredo Ibáñez, Luis Valle and Leandro Pérez will dance Don José, Escamillo, the bullfighter, Zúñiga and Fate, all of them supported by soloists and the corps the ballet.

Edited by Damian Donestevez