Ballet version of ‘Carmen’ begins ’08 Encore season

carmen med

The soldier Don José, above, is in thrall to a passionate gypsy beauty in the
St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre's production of "Carmen," which comes to
Northwest's Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30.
Call 660.562.1212 for tickets.

One of Russia’s premier dance ensembles, the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre, opens Northwest’s 2008 Encore performing arts season with “Carmen,” Rodion Shchedrin’s 1967 adaptation of Georges Bizet’s operatic masterpiece.

Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30, at the Performing Arts Center on campus. Tickets cost $20 (orchestra) and $18 (balcony). Northwest students with a valid Bearcat ID card can purchase tickets for $15 and $13. Admission for children under 12 is $12. Call 660.562.1212 for tickets, or go to www.nwmissouri.edu/tickets.

Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. Group ticket order forms are available at the Student Services Center in the Administration Building. Groups can also request a form by calling 660.562.1226 (ext. 1226 on campus) or e-mailing oca@nwmissouri.edu.

Like the famous opera, the ballet is set in Seville, Spain, circa 1830, and follows a tempestuous, and ultimately fatal, episode in the life of Carmen, a beautiful gypsy with a fiery temper.

Don José is a young soldier whose infatuation with Carmen leads him to reject the faithful Micaela, desert his post and take up with a band of smugglers. Though briefly happy with his new love, Don José falls into madness when Carmen turns her romantic attentions away from him and toward the glamorous bullfighter Escamillo.

Confronting Carmen at the bullring, Don José demands her love and fidelity as she repeatedly explains that she no longer cares for him. When she scornfully throws back Don José’s ring, he stabs her in the heart, taking Carmen’s life even as Escamillo triumphs in the arena.

Founded in 1966, the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre is led by Artistic Director Yuri Petukhov. Nearly all of the company’s teachers, coaches and dancers have studied at the revered Vaganova Ballet Academy.

Remaining Encore/Distinguished Lecture presentations for 2008 include:

“Ring of Fire” (featuring the music of Johnny Cash); 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11, Performing Arts Center.
The Parsons Dance Company; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 13, Performing Arts Center.

Distinguished Lecture Series (free admission)

Barbara Martinez Jitner; 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, Performing Arts Center.

Martinez Jitner is a writer, director and producer who has spent her career bringing the untold stories of Latinas to television screens and movie theaters. She served as an executive producer of the primetime PBS television series, “American Family."

For more information, please contact:

Anthony Brown,
News Bureau Manager
E-Mail: abrown@nwmissouri.edu
Phone (660) 562-1704
Fax (660) 562-1900

Northwest Missouri State University
219 Administration Building,
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468

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