Carlos Acosta's Carmen: The Farewell Performance

MUSIC: Excerpt from Carmen by Bizet

Welcome to the Royal Opera House.

Tonight, it's the end of an era

as we'll be saying a very emotional farewell

to one of our greatest dancers of his generation, Carlos Acosta.

He's making his final appearance here,

on our famous Covent Garden stage,

marking his official retirement from classical ballet.

For his final performance, he's choreographed a brand-new work,

a sexy, steamy Carmen based on Bizet's classic opera.

Carlos dances the role of Don Jose,

the soldier who is led onto the wrong side of the tracks

by an attractive, dangerous gypsy girl, Carmen,

with tragic consequences.

Carlos first joined the Royal Ballet Company back in 1998

and took up his current role as principal guest artist in 2003.

He has danced all the great classical roles here

and created a whole raft of new ones.

To me, I always knew that I could play

roles that demanded a lot of power

and jumping, you know, like Don Quixote, all those roles,

but I always was so eager to grow as an artist

and I wanted to try myself in the roles that people don't think,

-or me, myself, don't think I was so suited, you know?

-Yes.

And that's the key.

The key is don't remain where you are,

but actually try to, you know, keep evolving,

and the Royal Ballet gave me that possibility,

because they had the wonderful repertoire.

And it's just fun. That's what this world of ballet, what it means,

because these wonderful ballets are timeless and, you know,

they give you a chance to just fly and be, you know.

You've chosen your own creative piece to retire.

Once I knew that this was going to be it,

I said I want to do a creation

and then I already developed at the time

a structure to tell the story of Carmen my own way

that I think, in my mind, was going to work.

Did you ever have a vision that this is something that you'd retire on?

I haven't got any vision as per to the life that I'm living, you know?

The life that I'm living now, I could never dream.

This has just happened. I mean, one step at a time.

Even if I have a dream, my dream was going to be short-sighted.

You never believed you'd be this.

Never going to compare to the life I'm living now

and the career I managed to get.

A superstar in the Royal Ballet.

Well, and also, talking about Carmen for instance,

I mean, me choreographing Carmen in my retirement?

I mean, come on.

Carlos has brought the whole team together

and the whole production idea is his.

You know, it's a pretty major statement.

This one, we could go around, because it's not as important.

'We strived for something really simple, something that'

would communicate the world of Carmen very quickly

and not get too complicated, nothing to get in the way of the story.

We'd searched and searched for images and ideas

and we ended up with something simple and quite graphic

that would then give the story to the dancers,

give the story to the choreography, which I felt was really important.

I was there really just to support that.

Carlos wanted actually

the whole thing to be very real.

He didn't want everything to be too classical or...

He just wanted, like, real people.

Carlos has given Carmen these moves.

It's very clear, just watching her, exactly what her emotions are,

what mood she's in, which person she's being at that time.

She's a very strong, passionate woman,

that, you know, her biggest thing in life is freedom.

Carmen is, first of all, a beautiful woman.

She's a free woman.

She's not held back by convention.

What I also love about her is the fact that she's actually honest.

You know, what you see is what you get.

The fact that she is a man-eater and so flirtatious,

but at the same time, I think, falls in love with these men.

Don Jose, I feel he's the victim. He does everything for her.

He's just willing to shoot, to kill for her,

become an outlaw for her.

Eventually she betrays him, you know, with Escamillo.

He's the toreador. He comes in, everybody loves him.

I mean, Escamillo's character is very show-offy.

And he shows off and there are big jumps and turns and twists

and it's continual,

it's one after the other after the other into a star,

into a move, into a run over there, a bit of a pose, a cigar,

a puff, pull out the cigar and then he's off again.

I would say Don Escamillo actually kind of walks in

and swaggers Carmen off her feet.

Of course, Carmen has already been dancing with Don Jose,

but there isn't really any competition there.

Escamillo's always going to win.

It's just the journey. I think when you have a story like that,

when you have a character like that, that's what is fascinating,

just the journey - where you start and where you finish.

And every beat is obviously important as they build up

to the end that makes it so special.

This has been the most challenging thing I have done so far,

creating this Carmen.

Carlos is a very complex figure because, of course, yes,

he's a choreographer, he's a colleague,

because I'm dancing with him on stage at the same time.

He's also someone I've admired since I can remember.

His physicality is incredible. He's very strong.

Very muscular. He has power.

He also has a very precise technique which he's worked on over the years.

He has all those abilities.

Carlos's performing career has been extraordinary

and to do something like Carmen

is clearly going to be pretty impressive.

I mean, there's been a lot of sleepless nights

trying to work out how you're going to connect the story,

how I was going to bring all these elements and, at the same time,

I had to perform at the level that everybody expects from me.

So it's been very, very stressful, but I pulled it off,

and I'm very happy about that.

Here is the new production of Carmen, choreographed by Carlos Acosta,

with Carlos himself making his final appearance on the main stage

after a glittering career with the Royal Ballet.

APPLAUSE

ORCHESTRA PLAYS, BELLS CHIME

MUSIC: Instrumental of Habanera

BELLS CHIME

MUSIC: Aragonaise from Carmen Suite No 1

LAUGHTER

TENSE MUSIC PLAYS

MARTIAL DRUMBEAT

MUSIC: Les Dragons d'Alcala from Carmen Suite No 1

MARTIAL DRUMBEAT

DRUMROLL

MUSIC: Intro to Seguedilla from Carmen Suite No 1

MUSIC: Habanera from Carmen

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: Danse Boheme from Carmen Suite No 2

-Oye! Tu!

-Que no!

Tu! Ven.

Ven aqui.

MUSIC: Seguedille from Carmen Suite No 1

MUSIC STOPS

CHEERING AND CLAMOURING

MUSIC: Intermezzo from Carmen Suite No 1

APPLAUSE

FLAMENCO-STYLE DRUMBEAT

SPANISH GUITAR PLAYS

APPLAUSE

SPANISH GUITAR PLAYS

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: Toreador Song

THEY SING IN SPANISH

HE SINGS IN SPANISH

CHEERING

CHEERING

APPLAUSE

# Viva, viva el torero

# Viva, viva el torero

# Viva, viva Escamillo

# Viva, viva Escamillo

# Viva, viva

# Viva

# Viva! #

CHEERING

MUSIC SLOWS

MUSIC: Prelude from Carmen

MUSIC: La fleur que tu m'avais jetee (instrumental)

TENSE MUSIC PLAYS

SPANISH GUITAR PLAYS

CASTANETS CLICK

ORCHESTRA SWELLS

MUSIC: En vain pour eviter from Carmen

SHE SINGS ARIA IN SPANISH

ARIA ENDS

MUSIC RESUMES

PERCUSSION PLAYS

MUSIC: Refrain from March of the Toreadors

MUSIC: March of the Toreadors

MUSIC: Toreador Song

CHEERING

MUSIC: Chorus from the Toreador Song

MUSIC SLOWS

"MARCH OF THE TOREADORS" RESUMES

MUSIC SLOWS

"MARCH OF THE TOREADORS" RESUMES

MUSIC SLOWS

APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Well...

..the reality is that to build a career like that...

..you need the help of the audience, of course,

the help of these wonderful people that you've got here.

They are like a family...to me.

The help of all these other wonderful people who are inside

right now, perhaps hiding in the wings,

the crew members, another lot of wonderful people in the offices,

and in the physiotherapy room.

LAUGHTER

As you can see, it is a collective art

and I want to say something to a new generation of dancers, actually.

My advice for you is...

..allow yourself the freedom to commit mistakes.

There is nothing like right or wrong, better or worse.

There is no such thing as failure

because life is an eternal learning process.

You're always learning.

So be curious and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy, because one day

you blink and you realise that 17 years has gone by and it's over.

And I know that too well, so thank you very much.

APPLAUSE