Tonight saw the open­ing of the Roy­al New Zea­l­and Bal­let’s Meridi­en sea­son of Car­men.

Set in the met­ro­pol­is of mod­ern-day Rio de Janeiro, Car­men works in a cigar­ette fact­ory by day and hangs out with a gang of low-life crim­in­als by night. When José makes the mis­take of fall­ing in love with Car­men, things spir­al out of con­trol. As José’s world falls apart, Carmen’s desire to live life on her terms sets a course that can only lead to dis­aster.

The bal­let is based on the opera by Biz­et (Wiki­pe­dia con­tains some ser­i­ous spoil­ers, of course), but this ain’t your grand­pappy’s bal­let. Gang­sters tote cell­phones, a bull­fight­er has become a rock­star, the seedy bar has soc­cer on its TV. The res­ult is a steamy piece of theatre that crackles with sexu­al­ity, while still being crammed full of play­ful humour and heated ten­sion.

I’m not a dance expert, but I’d say that this pro­duc­tion uses a lot of ele­ments of mod­ern dance as opp­posed to straight bal­let. There is a lot more swag­ger from the guys in their leath­er jack­ets. Car­men shakes her ass in a pair of tight jeans, while in her sparkly gown and heels she comes across like Cyd Charisse, all legs and sex.

And let’s talk about the set design! Harsh chain­link fences at the cigar­ette fact­ory are incor­por­ated into the cho­reo­graphy, neon signs light up the bar, and an iron bed is a stage for some incred­ible fore­play. The sets all seem very stripped back and simple, but it’s obvi­ous how much thought has gone into them. The Vec­tor Wel­ling­ton Orches­tra play along­side the action on the stage, and seem to have a lot of fun with the bugle-heavy score.

I was really happy to see that the audi­ence lived up to the effort of the show, with some people wear­ing gowns or tuxedoes. We left with our hands tingling from clap­ping so much, and hearts full of lust. Go see Car­men. There are no tutus, but there is a lot of pas­sion.

PS: in the interests of full dis­clos­ure, I was giv­en the tick­ets for free because appar­ently I am a “key influ­en­cer” which is an inter­est­ing mar­ket­ing tac­tic on the part of NZ Bal­let.