L’Arlésienne and Carmen are ballets crafted to the evocative scores of Georges Bizet by the great French choreographer Roland Petit. Created in 1974 for the Ballet National de Marseille, L’Arlésienne is a single-act ballet adapted from Alphonse Daudet’s short story and drama.
The ballet is based on Bizet’s Suite No. 1 and Suite No. 2, which were initially composed as the score for Daudet’s play, premiered in 1872 at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris. The central figure in the narrative is Frédéri, a young man living in Provence in the south of France. Haunted by the image of a woman he saw in Arles, Frédéri's relationship with his fiancée Vivette deteriorates, and his infatuation eventually drives him to madness.
Carmen, the second ballet in Petit’s diptych, was inspired by Bizet’s famous opera from 1875. Petit and his company, Les Ballets de Paris, first performed Carmen at the Prince’s Theatre in London in 1949. Following its “scandalous and brilliant” debut, the ballet soon found its place in repertoires across the globe, reaching over five thousand stagings.
This five-scene ballet is a striking fusion of classical ballet elements with Spanish folk dance, pantomime, and newly devised dramatic dance movements. The libretto is based on the novella by Prosper Mérimée from 1845, which also served as the foundation for the libretto of Bizet’s opera. Tommy Desserre arranged and re-orchestrated Bizet’s music, while Antoni Clavé designed the costumes and sets.
Set in Spain around 1820, the story unfolds in Seville and its surrounding mountains during the time of bullfights. This dramatic and romantic tale, laced with elements of grim realism, follows a chapter in the life and love struggles of the beautiful Romani girl Carmen, entangled in a love triangle with the soldier Don José and the bullfighter Escamillo. The debut performance featured Petit as Don José, while Carmen was strikingly played by his future wife, the charismatic Zizi Jeanmaire.
The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb staged Carmen in 1975 and 1999, featuring an arrangement of Bizet’s score by Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin and choreography created by Miljenko Vikić. In its third production of Carmen, the Ballet ensemble of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb introduced Roland Petit’s legendary choreography in its entirety for the first time.
Natalia Kosovac received the “Ana Roje” Award for the role of Vivette in the ballet L’Arlésienne in the 2024/2025 season. In 2025, Pavel Savin received the Croatian Theatre Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Young Artist (under 28) for his role as Don José in the ballet Carmen.
