I'm "Carmened" Out

Not all Wagner music is like the Ride of the Valkyries. Tristan and Isolde is beautiful; Sale and Pelletier skated to it and won a World Championship.

Being a ballet person, I don't know if I agree about no more swans. Loved Ashley's black and Mao's white swan!

OK, let's have a moratorium for one year at least.

I love Carmen. It's one of the most wonderful musical works ever written. I can never get tired of listening to it. But yes, skaters should only use it if their skating can live up to the wonderful music.

I don't mind Carmen, on the other hand Bolero - I usually get tired watching the programs after the first minute. Requiem for a Dream was really overused few years ago too.

Eislauf said:

And. No. More. Swans. Ever. (Black OR White!)

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Amen x 1,000,000

You would think that skaters were restricted to that. I've seen OD's with a singular (e.g. tango) theme that had more varied music selections amongst the field. Somebody please take those swans out back.

chuckm said:

I've seen the opera Carmen many times, and I like the music in that context. But I have always passionately hated skaters' using Carmen in figure skating. Top skaters think they can capture the essence of the story, but in reality no one ever does, including V/M, Katarina Witt and Debbie Thomas. Lesser skaters shouldn't even try.

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Yes, I cringe whenever commentators say the skaters captured the essence of the character to tell a story - there's hardly ever a story told in skating, unless it's pantomime. The closest programs to a story told in my memory are Rahkamo and Kokko's La Strada, Klimova and Ponomarenko's Dracula and Romeo and Juliet.

I think that, after Katarina Witt and Bestemianova/Bukin, no-one can skate well to Carmen... And, I would REALLY like V/M and (most of all) D/W to try a music really not overused: something like V/M's 2010 Mahler, Meryl and Charlie have skated to so many popular and famous musics (Tango, POTO, Bat, Notre Dame...), try to find something that will remain in our memories as: "THAT was D/W's music!", something like Kostner's Shostakovich or Yu-Na's Kiss of the Vampire: when I now hear these musics, I immediatly think of Yu-Na or Carolina, but when I hear Carmen/Swan Lake/Samson and Delilah/POTO etc. I think of so many (beautiful but) different programs...

I didn't like Kaetlyn Osmond's Carmen either. She played Carmen like a coquettish teenage flirt, the antithesis of Prosper Merimee's fiery seductive gypsy.

On the overused music topic, I never want to see (or hear) the soundtrack from "The Artist" used ever again.

Carmen? Give me a year off, and I'll be happy to hear it again. Because Carmen has inspired a lot of different interpretations, it's always interesting to see what a fresh pair of choreographic eyes will bring.

I really liked V&M's Carmen this year; if there'd been a ban, I would have missed seeing it. Not a good thing.

Bad idea to never have Carmen. Thumb's down. ::disagree:

I think there should be a registry for everyone's music for each season. That way it would prevent more than 1 person skating to the same music. I think it would be like how some schools set up a dress registry for prom so 2 girls don't wear the same dress.

I know when I skated I used to get so mad if someone in my flight had the same music, but that's probably because I have this need to be different all the time.

Every time Sandra Bezic is a commentator she gets all wrapped around the skater living the part, showing the angst of the music, feeling all the wrongs of the world, etc. Heck - I just see figure skating. Guess that's why she's a good choreographer. I wish I could remember the exact words she said when Charlie and Meryl skated Nats but it was something to the effect that throughout the program they would show the trials of life. :scratch: I think those intangibles sort of escape the average fan.

Well, yes, Quasimodo is deformed and Esmeralda is about to be hanged as a witch. I'd say they had their share of the "trials of life".

no more Turandot pls

Boy howdy - it's VERY difficult for me to look at Charlie White and think Quasimodo.....

I think it's okay to pick commonly used music as long as you have an AMAZING program to it. Sasha Cohen was a frequent violator of overused music but right this moment, I can't think of a single program dud from her. Carmen, Malaguena, Swan Lake (2 versions!), Nutcracker, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, R&J, etc. She always had beautiful, well put-together programs. I remember being rather amused at her music selections because it was always, what overused music will she pick next? Ha!

But seriously, how long is Carmen? You can skate to Carmen without skating to Habanera or March of the Toreadors. Michelle Kwan had a great Carmen SP--she took lots of lesser known Carmen pieces and it was beautiful and fresh. Most would not have recognized it as Carmen until the very end. I particularly remember her straight line footwork because it was all percussion and I'd never seen that before. Daisuke Takahashi also had an amazing Phantom LP, again with several cuts of lesser known pieces so it made the very well-known pieces easier to stomach.

Lately, I feel like skaters (and coaches/choreographers) have been lazy about picking music. It's easier to pick a "character" and skate as that character versus just skating to music as yourself and knocking it out of the park. Does anyone else see this?

Michelle Kwan's Lyra Angelica is holy to a lot of skating fans, myself included. She spent a lot of time in character--Salome, Desdemona, Scheherazade to name a few. All of those were marvelous programs but it makes Lyra Angelica stand out even more in contrast. She wasn't "in costume" and wasn't trying to portray anyone in particular--rather, it was a feeling she gave you. For Lyra, she was always in a very simple dress, very simple hair and make-up and I remember Peggy Fleming saying something like "she takes you on a journey of emotions" and it was so true. You weren't passively sitting in the stands or at home, watching her flit about as Salome--you were actively invested and being drawn into the uplifting quality of her skating in tune with that amazing music. East of Eden and Dante's Prayer come to mind next, even Red Violin.

I wish skaters would return to that. Too many characters running about lately--I feel like we all need a detox. It's like film--being a character puts up a 4th wall so it's hard to break that down and make connections with the audience. I think V/M's Carmen was a victim of this.

I'd like to see several top skaters put out something really different and not character-based next year. That would be really cool.

I must confess that I love Carmen. Yes, its overused but that makes its interesting to see how different skaters interpret it. I wonder whether Kostner or Yu-Na would do a good Carmen. Not sure whether it would suit Asada..

Wednesday, One of the great Carmen's, Rise Stevens, died at the age of 99. During the 20 years she was at the Met, she practically owned the part.


Here is a the card song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egEVbRy50JE