Two weeks ago while quickly going through the Daily Telegraph I noticed an advertisement for the showing in 3 D of the Royal Opera House production of Bizet’s opera Carmen. Because it is a film there were several showings at the Cineworld and Odeon chains as well as some independent cinemas. I chose an evening performance at a Cineworld buying tickets on line only to learn that the seating would be allocated on a first come first served basis. In fact there were only a dozen others and we could spread ourselves out in space for over 100.
I hoped it was the same production I had previously seen at an Odeon relay last June during one of my visits to London. That production was remarkable because of the credibility of all four principals with Christine Price as Carmen extraordinary because of her ability to change her facial appearance and physical body according to the aspects of character she is portraying. She appears to be exceptionally private about her background in that apart from learning she was born and raised in Manchester, read physics at Balliol Oxford and then studied at the Royal Northern College of Music before joining Covent garden and progressing from playing parts to lead roles just in the past couple of years.
Bryan Hymel plays Don Jose and he is another brilliant comparative young singer, born and raised in New Orleans he won a competition at the age of 19 and then became the youngest grand finalist in the Metropolitan National Council Auditions aged 20. He is now 30.
Also impressive for her characterisation as well as singing performance was Maija Kovalevska as Micaela. Although she has performed as Mimi in the 2006 Metropolitan opera production of La Boheme I have no other information about her roles until participating in Carmen and its 3D filming.
The fourth first class performance was that of Aris Argiris in the role of the bull fighting Matador Escamilla. This was his debut role as a principal at the age of 35 with six performances at the Opera House last June, including the live relay.
The strength of the performances, the great music with non stop tunes with only brief in between bits, the exciting Spanish gypsy dancing and the spectacle of the Bullfight march makes the opera a visual treat but I wondered if the 3D effects would be off putting. I had been looking forward to seeing a show in 3D since experiencing the World Cup Final last summer and noting that while there was some opportunity to show off the perspectives within the theatre and on stage, the bringing things out into the auditorium was limited. I was not disappointed with the visual treats being restricted to the procession and the first act changing of the guard and shift ending of the cigarette factory girls. A feature of the Royal opera House production was the inclusion of a Choir school chorus who mimicked the changing of the guard, and another feature was the strength of the chorus in general. The sound of the film production was a little on the loud and took some initial adjusting but the overall impact was mind blowing and emotionally satisfying providing the best views and close ups. The cost was modest providing an wonderful inexpensive evening at a fraction of what attendance at the Opera House involves with seats in the £100-£900 price range although are a few restricted view or in the Gods for less.
I have known the music and story of Bizet’s Carmen since being taken by the aunties to a touring production in Croydon during my childhood. My next encounter with the brazen and raunchy Spanish gypsy was with the film Carmen Jones. A few years ago I made video’s of three short versions each 90 mins. I have a bought within the last decade CD but I cannot remember attending another live production until a Saturday in January 2010 when beforehand I also watched and listened to a download from the Metropolitan Opera New York, because up until lunchtime I was unsure if my cough would improve sufficiently to attend the relay at the Tyneside Picture theatre in Newcastle.
In the morning I watched the only video version on the Metropolitan Opera i player reading the available information beforehand. As with many works when the opera opened in Paris is was denounced by the majority of the critics and there was a move to end its run in the first week, but survived the attacks to complete 48 performances. The young composer then died a few months later aged 37 unaware that the opera was to be hailed a triumph when it was performed in Austria later in the year but after which only gradually became one of the most popular and best loved operas around the world.
The opera is set in Seville, Spain in 1830 where Michaela a village maiden comes to the city to find her fiancée Don Jose, a corporal working at the Guard House but is yet to come on shift. She is approached by the soldiers and runs away to turn later. Don Jose arrives with the change of guard whose ritual is imitated by street children, thus providing opportunity for talented youngsters from stage schools to appear in a major opera production. He is dedicated soldier eager to impress and be a credit to his mother who lives in the same village as Micaela. The couple appear to be well suited and devoted to each other.
Don Jose’s period of duty coincides with the emergence of women from the cigarette factory for smoking break where they are greeted by their admirers. Last to emerge is Carmen, a beautiful young gypsy woman with a reputation for taking lovers but discarding them as quickly if they do not live up to her expectations or if she finds someone who interests her more. She likes to be the centre of attention and reacts when Don Jose shows no interest in her. When they return to work Micaela arrives with a letter from the mother of Don Jose and before they part it is agreed that they will marry soon.
After she has left there are cries with the factory and Carmen and been fighting another worker. The officer of the watch arrests Carmen and places her in the custody of Don Jose while he writes a warrant for her to be conveyed to prison. Carmen makes a play for Don Jose, offering herself and he unties her hands so with the help of the other girls she is able to escape when the officer returns with the completed warrant, This is sufficient for Don Jose to be punished by being restricted to barracks. This ends the first act.
A month has passed when Act 2 opens and Carmen and her friends sing and dance at an Inn where the customers include the officer of Don Jose’s watch and he invites Carmen and her friends to go with him to the theatre. She is committed to Don Jose who she knows was released the previous day. The Bullfighters are in town and the most famous is Escamillo the Matador who flirts with Carmen after singing the famous Toreador(collective description for all classes of bullfighters) song. Carmen does not reject him outright saying he should not dream of being hers, with the caveat for the time being.
Then smugglers arrive trying to enlist Carmen and the other girls to participate in the selling of contraband they have smuggled from Gibraltar. Carmen rejects the offer startling everyone by saying she is love. I know something about smuggling and Gibraltar because when my birth and care mothers, their sisters and brothers were growing up before during and immediately after the First World War smuggling was practiced by almost the entire resident population of Gibraltar and the equal number of Spanish workers who crossed back and forth across border with Spain every day. Certainly one of the uncles was able to run about the rock in a chauffer driven car from the early gambling slot machines and the smuggling which he encouraged several of his sisters to participate in. Then it was citizens black economy more than hierarchical organised crime which came with the trade in illegal drugs in the last quarter of the 20th century.
The other aspect worth mentioning is that Spain was and remains, but to less extent, a country where Roman Catholicism is the religion of the overwhelming majority with pre war the then the peasant and lower middle class population practicing a simple and devout religion and where the Spanish practised a social code where unmarried women would not be left in the presence of males who were not relatives without a chaperon. Carmen would have been exceptional, even among Gypsy women.
Jose enters the opera again before the smugglers leave and they urge her to bring him along on the enterprise. Jose returns the gold coin she sent him while in custody and she orders fruit and wine to celebrate his releases and dances with her friends for him. All appears well until the retreat is sounded for the soldiers to return to barracks and Jose makes to go off. This is not what Carmen wants and alleges that Jose does not love her. He responds with the Flower song showing that he kept the flower which she also sent to him in jail. She begs him to leave the army and enjoy the freedom which experiences. Just when it looks that he will not desert his officer arrives in search of Carmen and Jose draws his sword but before they can fight the smugglers re-enter and disarm them and the officer is made a prisoner. Everyone including the Don Jose is forced to then flee or be imprisoned.
This is when the interval usually takes placed. The third Act is described as a wild and deserted rocky place where the smugglers are travelling with the contraband and Carmen has already tired of her latest lover because he is at heart a village lad. The gypsy women read the cards and then Carmen looks for her future and that of Don Jose and the cards foretell that they both will have premature death. The role of the girls is to charm the customs officers and they leave Jose to guard the contraband. This provides the opportunity for Micaela to reappear having followed in search of her fiancée and is determined to take Jose away from the influence of Carmen. Then Escamillo the Matador also arrives in search of Carmen and he tells Don Jose that the gypsy has become infatuated with a soldier, not realising that Jose was the man. Jose still jealous because of Carmen’s behaviour towards him challenges the bullfight, but the man resists until provoked further when he disarms the soldier, leaving him saying his trade is to kill bulls, not men. Don Jose starts to fight again but the Smugglers return and disarm Jose. The Bullfighter invites them to attend his next bullfight in Seville.
In the fourth Act the scene is outside the bullring on the opening day of the latest contest. This provides the opportunity for the full procession of the bullfighters and leading personalities of the town to march in procession, the cuidrilla. I have attended one Bullfight in Barcelona, leaving at half time because I seen enough of the ritual slaughter of the bulls. My prejudices were more than confirmed because the various levels of fighter are given every possible protection and bulls are medicated to ensure while they put up a performance they offer little risk as they ceremonial tortured to death. Their is no honour in the activity which is worse than fox hunting. There are three matadors who each fight two bulls and each has six assistants, two Picadores, men on padded horses who pick at the bulls with lancers, three Banderilleros who stick pointed sticks into the bull and the sword holder who hands the killing weapon to the Matador when the bull is ready for the kill. The group procession into the arena where they salute the presiding dignitaries who are accompanied by the social dignitaries of then town and visiting celebrities, friends and families of the bullfighters. The costumes are flamboyant. The so called fight has thee stages where the bull is tested by use of the cape by the Matador and his walking assistants. The second stage is those on horses and where until the 1930 when the padding was introduced more horses were killed by the bulls than the bulls themselves. The purpose is to disable the bull to reduce the danger in the final stage. At this stage the banderilleros each attempt to plant two of pointed sticks into the shoulders of the bull. There is a loss of blood from these attacks. Finally the matador enters With the sword hidden in the cape. The whole notion of red the flag to a bull is nonsense as bulls are colour blind and the use of red is to mask the flow of blood from the wounded bull.
The crowd then participate by signalling their approval or disapproval of the performance by waving of white handkerchiefs in which instance the Matador may be reward by one or two of the bulls ears and in some areas with the tail for an exceptional performance. Equally if the crowd like the bull they will call for its life to be saved in which instance it returns to its ranch to stud and does not participation in any further bullfight. This crowd participation is reminiscent of the Roman crowd and the gladiatorial contests.
There are bull fights where the bull is not physically injured and where the tem are dressed normally and where performs are aerobatic without the use of the cape. The men work as a teams without the status distinctions and compete for points against the other teams. There are variations in different countries, Portugal where is now illegal to kill the bull in an arena, France and in Latin America.
There was marked difference in how the procession was treated in the 1997 and 2010 Metropolitan productions. In 1997 the participants were in their full historical finery with the Picadores astride real horses whereas on Saturday the approach was to wear casual clothes, no horses and no visible instruments of torture and death. The emphasis was on raunchy sex instead and more on that in a moment. The procession provide the opportunity for a second appearance of the street children and everyone leaves the stage for the closing moments. In the 1997 production Carmen is transformed into a Spanish lady and consort of Escamillo. Before she enters the stadium she is told that Don Jose has also come to the city and her friends warn her to be on her guard. Carmen being Carmen and aware of what the cards foretold goes in search of her former lover to persuade him to let her go. She was born free and wishes to remain free. Don Jose pleads with her in one of the most moving solos in all opera. Carmen maintain her position and tell him to kill her or let her go. In his desperation, jealousy and hate he kills her but is then horrified by what he has done and he makes no attempt to flee before he is apprehended knowing his life has also ended.
The opera had been performed and recorded by all the great opera singers with in my life time Victoria de los Angeles, Maria Callas, Leontyne Price, Grace Bumbry Marilyne Horner, Jessye Norman and Angela Gheorghiu, together with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, More recently the role of Don Jose has been made his own by Roberto Alagna until recently the husband of Angela Gheorghiu who made a recording together in 2003. In 1997 Angela played the part of Micaela and was to have returned to Met as Carmen in this year’s production with her husband in the role of Don Jose. They have now parted and Angela withdrew from the production as a consequence.
Because of my uncertainty the decision to watch the 1997 production did not reduced the impact of 2010 performance in the evening. Carmen was played in 1997 by Waltraud Meir the international German Soprano and mezzo soprano who although 46 at the time had a reputation as an actress performer and was very convincing as an experience woman with many previous lovers who could attract the attention of most men she encountered and confidently expected to remain in control of the relationship for as long as she wished. I once visited a tourist nightclub in Athens in Greece at which the female singer had perfected the art of getting all the men to focus on her irrespective of whether they were there with their partners and regardless of the feelings of the partners. She selected a victim to pretend to flirt and seduce and then discards leaving him looking foolish. Sitting at the same table was a well built mature German gentleman, with his equally formidable looking wife and the actress singer made a bee line to attract his interest as soon as she noted his indifference which from my perspective bordered on contempt and she tried to engage his attention more than once but she was ignored which only appeared to make her more determined.
Whereas in the 2010 production Carmen, Elina Garanca performed this role in very physical way, Meir’s performance was achieved by looks and gestures. Elina is a younger performer with a sexy voice as well as body, in part achieved from being a mezzo-soprano, born 1976 in Latvia.
Placido Domingo remains the most outstanding operatic performer of his generation from what I have experienced todate and this includes Pavarotti but not Carreras who I am yet to see in a full operatic role. It is the number and range of the roles undertaken that impresses together with his constant ability to communicate the deepest emotions and role credibility even when there is a mismatch between his actual age and that of the part. However in terms of Carmen, Roberto Alagna, born Paris of a Sicilian family takes the honours because he is more convincing as a young man from a Spanish village out of his depths when confronted by a woman such as Carmen. In part this was because of differences in the production with that of 1997 putting the emphasis Done Jose strutting confidently around in an impressive uniform whether as a soldier or Smuggler. Both were brilliant at communication their desperation at being reject by Carmen for Escamillo at the end. The role of Micaela is a difficult one because while a chaste girl from the village she has to cope with the advances of the soldiers at the city guard house and also be able to travel on her own in search of her fiancée all the way from Servile to Gibraltar in the days before public transport where travel would have been by donkey if not on foot. In 1997 the role was performed by Gheorghiu.
The other observation to be made that while Carmen is full of glorious music it does not have the same power as Il Travatore, or Butterfly for dramatic moments but continues to stand alongside Aida from those seen in relay with only Turandot lacking the overall impact of the others.
Having made these comparisons in the early part of 2010, the Royal Opera House production is superior to the Metropolitan in the homogeneity of the principals with the voices and physical appearances being so appropriate and the acting characterization of the highest order. I say this having only recently also seen the 2010 Metropolitan opera production again when it appears on Sky Arts channel.
The 3D confirmed my anticipation that would be become the medium by which elders like me could continue to experience the reality of live performances without the travelling discomforts or the excessive costs. The poor attendance could prove a discouragement to the cost of making programmes though.
I hoped it was the same production I had previously seen at an Odeon relay last June during one of my visits to London. That production was remarkable because of the credibility of all four principals with Christine Price as Carmen extraordinary because of her ability to change her facial appearance and physical body according to the aspects of character she is portraying. She appears to be exceptionally private about her background in that apart from learning she was born and raised in Manchester, read physics at Balliol Oxford and then studied at the Royal Northern College of Music before joining Covent garden and progressing from playing parts to lead roles just in the past couple of years.
Bryan Hymel plays Don Jose and he is another brilliant comparative young singer, born and raised in New Orleans he won a competition at the age of 19 and then became the youngest grand finalist in the Metropolitan National Council Auditions aged 20. He is now 30.
Also impressive for her characterisation as well as singing performance was Maija Kovalevska as Micaela. Although she has performed as Mimi in the 2006 Metropolitan opera production of La Boheme I have no other information about her roles until participating in Carmen and its 3D filming.
The fourth first class performance was that of Aris Argiris in the role of the bull fighting Matador Escamilla. This was his debut role as a principal at the age of 35 with six performances at the Opera House last June, including the live relay.
The strength of the performances, the great music with non stop tunes with only brief in between bits, the exciting Spanish gypsy dancing and the spectacle of the Bullfight march makes the opera a visual treat but I wondered if the 3D effects would be off putting. I had been looking forward to seeing a show in 3D since experiencing the World Cup Final last summer and noting that while there was some opportunity to show off the perspectives within the theatre and on stage, the bringing things out into the auditorium was limited. I was not disappointed with the visual treats being restricted to the procession and the first act changing of the guard and shift ending of the cigarette factory girls. A feature of the Royal opera House production was the inclusion of a Choir school chorus who mimicked the changing of the guard, and another feature was the strength of the chorus in general. The sound of the film production was a little on the loud and took some initial adjusting but the overall impact was mind blowing and emotionally satisfying providing the best views and close ups. The cost was modest providing an wonderful inexpensive evening at a fraction of what attendance at the Opera House involves with seats in the £100-£900 price range although are a few restricted view or in the Gods for less.
I have known the music and story of Bizet’s Carmen since being taken by the aunties to a touring production in Croydon during my childhood. My next encounter with the brazen and raunchy Spanish gypsy was with the film Carmen Jones. A few years ago I made video’s of three short versions each 90 mins. I have a bought within the last decade CD but I cannot remember attending another live production until a Saturday in January 2010 when beforehand I also watched and listened to a download from the Metropolitan Opera New York, because up until lunchtime I was unsure if my cough would improve sufficiently to attend the relay at the Tyneside Picture theatre in Newcastle.
In the morning I watched the only video version on the Metropolitan Opera i player reading the available information beforehand. As with many works when the opera opened in Paris is was denounced by the majority of the critics and there was a move to end its run in the first week, but survived the attacks to complete 48 performances. The young composer then died a few months later aged 37 unaware that the opera was to be hailed a triumph when it was performed in Austria later in the year but after which only gradually became one of the most popular and best loved operas around the world.
The opera is set in Seville, Spain in 1830 where Michaela a village maiden comes to the city to find her fiancée Don Jose, a corporal working at the Guard House but is yet to come on shift. She is approached by the soldiers and runs away to turn later. Don Jose arrives with the change of guard whose ritual is imitated by street children, thus providing opportunity for talented youngsters from stage schools to appear in a major opera production. He is dedicated soldier eager to impress and be a credit to his mother who lives in the same village as Micaela. The couple appear to be well suited and devoted to each other.
Don Jose’s period of duty coincides with the emergence of women from the cigarette factory for smoking break where they are greeted by their admirers. Last to emerge is Carmen, a beautiful young gypsy woman with a reputation for taking lovers but discarding them as quickly if they do not live up to her expectations or if she finds someone who interests her more. She likes to be the centre of attention and reacts when Don Jose shows no interest in her. When they return to work Micaela arrives with a letter from the mother of Don Jose and before they part it is agreed that they will marry soon.
After she has left there are cries with the factory and Carmen and been fighting another worker. The officer of the watch arrests Carmen and places her in the custody of Don Jose while he writes a warrant for her to be conveyed to prison. Carmen makes a play for Don Jose, offering herself and he unties her hands so with the help of the other girls she is able to escape when the officer returns with the completed warrant, This is sufficient for Don Jose to be punished by being restricted to barracks. This ends the first act.
A month has passed when Act 2 opens and Carmen and her friends sing and dance at an Inn where the customers include the officer of Don Jose’s watch and he invites Carmen and her friends to go with him to the theatre. She is committed to Don Jose who she knows was released the previous day. The Bullfighters are in town and the most famous is Escamillo the Matador who flirts with Carmen after singing the famous Toreador(collective description for all classes of bullfighters) song. Carmen does not reject him outright saying he should not dream of being hers, with the caveat for the time being.
Then smugglers arrive trying to enlist Carmen and the other girls to participate in the selling of contraband they have smuggled from Gibraltar. Carmen rejects the offer startling everyone by saying she is love. I know something about smuggling and Gibraltar because when my birth and care mothers, their sisters and brothers were growing up before during and immediately after the First World War smuggling was practiced by almost the entire resident population of Gibraltar and the equal number of Spanish workers who crossed back and forth across border with Spain every day. Certainly one of the uncles was able to run about the rock in a chauffer driven car from the early gambling slot machines and the smuggling which he encouraged several of his sisters to participate in. Then it was citizens black economy more than hierarchical organised crime which came with the trade in illegal drugs in the last quarter of the 20th century.
The other aspect worth mentioning is that Spain was and remains, but to less extent, a country where Roman Catholicism is the religion of the overwhelming majority with pre war the then the peasant and lower middle class population practicing a simple and devout religion and where the Spanish practised a social code where unmarried women would not be left in the presence of males who were not relatives without a chaperon. Carmen would have been exceptional, even among Gypsy women.
Jose enters the opera again before the smugglers leave and they urge her to bring him along on the enterprise. Jose returns the gold coin she sent him while in custody and she orders fruit and wine to celebrate his releases and dances with her friends for him. All appears well until the retreat is sounded for the soldiers to return to barracks and Jose makes to go off. This is not what Carmen wants and alleges that Jose does not love her. He responds with the Flower song showing that he kept the flower which she also sent to him in jail. She begs him to leave the army and enjoy the freedom which experiences. Just when it looks that he will not desert his officer arrives in search of Carmen and Jose draws his sword but before they can fight the smugglers re-enter and disarm them and the officer is made a prisoner. Everyone including the Don Jose is forced to then flee or be imprisoned.
This is when the interval usually takes placed. The third Act is described as a wild and deserted rocky place where the smugglers are travelling with the contraband and Carmen has already tired of her latest lover because he is at heart a village lad. The gypsy women read the cards and then Carmen looks for her future and that of Don Jose and the cards foretell that they both will have premature death. The role of the girls is to charm the customs officers and they leave Jose to guard the contraband. This provides the opportunity for Micaela to reappear having followed in search of her fiancée and is determined to take Jose away from the influence of Carmen. Then Escamillo the Matador also arrives in search of Carmen and he tells Don Jose that the gypsy has become infatuated with a soldier, not realising that Jose was the man. Jose still jealous because of Carmen’s behaviour towards him challenges the bullfight, but the man resists until provoked further when he disarms the soldier, leaving him saying his trade is to kill bulls, not men. Don Jose starts to fight again but the Smugglers return and disarm Jose. The Bullfighter invites them to attend his next bullfight in Seville.
In the fourth Act the scene is outside the bullring on the opening day of the latest contest. This provides the opportunity for the full procession of the bullfighters and leading personalities of the town to march in procession, the cuidrilla. I have attended one Bullfight in Barcelona, leaving at half time because I seen enough of the ritual slaughter of the bulls. My prejudices were more than confirmed because the various levels of fighter are given every possible protection and bulls are medicated to ensure while they put up a performance they offer little risk as they ceremonial tortured to death. Their is no honour in the activity which is worse than fox hunting. There are three matadors who each fight two bulls and each has six assistants, two Picadores, men on padded horses who pick at the bulls with lancers, three Banderilleros who stick pointed sticks into the bull and the sword holder who hands the killing weapon to the Matador when the bull is ready for the kill. The group procession into the arena where they salute the presiding dignitaries who are accompanied by the social dignitaries of then town and visiting celebrities, friends and families of the bullfighters. The costumes are flamboyant. The so called fight has thee stages where the bull is tested by use of the cape by the Matador and his walking assistants. The second stage is those on horses and where until the 1930 when the padding was introduced more horses were killed by the bulls than the bulls themselves. The purpose is to disable the bull to reduce the danger in the final stage. At this stage the banderilleros each attempt to plant two of pointed sticks into the shoulders of the bull. There is a loss of blood from these attacks. Finally the matador enters With the sword hidden in the cape. The whole notion of red the flag to a bull is nonsense as bulls are colour blind and the use of red is to mask the flow of blood from the wounded bull.
The crowd then participate by signalling their approval or disapproval of the performance by waving of white handkerchiefs in which instance the Matador may be reward by one or two of the bulls ears and in some areas with the tail for an exceptional performance. Equally if the crowd like the bull they will call for its life to be saved in which instance it returns to its ranch to stud and does not participation in any further bullfight. This crowd participation is reminiscent of the Roman crowd and the gladiatorial contests.
There are bull fights where the bull is not physically injured and where the tem are dressed normally and where performs are aerobatic without the use of the cape. The men work as a teams without the status distinctions and compete for points against the other teams. There are variations in different countries, Portugal where is now illegal to kill the bull in an arena, France and in Latin America.
There was marked difference in how the procession was treated in the 1997 and 2010 Metropolitan productions. In 1997 the participants were in their full historical finery with the Picadores astride real horses whereas on Saturday the approach was to wear casual clothes, no horses and no visible instruments of torture and death. The emphasis was on raunchy sex instead and more on that in a moment. The procession provide the opportunity for a second appearance of the street children and everyone leaves the stage for the closing moments. In the 1997 production Carmen is transformed into a Spanish lady and consort of Escamillo. Before she enters the stadium she is told that Don Jose has also come to the city and her friends warn her to be on her guard. Carmen being Carmen and aware of what the cards foretold goes in search of her former lover to persuade him to let her go. She was born free and wishes to remain free. Don Jose pleads with her in one of the most moving solos in all opera. Carmen maintain her position and tell him to kill her or let her go. In his desperation, jealousy and hate he kills her but is then horrified by what he has done and he makes no attempt to flee before he is apprehended knowing his life has also ended.
The opera had been performed and recorded by all the great opera singers with in my life time Victoria de los Angeles, Maria Callas, Leontyne Price, Grace Bumbry Marilyne Horner, Jessye Norman and Angela Gheorghiu, together with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, More recently the role of Don Jose has been made his own by Roberto Alagna until recently the husband of Angela Gheorghiu who made a recording together in 2003. In 1997 Angela played the part of Micaela and was to have returned to Met as Carmen in this year’s production with her husband in the role of Don Jose. They have now parted and Angela withdrew from the production as a consequence.
Because of my uncertainty the decision to watch the 1997 production did not reduced the impact of 2010 performance in the evening. Carmen was played in 1997 by Waltraud Meir the international German Soprano and mezzo soprano who although 46 at the time had a reputation as an actress performer and was very convincing as an experience woman with many previous lovers who could attract the attention of most men she encountered and confidently expected to remain in control of the relationship for as long as she wished. I once visited a tourist nightclub in Athens in Greece at which the female singer had perfected the art of getting all the men to focus on her irrespective of whether they were there with their partners and regardless of the feelings of the partners. She selected a victim to pretend to flirt and seduce and then discards leaving him looking foolish. Sitting at the same table was a well built mature German gentleman, with his equally formidable looking wife and the actress singer made a bee line to attract his interest as soon as she noted his indifference which from my perspective bordered on contempt and she tried to engage his attention more than once but she was ignored which only appeared to make her more determined.
Whereas in the 2010 production Carmen, Elina Garanca performed this role in very physical way, Meir’s performance was achieved by looks and gestures. Elina is a younger performer with a sexy voice as well as body, in part achieved from being a mezzo-soprano, born 1976 in Latvia.
Placido Domingo remains the most outstanding operatic performer of his generation from what I have experienced todate and this includes Pavarotti but not Carreras who I am yet to see in a full operatic role. It is the number and range of the roles undertaken that impresses together with his constant ability to communicate the deepest emotions and role credibility even when there is a mismatch between his actual age and that of the part. However in terms of Carmen, Roberto Alagna, born Paris of a Sicilian family takes the honours because he is more convincing as a young man from a Spanish village out of his depths when confronted by a woman such as Carmen. In part this was because of differences in the production with that of 1997 putting the emphasis Done Jose strutting confidently around in an impressive uniform whether as a soldier or Smuggler. Both were brilliant at communication their desperation at being reject by Carmen for Escamillo at the end. The role of Micaela is a difficult one because while a chaste girl from the village she has to cope with the advances of the soldiers at the city guard house and also be able to travel on her own in search of her fiancée all the way from Servile to Gibraltar in the days before public transport where travel would have been by donkey if not on foot. In 1997 the role was performed by Gheorghiu.
The other observation to be made that while Carmen is full of glorious music it does not have the same power as Il Travatore, or Butterfly for dramatic moments but continues to stand alongside Aida from those seen in relay with only Turandot lacking the overall impact of the others.
Having made these comparisons in the early part of 2010, the Royal Opera House production is superior to the Metropolitan in the homogeneity of the principals with the voices and physical appearances being so appropriate and the acting characterization of the highest order. I say this having only recently also seen the 2010 Metropolitan opera production again when it appears on Sky Arts channel.
The 3D confirmed my anticipation that would be become the medium by which elders like me could continue to experience the reality of live performances without the travelling discomforts or the excessive costs. The poor attendance could prove a discouragement to the cost of making programmes though.
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