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Carmen
By Michael Van Duzer
Opera Pacific's new production of Bizet's Carmen updates the opera to a vague period in the middle of the last century. Carmen updates are hardly revolutionary. Oscar Hammerstein II shifted the action to a WW II parachute factory for the musical, Carmen Jones, and plenty of opera house productions have utilized Spain's Fascistic period as a political/feminist allegory. But Director Ron Daniels is uninterested in politics. His aim is to strip away the safe conventions that have grown up around the opera and focus on the drama. Not in the radical manner that Peter Brook used to create his chamber Carmen, but in a way that will force us to experience the story in a fresh light. For the most part, he succeeds.
Daniels and his designer, Riccardo Hernandez, envision Carmen's world as an uncluttered and sun-bleached terrain with little to offer its denizens in the way of comfort and ease. Carmen's fellow cigarette factory workers plop down in the middle of the square for their break, ripping open their turquoise uniforms, not with lascivious intent, but in the hopes of catching a breeze. This lethargic positioning forces a change in the stereotype of the bumping and grinding Carmen singing her "Habanera" in the middle of a rapturous throng. This "Habanera" is earthier, subtler, and more interesting for it. Telling details like this is what gives color and truth to the familiar story, although not all are as successful. Daniels' decision to have Don Jose untie Carmen's hands before the "Segudilla" even starts gives her nothing to struggle against and dilutes the ecstatic build of the music.
Irina Mishura sings Carmen with confidence and care. Her dark-hued voice is a powerful and potent instrument that is ideally suited to Bizet's music, and her portrayal grows throughout the evening. She is less successful in the early scenes where Carmen's contradictory and mercurial nature dictates the action. But from the "Card Scene" through the end, she completely embodies every nuance of the fearless and passionate gypsy without any apparent strain to her voice. Mark Baker eschewed the sweet-voiced, Mama's-boy approach to Don Jose in favor of a troubled man whose violent outbursts make the tragic finale inevitable. Jeffrey Wells is a charismatic and strongly sung Escamillo, but Robin Follman is a disappointingly hooty Michaela. However, the smaller roles are uniformly well sung and energetically acted by Malcolm MacKenzie, Chad Berlingheri, Christina Suh and Stephanie Woodling.
John DeMain conducts the opera comique (with spoken dialog) version of the opera with his customary sensitivity, and the chorus, including the All-American Boys Chorus, sings the score with vitality and panache.
Opera Pacific's Carmen plays at the Orange County Performing Arts Center February 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 at 7:30PM; February 25 at 2:00 PM Box office: 800 34-OPERA.
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