ALL ABOUT CARMEN

 Final tableau--Don José has murdered Carmen

Carmen is Bizet's most successful opera and also one of the most famous in the canon. There is no mystery to explain. The characters are compelling, the plot moves swiftly, and the tunes are eminently hummable.  France saw its birth in 1875, at which time it was known as an "opéra comique" due to the use of spoken dialogue instead of sung recitativo. 

The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The two librettists made essential changes to the original story, as you can see if you read his novella.

 The story is a tragic one but not equal to the tragedy of Bizet dying without knowing how beloved and enduring his final work would become.  Even folks who know nothing about opera will recognize the "Habanera" and "The Toreador Song".

Another tragedy is the contamination of the work we have witnessed so many times as self-serving directors have tampered with the time and place of the opera, the authenticity of which, we believe, is essential to the story. In its time it scandalized the public and broke ground for future verismo operas.

Last night we saw an authentic production, so authentic that we thought the trek to Brooklyn was worth every mile. Fortunately the good folks at Regina Opera have never succumbed to the fad of "making opera relevant". Opera is relevant because it shows us naked passions expressed through memorable melodies!

The three major figures of this dramatic triangle are a naîve soldier from the countryside, a gypsy who works in a tobacco factory with a side hustle as a smuggler, and a famous toreador. The non human character of the story is the belief in the occult. Probably in the 19th century, audiences would have believed in curses and fortune telling. We had no trouble putting ourself in their place!

The opera is called Carmen but it might as well have been called Don José since it is his tragedy as well. Unlike the Don José of the Merimée novella, this man is a simple country boy who has been enchanted by a bruja. Once Carmen has thrown a flower at him and cast her spell, the plot has been set in motion and his fate is sealed. Think of the "fate theme" expressed so eloquently in the overture, a brilliant overture we might add.

Carmen, often trivialized as a hedonistic "free spirit", is actually a narcissistic sociopath who uses one man after another with no regard for the damage she wreaks. Micaëla, on the other hand, is imbued with a genuine caring nature, venturing into the scary city of Sevilla to relay messages from Don José's mother. She is by no means a wimp because she manages to escape from a group of horny soldiers in Act I, and in Act III she screws her courage to the sticking post, as they say, and makes her way into the scary mountains.

Perhaps it was due to the superb performance of soprano Yujin Zeng that our strongest memory from last night was her aria "Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante".  She may be a shy country girl but she is spunky and loyal and will complete her mission come hell or high water. Her faith in God is as strong as Carmen's faith in her occult powers..

The rest of the cast was effective with the fine-voiced mezzo-soprano Melina Jaharis portraying Carmen in a manner that we found excessively and contemporaneously seductive. This  might be the intention of the director Helen Van Tine. Our perception of the character leans more to an intensity of will rather than overly obvious signaling of sexiness

Tenor Christopher Trapani did a fine job of conveying Don José's  

vulnerability to  Carmen's wiles and his desperation at the prospect of losing her. Veteran baritone Robert Garner (whom we have reviewed many times) portrayed Escamillo,  who is always portrayed as the equivalent of a modern day rock star; we see things differently. In Spain, killing the bull is seen as an art, almost a religious ritual, somehow tied to the martyrdom of Jesus. His casual manner when meeting his rival in Act III is confident but not arrogant and showy. He is a rather good natured chap who enjoys his success with women.

We enjoyed the scene with the smugglers and their accomplices, both musically and dramatically. Frasquita was played by soprano Veronica Mak and Mercedes was sung by mezzo-soprano Grace Verbic. Their card reading scene brought some lightness into the scene, contrasting with the death predicting reading of Carmen. The quintet involving Dancaïro (baritone Daniel Chu) and Remendado (tenor Ethan Ellis) was a musical highlight of the evening. The role of Zuniga was performed by Victor Jaquez and Warren B. Harding sang the role of Morales.

Maestro Scott Jackson Wiley conducted the orchestra with his usual fine hand and we particularly appreciated the wind section. The harp and flute accompaniment to Micaëla's aria was a highlight

We were not impressed with the sets. The stage is a shallow one and their bulk detracted from the playing area. Strangely, there were sets of steps that contributed nothing and looked out of place in every scene. We would have wished for better staging.

Let us close by saying that we attended the dress rehearsal and if the lighting was not perfect it will be by tomorrow. It appears that every performance has a different cast; so you, Dear Reader, will probably not experience the same performances as we did.  You will probably never miss the long parade of the costumed participants nor the cheering crowds of Act IV. This production is a more intimate one, focusing on the relationship between the principals; we do hope you will appreciate the traditional nature of the production as much as we did. And if your interpretation of the characters is different from ours, we hope you will comment below.

© meche kroop

AN AUTHENTIC SUOR ANGELICA

 Vita Koreneva and Rachel Hippert

Perhaps the most accurate phrase to express our opinion of Regina Opera's production of Puccini's Suor Angelica would be "well worth the trip". Admittedly it is a long way from Manhattan but where else can a hard core opera lover go to see a production that makes sense by virtue of faithfulness to time and place. We are sick and tired of productions that are shoehorned into some narcissistic director's "concept"!

Suor Angelica is imbued with the values of late 19th - early 20th century Italy. Girls who got pregnant were considered a shame upon their families' reputation and were consigned to the convent as punishment for their sins. Nowadays in the United States, single women who want a child barely think twice about deliberately achieving the state of motherhood. The opera does not translate well. 

Here we have Director Helen Van Tine not only giving us the real McCoy but also appending an original moment that touched us deeply, even though we are of a pagan nature. We hesitate to tell you about it because we would like you, Dear Reader, to attend one of the several upcoming performances and experience the moment for yourself. It must be said that singers make the best directors and in a perfect world we would banish all the self-important directors and send them back to Europe or Hollywood or wherever they came from.

So now that you know how highly we regard Regina Opera, let us tell you some specifics. The opera has been cast with a rotating cast of talented young singers, all of whom threw themselves into their roles with enthusiastic intent. The cast we saw at the dress rehearsal included soprano Rachel Hippert as the eponymous Suor Angelica and mezzo-soprano Vita Koreneva as La Principessa. The latter was of particular interest because, by subtle gestures, she permitted us to see a more well rounded character than we have previously seen.

We have been primed by prior productions to hate this woman who has banished her niece to a convent and only visited her after years of neglect. But what Ms. Koroneva showed us was a woman who was obliged to hide her sorrow out of duty to her aristocratic family and society. As she leaves the convent with the legal papers she brought for Angelica's signature, you could see her ambivalence in her glance and posture. We felt sorry for the character who must ensure the successful marriage of her other niece. This evoked the same feelings in us as when Germont Père in Verdi's La Traviata is well portrayed so that we can experience his softer side.  Now that's artistry!

Ms. Hippert also demonstrated the anguish of her character in "Senza Mamma" --the conflict between wanting to join her son in heaven and the guilt experienced by wanting to take her own life. We were allowed to experience her ambivalence without judging. This made the ending very satisfying. We confess that we were so taken with the storytelling aspect that we focused less on the voices, only remembering that all of the voices were better than adequate for their roles. This is an ensemble opera with a large cast all of whom were fine.. Due to the costuming it was difficult to tell the roles apart except for Sister Genovieffa who sang of missing the lambs that she used to tend; Margaux Frohlich made an impression with a very sweetly colored soprano.

There wasn't much opportunity for originality in the costuming but Marcia C. Kresge did well by La Principessa, giving the character a very believable regal Italianate appearance.

An English language translation of Giovacchino Forzano's libretto was projected very legibly and without glitch so we would like to commend Linda Cantoni.

Maestro Scott Jackson Wiley conducted his fine orchestra with sensitivity and subtlety, never overpowering the voices. In an unusual move, instead of filling out the evening with one or both of the other operas in Puccini's Il Trittico, Mo. Wiley programmed two concerti, each featuring a member of the orchestra. We enjoyed Nathan McKinstry's trumpet in a Haydn Concerto and. Anna Lien in a Harp concerto by Händel.  This programming decision allowed the full impact of the opera to sink in without the distraction of the violent Il Tabarro or the humorous Gianni Schicchi.

Before ending, we would like to share a bit of information that we never knew until we researched it. One of the earliest performances of Suor Angelica took place in the Tuscan convent to which Puccini's sister belonged. He played the score on the piano and sang all the roles himself; it was reported that all the nuns wept. Perhaps you will weep too when you see it...and we truly hope that you do. All subsequent performances will take place at 3:00PM this weekend and next.  Don't miss it!

© meche kroop

MOZART FOR YOU; MOZART FOR ME; MOZART FOR EVERYONE

Christa Hylton, Georgios Papadimitriou, John Schenkel-photo by Steve Faust

We never tire of Mozart and Nozze di Figaro may just be our favorite.  Otherwise why would we have spent an hour on the subway (each way) to catch Regina Opera Company's final performance?  Was it worth the trip?  Yes it was.  The opera was presented in its entirety with every line of recitative intact.  The opera itself is a perfect marriage of music and text with an endless stream of melodies, marvelous opportunities for singers to show their stuff in glorious arias, sympathetic characters and trenchant social commentary.    Although several characters created by Lorenzo da Ponte seem derived from commedia del'arte, the master's hand is evident as he limns their humanity, flaws and all, and develops their respective characters over the course of the opera.  If any reader has read or seen the Beaumarchais plays from which Da Ponte derived his libretto, we hope you will comment below.  We saw his Marriage of Figaro last season at the Pearl Theater and enjoyed it thoroughly but still prefer the opera.

The Regina Opera's sets (by Director Linda Lehr) were simple but workable and the same could be said for the costumes.  The casting was astute and there were some fine performances to enjoy.  As the eponymous hero, bass-baritone Georgios Papadimitriou was outstanding, both vocally and dramatically; he created a Figaro who was charming and wily, completely focused on outwitting Count Almaviva (baritone Julian Whitley) who was intent on obstructing Figaro's marriage. Clever Susanna was sung by the adorable Jenny Ribeiro whose "Deh vieni non tardar" was incredibly beautiful and taken at a slow tempo; the audience burst into applause prematurely and nearly missed her magnificent cadenza.  The sad and neglected Countess Almaviva was well sung by Christina Rohm who deserved the large round of applause she got for "Dove sono".

Another splendid performance was turned in by mezzo Danielle Horta as Cherubino, pleasing the audience with her "Non so più" and "Voi che sapete".  As Marcellina, mezzo Christa Hylton  had us giggling every time she came onstage with her ridiculous hat with yellow feathers and her expressive face.  She handled the transition from the vengeful creditor who wanted her "pound of flesh" from Figaro to his generous loving mother without missing a beat.  Another hilarious performance was given by tenor Alejandro Salvia as the foppish Don Basilio, sporting a bright pink wig and turquoise satin breeches--a vision to be sure.

Bass-baritone John Schenkel was a most convincing Dr. Bartolo but had some problems projecting his voice.  This might be due to the split-level pit, an unfortunate situation due to a lack of space (strings at conductor-level and winds buried behind and below) .  Another consequence of this situation was a degree of imbalance in the orchestra which was conducted by Maestro Scott Jackson Wiley. There was, however, no imbalance among the voices in the gorgeous duets and ensembles.

Antonio was played by Gene Howard and his daughter Barbarina by Nicole Leone.  Don Curzio was performed by Brian Ribeiro.  Special mention must be made of the fine chorus.

© meche kroop