CARMEN

Ana Maria Martinez and Roberto De Blasio (photo by Ken Howard)

The current trend in opera is "concept".  Directors are falling all over themselves trying to make opera relevant, changing locations, changing time periods, doing all kinds of things to attract new audiences.  We are not among those that appreciate this trend.  Occasionally this fiddling works but more often than not the audience is left baffled.  Such was the case last night at the Santa Fe Opera's Carmen; Bizet's masterpiece was updated to mid-20th c. and moved to somewhere on the Mexican-American border, although that was only revealed piecemeal. The time is ripe for an opera about illegal immigration and the plight of Mexicans but grafting that concept onto an opera that we adore in its original time and place seemed ill-advised.

Bizet's music trumps everything else and if you closed your eyes and listened to Rory Macdonald's apt conducting of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, you might have had a fine time.  With your eyes open, you might have expected to be in Spain with vintage black and white films of bullfights projected onto the set.  The picture of the dead bull might have made you wonder if this was meant to be symbolic of Don Jose's stabbing of Carmen in the final scene. Interestingly enough, that scene does take place in an arena-like area.  But why was Carmen trying to escape through locked doors when she was resigned to dying?

Many other inconsistencies and questions about Stephen Lawless' direction distracted us from enjoying the music.  Why were the girls of the tobacco factory behind bars?  They were dressed in identical uniforms so one wondered whether they were meant to be in prison and given time in the yard for a smoking break.  Why was Escamillo's entrance so tacky, passed out on a mechanical bull?  Why was Micaela standing on the American side of a chain-link fence?  We could go on and on about the inconsistencies and ill-conceived ideas.

Carmen is not just a factory-worker (if that is even true) but she and Frasquita and Mercedes don wildly colorful costumes (by Jorge Jara) as onstage entertainers in Lilas Pastias' tavern while the customers dance the lindy to Bizet's music!  There is more coke-snorting than we would ever want to see onstage-- to no meaningful effect.  Were the smugglers smuggling drugs or were they smuggling "wetbacks".  Why are the "wetbacks" pushing the truck right up to the Border Patrol?  Did we need to see a trashy hooker distracting the border guard so a few illegal immigrants could climb the chain-link fence?

Well, let us move on to what we did like about the production.  Most of the video projections by Jon Driscoll served to open up the story in a cinematic way.  The scene of Micaela tending to Don Jose's critically ill mother gave us some insight into their relationship.  The scene of Micaela and Don Jose attending his mother's funeral showed us that Micaela still had some affection for him; she made sidelong glances meaningful.

Benoit Dugardyn's set design was simple enough not to interfere and was flexible enough to create the soldier's locker room, a prison, a bullfight arena, ramparts and a background for projections.  Pat Collins' lighting was sometimes effective,  creating shadows that highlighted the action; at other times the light fell in the wrong place and the action was cast into darkness.

As Carmen, soprano Ana Maria Martinez created a character that had very little by way of redeeming qualities.  Perhaps it is only that we prefer the role to be sung by a mezzo-soprano but her voice seemed uneven through the wide range Bizet wrote; her voice improved as the evening wore on.       Her acting was forceful but appeared to be based on something that she or the director considered to be sexy. The sexiness did not seem to come from within but rather was based on gyrations and cliched mannerism. 

Tenor Roberto de Biasio also got off to a weak start but improved vocally in the second act. He produced a fine messa di voce.  However, his acting was stiff until he reached places where he was given over to violence.  Baritone Kostas Smoriginas struggled to achieve some dignity and the arrogance the role requires; the direction was not kind to him, what with that mechanical bull and having to hold a microphone onstage and gyrate like Elvis Presley.

We liked Joyce El-Khoury's performance as Micaela; she has an expressive soprano and managed to evoke sympathy which the other principals did not.  Her duet with Don Jose was tender and their hands reaching out toward one another was perhaps the most moving moment of the evening.

The smaller roles were more effective.  Bass-baritone Evan Hughes was outstanding as Zuniga, using his booming voice, imposing height and dramatic skills to create a more interesting character than we are accustomed to.  He too has his eye on Carmen and, by the time his pants are around his ankles in her prison cell,  she has escaped.

Baritone Ricardo Rivera was a strong Morales, also making much of a role that usually makes no impression.

We liked baritone Dan Kempson as Le Dancaire and tenor Noah Baetge as Le Remendado, the two smugglers.  It was amusing to watch their interaction with Carmen's two friends Frasquita (soprano Amanda Opuszynski) and Mercedes (mezzo-soprano Sarah Larsen).  Grant Neale made a slimy Lillas Pastia.

Before ending. we would like to contribute this factoid.  In Mexican bullfights, they do not kill the bull.

(c) meche kroop

SONG OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN

Michael Barrett and Steven Blier

When one thinks of art song and its champions, the two people one thinks of first are Marilyn Horne and Steven Blier.  In January we had an intense exposure to Marilyn Horne who initiated On Wings of Song and last night we had an equally exciting but somewhat different exposure at Steven Blier's 25-year-old New York Festival of Song.  Mr. Blier's offerings are not just vocal, they are also educational.  Just reading the program notes for "Song of the Midnight Sun" gave us a new appreciation for the vocal music of the Scandinavian countries; filled with interesting facts about each composer and the influences upon which their music rests, we felt as if we were exposed to a valuable academic dissertation.

When Mr. Blier speaks, however, his delightful good humor shines through and we get a different sort of appreciation; but when the four Terrance W. Schwab Vocal Rising Stars, fresh from a 12-day mentorship at Caramoor, take the stage, we gain our appreciation experientially.  In its fifth year, the program honors the memory of Caramoor trustee Terrance Schwab and is funded by an endowment in his name.

New Yorkers are not often exposed to Scandinavian songs.  From time to time we hear one of Grieg's more well-known songs but tonight we got to hear songs written by Swedes, Norwegians, Danes and Finns.  We heard Stenhammar, Grieg, Nielsen, de Frumerie, Linde, Rautavaara, Nystroem, Nordqvist, Rangström, Sibelius, Larsson, Sjöberg and Alfvén.  You may be forgiven if these names are unfamiliar.  Although the composers are all different, our ears searched for a common thread.  What all the songs demonstrated was a love of melody, even in the more modern songs. These guys really loved writing for the voice!  We also noted a spare texture in the piano with a couple of exceptions.  But the themes of nature and love are held in common with German lieder.

The program opened with a quartet singing Wilhelm Stenhammar's "I Seraillets have".  What could be lovelier than the beautiful blending of four well-trained voices?  Celebrated soprano Julia Bullock, beautiful Scandinavian-looking mezzo Sarah Larsen, tenor Theo Lebow making his NYFOS debut and award-winning baritone Tobias Greenhalgh composed the quartet.

The program was divided into songs about nature, about night, about the sea, about youth and age and about a "ruined" maid.  Grieg's "Våren" was our personal favorite in the nature category.  The spare texture in the piano writing allowed Mr. Greenhalgh's voice to shine with all its resplendent colors and dynamic variety.  The poet wrote of the pleasures of Spring, the sorrow of thinking it might be his last Spring, and the resignation of knowing that everything ends.  Mr. Greenhalgh captured all these emotions.

Our favorite song in the section about night was Alfvén's "Skogen sover" in which Mr Lebow expressed the tender sentiments with polished phrasing and aching melisma.  We noted some dense and rippling accompaniment in Sibelius' "Var det en dröm?" which was less spare than some of the other songs.

In the section about the sea, Michael Barrett, Associate Artistic Director of NYFOS, took over the piano duties in Nystroem's "Ute i skären" and produced a sound both mystical and impressionistic.

In the section about youth and age, Ms. Bullock evinced a moving depth of feeling as she reminisced about childhood memories in connection with a letter from mother.

The four songs in the "ruined maid" section almost became a cycle, although written by three different composers.  Sibelius' "Im Feld ein Mädchen singt" Mr. Greehalgh sang powerfully against a spare piano and in "Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings mote", also by Sibelius, Ms. Larsen did the mother-daughter drama proud; the mother was concerned and suspicious while the daughter was at first dissembling and later distraught; it was a fine piece of storytelling.

Ms. Bullock's performance of "En svane" was brilliant, conveying the unutterable sadness of a secret love that only revealed itself at the time of death.  Had Mr. Blier not explained the metaphor, we might have continued to believe that the swan was just a swan.

Sending the audience home happy was the result of the encore, the quartet from Act II of Sondheim's "A Little Night Music".
We could not have imagined a better program.  We listened, we learned, we thrilled to the sound of four fine singers and the piano of Mr. Barrett and Mr. Blier.  We want to hear those songs again on future recital programs!

(c) meche kroop