Carmen
Carmen By Georges Bizet
Directed by Alan Bruun
Musical Direction by Christopher Wilkins
Starring Kirstin Chávez, Luis Ledesma, Richard Troxell
Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra at The Bob Carr Performing Arts Center, Orlando, FL
February 26, 2010</strong>
Chivalry is dead – when’s the last time a woman told you: “I’m through with you – kill me if you must”? Iberian romance was lustier, deadlier, and more tuneful in the old days, and even with the recent demise of the Orlando Opera Company, it’s good to see that melodrama sung in foreign tongues is still available in Orlando. I parked my car in an ethnically diverse area and briskly walked the half mile or so past the reserved parking for the yawner of the George Straight / Reba McEntire concert, arriving in time to catch a preshow talk by directors Alan Bruun and Christopher Wilkins. They explained the plot of this about this classic opera (ranked number 5 in the Top Operas produced in America) , gushing over the glories of the book, the emotional depth of the music, and relating the late night cell phone calls made to cast the show. Since sets are non-existent they left us to imaging the Carmen of our innermost dreams, so I took the easy path and closed my eyes to imagine post modern post meltdown minimalism. There was no amplification, but with the orchestra behind the action instead of in the pit the actor’s voices project where they count. It worked well; the large platform rising over a foot above the stage held most of the cast of gypsies, supernumeraries and garrison soldiers.
The story of Carmen follows the extremes of operatic melodrama, but Bizet abandons the high ideals of Gods and Titans and takes us into the world of common people, and acknowledges that raw lust sells more tickets than moral lectures. Carmen (Chávez) flirts with the soldiers, her cleavage heaving as she pole dances with a bentwood chair. After she gets in a minor brawl in the cigarette factory, Don Jose (Troxell) takes a two month fall for her after she promises him a wild night of love. She was thinking one night stand and he was thinking engagement ring from Zale’s, but he latches on to her and she leads him in to a life of crime. Things complicate when the erotically charged toreador Escamillo (Ledesma) enters. It’s not just his tight pants, sequins and probably early, bloody death that makes him attractive – it’s the fact that Escamillo gets “The Toreador Song” and poor Don Juan barely gets decent leif motif. Carmen shames him into deserting, and won’t let him visit his dying mother when she’s done with him. When Carmen and her friends Frasquita (Susan Diaz) and Mercédès (Sarah Limper) throw tarot, they see lusty or moneyed men in their future while Carmen sees only death for her and her man, who may or may not be Don José.
Everyone’s big boogey man at the Carr is its reputation for dead acoustics. I lucked out; Orchestra Right in Row L has a nice even sound with everyone on stage coming across distinctly if not with gut wrenching power. The orchestra sounded bright and crisp, my only complaint a weak kettle drum in the overture, but that cleared up as the show rolled along. Both Carman and Don José were in fine voice and they captured the essence of impetuous love and utter disregard for Judeo – Christian morality. Escamillo was a bit throaty, although I enjoyed his reunion with Don Jose in the mountain pass – “Oh, you’re still seeing her? She should be done with you about now. So, sorry, old chap, I’ll wait over there” is the subtext, and the relative values of sex vs. chivalric love are never more clear cut. Don José’s true blue girlfriend Micaëla (Janette Zilioli) had here great aria at the end of the show – I likes the song, but by the time she sang Don José was beyond redemption. There were upwards of 40 people on stage at times, and Bruun’s direction kept them in line and, even the flock of young children helping change the guard at the beginning were cute and funny and never icky heartwarming.
So, Opera with big sets and big spectacle may be gone from Central Florida until Arena Ex Machina fixes the local economy, but as a cost effective stop gap, the Semi-Staged Concert Opera is a worthwhile experience for the classically cultured. The parking may be a pain, but the sound was much better than I hoped and I can truly say I followed the whole story and never got lost in the French.
For more information on the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra Concert Opera Series, please visit http://www.OrlandoPhil.org.
