Removed from the exotic visual context we know, Carmen’s overtly sexual behavior seems bizarre. The setting also has unhappy side effects on the story. The audience was more colorfully dressed than the cast. Instead of ruffled skirts, bare shoulders and tight Toreador pants, we get espadrilles, blue jeans and floppy scarves. The 1970s were a time of sexual freedom, but the hair and clothes seem tacky now. Stage director Michael Cavanagh set this new production in Seville in the mid-1970s, which meant Jessica Jahn’s costumes had to play along. (Then again, Don José is probably the opera’s most demanding acting role.)īizet set his opera in Seville around 1830. (Siena Forest and Bergen Baker – Frasquita and Mercédès – were also strong they’ll appear in every performance.) Davila’s voice is beautiful, but his acting as the besotted, then jilted, then rage-filled soldier Don José could have been better. As Micaëla, the innocent peasant girl, Sølberg did some of the best singing of the night. It takes real confidence to play the sensual, free-spirited Carmen and the strutting bullfighter Escamillo Sourouzian and Ketelsen have it to spare, with voices up to the challenge. (The second cast features Minnesota Opera resident artist alum Victoria Vargas and rising stars Shannon Prickett, Cooper Nolan and Richard Ollarsaba.) The principal roles – Carmen, Micaëla, Don José and Escamillo – are being shared by two casts we saw the first, with Nora Sourouzian, Marita Sølberg, Rafael Davila and Kyle Ketelsen. With Michael Christie conducting, the orchestra and chorus sounded wonderful. Opening night was musically satisfying and often thrilling. Over the weekend, the Minnesota Opera began a much-anticipated run of nine “Carmen” performances, with record-breaking ticket sales before the first curtain rose. In fact, it’s more soap than opera, complete with seduction, rejection, and murder. There isn’t a boring note anywhere, the story is full of drama, and it’s not too highbrow. Even if you don’t know the opera, you’ve almost certainly heard some of the tunes: the ominous fate theme, the steamy “Habanera,” the “Toreador” song. From the first pants-on-fire notes of the overture, it’s full of hummable gems. Bizet’s “Carmen” is one of the world’s most popular operas, and no wonder.
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