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| March 16th, 2006 |
| Source: Jim Edwards, Aurora Beacon All
rights reserved. |
The best review for a great singing actor such as Viktoria Vizin was
written 85 years ago, in 1921, by a
Chicago music critic to describe superstar Mary Garden: "There are
no words to tell of her savagery, her beauty. The terrible
fascination she throws over her victims and her audience as well.
She must be seen to
be believed." Young Hungarian-born Vizin debuted at Lyric Opera last
Thursday afternoon in the demanding role of Carmen. She came. She
sang. She conquered — and with ease, I might add. Vizin is a
performer in the mold set by Mary Garden all those years ago who
always played to a packed house.
Her secret? She could act, possessed great beauty and sang to
supplement her other two qualities. When
Garden appeared, men with binoculars accompanied their wives to the
opera. She was something to see up
close—and so is Vizin.
Only close-up can one fully appreciate how good Vizin is in her
role. It is not only that her voice draws us
in. Her smoky mezzo is certainly acceptable, although never able to
rattle the rafters. It is that she is so very
much a fine actress.
She is able to flesh out the role of Carmen on all the fronts,
creating a Carmen glowing with a primal, animal
sheen. What she brings to the role is what only the very finest can
muster. To honor this rare skill, music
lovers grant women the title of "Diva."
Singing Carmen is old hat for Vizen. She has sung the role in the
Aalto Musik-theatre in Essen, the Deutsche
Opera am Rhein in Dusseldorf and the Pittsburgh Opera. Her natural
way with the role comes from her early
years in Hungary. "Coming from Eastern Europe, I was with gypsies on
a daily basis. They have a free soul
and live life as it comes, and they have a rhythm in their blood. It
is Carmen's personality, her feminine mind
on top of everything else, that make men so enraptured with. Yes,
she is sexy, but her soul and her brains
make her a complete and unique woman" stated Vizin in the program
notes.
What exactly does Vizin do to keep our eyes focused on herself?
Vizin does not do what another great Diva,
Maria Jeritza, did to attract extra attention (singing the most
famous aria from Tosca belly to the floor of the
stage). But Vizin pulls out every other trick in the hat to call us
to her finely tuned performance of Carmen,
She dances and moves across the stage with all the skill of a
ballerina, and uses her physical dexterity to
effectively portray a seductress capturing the attention of the
solders milling around on stage.
The most aural and visual excitement in Carmen comes in Act II when
Vizen and two other gypsies dance
and play their tambourines on three tables center stage. The great
electricity now happening on stage
inspired the orchestra to deliver their best sounds of the evening,
loud and rowdy.
The Don Jose for the March performances of Carmen is Italian tenor
Vincenzo La Scola who slowly but
surely gets into the dramatic story unfolding on stage. La Scola has
a good voice, but just shy of coming
across as clear and lyrical. As the singing mate to Vizin it would
have almost impossible not to deliver even
better singing as the opera unfolded.
Bass-baritone Mark S. Doss plays the part of the vain bullfighter
Escamillo. Doss sings the famous Toreador
Song half way down a wooden staircase. This spot did not work out
very well. One could tell that Doss was
struggling to be heard. If Doss had been singing from the main floor
closer to the audience his jerky labored
notes would have been reinforced by the floor and sent out into the
audience with less strain on his part.
The entire opera company gels in this fine production. Set Designer
Robin Don has delivered a masterpiece.
Everything was picture perfect and, yes, the walls in this Carmen do
look hot as the designer intended. The
costumes are rich and yet not overdone frilly as is so often done in
other productions. Credit this rich pallet
of Spanish colors found on stage to Costume Designer Robert
Perdziola. Donald Palumbo worked his usual
magic with the various choruses.
With such a picture perfect Carmen only one final thing sticks out
like a sore thumb. The most dramatic
moment in the opera when Carmen is finally done in by Don Jose is
marred by a clean bladed knife which
has supposedly been plunged into Carmen. Clean as a whistle after
the homicide. Since Don Jose's back is to
the audience (so that we can view Vizin's superb face of death),
only then does he draw out the knife from
his waist band. The knife can therefore be bloody red from the start
and held into the air for maximum drama
as he turns to face the audience.
The onstage enthusiasm was not matched by much action in the pit.
Davis's band needed to play less lyrical
and crank up a mariachi band sound, or at least a good Broadway Show
go at the music. Carmen ain't set in
the quaint romantic streets of Paris.
Congratulations to those wise Lyric Opera fans who took a chance on
this Carmen cast. For everyone else,
beg, borrow or steal tickets to one of the last two performances,
You will not regret it! |
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