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| Monday, March 29, 2004 |
| By Andrew Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette |
| That shady dame from Seville is back in town
again, although this time the production played hard-to-get. |
Director James Robinson's forte is in re-interpreting operas
with vivid colors and broad strokes. This co-production of Bizet's "Carmen"
for the Pittsburgh Opera and several other companies was as daring as his
earlier "Turandot" or "Lucia di Lammermoor," but subtle and cryptic. The
ingenuity of the set and the liberties of the staging gave veteran watchers
of the masterpiece clever twists, while the traditional costumes and
excellent singing made it a good first "Carmen" for anyone. However, the
reading somewhat diluted the expected passion of the tragic tale.
Unveiled Saturday night at the Benedum Center, the set seemed to brilliantly
mirror the mindset of Don Jose (Yevgeni Shapovalov) through a peek into an
alternate dimension, a play within a play that happens on another stage.
The curtain opened on a representation of an old French opera comique,
complete with elementary two-dimensional scenery and stock staging. Viktoria
Vizin played Carmen with less smoldering sexiness than the role needs, but
it fit the concept.
By Act 3, however, as Jose's world unravels as fast as Carmen's infatuation
with him, we saw this theater from the reverse point of view: from just
behind its stage. With deft symbolism, the theater's roof has been burned
through, as if by the very fire of Jose's love/obsession for the gypsy.
This other hall serves as the smuggler's hideout and the bullfighter's ring,
but its interpretive purpose was made clear in the finale where Jose
feverishly dreams of meeting Carmen. Reality and his mental state erode so
that the march of the toreadors passes right by him in an intriguing
juxtaposition. It's not even apparent if Jose ever actually murders her or
if he imagines it, though she certainly has killed him.
This is a sophisticated overlay to the famous opera, especially when
considering the conventional look of the set and the period costumes. What
Robinson and stage director Brad Dalton actually meant to happen is unclear:
Did Jose just see a play and fall in love with the unapproachable lead? Did
he go so insane that he sees no one but Carmen at the end? Or is it even a
statement on how "Carmen" itself transformed the opera comique
genre?
I can appreciate it all cognitively, but Carmen, as she sings in the
Habanera, is not one to be fettered. Holding back the traditional
description of the flirtatious hothead allowed for an interesting reading,
but it lost some of the essence of the play, even in its original version
with spoken French dialogue (done quite well).
But if Vizin, in her American debut in a role she has done many times,
wasn't the smoldering sexpot, it was easy to see why she is sought-after in
this role. She's attractive and sings with excellent timbre. Shapovalov's
burnished voice and musical phrasing were matched by a compelling fall from
grace. He simply looked pathetic in the last act, beaten up on the inside.
Mel Ulrich's Escamillo needed more charisma, however.
A standout was Carolyn Betty, a Pittsburgh Opera Center soprano, as Micaela,
she impressed with a sinewy voice and supple dynamics. In total, the
company's apprentice singers have never been better, including Daniel
Teadt's compelling double cast as Morales and Dancaire and Krzysztof
Kowalewski's pleasantly detestable Zuniga. The chorus of the cigarette girls
was well-matched.
Outstanding on the podium, conductor John Mauceri provided extra cues to
members of the Children's Festival Chorus of Pittsburgh and in general
propelled the orchestra through a vivacious account of this famous score.
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