I am in love with Maria Ewing. For a singer to combine such vocal skill with beauty and acting ability is all to rare. Ms. Ewing had me gasping. The supporting cast of Jacque Trussel, Alain Fondart and Miriam Gauci were more than up to the task. The staging was mind boggling and at times reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil. The technical and camera work, however, might have been accomplished by a high school sophomore on his first outing. The technical direction was among the worst I have ever seen. Perhaps circumstances precluded a professional filming. Nonetheless the production itself combined with the performances make me wish that I could have seen this production live. Since we can't, owning this video should be mandatory for any opera lover.
2 Reviews
High in spectacle but a Carmen without the passion and fire
TheLittleSongbird2 January 2015
Warning: Spoilers
It does pain me to say that because Carmen has been a huge personal favourite for many years and I have always enjoyed Maria Ewing's singing. With this production, almost every component here is each mixed in quality, apart from one which is disastrous.
That disastrous component is the camera work, which to say it politely is awful. Along with the 2003 production of Tannhauser it is some of the worst camera work for any opera production that I've seen, a case of being so in love with the performance venue and spending most of the time admiring it that it forgot about the drama going on on stage, when it did focus on the drama it never felt intimate, almost always focusing on something else other than who was singing. From a technical stand-point it's very amateurish with a sense that it was shot by someone who had no idea what to shoot at, where to shoot from and who seemed to be experimenting with different camera angles.
Visually and staging wise, there were some interesting ideas but not all of them came off successfully. The venue was an interesting one and quite grand in scale, but it had a rather drab look to it, at no time feeling like a Sevillian/Spanish backdrop. The costumes are very nice and traditional though and the lighting mostly was effective, apart from a much too darkly lit Act 3(even for that act). The staging did have some interesting ideas, the Act 4 Flamenco dance was hugely enjoyable and there were some nice innovative touches like the abseiling, the use of horses in the Toreadors' procession and Escamillo's arrival in the horse and carriage. On the other hand, the story was lacking in drama and passion, considering that Carmen has one of the most passionate stories of any opera ever this was what brought down the production the most. The choreography was expertly danced but was rarely exciting or inspired(that is including the Act 2 gypsy dance), there was a lot of choreography here and in this case the production to me would have benefited from less choreography and more detail. The relationship between Carmen and Don Jose started off tentative and never really took off, the final scene is one of the most intense endings in all opera when done well but here it had little fire to it. The storytelling often did feel too straightforward and although the cast is large and there was effort with filling the space it did feel like the production was completely swamped within the venue.
Musically the production was also mixed. There is nothing to fault with the orchestral playing, which pulsated with energy and dramatic drive, or the sympathetic but lively conducting, but the chorus was a case of one half being good and the other not so good. The women's chorus were exquisite, their voices carry and blend very well and the rich tone, attentive dynamic contrasts and floating top notes were delightful, as well as their involved stage presence. The men's chorus weren't so good, there are times where they're fine but many others where their singing is sloppy(i.e. their "ecoute, ecoute..." at the start of Act 3, which had little intensity behind the words and it's a little ragged rhythmically) and they're not as motivated as actors. The chorus as a whole don't blend as well as they could and the orchestra do sound too loud for them in places, and actually I think the sound quality and the venue acoustics are a large part of the problem, the women are more prominent than the men and there is a constant and distracting amount of stage noise especially with the wooden track, which takes away from the marvellous music. Furthermore while the children try their hardest there are changes in levels and drop outs that makes their singing inaudible at times(i.e. the Act 4 Les Voici chorus).
With the principal performances, again this was a case of the women being better than the men. Maria Ewing is superb and by far the best thing about the production, Carmen is a very familiar role for her and it shows in her riveting acting and while her voice isn't as creamy as in her other two Carmen productions available it has presence and still sounds beautiful. Miriam Gauci is an incredibly moving Micaela, a character that's notoriously passive but there have been sopranos who managed to allow me to care for her and Gauci is one of them. Her Je Dis Que Rien M'Enpouvente is sung straight from the heart and her voice while slightly mature the voice is of a beautiful and quite affecting timbre. Frasquita and Mercedes are solidly played and sung by Rosemary Asche and Ludmilla Andrew, though there are other productions that do a better job with bringing out their personalities, likewise with Dancaire. Neither of the male leads impressed me all that much. Emile Belcourt is inaudible a lot of the time while Christopher Blades sings very well but not particularly memorable as Zuniga. Alain Fondary has a lovely voice if sometimes unrhythmic but he lacks charisma as Escamillo, which is essential for the character. Even more problematic is the Don Jose of Jacques Trussel, he plays the character's sympathetic traits blandly and rather one-dimensionally and when the character hardens that comes across as forced. On the vocal front, he copes better in the lyrical stuff like the Flower Song where his voice sounds very nice and rings at the top but in the heavier stuff like in the last two acts his voice comes over as very nasal and it's very unpleasant.
In conclusion, has a lot of great things but for such a passionate opera as much as you can admire it for its ambition this production of Carmen was dramatically bland. 5/10 Bethany Cox
That disastrous component is the camera work, which to say it politely is awful. Along with the 2003 production of Tannhauser it is some of the worst camera work for any opera production that I've seen, a case of being so in love with the performance venue and spending most of the time admiring it that it forgot about the drama going on on stage, when it did focus on the drama it never felt intimate, almost always focusing on something else other than who was singing. From a technical stand-point it's very amateurish with a sense that it was shot by someone who had no idea what to shoot at, where to shoot from and who seemed to be experimenting with different camera angles.
Visually and staging wise, there were some interesting ideas but not all of them came off successfully. The venue was an interesting one and quite grand in scale, but it had a rather drab look to it, at no time feeling like a Sevillian/Spanish backdrop. The costumes are very nice and traditional though and the lighting mostly was effective, apart from a much too darkly lit Act 3(even for that act). The staging did have some interesting ideas, the Act 4 Flamenco dance was hugely enjoyable and there were some nice innovative touches like the abseiling, the use of horses in the Toreadors' procession and Escamillo's arrival in the horse and carriage. On the other hand, the story was lacking in drama and passion, considering that Carmen has one of the most passionate stories of any opera ever this was what brought down the production the most. The choreography was expertly danced but was rarely exciting or inspired(that is including the Act 2 gypsy dance), there was a lot of choreography here and in this case the production to me would have benefited from less choreography and more detail. The relationship between Carmen and Don Jose started off tentative and never really took off, the final scene is one of the most intense endings in all opera when done well but here it had little fire to it. The storytelling often did feel too straightforward and although the cast is large and there was effort with filling the space it did feel like the production was completely swamped within the venue.
Musically the production was also mixed. There is nothing to fault with the orchestral playing, which pulsated with energy and dramatic drive, or the sympathetic but lively conducting, but the chorus was a case of one half being good and the other not so good. The women's chorus were exquisite, their voices carry and blend very well and the rich tone, attentive dynamic contrasts and floating top notes were delightful, as well as their involved stage presence. The men's chorus weren't so good, there are times where they're fine but many others where their singing is sloppy(i.e. their "ecoute, ecoute..." at the start of Act 3, which had little intensity behind the words and it's a little ragged rhythmically) and they're not as motivated as actors. The chorus as a whole don't blend as well as they could and the orchestra do sound too loud for them in places, and actually I think the sound quality and the venue acoustics are a large part of the problem, the women are more prominent than the men and there is a constant and distracting amount of stage noise especially with the wooden track, which takes away from the marvellous music. Furthermore while the children try their hardest there are changes in levels and drop outs that makes their singing inaudible at times(i.e. the Act 4 Les Voici chorus).
With the principal performances, again this was a case of the women being better than the men. Maria Ewing is superb and by far the best thing about the production, Carmen is a very familiar role for her and it shows in her riveting acting and while her voice isn't as creamy as in her other two Carmen productions available it has presence and still sounds beautiful. Miriam Gauci is an incredibly moving Micaela, a character that's notoriously passive but there have been sopranos who managed to allow me to care for her and Gauci is one of them. Her Je Dis Que Rien M'Enpouvente is sung straight from the heart and her voice while slightly mature the voice is of a beautiful and quite affecting timbre. Frasquita and Mercedes are solidly played and sung by Rosemary Asche and Ludmilla Andrew, though there are other productions that do a better job with bringing out their personalities, likewise with Dancaire. Neither of the male leads impressed me all that much. Emile Belcourt is inaudible a lot of the time while Christopher Blades sings very well but not particularly memorable as Zuniga. Alain Fondary has a lovely voice if sometimes unrhythmic but he lacks charisma as Escamillo, which is essential for the character. Even more problematic is the Don Jose of Jacques Trussel, he plays the character's sympathetic traits blandly and rather one-dimensionally and when the character hardens that comes across as forced. On the vocal front, he copes better in the lyrical stuff like the Flower Song where his voice sounds very nice and rings at the top but in the heavier stuff like in the last two acts his voice comes over as very nasal and it's very unpleasant.
In conclusion, has a lot of great things but for such a passionate opera as much as you can admire it for its ambition this production of Carmen was dramatically bland. 5/10 Bethany Cox
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