Bizet's Carmen

[RcGu...@aol.com]

Hi opera fans,

The second MET in HD offering of this season will be Saturday, November 1, at 9:55 AM.  Read the following review, which is far from enthusiastic (and confirms my feelings about this production's Carmen, Anita Rachvelishvili).  If up to three of you want to attend in Redwood City, I can offer rides to the first three persons who tell me they need them.

 

Encore:

Wednesday, November 5 at 6:30 pm PST

 

Some of you know, and some of you have asked, where else to see the showing.  The other reasonably close venue is Palo Alto Square, El Camino at Page Mill.

 

Cheers,
Dick Gunther   650 854 6620

   

A Couple Drawn Together by Fate as Much as Desire

Anita Rachvelishvili in Richard Eyre’s ‘Carmen’ at the Met

By ZACHARY WOOLFE    OCT. 1, 2014

Anita Rachvelishvili, with Aleksandrs Antonenko, in the title role of Richard Eyre's "Carmen" at the Met. Credit Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

Near the end of Bizet’s “Carmen,” minutes before the title character is brutally murdered by her former lover, Don José, her friends tell her to watch out: José is nearby. “I am not the kind of woman to tremble before him,” she retorts.

But what kind of woman is Carmen? There are few characters in opera so malleable. Regina Resnik played her with lots of cigarettes and a hearty laugh. Maria Callas, who only recorded the role, was dreamy and intimate. Risë Stevens was impulsive, Rosa Ponselle pugnacious. All worked.

The Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili, in a lukewarm revival of “Carmen” that opened at the Metropolitan Opera on Tuesday, is grim and no-nonsense in the role, a melancholy specter in a melancholy production, originally staged in 2009 by Richard Eyre, whose version of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” opened the Met’s season last week.

Mr. Eyre’s show offers brooding and sternness more than sensuality or high spirits. With Carmen’s trudging endlessly forward and José’s looking shellshocked and vacant eyed, operagoers could be forgiven for thinking they had accidentally wandered into a performance of Berg’s “Wozzeck.”

Massimo Cavalletti, center, and Ms. Rachvelishvili, in "Carmen." Credit Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

That’s not necessarily a criticism. Watching Ms. Rachvelishvili stare stonily at the tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko, as Don José, I was aware as never before of the opera’s conceit that these characters have been thrown together, mostly miserably, by fate. They love each other without ever much liking each other.

The trouble with this revival is: If you don’t feel that electric tug of destiny uniting Carmen and José, the opera — especially given Rob Howell’s stark sets — can feel more dingy and plodding than potent. Without dark chemistry coursing between the two, it’s hard to care about their struggle.

Ms. Rachvelishvili in this production of "Carmen" at the Met. Credit Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

Part of the problem is Pablo Heras-Casado’s lithe, agile, expansive, even leisurely conducting, fine on its own merits but not a proper match for this severe production. When this “Carmen” was new, it was led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, whose take on the score was occasionally propulsive to a fault, but with a blunt, savage energy that better suited, and heated, the mood.

Though Tuesday’s performance never really ignited, the conditions were certainly right for some fire: four youthful, powerful voices in the leading roles. Anita Hartig, as Micaëla, has a strongly vibrating, dark-toned soprano with character, if also a tendency to turn sharp under pressure. The baritone Massimo Cavalletti sang the toreador Escamillo smoothly and evenly; while not ideally suave, he had casual charm.

Early in the performance, Mr. Antonenko tended to sing each line, however intimate, like he was summoning an army into battle, which made for thrilling, ringing high notes and a relentless quality elsewhere. But his nuances increased as the evening went on.

If Ms. Rachvelishvili’s blooming voice loses some texture and presence in its middle range, it blazes when she leans on it at the top and bottom. And her defiantly gloomy portrayal had a daring disregard for the insouciant smile flashing of many takes on the role. Her Carmen was more interesting than this “Carmen.”

Approximate running time 3:40