Review: In SF Opera’s ‘Carmen,’ a secondary character steals the show

Matthew Polenzani (left) and J’Nai Bridges in Bizet’s “Carmen” at S.F. Opera. Photo: Cory Weaver / S.F. Opera

Is there a blander or more sexless operatic character than Micaëla in Bizet’s “Carmen”? She simpers, she blushes, she almost certainly goes to church on the regular; she’s the girl Mom wants you to marry, and you know you should, but you don’t actually want to.

So when Micaëla emerges as the most complex and fascinating figure on stage — as she did in the largely inert “Carmen” that opened at San Francisco Opera on Wednesday, June 5, to begin the company’s three-opera summer season — it’s a sign of the world turned upside down. And not necessarily in a good way.

Like Don José, the soldier briefly torn between rectitude and desire, this is a production with half a mind to do the right and expected thing — in this case, to bring Bizet’s tumultuous musical drama to vivid, seething, erotic life. But one way or another, its heart isn’t quite in the task.

Both mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges as the implacably alluring and free-spirited Carmen and tenor Matthew Polenzani as Don José are undertaking their roles for the first time, and on opening night neither singer sounded more than part of the way toward a full mastery of their assignments, either vocally or dramatically. Bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen, who made an exciting company debut way back in 2006 as the bullfighter Escamillo, returned for a stiff and unmodulated reprise of the part.

In his company debut, conductor James Gaffigan drew taut, splendid playing from the Opera Orchestra in purely instrumental moments — both the Act 1 Prelude and the Entr’acte before Act 3 shone — but too often let the rhythmic life seep out of the dramatic scenes. Francesca Zambello’s production, staged here by associate director Denni Sayers, felt listless. Even Ian Robertson’s mighty Opera Chorus, usually so robustly forceful in this music, now sounded timorous and murky.

Into the void stepped Anita Hartig, a Romanian soprano making her company debut as Micaëla – and suddenly, for just a few all-too-brief shining moments, there was something happening on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House that truly seemed to matter.

Anita Hartig and Matthew Polenzani in Bizet’s “Carmen” at S.F. Opera. Photo: Cory Weaver / S.F. Opera

“Carmen” was no longer a question of whether some guy would be led astray by a femme fatale, or whether she would throw him over for some other guy. Indeed, the piece’s dicey sexual politics — which have to be handled so carefully if this work is not to come off as a bourgeois morality tale about the toxic danger of female sexuality — have rarely seemed so irrelevant.

Instead, Hartig recast things as a drama about the one mature adult in a world of heedless, impulse-ridden children. In this version, Micaëla’s mission — to draw Don José home to his ailing mother and away from the military posting where lures and entrapments surround him — was no longer a tiresome tug toward respectability, but an exhortation to embrace the rewards of real life.

Hartig conjured up those rewards through a vocal performance of gleaming steel, singing with a splendid combination of insinuating power, eloquent phrasing and complex vocal colorings. In her Act 1 duet with Don José, she effortlessly outshone Polenzani, which upset the musical balance but made the dramatic stakes all the more unmistakable. Hartig’s expansive, heart-stirring rendition of Micaëla’s Act 3 aria — as the poor woman musters all her courage to venture into the mountainous wilds to rescue Don José from a life of crime — was the unrivaled high point of the evening.

There were aspects of the staging, too, to support this dramatic realignment. Micaëla’s farewell kiss to Don José in Act 1 — usually a chaste peck on the cheek, if it exists at all — was now a smoldering, long-held smooch that spelled out in a fresh way everything this fool was about to give up. And having Micaëla on hand at the bullring to observe the opera’s fateful conclusion in dismay was an ingenious invention that, again, made the failure of her quest central.

Kyle Ketelsen and J’Nai Bridges in Bizet’s “Carmen” at S.F. Opera Photo: Cory Weaver / S.F. Opera

But Micaëla is on the scene for only a limited time, and the rest of the evening was devoted to the others.

Bridges, who made such a formidable contribution to the 2017 world premiere of John Adams’ “Girls of the Golden West,” struggled to endow Carmen with much vitality or vocal pizzazz, often blending undetectably into the crowd scenes (to be fair, the lighting design gave her no help at all). Polenzani’s vague phrasing and patchy top notes made Don José seem even more irresolute than ever.

There were first-rate turns from bass David Leigh as the hapless lieutenant Zuniga, and from Adler Fellows SeokJong Baek as Moralès and Natalie Image and Ashley Dixon as Carmen’s gal pals. There was even a horse, Drogen by name, because why not?

Yet as long as Hartig was anywhere in the vicinity, this was a “Carmen” about Micaëla and her travails. That’s not what Bizet wrote, certainly, but it will have to do.

“Carmen”: S.F. Opera. Through June 29. $26-$398. War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., S.F. 415-864-3330. www.sfopera.com 

  • Joshua Kosman
    Joshua Kosman Joshua Kosman is The San Francisco Chronicle’s music critic. Email: jkosman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshuaKosman