By Steve Dow
Each man kills the thing he loves. Georges Bizet, composer of the opera Carmen, didn't write those words - it was Oscar Wilde - but the two tenors playing Carmen's thwarted lover Don Jose in Sydney's alternating ''Bolero'' and ''Flamenco'' casts in Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour must (spoiler alert) enact them.
New York mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham is the ''best Carmen ever'', says Ukrainian-born Dmytro Popov, the Don Jose in the opera's Bolero cast.
All in the eyes: Dmytro Popov and Rinat Shaham from the Bolero cast.Credit: Marco Del Grande
''For me, it's really difficult to kill her because, for my opinion, she does not deserve it,'' laughs Popov, 32, whose performance has been lauded by the Herald's Peter McCallum as ''superb'' and ''impassioned''.
''Every time she [Shaham] sees my eyes, [I think]: 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.''
Close contacts: Milijana Nikolic and Adam Diegel in the Flamenco cast.Credit: James Morgan
“I don’t have to build anger especially; I have everything in my blood and my body ... every man has [had] a woman like Carmen.”
The Flamenco cast's Carmen, Serbian-born, Brisbane-based 185-centimetre mezzo-soprano Milijana Nikolic, is a ''beautiful artist and a sweet person'', says her Don Jose, tenor Adam Diegel, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and now lives in New York.
''I tap into former life experiences,'' says Diegel, 38, of the ''knife moment'' that comes in act four . ''A heartbreak or an argument - you do a little projection onto the character of Carmen - certainly not Milijana, of course."
As violence against women on the stage goes, Carmen, whose eponymous tale made its debut in Paris in 1875, was ''one among a long line of singing women who in the final act are strangled, crushed, shot, stabbed and put in sacks, drowned, poisoned or cast into a vat of boiling oil'', writes Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker in their new book, A History of Opera.
Two tenors: Adam Diegel from the US and Dmytro Popov from the Ukraine.Credit: Sahlan Hayes
But Gale Edwards, the director of Opera Australia’s production, calls Carmen a “revolutionary thinker, far ahead of her time” who was “fighting for things only recently achieved by women”.
It is Diegel's sixth production as Don Jose and not the first time he has been paired with a tall Carmen.
Ahead of her time: Carmen director Gale Edwards, front left, during rehearsals with stars Rinat Shaham, top, and Milijana Nikolic, right.Credit: Tamara Dean
''When I saw Milijana, I said: 'Wow. I know why I got this job.' I'm barely about two inches taller than she is,'' he says.
Indeed, Nikolic, who wears contact lenses, has literally found Diegel provides a gentlemanly shoulder on the production's raked, raised outdoor stage.
Every man has had a woman like Carmen.
''Last night I noticed in her contacts I could see that they were getting really cloudy and very dirty,'' Diegel says.
''At the end of the third act, she said to me: 'I can't see anything.' And so I had to kind of guide her down the stairs.''
A third tenor, David Corcoran, of Melbourne, had been due to share the role of Don Jose but was dropped from the role.
Corcoran's agent declined to comment and Opera Australia's artistic director, Lyndon Terracini, ''does not wish to comment as he feels it will set a precedent about discussing casting decisions'', a spokeswoman said.
Popov and Diegel came to opera very differently.
Popov came from a poor background in Ukraine but began training as a baritone at just 17 at the Kharkiv University of Arts in Kiev, the only teen among 20-something students.
An 88-year-old singing teacher, Tamara Veske, then began guiding him as a tenor, which Popov at first resisted because it was ''not very natural for the man''. He made his professional debut at 22.
In January this year, Popov was brought in to cover Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon as Rodolfo in La Boheme at Covent Garden, and the performance was screened in cinemas around the world.
Diegel had been working at an investment company and didn't start singing until he was 26, after a choir leader singled him out to perform a solo in his church choir.
These days, he is a regular at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
But singing outdoors poses both of them challenges. Says Diegel: “Last night was especially difficult because the wind was really blowing hard and that’s a sensation I’ve never experienced before. It’s a very unnatural feeling.”
There’s also the half-second sound delay, says Popov: “It’s difficult to sing outside because it’s not natural how we’re singing with microphones. You’re hearing your voice on the loudspeaker, and it’s a little bit like, you know, some jetlag.”
Carmen's Bolero cast performs April 2, 4, 6, 9 and 11; Flamenco cast April 3, 5, 7, 10 and 12. Extra performances April 13 and 14 on sale Tuesday.