Passion and precision as Carmen sets stage alight

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Passion and precision as Carmen sets stage alight

By David Vance

Carmen

Opera Australia

Nancy Fabiola Herrera as Carmen and the Opera Australia Chorus.

Nancy Fabiola Herrera as Carmen and the Opera Australia Chorus.Credit: Branco Gaica

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House, February 3

Francesca Zambello's admired production of Bizet's Carmen, first mounted for Opera Australia in 2008 and repeated in 2011, returns this season, adding its own incendiary dangers to summer. Smoke and fire are present in every act, metaphorically portraying the deceptions, passions and tragedy of the action, staged on a bold set glowing in orange and yellows.

If this production seems to smoulder, it does so particularly because its two main protagonists sing with an intensity that burns into the soul. Nancy Fabiola Herrera invests Carmen with sensuous magnetism that attracts an almost hypnotic attention. She is danger personified, and those she attracts are playing with fire. Her allure rests not only in her charismatic stage presence but in the richness and warmth of a voice which is wonderfully even across its range yet capable of a wide spectrum of colours that perfectly match mood with text.

Dmitro Popov is the ideal Don Jose, bringing into strong focus his struggle to reconcile private desire with public duty. His vocal lyricism was imbued with great tenderness, though was also capable of searing intensity which captured his dilemma. As the blandly virtuous Micaela, Natalie Aroyan found herself replacing an indisposed Sharon Prero, meeting the challenge with growing accuracy and confidence in a voice of pleasing hues. Less commanding a figure was Michael Honeyman in his role debut as the toreador, Escamillo. His vocal portrayal has yet to develop sufficient spark to suggest that Carmen would be attracted to his bullfighting machismo.

More interesting were the voices of the smugglers, Luke Gabbedy (Dancairo) and Sam Roberts-Smith (Remendado) whose scenes were played with a swaggering bravado and lusty singing befitting the tough guys. Christopher Hillier (Morales) and Adrian Tamburini (Zuniga) similarly impressed in the depiction of their masculine military world. Jane Ede (Frasquita) and Tania Ferris (Mercedes) were a lively and beguiling pair, negotiating the capricious card trio with a captivating light-heartedness, the perfect foil for Carmen's broodingly ominous predictions.

Anthony Walker maintained a brisk energy in the pit, if sometimes at the expense of textual clarity, as in the quintet, or perhaps for the want of a more lascivious Habanera, but he drew excellent playing from the orchestra in which, particularly, the woodwind crackled like flames. A large and lively chorus of adults and children on a sometimes overcrowded stage performed with precision and vitality, helping to make this production a sure-fire summer hit.

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