While the Dodgers were continuing their losing ways Saturday at Chavez Ravine, across the freeway at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion the Los Angeles Opera was hitting it out of the park with a marvelous season-opening performance of Georges Bizet’s “Carmen.”
The production stars Puerto Rican mezzo soprano Ana Maria Martinez as the fiery Gypsy temptress; Italian tenor Ricardo Massi (making his LA Opera debut) as Don José the man she ensnares in her web; and Russian bass Alexander Vinogradov as the dashing matador, Escamillo.
There are two elements, however, that made this “Carmen” stand out, turning an evening that could have been totally predictable into something truly special. The first was the conducting of James Conlon leading the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and chorus (prepared by Grant Gershon). The second was the superb ensemble of flamenco dancers whose every heel stomp and fan snap has been perfectly choreographed by Nuria Castejón to precisely match the beats of Bizet’s score. It is an idea that seems so obvious, but in all the “Carmens” I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a few) it’s the first time this level of dance/music synchronicity has been created. Olé!
Everyone knows the music from “Carmen.” It’s been used in every way possible from Bugs Bunny cartoons to selling Bandini fertilizer! It is so familiar that it is easy to think of the opera as simply a series of greatest hits connected by musical interludes.
James Conlon’s performance was a reminder of the musical brilliance of Bizet’s creation. And while the opera’s plot and characters (based on the novella by Prosper Mérimée) may be Spanish to the core, the musical soul of the opera is decidedly French. It was Conlon’s attention to French sensuality of melody and musical texture, combined with brooding drama and effervescent lightness that turned an evening that could have been another go-round for an operatic cliché into a vibrantly rich, emotionally engaging experience.
We expect a lot from our Carmens. We expect her to be beautiful and alluring — a femme fatale with castanets. We expect her to have a powerful mezzo voice as smoky as the cigarette that hangs from her lips. She has to be sultry one moment, fiery, passionate and seductive the next. Ana Maria Martinez captures it all — from her opening seductive rhapsody on the unpredictable nature of love, to her final love/death duet with her jealous former lover, Don José. She looks the part. She sounds the part (except for the castanets). She makes us feel the heat.
For his part, Ricardo Massi’s performance was a slower burn. In act one, his upper register was tenuous and thin. But as the performance progressed his emotional intensity was matched by vocal power, peaking in his knife-drawn duet with Escamillo, impassioned last attempt to win back Carmen’s love and their final tragic confrontation.
With his slim figure, strong baritone voice and machismo presence, Alexander Vinogradov is totally believable as the matador, Escamillo. He’s a man whose swash never buckles.
The entire cast is strong. Sweet voiced Amanda Woodbury plays the steadfast girl from home, Micaëla. Liv Redpath and Kelly O’Connor play Carmen’s comrades in arms, Frasquita and Mercédès. Philip Cokorinos is Captain Zuniga. Juan Carlos Heredia is Moralés. Brian Michael Moore and Theo Hoffman lead the smugglers band. Even the children in the production from the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (directed by Anne Tomlinson) are a delight.
The effective straightforward stage direction is by Ron Daniels.
We’ve seen this production from Teatro Real, Madrid before. But it’s at its best this time around.
LA Opera, “Carmen”
Rating: 4 stars.
Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.
When: 7:30 Sept. 14, 20 and 28; 2 p.m. Sept. 17 and Oct. 1; 7 p.m. Sept. 23 (with a free live simulcast on the Santa Monica Pier and at Exposition Park).
Tickets: $25-$537.
Running time: 3½ hours with two intermissions.
Suitability: OK for all audiences.
Information: laopera.org or 213-972-8001.
