WITH ITS instantly recognisable score and a love story bristling with thwarted passions, Georges Bizet’s Carmen is undoubtedly among the most popular operas in existence.
Next week Opera Theatre Company bring their vibrant new staging of this enduring classic to the Town Hall Theatre on Saturday May 11 at 8pm.
Carmen tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy, Carmen. Besotted, José abandons his childhood sweetheart Micaela and deserts his regiment, only to lose Carmen’s love to the glamorous toreador Escamillo, leading to a dramatic and tragic ending.
‘It’s certainly not a museum piece’
Parisian composer Georges Bizet had a radical approach to opera and his innovative style saw realistic everyday characters dealing with everyday themes on stage for the first time.
Based on a short story by Prosper Mérimée, Carmen’s subject matter was considered too immoral for the stage at the time of its 1875 premiere and it was not an immediate success.
One distinguished early admirer however was Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky who saw the opera in Paris soon after its opening and declared it to be “an absolute masterpiece.” Sadly, Bizet, aged only 37, died of a sudden heart attack just three months after Carmen’s premiere and so did not live to see the widespread fame and popularity which his opera went on to attain.
For this new Opera Theatre Company production, award-winning director Gavin Quinn has dramatically reimagined Carmen, updating the action to a modern urban landscape.
“I’m doing a version of Carmen with a contemporary setting,” Quinn tells me during a break in rehearsals. “The main characters in the opera are soldiers, gypsies, people working in a tobacco factory, and smugglers; in many ways it was the first proletarian opera, the main characters are real. In this version we’ve made the soldiers members of the police, and the girls are contemporary working class girls. We’ve also made the toreador a bare-knuckle fighter.”
“I think this production will be quite interesting for the audience. It’s alive, it’s certainly not a museum piece and I think people will appreciate its setting and its humour and its ruggedness. It’s a particularly rugged opera. In years gone by a traditional Carmen has developed, a sort of touristy version of the south of Spain and ours certainly won’t be that.”
Keeping the spirit of the original
If OTC’s Carmen has a contemporary setting, equally the opera’s chief themes can still speak to a modern audience, as Quinn observes.
“Through the opera we wonder about the nature of sexual jealousy; the struggle of lustful desire and sexual competition, each active enough to encourage a deep need for betrayal,” he says. “Carmen is a complex portrait of female sexuality and metaphysical nihilism that, even now, raises exigent questions about sex and violence.
“Continuing to ask where Carmen’s enduring power lies, I am drawn to the simplicity and honesty of the characters. More than most, it is an opera that juxtaposes real relationships with the heightened drama of Bizet’s exquisite score. In this production this inversion is challenged further by contemporary playfulness within the dialogue, hopefully recapturing some of the surprise of the original.”
After Bizet’s death the score of Carmen was subject to significant amendment, including the introduction of recitative in place of the original dialogue. There is no standard edition of the opera and different view exist as to what versions best express its composer’s intentions.
“It’s interesting that there is no definitive version of Carmen,” Quinn observes. “One reason could be that Bizet died before Carmen became successful and once he died there were all sorts of issues over what should happen. The first version was a mix of dialogue and opera, in later productions the dialogue was changed into recitative and productions vary between one and the other. We’re going with dialogue, keeping to the spirit of the original.”
A powerful cast
Opera Theatre Company have drawn together a powerful cast for this fresh take on an audience favourite. Irish mezzo-soprano Imelda Drumm is in the title role and American tenor Michael Wade Lee plays the role of Don José. They are joined by Mairéad Buicke as Micaëla, Owen Gilhooly as Escamillo, and Maria Hughes in her professional operatic debut as Mercedes.
“It’s a large production for OTC, as well as the eight principals there is a chorus of eight and a children’s chorus numbering between 10 and 14 plus another 13 musicians,” Quinn notes. “Imelda has played the role of Carmen a number of times before, in fact this is her 12th time and it is Michael’s 13th time to sing Jose so we can draw on that experience they both bring to the parts. It’s also interesting to see a slightly older Carmen and Imelda’s is a different type to what people may be used to.”
Music director Andrew Synnott will conduct Carmen, which is sung in English, and the production will feature a local children’s chorus at each of the six venues it is visiting as part of its national tour. In Galway, the children’s chorus is drawn from pupils of the Galway Educate Together National School in Newcastle.
Design of the production is by The Irish Times Theatre Awards winner Aedín Cosgrove
Opera Theatre Company is delighted to be touring throughout the country with Bizet’s timeless masterpiece which has gripped audiences for more than 130 years and Carmen’s visit to Galway is sure to draw a large attendance to the Town Hall.
Tickets are €25/20 and are available from the Town Hall on 091 - 569777 and www.tht.ie
