TURNEVICIUS: BROTTOPERA’S CARMEN
Imagination, don’t leave home without it. Especially if you’re catching the Brott Music Festival’s one night stand of “Carmen” on Thursday, July 13, at 7:30 p.m.
You see, like previous BrottOpera productions at College’s McIntyre Performing Arts Centre, 135 Fennell Ave. W., Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” will have Boris Brott and his 50-piece National Academy Orchestra do their thing at the rear of the stage, while the singers will do theirs on whatever stage space is left.
So don’t, repeat don’t, expect fancyschmancy Metropolitan Opera-like sets that will unequivocally suggest the locale of each of the opera’s four acts. Sure, there’ll be costumes and props, but scenery, like stage space, will be at a premium. So, you’ll just have to use your imagination that Act 1 is set in Seville square, a guardhouse on the left, and on the right, a door to the tobacco factory where Carmen works. That Act 2 is set in Lilla Pastia’s inn where Carmen and her gal pals let the good times roll. That Act 3 takes place somewhere in the mountains. And that Act 4 is in a Seville square fronting an amphitheatre within which Escamillo does his thing in the bullring.
Brott has long pooh-poohed using the auditorium’s pit.
“The idea of putting an orchestra in that pit is simply impossible,” said Brott. “It’s at the same level as the audience. It’s far too narrow and long.”
Thinking that singers placed downstage will have to rubberneck to see Brott’s gestures and cues? Technology to the rescue. A video camera will be trained on Brott and the cast will see the feed on several screens placed in the front row and one large screen hanging from the balcony. As Monsieur Bizet would have said, “Voilà, simple.”
Speaking about French, the opera will be sung in the original French, though the dialogue will be spoken in English.
And speaking about Bizet, he and his librettists set the proceedings in 1830. Stage director Patrick John Hansen, however, will be updating things to Francoist Spain.
“We are setting this ‘Carmen’ in the 1930s Spanish Civil War, a war Franco eventually won,” wrote Hansen in an email outlining his vision. “Carmen’s story will be told through that lens of war, rebellion, the quest for freedom against oppression, the very things that ‘Carmen’ is all about. Carmen herself is 100 per cent rebel. She fights against the status quo. She fights to be taken seriously as an individual and not just some gypsy who works in a cigarette factory. She smuggles arms for the war. She loves who she wants and when she wants.
“She and her gypsy friends are smugglers fighting in the resistance to overthrow the political structure in place and defend themselves against the coming Franco oppression. Oppression is everywhere in the opera. Don José, Moralès, and Zuniga are all soldiers in the regime who simultaneously oppress the people, but also want to be part of their culture, namely enjoying themselves at Lillas Pastia’s place and the bullring.”
Now, you’re not alone in wondering why this 100 per cent rebel of a resistance fighter would want to get romantically involved with an officer of the regime.
“Many reasons, I think,” wrote Hansen in response to The Spec’s query. “As she says in her first aria, she will love whom she wants. I think she fights not just for political reasons, but because it’s in her nature to rebel. Beyond those, one could speculate that she uses men to further her cause and it might always be a good thing to have a lover on the other side. Potential spy, potential traitor, potential ally. And he (Don José) joins forces with her so she’s successful at turning him to the other side.”
The cast includes Beste Kalender as Carmen, Justin Stolz as Don José, Johnathon Kirby as Escamillo, Lauren Margison as Micaëla, Chelsea Rus as Frasquita, Morgan Traynor as Mercédès, Jan Vaculik as La Dancaïre, Mathieu Abel as Remendado, Samuel Chan as Moralès, and Hamilton’s Jeremy Ludwig as Zuniga.
On Thursday, July 6, at 7:30 p.m. also in the MPAC, all of the above singers will be showcased in the BMF’s PopOpera, a gala recital consisting of showpiece arias, duets and ensembles from the pens of Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Estacio and others.
“Carmen” tickets: $44, senior $38, Brott35 $25, student $15. PopOpera tickets: $39, senior $35, Brott35 $25, student $15. Call 905525-7664.
BrottOpera master classes with teachers Richard Margison on Tuesday, July 4, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and Adrianne Pieczonka on Sunday, July, 9 from 2 to 5 p.m. in The Church of St. John the Evangelist, 320 Charlton Ave. W., are free to the public.
Leonard Turnevicius writes about classical music for The Hamilton Spectator. leonardturnevicius@gmail.com