OISEAU REBELLE
Julie Nesrallah brings an opera classic to audiences while they dine and drink,
If Carmen were alive today, “she’d be in Vegas,” says mezzo-soprano Julie Nesrallah — and she’s just the person who would take her there.
The singer has been starring in Carmen in bars and restaurants for the past six years with Carmen on Tap, an opera company that Nesrallah founded and executive produces.
“We don’t change the score or the gloriousness of the original, but you get to eat and drink at the same time,” says Nesrallah, who is obsessed with the Georges Bizet opera about a gypsy firebrand with a lust for life that she first performed in 2003 with Saskatoon Opera. It has remained a staple of her repertoire ever since.
The audience consumption mirrors the drinking and eating that occurs in the gypsy encampment and amongst the soldiers in the opera, she says.
Nesrallah, host of CBC Radio 2’s national classical music program Tempo, brings Carmen on Tap to Lula Lounge on Wednesday.
Her affinity for Carmen began when she was quite young. Her mother, who was not especially musical, heard a production of the opera and said to Nesrallah, “Kiddo, you are Carmen.”
“We are similar in temperament and philosophy of life. My fantasy was not getting married and having kids. My fantasy was to grow up so I could be free, when I could be the boss of me. I have a deep connection to Carmen; it’s a lust for life,” said Nesrallah. “I’m not married and I don’t have children, and that’s not an accident.”
The singer, who portrays Carmen with curls tumbling around her shoulders and a flamboyant style, describes the character as “a soul sister . . . who, to me, is a hot-blooded, real person.”
“Like Carmen, I do love men. I’m a good partner and love with all my heart, but when it’s done, I’m done.”
Nesrallah sees Carmen as “a fighter willing to defend her freedom at any cost. But I also see her as a tender person, not a man-eater. The idea of falling in love, we do need it as humans.”
The opera’s colourful cast of characters lends itself to interesting ways of presentation. When thinking about how she could “grow” the show, Nesrallah thought, “If Carmen were alive today she’d be in Vegas, with people drinking and all that gambling. Then my brain exploded.”
She met with people in Vegas, who advised her on the kind of venue that might suit her show and was briefly working with a choreographer. (Flamenco is part of the action.)
While she pursues this dream, she continues to stage the show, taking it to the Stratford Music Festival as well as the Prince Edward County Music Festival. Toronto hotels have investigated staging it in their bars and it’s been floated as a Halloween event, with the audience dressing up.
Meanwhile, Nesrallah holds down her full-time job hosting Tempo and keeps up an active singing career, recently singing the national anthem before the Blue Jays game.
“It’s got to the point where I need someone to rep it for me,” she says, adding that she’s determined to take Carmen to Vegas. Carmen on Tap is at Lula Lounge Aug. 24; doors open 6:30 p.m., show at 7:30. Tickets $45 in advance, $50 at the door. lula.ca