GOOD CARMEN
CBC’s Julie Nesrallah is playing the opera’s title role in one of many versions put on throughout the GTA,
There’s more to Julie Nesrallah’s resemblance to the fiery gypsy Carmen than the black tumbling locks and signature crimson lipstick.
“I’ve never been married. In high school, girls were talking about getting married and having kids. I wanted to get out of the clutches of parents. Being free is its own glorious narcotic,” the mezzo soprano says in an interview on break from her day job as a broadcaster with CBC Radio.
It’s that lust for freedom — to be true to herself and damn the consequences — that is both the source of Carmen’s attraction and the reason for her downfall in Bizet’s opera.
Add in a bull fighter, lovesick soldier, loyal Catholic maiden, knife fights, skirt-twirling dancers and catchy tunes that leave audiences humming as they exit the theatre, and it explains the abundance of Carmens this summer.
Nesrallah is performing a “best of Carmen” July 27 at Koerner Hall as part of the “Night of the Opera” show co-hosted with tenor Andrew Haji. It is followed by a full-throttle live show July 30 at Lula Lounge.
Boris Brott’s Music Festival showcased young opera talents on July 13 at Hamilton’s Mohawk College McIntyre Theatre. The Toronto Summer Music Festival has a children’s version of Carmen— focusing on bullying, not bullfighting — July 26 in its “School Yard Carmen” by Shoestring Opera at 10 a.m. in Walter Hall.
Summer Opera Lyric Theatre presents two different casts in Carmen, playing July 29, Aug. 1, 3 and 6 at Robert Gill Theatre, University of Toronto.
Earlier, Mississauga Symphony Orchestra presented its first fully staged opera, Carmen, April 29 at Hammerson Hall, Living Arts Centre, Mississauga.
Guillermo Silva-Marin, artistic director of the Lyric theatre, chose to produce a “flamenco” Carmen, bringing in a dance instructor to get the casts to perform the steps made famous by Spain.
“Carmen takes place in Seville, it’s the capital of flamenco,” explains Silva-Marin. “I’ve done Carmen Flamenco before. She is a performer, she and her girls. After a day of work (at the cigarette factory) they entertain those men in the rough part of Seville.
“It’s her night job and shows her free spirit.”
This is a tough assignment, he acknowledges, adding it is no longer sufficient for an opera singer to just “stand under the spotlight and sing.” Now they are required to also act and dance, he says, “They must be a triple threat.”
A sexy outsider who is not afraid of violence, she knifes a woman in the factory during a fight and chooses the men in her life with little regard to the consequences. This made the opera a scandal at first (1875), SilvaMarin says.
“They weren’t ready for a heroine of this type,” he says.
But today’s audiences are hungry for stories about “free spirits” and women choosing their own destinies, he says. And the music! There’s the hummable “Habanera” with the words, “L’amour, L’amour, L’amour.” And the rousing Toreodor Song with the bull fighters marching in step.
“It’s incredibly catchy,” says soprano Lauren Margison, the daughter of Canadian tenor Richard Margison, who played the besotted soldier Don Jose many times in his career and gave Lauren advice on her role.
She played the “good girl” Micaela, the loyal Catholic girl who stands by Don Jose and warns him that Carmen will bring him grief.
“I love her personally,” she says of the character. “I’m much more a Micaela than a Carmen.”
Dressed in a peasant blouse and dress with her long red hair demurely secured for the Brott festival, Margison looks the innocent part as opposed to the menacingly sexy perso- na of Carmen, who was played by mezzo-soprano Beste Kalender. Kalender also had the starring role in Mississauga’s production of that opera.
She also famously recently stepped into the role with Calgary Opera on one hour’s notice — drama behind the drama.
Meghan McPhee is playing Micaela in Nesrallah’s Lula Lounge Carmen — a role she has played with this ensemble many times before. Nesrallah’s Carmen has travelled about Canada in the past five years, primarily at summer festivals and performed in restaurant/bars.
“People who don’t think they like opera come to our show and have fun,” McPhee says. “There’s no stage — it is a restaurant — and we are right beside you singing the high notes.”
Her take on Micaela is that, although loyal, she’s pretty fed up with Don Jose by the end. McPhee says, “I do play her more intelligently. I’m not Mother Teresa. At the end she doesn’t like him at all, but delivers the message.”
Tenor Richard Troxell has performed the role of Don Jose around the world and he says the story is really about his character — his discovery of the world of Carmen and the lengths he will go to have her.
“Carmen is the same, throughout. She says, I will live free and die free.”
He sees her as an honourable character, as she is upfront about who she is from the beginning.
As Don Jose sees his grasp or ownership of Carmen slipping, he resorts to violence. Facing Nesrallah while he manhandles her, Troxell says, “She is really good as looking afraid and being strong.”
Her death scene leaves her lying on the floor beside diners, under the glaring lights with no fade-out.
Nesrallah, who has also performed this outside and “died” on rain-spattered streets, says, “I see women pick up their napkins and cover their faces. Others are crying. There is this silence. People feel a light has been extinguished.”
Only to burn again in the next production of Carmen.
“(Carmen) is a performer, she and her girls. After a day of work (at the cigarette factory) they entertain those men in the rough part of Seville.” GUILLERMO SILVA-MARIN ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, SUMMER OPERA LYRIC THEATRE