Published online at Limelight Magazine, 17th May 2021
https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/carmen-opera-australia-national-tour/
After the cancellation of Opera Australia’s national touring schedule in COVID-crippling 2020, the company’s latest production of Georges Bizet’s Carmen opened at Dandenong’s Drum Theatre on Friday evening to begin its journey across all states and territories until the end of August – circumstances permitting. It’s a handsome looking production that more than satisfies the demands of a travelling outfit on its way to in excess of 30 cities. And director and choreographer Matthew Barclay’s evocative mid-20th century transposition is a revving good fit, energetically choreographed and complimented by a strong, versatile cast.
Bizet never lived to see the international success Carmen was to become. The opera’s 1875 premiere season met with a lukewarm reception for a titular character anything but. One of the most iconic women of opera, Carmen is a controversial and confronting handful. She is a Gypsy outcast, unglamorous and unruly but gets what she wants through her power of seduction. Love is free to share with any man of her choosing and freedom is her calling, none of which come without risk.
Local Community Children and Opera Australia Ensemble
in Bizet's Carmen
Bizet’s Carmen, based on French writer Prosper Mérimée’s 1840 fictional novella of the same name, is set in Seville and southern Spain during the early 19th century. Carmen is drawn to the young military officer Don José who gives everything up for her but whose jealousy spirals him towards revenge after Carmen hooks up with the dashing bullfighter Escamillo.
Barclay’s thoughtfully conceived vision sets the work in a time when the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s and a World War would still be fresh for a new generation of young freedom-hungry adults finding their foothold. The characters created feel not too distant from our own times and Barclay gives opportunities for every one of them to resonate.
Anna Cordingley’s set design features what alludes to a giant roadside billboard and attached bleachers which are cleverly adapted for Act 1’s town square with Seville’s historic skyline as a backdrop, Act 3’s remoteness – where one motorcycle prop is enhanced by sound and light effects that open the imagination to a picture far wider than the limits of the stage – and Act 4’s finale at the bullring. For the rendezvous in Act 2, Lillas Pastia’s is an atmospheric neon backlit 1950s rudimentary cafe where the best of Barclay’s choreography swirls and ignites just about every surface. Paul Jackson’s lighting design is faultless, often wondrous.
Angela Hogan as Carmen
But among the well-executed realism, Carmen herself presents with a small issue. Portrayed more like a viper than seductress, whose lewd displays of sexual attraction and interplay could fog the spectacles, Carmen appears to perform more for the people around her than reveal something of her inner self. When she reaches her fateful death, her tragedy fails to attain the agency it could, not helped by the only costume disaster, a garish white body hugging and red-frilled flamenco dress.
In the limelight to open the tour as one of three alternating leading ladies, Angela Hogan creates an unforgettable stage presence as she flaunts a rich and agile mezzo-soprano along with a talent for dance and a good show of leg. Hogan opens with a lustrous Habanera in Act 1. She is a little unsteady vocally while impressing on the castanets during Act 2’s Je vais danser en votre honneur … La la la, in her sexually-charged dance for Don José, but captures Carmen’s grief and rage best with fire and depth in the vocals, at her most convincing in Act 3 (itself a production highlight in its entirety) as the principal characters converge in an arid and desolate environment overflowing with tension.
As Don José, Iain Henderson gives an excellent performance, effortlessly conveying the unravelling mental state of a man caught in a quagmire of irrationality. Possessing a warm and vibrant tenor, Henderson consistently colours his music with appropriate intensity and passion, falling under Carmen’s spell and singing an especially heartfelt treat for Act 2’s Flower Song as Don José tells her how he stayed strong in prison because of the flower she had given to him.
Lithe baritone Haotian Qi postures proudly and gallantly as Escamillo while singing with great suavity and assurance. Right from his celebratory Act 2 entrance for the famous Toreador Song, Qi gives the music the bravado it deserves but, in an entertaining touch, loses to a little girl in a soccer table game in the middle of it. And Micaëla, who longs for Don José, is nothing of a meek shadow as soprano Danita Weatherstone illuminates her with determination and bravery while singing with melting warmth and purity.
Iain Henderson as Don José and
Danita Weatherstone as Micaëla
Accompanying roles are solidly realised among a cohesive ensemble, some of whom will slip into different roles on the tour, including seasoned mezzo-sopranos Dimity Shepherd and Agnes Sarkis as Carmen, Matthew Reardon as Don José and Alexander Sefton as Escamillo. And a chorus of delightful younger voices drawn from the local community certainly had much to do with the great enthusiasm received from their supporters. On this occasion, 15 girls sang and gestured in well-rehearsed form.
An expert playing chamber orchestra kept the momentum flowing on opening night under conductor Luke Spicer’s brisk and decisive leadership despite incidences of dramatic heat loss. The overture and willowy woodwind solos of Act 3’s prelude were notably embracing.
From Dandenong to Dubbo, Cairns to Canberra and many more places around the country, here is a great chance to see Carmen close up and be swept up in its simmering Spanish tragedy.
Carmen
Opera Australia Touring Production
Drum Theatre, Dandenong
Until August, Various Cities
Production Photos: Jeff Busby
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