NEW YORK – VIENNA / The Met in the cinema / Village Cinema Wien Mitte;
CARMEN by Georges Bizet
27.January 2024
Carmen doesn’t work in a tobacco factory but in a weapons factory, Escamillo is not a bullfighter but a redeo hero, and the story doesn’t take place in Seville in the 19th century, but here and now in the USA, somewhere on the Mexican border, After all, you have to justify the smuggling.
The Metropolitan Opera has a new “Carmen” by the British director Carrie Cracknell, which provided a classic director’s theater “translation” of the milieu and caused quite a stir in the American press. While some called it a “daring” production, others found the “big mix up” offered frustrating and even called it the biggest disappointment in a long time. As a European viewer who is usually fed up with “director’s theatre”, one can counter this by saying that it has been a long time since we have seen a performance as exciting as this…
All Photos: MetOpera
How come? Because the director has thought through her concept down to the smallest detail. Certainly, what is being sung (namely the text) always doesn’t agree with what you see – yes, you experience that again and again, and it was worse than here. Because even if Carrie Cracknell “brings the story” for an American audience that might not know what to do with Spanish folklore (even if it would be much nicer to look at), the story of Carmen and José remains intact. It is only inserted into the ambience of the weapons factory (which you would initially think was a prison) and a huge smuggler’s truck. At the beginning you only see it from the front, then there is no Lillas Pasta, but the inside of the car – and when two gas station pumps manifest themselves as the place of the love encounter, on which Carmen is allowed to lounge in a damn erotic manner – then that is also a scenic one Idea.
The Met performances are also so informative for an audience that is somewhat interested in what happens behind the scenes because during the renovation breaks you can watch what is happening on stage, like countless workers, for example extremely heavy bus, which ended up falling over on the stage in the third act. Only at the end does his presence end.
Because there is a set designer Michael Levine with a developed, step-shaped arena more conceived than is usually born for the last act “Carmen” – and he continues an idea that is not entirely convincing, but at least original and challenging. A background of countless parallel fluorescent tubes spreads the light effects that you can experience when you are driving fast on the highway and the lights just whiz by. It takes some time before you really understand and appreciate this “road movie” sequence, the lights then play in different colors, and ultimately they create more unrest than mood. But you really can’t say that there’s nothing visually appealing about this production. And in terms of content, it traces the story.
The adventure of the evening for the Viennese opera lover was the encounter with Aigul Akhmetshina. The 27-year-old with the typical Slavic face studied in Ufa (Bashkortostan, Russia) and, despite her youth, is already traveling internationally. Anyone who heard her as Romeo in Bellin’s “Capuleti” at the Salzburg Festival last summer gave her a very good eulogy. And Carmen, which she already sings all over the country, is something that no one is so quick to imitate – at least in this production. This is primarily due to the quality of the voice – a real mezzo that never gets bright, but is present with equal strength and security in all registers, from the radiant highs to the dramatic lows. The voice is carried by a lower middle range with a wonderful timbre.
In addition, she is a highly talented actress who can convey every nuance of her moods with her face and her body – and this body is also used mercilessly to play off Carmen’s eroticism (without ever becoming vulgar like the Vienna premiere cast in the Bieito performance). This Carmen is simply wanton in the first two acts, catching José out of whim, but from the third act onwards she becomes serious, really darkly foreboding and only rebels again in the final argument with José, where she doesn’t go through the knife has to die, but is killed with a wooden club that she previously used to defend herself. In singing and acting, this young Russian is a work of art, and it is no surprise that she is now the official Carmen everywhere (except in the Vienna State Opera).
Like José sah man Piotr Beczala, which was seen in Vienna in 2018 in the old Zeffirelli production and later in 2022 in the new Calixto Bieito production. Beczala belongs to that generation of tenors that is now 50 plus, and he is the only one of them who still goes to the Met (Kaufmann and Florez have not been seen there for years, Grigolo is unwanted for “moral” reasons ). This offers the Pole great opportunities in New York, and if you didn’t misunderstand him in the interview during the break, he has now apparently sung Don José for the first time since Vienna. He is vocally at the top, can achieve the aforementioned heights and is no longer quite as stiff as he used to be, although acting talent cannot be forced. But what a female director can achieve was then demanded of him in the dramatic final scene (of course you can’t think of real José talents like Carreras, Domingo, Lima, who tore themselves and their partners apart in the end.)
was disappointment Kyle Ketelsen, vocally and physically too weak for a brilliant Escamillo. Very moving and more lively, more present than many of her colleagues Angel Blue (albeit a bit too dramatic, after all she has already reached Tosca) the Micaela. Carmen’s two companions are downright brilliant, Sydney Mancasola to the Frasquitas, Briana Hunter as Mercedes, both with a strong personality and a bombshell of voice and temperament. The male supporting roles are not entirely uniform.
Conductor Daniele Rustioni, who made an almost enchanting, hymn-like confession to Bizet during the break, had the precise, sharp articulation of the music firmly under control, as well as later both the lyricism (prelude to the third act) and the dark drama. All singers were able to rely on a high-level orchestral part.
The New York audience was not deterred by the bad reviews and applauded the unusual evening as vigorously as it deserved.
Renate Wagner
2024-01-27 23:44:47
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