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Concertonet |
Paul du Quenoy |
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Bizét: Carmen, Salzburger Festspiele, August 2012 |
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Bizet in Salzburg
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Carmen is one of the most commonly performed operas in the world, so
frequently performed that many devoted opera fans find it hackneyed and even
avoid performances of it while disparaging those who do attend for their
unsophisticated ways. In what one could interpret as a demonstration of
Salzburg’s appeal to musical cognoscenti, the opera has not appeared at its
annual summer festival since 1986.
Aletta Collins’s new production
debuted at the Salzburg Easter Festival earlier this year and returned for
four performances in the classic summer festival. The effort looked like a
starry one. Famed young tenor Jonas Kaufmann boldly took on the challenging
role of Don José, the opera’s murderous hero. Noted mezzo Magdalena Kozená
sang the title role, under her husband Sir Simon Rattle’s baton. Of course
the pit was graced with one of the world’s greatest orchestras, the Vienna
Philharmonic.
But was the performance truly worth the price of the
tickets, which topped 370 euros and still sold out months in advance?
Probably not. Any premiere can easily encounter difficulties, but it was
truly disappointing that the management allowed baritone Kostas Smoriginas
to perform the smaller but very important role of Escamillo while he
suffered from allergies. One can sympathize with a singer in this
predicament, but he was only relieved after a torturously problematic
rendition of the Toreador song. The role was satisfactorily picked up by
Massimo Cavalletti, who is singing Marcello in Salzburg’s La bohème, but he
merely provided the music from the side of the stage while Smoriginas
continued to act the role. Surely a high-priced Salzburg production could
offer a fully trained understudy. Kozena is a well-respected singer. I
wondered, though, whether the voice is right for Carmen. At times it sounded
too heavy to be really sultry, and the dramatic attempts to capture
irresistible sex appeal seemed rather resistible. It was not a bad
performance, though there were a few boos. Kaufmann, however,
offered a shining example of rich singing, with clarion high notes and
exciting stage passion. One thought of the young José Carreras in the role.
And it was a treat to have Jean-Paul Fouchécourt’s lyric tenor deployed in
the small role of the smuggler Remendado. Simon Rattle is better known as an
orchestral conductor. At times he drove Bizet’s score with great engagement.
Too often it sounded forced and lacked subtlety, almost like he was
conducting a Mahler symphony.
The production suggests a
twentieth-century Spain, as so many Carmens do, but nothing in the sets of
costumes suggested why this was important to the story. I kept wanting to
think of the Spanish Civil War, the era of which is definitely suggested by
the costumes, but saw little evidence of a social environment that could
produce such characters as one finds in the opera. A few elements of
stagecraft were entertaining – the first act sets slide away to reveal the
tavern of Lillas Pastia – here a kind of house of burlesque with a stage for
Escamillo to perform on. And the stage itself wrapped around the orchestra
pit to give the characters more freedom of movement. I was less enthralled
with the Spanish dancers, whose performances were good but distracted
noisily from the general mood.
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