Spain Bizet, Carmen: Soloists, Coro Infantil Amics de la Unió, Liceu Refrain and Orchestra / Josep Pons (conductor). Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona, 13.1.2024. (JMI)
Manufacturing:
Director – Calixto Bieito
Units – Alfons Flores
Costumes – Mercè Paloma
Lighting – Alberto Rodríguez Vega
Solid:
Carmen – Clémentine Margaine
Don José – Michael Spyres
Micaëla – Adriana González
Escamillo – Simón Orfila
Zuniga – Felipe Bou
Moralès – Toni Marsol
Dancaïro – Jan Antem
Remendado – Carlos Cosías
Frasquita – Jasmine Habersham
Mercédès – Laura Vila
Carmen has returned to the Liceu the place it was final carried out in Could 2015. This is similar manufacturing seen on earlier events: the well-known staging by Calixto Bieito, which is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary because it premiered in 1999 on the Castell de Peralada Pageant. It’s a co-production of the Liceu, Venice’s La Fenice, Palermo’s Teatro Massimo and Turin’s Teatro Regio.
The motion is transferred to trendy occasions, presumably the Nineteen Seventies or Eighties, with a minimalist setting that’s completely applicable. The character of Carmen is nothing greater than a delusion, and myths are timeless. Like Elektra or Salome, Carmen will be tailored to any period, and significantly to ours: the confrontation between two methods of understanding life – free and with out ties within the case of Carmen, and conventional and sexist like Don José – remains to be topical.
The units present an empty area surrounded by a sort of round barrier. The change of some props creates the mandatory ambiance: a phone sales space and a big mast in Act I, a Mercedes in Act II, extra vehicles and the Osborne bull within the third and an empty stage for the final act.
Calixto Bieito’s course stands out powerfully on this manufacturing, which is actually worthy of an amazing theater man. The work that he carries out with the refrain and extras is just spectacular. Significantly notable is the supposed parade of bullfight cuadrillas in Act IV, a parade that may solely be guessed from the gestures of the refrain, which was incredible. Although there are additionally some gratuitous and provocative erotic touches which add little to the motion.
I discovered Josep Pons’s conducting reasonably irregular. His studying was monotonous and routine within the first half of the opera, nevertheless it gained in depth within the second half, particularly in Act IV. The orchestra was wonderful, and the refrain was very good each vocally and dramatically.
French mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine as Carmen proved once more that she is among the greatest interpreters of the character as we speak. Her voice has high quality and amplitude, and she or he is a wonderful singer who strikes properly on stage.
Tenor Michael Spyres is understood to opera followers for having coped with troublesome characters and in uncommon operas. He needed to cancel his 8 January efficiency of Don José attributable to a chilly and was changed by Freddie de Tommaso, who was in Barcelona for a recital with Lise Davidsen. Spyres had not utterly recovered by the point I noticed him, and he shouldn’t have sung: both he made a mistake in doing so, or it was as a result of he hoped to do the Liceu a favor in its seek for a alternative. His efficiency was enough, with a sexy sound within the middle, however because the opera went on, issues arose. His excessive notes broke on a number of events – within the duet with Micaëla in Act I, in addition to his ‘Flower Tune’ – and his voice was not good within the ultimate two acts.
There was a stable efficiency by soprano Adriana González as Micaëla. Her voice is engaging, with stunning pianissimos in her Act III aria, and she or he was excellent in her duet with Don José in Act I.
Simón Orfila was Escamillo as soon as once more, as he has been so many occasions all through his profession. He’s a convincing ‘toreador’, though the passage of time will be seen in a few of his excessive notes. In any case, he was terrific.
Carmen’s companions have been performed by Jasmine Habersham (Frasquita) and Laura Vila (Mercédès). The primary has a reasonably metallic voice, whereas the second did all proper, though her voice will not be very huge.
Jan Antem as Dancaïro and Carlos Cosías as Remendado have been good, and Felipe Bou as Zúñiga and Toni Marsol as Moralès have been appropriate of their roles.
José M. Irurzun
