(Pic by Zanele Zulu, courtesy of Independent Newspapers. Violina Anguelov as Carmen)Violina Anguelov delivers large dollops of crowd-pleasing wow factor. (Review by Henry Presney)
The inauspicious premiere of Bizet’s Carmen at the Opéra-Comique of Paris on 3 March 1875 rivals those in the annals of 19th century opera of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Bellini’s Norma which took place in Italy some decades previously.
Each event seemed to forecast future track records that would prove unmitigated box offices disasters. Each, in the long run, turned out to be quite the reverse. In the case of Bizet, tragically, the tide changed too late to circumvent the bitterly disappointed 33-year-old composer’s dying of a heart attack, just weeks after his final opera’s notorious opening night, believing his masterpiece to have been written off as a failure.
Such was the scandal that accompanied the work’s first performances before a bourgeois audience who expected their usual innocuous blend of family entertainment, that the Parisian press fell about itself, scrambling for expletives to condemn the work outright.
Bizet’s uncompromising treatment of his central character as a free spirit who lives for the moment, a law unto herself, was seen as a portrayal of an abandoned gypsy harlot, whose wilful caprices were cause for public outrage – to the point that the all-or-nothing interpretation of the role’s creatrix, Célestine Galli-Marié, was reported years later with memorable irony by the Bizet scholar, Winton Dean, as having been seen as “deserving of correction in the police court”.
No such public outrage greeted the performance that took place on Friday night in the Playhouse Company’s staging of the famous classic in Durban. The large audience that turned out to see this ‘semi-staged’ production (semi-staged = homogenously garbed chorus to meet budget restrictions), were justifiably enthusiastic about the experience.
Set in Seville in Spain around 1820, Bizet’s superbly scored work opens as Micaëla comes to find her love, Don José, a corporal under the command of Captain Zuniga. But José is fascinated by the gypsy Carmen, and when she is arrested after a fight, he contrives her release. He is in turn arrested, but refuses to desert after he is later released; however, Carmen, though beginning to fall under the spell of the Toreador Escamillo, persuades José to flee with her and a group of smugglers.
Following them, Escamillo fights with José who is led away from the now bored and disdainful Carmen by Micaela. Outside the Seville bullring, Carmen promises herself to Escamillo if he wins; but the dishevelled José appears, and stabs her as Escamillo emerges with the crowd.
Directed with immaculate integrity by Cape Town Opera’s Michael Williams and stylishly designed by Michael Mitchell, the unsinkable work was allowed to speak for itself, without any unwonted, ego-driven interpretive interventions.
Vocally, the strong cast, headed by Violina Anguelov in the title role, acquitted themselves handsomely, give or take a few minor reservations. Ms Anguelov, reprising her recently lauded assumption of the part at Artscape, proved she has the physical allure and dramatic punch to bring off this onerous role, as well as the big guns vocally to deliver large dollops of the crowd-pleasing wow factor that won her a well-deserved final-curtain ovation.
Tenor Matthew Overmeyer as Don José, likewise had the measure of his role, although his French might benefit from a dash of spit and polish to finish off an otherwise convincing interpretation. However, his delicate shading at the end of his tender duet with Micaëla was breath-taking, and the finely observed descent of his character into Carmen’s toils was wholly convincing.
Bronwen Forbay delivered an exquisitely nuanced, lovely Micaëla, strong but vulnerable, and in most respects, Theo Magongoma pulled off his role as the Toreador, although his baritone proved to be tad short on decibels the bottom of its range.
Thandulwazi Ncube’s sweet-sounding soprano and Nolusidiso Manciya’ husky mezzo were nicely contrasted in their performances as Carmen’s friends, Frasquita and Mercédès, although Ncube lacked the projection ideally needed to dominate the top line of the ensembles (reportedly she was nursing a cold, so this might have accounted for this minor vocal short-fall).
The rest of the cast sounded in fine fettle, notably the rich-toned bass, Xolela Sixaba, and the ad hoc Playhouse Company Chorale, whose strongly focused and dynamically differentiated singing bore the trade-mark imprints of their having been coached and rehearsed by veteran choral director, Juan Burgers.
Naum Rousine provided solid support at the helm of the KZN Philharmonic, making Durban’s first production of Carmen in 15 years well worth the long wait it has been. Its second and final performance is today, March 27 (Sunday) in The Playhouse Opera theatre at 15h00. Booking is through Computicket on 083 915 8000 or online at www.computicket.com – Henry Presney
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