Unfortunately, I never felt like the performance got very far off the ground. I may as well be blunt: I blame the staging. The sets and costumes were supposedly intended to portray Franco-era, fascist Spain: lots of olive uniforms, ill-fitting suits, plain dresses and aprons. All the sets were bland, urban, industrial. I have no idea how such a setting was expected to improve the opera: class struggle, tyranny, politics are not major themes in Carmen as far as I can tell. The main social tension in the libretto is between civil society, i.e. Don José's family and military career, and the freedom and exoticism of the gypsy life. But the gypsies were every bit as dreary and unappealing as everything else in the staging. The Act III smugglers' camp was a stack of intermodal shipping containers under a dingy hanging lightbulb. All the sets were claustrophobic, the only development in costuming was Escamillo's standard-issue bullfighting outfit in the final act. The only surprising moment was a capital bolt of lightning (Santa Fe's opera house is open to the air) at the exact moment the orchestra began the overature.
Less tangibly, it just didn't seem like anyone was having fun. Some momentum started to build in the Act II tavern scene, but it didn't last. All the vocalists were fine (especially Santa Fe apprentice Jennifer Black as Michaela), but they never quite let it all out. I'm well aware that there are such things as off nights, and this was only the second performance; nevertheless, I've a notion that the cast may not have found the staging any more inspiring than I did.
Carmen is often alleged to be a very sexy opera. My hopes went unfulfilled. Anne-Sophie von Otter is a rather odd choice for Carmen, and though I was more than willing to see what she might do with the role, perhaps she is indeed too cerebral a singer for all that gypsy harlot music. But again, what with the drab costuming, an inattentive and uninformed observer might never have guessed that gypsies played a role in the story. Without much to distinguish her from the many, many chorus ladies, without any exoticism, Carmen often came across as merely the bitchiest of the local strumpets.
Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to be this negative. We did have fun. Our only really onerous irritation was overhearing a barrage of petty, lickspittle complaints from some very ill-feckit oldsters at intermission. (What's the matter with so many old folks these days? Frankly, lots of them are simply not good role models, lacking in manners, patience and generous spirit, especially in Santa Fe.) I guess I'm just perplexed why anyone would mount a miserly, austere production of a famously fun opera, for the opera house's 50th anniversery season, starring the season's headline singer. If they didn't have anything really stunning up their sleeves, cheesy gypsy costumes and castanets would have been a reliable default setting. But no doubt I'm a philistine: I came to Carmen to have fun.
Oh well. Coming soon: Die Zauberflöte, with Natalie Dessay!
