![]() ![]() He seems perplexed, transformed, picks up her billet-doux, the flower she’s thrown.īy contrast, Micaela (mother’s choice) and Jose, reunited, are rapturous together. ![]() She turns to José- Alagna in army jacket, white holster, black boots. (One man in a white suit is on his knees to her.) Certainly the gypsy, her rich mezzo not yet splitting high notes. And she’s barefoot, salaciously introducing herself to the men with a Habanera, singing ‘L’amour est un oiseau rebelle.’ĭon José (Roberto Alagna), sits on the side, symbolically fingering his rosary beads- not even looking- while Carmen is being hoisted up by her male admirers. ![]() Are these the dangerous workers in a cigarette factory? They sing angelically in this idyll.Ĭarmen, however, (Rinat Shaham), wears a purple and black dress, her lower petticoat cerise, her long jet-black hair hanging provocatively. The set, however, is rather colourless, bland- men in sand-coloured suits, matching soldiers’ uniforms khaki – girls in pastel, rainbow -effect, frocks. The street children playing soldiers -Oh, Misérables!- as in a Victorian musical, sing much too innocently. As Michaela (searching for her fiancee Don José) soprano Anita Hartig, with plaited brunette hair, in a simple white apron dress, sounds exquisite, but too good to be true as the ‘pretty bird’ ribalded by the soldiers. Peeling stone ramparts, canopied roof, rotting rafters, (Seville’s) market stalls selling fruit and vegetables – traditional period costumes -the stage could be out of a mid- 19th Century painting. That score, conducted by Dan Ettinger, doesn’t quite ignite on this epic set. And Vienna State Opera Orchestra (and Chorus), Bizet’s exotic score, with its authentic Spanish influences. The credentials are impressive- Rinat Shaham as Carmen, Roberto Alagna, no less, as Don José and stage designed by the legendary Italian film producer Franco Zefirelli. ![]()
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