New York Metropolitan Opera – Bizet’s Carmen 12/3/2005.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center – Dress Circle, Seat G105.

Conductor – Philippe Jordan; Carmen – Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Don Jose – Marcello Giordani, Escamillo – Erwin Schrott, Micaela – Ana Maria Martinez.

Story: Don Jose abandons his lover Micaela, mother, and military post to join Carmen as a bandit and smuggler. When after a while Carmen decides to go with the matador Escamillo, Don Jose stalks her and murders her outside of the bull-fighting arena.

Carmen and La Traviata (by Verdi) are two operas I would suggest to a first time opera goer. They both contain nice tunes, and the stories are easy to understand. Unfortunately both are tragedies; also, Carmen is quite long at about 3 ½ hours.

Most people think of Carmen when they think of Bizet. Indeed this is his most famous work. Bizet died at age 36, 3 months after the opening of the Opera, and never lived to see its success. Some arias were adapted from Spanish melodies, and many were Bizet’s own. In Bizet’s original work there was quite a bit of spoken dialog linking the arias together. He intended to but died before he could substitute these with recitatives. Today’s performance was the modified version, although no credit was given to Guiraud, Bizet’s friend who added the sung recitatives.

This was the third time we saw Carmen in recent years, and I still found it enjoyable. The sets were certainly interesting, and several horses, donkeys and dogs were used. The orchestra section was full for today's performance.

Micaela was introduced early in Act I. Martinez has a voice that seemed perfect for the role; the voice projected very well and had the innocence of a simple kind-hearted young woman. This character had only a small role in the original novella (by Prosper Merimee) but was a nice contrast to the “I’ll do what I please” Carmen and Don Jose. Carmen first appeared on stage after being arrested for fighting. She soon launched into the famous Haberena describing her philosophy towards love. Herrera had an excellent voice but I thought she took the arias a little too slowly. For a soprano (she also sings Violetta in La Traviata this season at Covent Garden) she has an unusually strong voice in the low registers. One of the last pieces in Act I (Seguidilla and Duet) has a catchy tune without a key (nominally in B minor). The genius of Bizet is amazing.

Act II contains the famous matador song sung by Schrott whose performance was on the weak side. Don Jose’s unaccompanied entrance song into Lillas Pastia’s Inn was also disappointing, and slightly off-key at that: this is a particularly difficult aria to do as it begins off-stage.

Acts III and IV were performed with a short 5 minute pause. Act III began with a pleasant andantino Entr’acte, but soon after that it was clear the opera was on its way to a tragic end. Micaela’s pleading only added to the feeling of impending doom. Act IV began with a festive scene at the city square outside of the bull-fighting arena and ended with Don Jose stabbing Carmen to death after she threw the ring at him.

This afternoon's performance left something to be desired, but was still a very enjoyable experience. As with many operas, the audience has to fill in many blanks to make the story come to life. Somehow there wasn’t enough time in the 2 plus hours (not counting the intermissions) to develop the story on its own.