Los Angeles Opera's 'Carmen': lukewarm and light

For all its efforts to connect with Hollywood, Los Angeles Opera revived a 4-year-old production of “Carmen” on Saturday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion that no self-respecting film studio honcho would greenlight. Where’s the sex?

That’s a question, moreover, that would be asked not only in Hollywood. My local Blockbuster never seems able to keep on its shelves the recent DVD release of a 2003 Spanish film adaptation of the Prosper Mérimée story that inspired Bizet’s opera. But pasted over “Based on Bizet’s Wildly Popular Opera” on the DVD cover of this “Carmen” is Blockbuster’s selling point: a youth restricted label. Paz Vega, the steamy star, undresses.

L.A. Opera’s “Carmen” is, on the Eurotrash scale (1 being chaste, 10 the opposite), maybe a 3.5. Double that at minimum for the typical “Carmen” these days on the Continent.

Even so, a “Carmen” without heat can still be “Carmen.” Enter Viktoria Vizin, a young Hungarian mezzo-soprano making her debut with the company. She is lithe. She lifted her skirt now and then on cue, looking as though she was lifting her skirt on cue. Perhaps if otherwise directed, she could steam up the stage. After all, she says in an interview on an L.A. Opera podcast that she learned a thing or two from Vega in the film.

The mezzo wasn’t otherwise directed in a production originally by Emilio Sagi and now revived by Javier Ulacia. Carmen enters upstage, not standing out among the cigarette factory girls. Vizin does not have a large voice and, singing her Habanera lost in the upstage crowd, she seemed and sounded unseductive and distant.

She is not, here, a magnetic Carmen, let alone a dangerous flirt. But vocally, Vizin is a rare, real and very centered Carmen. Hers is the sultry mezzo Bizet wrote for. And she also turned the smallness of her sound (small but hardly tiny) to advantage. Having to strain a little to hear her, especially in the Pavilion, can be a good thing, focusing attention. She phrases like a singer of chansons. She has a deliberate style, careful with pitch, rhythm and text. She is able to vocally convey meaning between the lines of the libretto. Passion could be awakened in this temptress, although it took time to overtake her self-possession.

Otherwise, the L.A. Opera production is notable for its musical efficiency and sloppy staging. Emmanuel Villaume competently moved things along. The French conductor alternated between aggression and offhandedness, but he did take pains to achieve supple playing from the orchestra. The entr’actes were lovely.

Marcus Haddock proved a reliable Don José, stiff as a soldier most of the time. Genia Kühmeier, as Micaëla, brought a measure of sweetness and cream. As Escamillo, Raymond Aceto sang to the crowd (in the audience, not the crowd on the stage), but what’s a toreador to do when dressed like a nightclub entertainer and also asked to execute a few old Vegas moves? Both the L.A. Opera and the L.A. Children’s choruses managed to sing well even when they looked quite confused. Fight scenes were phony. Gerardo Trotti's set of Seville reminded me of the Mediterranean corner of Rodeo Drive.

Jesús del Pozo’s costumes, which were made a decade ago for a production in Madrid, revealed how quickly styles date, especially when you try too hard to be hip. Color coding meant a mostly white first act and a gray third. Nuria Castejón was the choreographer responsible for much foot-stomping. What with all this, who could blame the focused Vizin for clinging to her cool? And who could not admire her for remaining a class act?

The cast will change Dec. 6 for the final three performances.

"Carmen," Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. 7:30 p.m. Nov. 19 and 22; 2 p.m. Nov. 23; 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3 and 6; 2 p.m. Dec. 7; 1 p.m. Dec. 9 and 14. (Consult L.A. Opera website for cast listings.) $20 to $250. (213) 972-8001 or www.laopera.com

— Mark Swed

Photo: Marcus Haddock as Don José and Viktoria Vizin as Carmen. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[lorin dreyfuss]

Simply put, a poor High School Production.

Amateurish. Don Jose completely physically wrong. Carmen lacked heat, sensuality, earthiness. Costumes looked cheap. Staging was incompetent.

Thousands of well-dressed people, paying a fortune for seats HAD to be disappointed. (Certainly, we were)

Boring.

And prior to the show, there was a lecture where a woman told the story of the Opera, complete with musical samples....could those people not wait 15 minutes to see it live??

[Elizabeth Dreyfuss]

My husband took me to this Carmen as a surprise and birthday present because he knew ever since I was a little girl I always wanted to the see the opera 'Carmen'. He got a hotel and we drove in from Palm Springs. Well I have been a performer in the theatre for years and its disgraceful that you pay those prices for a high school production. The costumes, Carmen looked and sounded like one of any cigarette girls, no passion ,and certainly not a strong voice, the understudy we saw for Don Jose looked like Danny Devito, nice voice but who cared. Not the right role for this man. The sound and the orchestra should have been bigger. What a shame. Who books these shows?

[MaxMillion]

Although I agree wholeheartedly with Mark Swed's observations, I think that damning this disappointing (and, yes, absent of passion) production of Carmen as of "high school" calibre is a serious exaggeration, Mr. & Mrs. Dreyfuss. I mean, when was the last time you saw a school production with a FULL orcehstra, costuming for a cast of thousands and sets of that magnitude?!

I was lucky to see Herrera's performance, which I deliberately chose over Vizin thinking that the Canary Island-born, Spanish-speaking singer might present an authentic and sensual performance. She almost did. Yet her vocal style lacked the thrills down the spine I was expecting from the role.

Okay, so why attend the pre-show lecture and then complain one exists?!

And why complain that "the sound and orchestra should have been bigger" when it is the woeful acoustics of the auditorium which is largely at fault?

I do agree that this was by no means a world-class production. I have yet to see an LA Opera production that was.

I did love the monstrously imposing sets and some of the costumes (yes, many did indeed look terribly cheap!)

I also loved the flamenco dancing.

But the staging *was* sloppy; the direction was poor and deficient; the conduct of the chorus and general ensemble amateurish and seemingly under-rehearsed.
Indeed, the fight sequences (knives and swordplay) were appallingly phoney.

The lighting balance was so poor that Carmen began singing in relative darkness. Right -- if you are not even going to bother to give her a costume that distinguishes her from the multitudes of cigarette girls, then at least give her a spotlight or sufficient illumination! Seriously!!

BUT the most utterly unforgivable moment in this production -- SPOILER alert!! -- was to direct Carmen to rush onto the knife and essentially commit suicide.

Director -- kindly re-read the libretto! Don Jose stabs Carmen. It's not that hard to get such a crucial detail right and it was an outrage to me that this powerfully climactic/final moment was staged in this revisionist fashion.

Very disappointing indeed. I am so glad I did not pay for my ticket. (I was gracious enough to spare my host my true feelings on the experience.)

The most memorable aspect of this production was Viktoria Vizin along with the rest of the exceptionally strong, well- matched group of performers. An ensemble cast in the best sense of the term. Perhaps everyone else attended a different production????