Last Updated on July 5, 2024
Andalusian Heat and Passion in the Sussex Downs
Last night Fiona and I were in East Sussex for the opening night of the Glyndebourne Festival 2024. It’s the 90th year for Glyndebourne and with the organisation having to refocus after the savage and short-sighted cancellation of its Arts Council grant which has put an end to the Glyndebourne touring opera, the company needed to start this season with a bang. The sun popped its head out just as people were arriving, so overcoats were discarded, the champagne corks were popping and the audience was revved up to see Tony-Award-winning Broadway director Diane Paulus making her house debut with a new production of Georges Bizet’s Carmen.
The Carmen story originated from a Prosper Mérimée novella and was then turned into an opera libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Premiered in 1875 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris and not immediately successful, composer Georges Bizet didn’t live long enough to see Carmen become a central pillar of the cultural landscape. Set in the sultry heat of Seville, the opera’s narrative is constructed around the tragic love affair between Carmen, a gypsy, and Don José, a lower-ranking soldier. He is imprisoned for helping Carmen to escape incarceration for her part in a fight. On his release she convinces the naïve soldier to run off with her and join a band of smugglers. The other two main protagonists are Don José’s childhood sweetheart Micaëla, an orphan who has been brought up by his mother and who acts as the maternal mouthpiece, and Escamillo, the local star bullfighter who has the hots for Carmen. She leaves Don José for Escamillo and the inevitable tragedy ensues.
Director Diane Paulus places the drama in a contemporary Hispanic/ South American setting far from the Andalusian elegance of Seville. Designer Riccardo Hernández’s sets for each of the four acts are framed by skeletal metal constructions. There’s a wire cage compound for the cigarette girls in Act 1, imprisoned by more than class and gender; Lillas Pastia’s bar in Act 2 has a corrugated metal roof; the desolate landscape of Act 3 is dominated by a metal pylon and the Act 4 bullring has metal scaffolded seating and corrugated iron walls. The sets for Acts 1 and 4 are placed near the front of the stage giving a cramped slightly oppressive feel although Paulus’ blocking is immaculate. Costume designer Evie Gurney has the soldiers swaggering around in macho khaki fatigues and Cuban caps with the cigarette girls wearing white-fringed blue tunics. It’s a third-world, sweaty, low-rent space which is dramatically coherent and convincing.
The opera world is small and incestuous. I reviewed director Damiano Michieletto’s recent new Carmen at Covent Garden a few weeks ago (see our review) with Aigul Akmetshina, the defining Carmen of her generation, in the title role. Akmetshina has also played the role in New York at The Metropolitan Opera and will be taking over at Glyndebourne in August. But tonight’s Carmen is the Tunisian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb who brings a raw sensuality and sense of defiance to the role as she fights and steals the truncheon of her soldier/captor. With her attractively husky vocal tone, Chaieb portrays a woman who knows how to use sex as a weapon in a world where women are prey. Chaieb’s Carmen is an object of desire and as she stretches out the top notes in the Habanera “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” whilst standing on the top of a military truck, there is a North African/Andalusian authenticity to her portrayal not present in Akmetshina’s more starry take on the part.
The role of Don José is taken by Ukranian tenor Dmytro Popov who is making his Glyndebourne debut this season. Popov brings not only passion but the requisite level of narcissistic delusion to the part in his signature Act 2 aria “La fleur que tu m’as jétée” with a voice that has a mature roundness to it as well as a powerful spinto top end.
Russian soprano Sofia Fomina is tasked with making something out of the lovelorn piety of Micaëla, the girl from back home who Don José’s mum has lined up for him. Dressed in a Red Cross emblazoned gilet to hammer home her ‘goodness’, Fomina’s singing is gentle and expressive but also able to go full-throttle romantic in her duet with Don José “Parle-moi de ma mère!”
There is no testosterone shortage in American tenor Evan Leroy Johnson’s portrayal of star bullfighter Escamillo. Shirtless and tattooed he is unashamedly macho giving us a full-throated “Toreador Song” (“Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre”) as he flexes his biceps.
British singer Alex Otterburn, enigmatic behind shades, really impressed with his rich-toned baritone in the role of Captain Morales. Otterburn is one to watch.
As Carmen’s girlfriends Frasquita and Mercédès, Canadian soprano Elisabeth Boudreault and Brit School alumnus mezzo Kezia Bienek bring energy and charm to the trio “Les tringles des sistres tintaient”. The fizzing, diminutive Boudreault also has a wonderful gymnastic ability.
And French tenor Loïc Félix as Le Dancaïre with Swiss tenor François Piolino as Le Remendado combined a delightful thuggishness with vocal agility (“Nous avons en tête une affaire”).
Dark-haired dancers bring kinetic energy to the production, the men topless in tight-fitting black flares and the women in scarlet dresses. Choreographer Jasmin Vardimon brings together elements of the Pasodoble, Flamenco and contemporary dance to create an evocative simulacrum of the bullfight playing out both in the ring and between Carmen and Don José.
The cast of singing children, drawn from the Glyndebourne Youth Opera and Trinity Boys Choir were well-drilled and full of the kind of confidence and energy more often seen on a West End stage than in an opera house.
Conductor Robin Ticciati (Anja Bihlmaier will be taking over 1 – 24 August) gave a very controlled reading of the score with lots of detail in the dynamics. In the pit, the London Philharmonic Orchestra were impressive, with razor-sharp articulations and an impressive ensemble tightness; and The Glyndebourne Chorus were vibrant and engaged delivering a mighty sound when needed.
This is an excellent ‘safe as houses’ production with a strong ensemble cast that will become a firm Glyndebourne favourite. Glyndebourne Festival 2024 runs from 16 May to 25 August 2024. As well as Carmen there is a new production of Franz Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow and there are revivals of David McVicar’s Bollywood take on Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Barbe & Doucet’s puppets in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s 2003 Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.
Carmen
16, 23, 30 May
7, 10, 13, 15, 17 June
1 August
Gardens open: 3.00pm
Opera starts: 5.00pm
19, 26 May
2 June
4, 7, 9, 12, 15, 17, 20, 22, 24 August
Gardens open: 2.00 pm
Opera starts: 4.00 pm
Glyndebourne
Lewes,
East Sussex,
BN8 5UU
