“La Tragédie de Carmen”

Excerpted from the review was written by Gail M. Burns - August 2009

...The Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre (HHOT) is presenting La Tragédie de Carmen, which is Peter Brook’s 1981 Tony Award-winning adaptation of Prosper Mérimée’s 1845 novella Carmen (Click HERE for an English translation) using some music from Georges Bizet’s famous 1875 opera, also titled Carmen and also based on Mérimée’s novella.

“We are doing a new investigation of [Carmen] – hence the new title – and what we have done is to separate its central core from the rest of the material, like boning a fish. Everything is trimmed away to focus on the intense interaction, the tragedy of four people.”

– Peter Brook

Brook (b. 1925) has been a leading innovator on the international theatre scene for more than half a century. La Tragédie de Carmen is the result of a collaboration with Jean-Claude Carrière and Marius Constant. Brook’s production, which opened in Paris, had a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy. At Hubbard Hall it is performed in an English translation by Sheldon Harnick whose greatest claim to fame are the lyrics for Fiddler on the Roof.

“La Tragédie de Carmen is a peculiar hybrid, a bird that makes noises like an opera but looks like a play and may be neither so much as a celebration of a director’s ingenuity.”

– Anonymous, NY Times

Indeed, Managing Artistic Director Alexina Jones selected of this pared down Carmen, with four singing and two speaking roles, because it fit her limited space and budgetary requirements, not because she shared Brook’s vision. I am not criticizing Jones’ choice – it is prudent producer who knows her company’s limitations as well as its strengths. This second season has been one of life-altering change for Jones, who gave birth to her first child last month, and for last season’s conductor, Richard Giarusso, who was married on the opening weekend of this production. Consequently the …Carmen orchestra is under the baton of Michael Ricciardone.

After a season of reviewing great musicals performed with inadequate instrumental accompaniment, it is a joy to watch and listen to a 15-piece orchestra. The audience for this production is seated on and in front of the stage, and on both sides, the performance space is on the floor, and the orchestra is tucked under the balcony behind the singers. I missed last year’s super-titles projected on the front edge of the balcony because even in Harnick rather pedestrian English translation it is not always easy to catch all the words. The other thing missed sorely this year was the splendid formal dress Giarusso affected. A conductor should be in white tie and tails, not in a faded black t-shirt and jeans, even in a little rural opera house.

I have actually seen and written about a concert staging of Carmen presented at Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood as a benefit for the now-defunct Berkshire Opera Company in 1998. It starred Denyce Graves and it was FABULOUS! I may be an opera dummy, but I realized even then that seeing and hearing Graves sing Carmen live was a BIG deal.

Graves was rightly billed then as “the world’s reigning Carmen,” but having seen Kara Cornell’s performance I think Graves now has serious competition. Cornell sang the role of Dorabella in last year’s HHOT production of Cosi… and when she first threw off her cloak and revealed herself here my heart sank because her blonde good looks didn’t immediately make me think of a hot-blooded gypsy. But that fear was quickly laid to rest as Cornell’s powerful soprano, her fine acting, and her sensuous dancing (the choreography is by MK Lawson) overcame all ethnic boundaries and made her Carmen through and through.

In fact, Cornell completely eclipsed everyone else on stage. Tenor Cameron Smith’s Don José and bass Andrew Cummings’ Escamillo were fine, but they were not as electrifying or vocally excellent as Cornell’s performance.

In the non-singing roles, John Goodrich looked like he was having fun playing the evil Lilas Pastia, and Richard Mazzaferro was an earnest Zuniga.

Here you are presented with a strong production of a Carmen few have had a chance to see, with a dynamic young soprano in the title role for a top ticket price of only $30! I wouldn’t let this opportunity pass you by.

The Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre production of La Tragédie de Carmen will be performed August 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22 at 8 p.m. and August 23 at 2 p.m. at Hubbard Hall, 25 East Main Street in Cambridge, NY. There will be a Pay-What-You-Will preview at 8 p.m. on August 13. The show runs 75 minutes with no intermission and is a little too racy for children under 8. Tickets are $25 for members, $30 for non-members and $20 for students/children. Call the box office at 518-677-2495 for tickets and information.

Copyright Gail M. Burns 2009