Gypsy Spirit

‘Carmen’ and her lovers bring their passion, jealousy and rage to the stage as part of the Princeton Festival’s ‘Sounds of Spain.’

By: Anthony Stoeckert

TIMEOFF/FRANK WOJCIECHOWSKI

Don


José (Todd Geer), left, and Escamillo (Zeffin Quinn Hollis) duke
it out for the love of the gypsy in the Princeton Festival’s Carmen, to be staged at McCarter Theatre.

   Passion, jealously, murder: Carmen has it all.
   As such, it’s a fitting choice for this year’s Princeton Festival (titled Sounds of Spain), a celebration of performing arts that takes place in various locations throughout the Princeton area June 17 through July 1.
   George Bizet’s popular work, based on an 1845 novella by Prosper Mérimée, tells the story of Carmen (played by mezzo-soprano Jessie Raven), a beautiful gypsy smuggler who seduces Cpl. Don José (tenor Todd Geer) into leaving the army to join her band of thieves. She soon grows tired of him and falls in love with Escamillo (bass-baritone Zeffin Quinn Hollis), a bullfighter who tells Don José of his passion for Carmen and about her affair with a solider, unaware that he’s speaking with that very solider.
   "He’s a bullfighter, so he has this sort of sex appeal and a certain amount of fame," says Richard Tang Yuk, artistic director of the Princeton Festival and conductor of Carmen. "All the girls are after him and Carmen is falling in love with him and of course José gets very jealous. He realizes there’s nothing he can do about it, it’s just unraveling before his eyes."
   At this point, Don José is informed by his former girlfriend, Micaela (soprano Christina Pier), that his mother is sick.
   "José is desperately in love with Carmen, but she’s grown tired of him," Mr. Tang Yuk says. "He’s upset about this because he left the army, he broke the law for her because he was in love with her. And now she’s like, ‘I’m tired of you, go back to your mother.’" The story ends with Don José murdering Carmen in order to stop her from ever loving another man.
   Cast members were chosen after auditions were held in New York. Mr. Tang Yuk says he also seeks recommendations from management agencies and colleagues. The final cast will include 79 performers (10 principle performers, 40 in the adult chorus, 27 in the children’s chorus and two walk-on roles). He adds that Carmen is one of the most expensive operas to produce because of its cast.
   One of the goals of the Princeton Festival is to convince people who might be intimidated by opera to take in a performance of Carmen. An article on the festival’s Web site titled "Who’s Afraid of Opera?" attempts to allay fears that opera is too complicated or highfalutin for the average Joe.
   "What we’re trying to do is reach out to people who perhaps think, ‘Oh, opera’s not my thing, it’s just a bunch of people singing high notes,’" says Mr. Tang Yuk. Like any narrative form, one of the goals of opera is to present a story audiences can get lost in."
   With so many twists and turns, and themes most people can relate to (we all get jealous, though few of us resort to murder), Carmen can be as captivating for its story as its music. "It’s like when you’re watching a movie and you forget that you’re watching a movie because you get so caught up in the drama," Mr. Tang Yuk says. "Opera is like that. But a lot of people don’t have that experience because they don’t know what the opera is about, and that haven’t invested any time in reading a synopsis, or they haven’t been to a performance with super-titles (the opera equivalent of subtitles).
   "I think if people understand what’s happening in the opera, they realize it’s an amazing art form. It’s the one art form that involves music, drama, costumes, visual and orchestra. What other art form is like that?"
   Just about anyone is certain to be familiar with some of the music in Carmen. The aria "Habanera" has been used famously in television shows like Gilligan’s Island (in the castaways’ musical production of Hamlet, no less) and Sesame Street (when it was sung by an orange). It’s most famous use in popular culture, though, may be in the 1976 movie The Bad News Bears, when it accompanied the unfortunate baseball antics by the film’s little league players. The Toreador song and the Overture will be familiar to many as well.
   "These tunes have found their way into a lot of commercials and advertisements, so people know the tunes even if they haven’t been to the opera," Mr. Tang Yuk says. "The orchestration is just fantastic."
   Carmen’s fame is somewhat ironic as the opera was rejected by critics and audiences when it premiered in 1875 for reasons that likely contribute to its popularity today.
   "It’s overtly sexual, Carmen is a seductive personality," Mr. Tang Yuk says. "That’s one of the reasons it failed when it was premiered. The French society was very proper, and it was shocking to them that this woman would seduce a soldier in the army and get him to defect and join her band of smugglers."
   Another reason Mr. Tang Yuk cites for the popularity of Carmen is that it’s one of the rare operas that has a mezzo-soprano as its lead. Lead roles are usually written for tenors or sopranos. Bizet wrote six operas over the course of his short life. He died at age 36, just months after Carmen’s premiere.
   "He never lived to see how successful his opera was… he died thinking it was a failure," Mr. Tang Yuk says. "What a shame, huh?"
   One thing novice opera-goers might be struck by is the acting in Carmen. During an early rehearsal, it’s clear the performers aren’t just singing, they’re capturing their characters, and are convincing in the process.
   Mr. Tang Yuk says opera singers have improved their acting talents over the last 20 to 25 years. Previously, directors were not overly concerned with how good an actor or actress a performer was, the voice was what mattered. But competition among performers has raised the ante.
   "It’s such a competitive business (now) that if you want a thin blond soprano who’s a great actress, you can find her," he says. "If you want a redhead mezzo who is overweight and a good actress, you can find it. If you want a tenor who is overweight and looks like a thug, you can find it."
   Variety of performance art forms is a cornerstone of the Princeton Festival, but the opera is the centerpiece. When planning the festival’s activities, the opera is chosen first, and then a theme is built around it if possible. While Carmen is a French opera, it’s set in the Spanish city of Seville. Much is its music is Spanish-influenced as well.
   "I thought about what kind of theme we could have and what other events could tie into that theme," Mr. Tang Yuk says. "Sounds of Spain is catchy, it sounds wonderful and different."
   In addition to Carmen, this year’s Princeton Festival (the third) features three performances of Man of La Mancha, dance, jazz and classical music. It has grown from two events to six, and Mr. Tang Yuk envisions it getting even bigger in years to come.
   "In five years, I could see us having performances every day of the week over a two-week period," he says. "There might be chamber music happening in one place on Saturday night. On Sunday afternoon at a church, there might a series of Bach cantatas. On Monday night, there might be a play in one place, on Tuesday night a dance recital somewhere else. That’s the vision where we want to be headed."
Carmen will be performed at McCarter Theatre, 91 University Place, Princeton, June 23, 29, 8 p.m., July 1, 2 p.m. Tickets cost $25-$110; (609) 537-0071; www.princetonfestival.org