Friday March 29, 2024
HANDA OPERA ON SYDNEY HARBOUR CARMEN
Review

HANDA OPERA ON SYDNEY HARBOUR CARMEN

March 28 2013

CARMEN - Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, Opera Australia at Mrs Macquarie's Chair, 22 March-12 April 2013. Photos by James Morgan, main - Kate Wormald; right: Rinat Shaham.

THE SECOND YEAR of Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour - after La Traviata in 2012 - confirms Brian Thomson as a peerless stage designer. His mastery of the impossible is simply awesome (an often ill-used word but in this case, the true one). 

The challenge: take a large open air stage with wings, fly tower and backdrop consisting of the world's most beautiful harbour city and the sky above it; link the elements without ignoring any of them and ensuring that the stage and its human participants aren't dwarfed, nor allow the surroundings to distract from them. It's a matter of understanding scale - which sounds simple but isn't.

For La Traviata Thomson devised the most elegant, apposite and perfect link between stage and harbour: the fabled 9m tall crystal chandelier. It sent the message of an interior (albeit with a starry ceiling) yet because of its massive size and its position above the stage, it conveyed both intimacy and expansiveness. The chandelier prevented the action of the opera being swamped by its surroundings while linking the stage to the surrounding harbour- and cityscape. An amazing feat of imagination and realisation.

For this year's Carmen Thomson has taken a different approach. Seville's tall tenements and bullring are suggested via a four-storey scaffolding structure at the rear of the sharply raked stage. As the show opens, a 1930s battle tank and an army truck swing in from the dark via cranes to settle on either side of the stage. And instantly the circular black, blood-spattered arena, surrounded by a red rim, is a city plaza in the time of the Spanish Civil War and, eventually, a plaza de toros on a hot Sunday afternoon in August. 

There are two other specific visual elements, however, and they're as clever as the 2012 chandelier. Over the past couple of weeks Sydney city-siders have become aware of the four-storey high, red letters that spell out the name of the heroine. What they may not have considered is that's because "C-A-R-M-E-N" faces the city - not the 3000 members of the audience. The production is therefore linked to the city itself - an invitation and a sharing of the spectacle.

Meanwhile the other emblem of the Spanish setting is the silhouette of the great black bull. It advertised Soberano brandy and was seen on hilltops throughout southern Spain for years after the end of the Franco era. It was synonymous with that old Spain and is represented here as a cut-out which is finally illuminated in blood red light.

Thomson is aided and abetted in the visual presentation of the production by costume designer Julie Lynch and lighting designer John Rayment. With dramatic follow spots zeroing in on solos and duos on a black stage and washes of light and colour illuminating the "tenement" wall, Rayment repeatedly heightens the atmosphere and the message of the music and drama. 

Lynch's costumes carry through the notion of precision and atmosphere: her military men are the fascist Guardia Civil in pompously ill-tailored green uniforms and the ridiculous black patent leather hats. The ordinary people of Seville are as respectable as the rebels are not; the flamenco dancers and toreros are flamboyant and sexy and the colours as rich and hot as the southern Spanish landscape. All except for Don Jose's discarded fiancee Micaela - demurely clad in a a baby blue frock and neat accessories - the only hint of "nice girl" in sight.

As well as being a legendary force with performers, director Gale Edwards has a particular talent for conjuring up the spectacle and bringing together the creative team to realise her visions. The fourth member of the Carmen team is one who worked with her - brilliantly - on OA's Salome. Choreographer Kelley Abbey is best know to Australian audiences as the mistress of musical theatre dance, her transition to opera has been a triumph. with the unforgettable "Dance of the Seven Veils" for Salome and now the challenge of Carmen

HANDA OPERA ON SYDNEY HARBOUR CARMEN

Abbey's work in this production ranges from small moments between Carmen and her factory worker girl friends; her lovers, Don Jose or Escamillo and on to vast, swirling tableaux vivant of carousing citizens, flamenco dancers and acrobats. The mass movement of bodies on the stage is eye-catching, meaningful and thrilling. A centrepiece - bound to become one of "the" lasting images of this show - is the solo flamenco dancer (Kate Wormald) whose oversize flaring scarlet skirts are actually manipulated by seven male dancers (there's the importance of scale again). 

The spectacle would be nothing without the human content, however, and with two casts alternating night after night, Edwards has pulled together an astonishing double act. On opening night Rinat Shaham, Dymytro Popov, Andrew Jones and Nicole Car performed the principal roles of Carmen, Don Jose, Escamillo and Micaela. 

Israeli-born star Rinat Shaham is the current go-to mezzo for the role of Carmen with companies around the world and it's easy to see why. She is vocally powerful across the range and also is an actress who can convey the reality of a woman who will sacrifice anything for her independence. 

Dymyto Popov is equally convincing as Don Jose. His passion for Carmen and consequent discarding of Micaela is logical and believable in both his acting and heartfelt delivery and beautiful approach to the music. It's his first Don Jose and he is superb - let's hope he'll visit again.

Our own Nicole Car is also superb in the soprano role as the luckless Micaela. She more than holds her own, vocally and histrionically, with the imported stars - even when singing in a spotlight from the top of a shipping container high above the stage and, presumably, surrounded by a black abyss!

As the sexpot matador Escamillo Andrew Jones is as spunky as they come, arriving with a bevy of groupies aboard a Lady Docker-style vintage Daimler. On opening night he unfortunately sounded as if he had a mouthful of boiled lollies, or maybe cough drops. His diction and voice were somewhat muffled and garbled and in noticeable contrast to the rest of the cast.

The sound, of course, is the great worry and bugbear of outdoor performance and, with the orchestra tucked away below decks and the singers wearing body mikes, it's the one thing the purists wait to jump on. Happily sound designer Tony David Cray and the sound desk engineers deprived them of that dubious pleasure. The sound is excellent and possibly better than it often is in the Opera House itself. The moaning minnies were notably silent on the night!

All in all, Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour and Carmen is yet another popular and critical hit for artistic director Lyndon Terracini; the entire creative team and cast of thousands are to be applauded and enjoyed and if the catering could be improved, it would be pretty much flawless. As it is, the event is one that showcases Sydney and the opera company like nothing else and it's a joy and privilege (and affordable) to be there.

 

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