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Post by tmesis on Feb 3, 2018 17:48:20 GMT
I've just been to the Friend's Open Rehearsal of this new production. Frankly I'm still making my mind up about it as it is so different from any other version of Carmen I've seen. First of all there's no spoken dialogue, instead there is a recorded 'narration' done by Carmen herself. These bits are mercifully short but not short enough and by the end you've really had enough. The set is a massive staircase that covers the entire width of the stage. This moves backwards and forwards but never allows for an acting space that is much larger than say The Donmar. Obviously a lot of the action takes place on the steps but this inhibits any true interaction. At the end of 3hrs 30mins you are really ready for a change of scene but that never happens.
There's a lot of really excellent dancing and movement in a broadway/street style that strangely works very well. It was also incredibly polished for a rehearsal.
Quite a lot of extra music has been added, not always to great effect - the Habanera has a whole extra section. The performances though, were all excellent, the four principals very strong - Francesco Meli a terrific Don Jose (his taxing aria beautifully done) and Anna Goryachova was one of the best Carmens I've seen. The chorus were on stonking form.
In the end I enjoyed it more than was irritated by it - Carmen is not one of my favourite operas so I can take a less reverential approach than in some other works.
Oh and I almost forgot, Carmen makes her first entrance as a Matador and her second one as King Kong - go figure!
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Post by argon on Feb 3, 2018 21:56:07 GMT
So with that staircase no horse I guess, was it well received by the Friends?
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Post by tmesis on Feb 3, 2018 22:44:00 GMT
So with that staircase no horse I guess, was it well received by the Friends? Good applause at the end, but this was deserved because the cast was really good. Lots of moaning in the interval though about the production. |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Feb 4, 2018 9:15:55 GMT
Livestock on stage is never a good thing (thank god the old ROH production is no more) but never is a King Kong costume!
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Post by tonyloco on Feb 4, 2018 14:01:18 GMT
Oh and I almost forgot, Carmen makes her first entrance as a Matador and her second one as King Kong - go figure! Oh, that's easy. It's an homage to Marlene Dietrich who dressed as a man and kissed another woman in the 1930 film 'Morocco' (and wore men's clothes at other times off-screen as well) and then appeared in a gorilla costume in the nightclub number 'Hot Voodoo' in the 1932 film 'Blonde Venus'. Both were considered daringly sexy at the time. |
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Post by tmesis on Feb 4, 2018 15:01:02 GMT
Oh and I almost forgot, Carmen makes her first entrance as a Matador and her second one as King Kong - go figure! Oh, that's easy. It's an homage to Marlene Dietrich who dressed as a man and kissed another woman in the 1930 film 'Morocco' (and wore men's clothes at other times off-screen as well) and then appeared in a gorilla costume in the nightclub number 'Hot Voodoo' in the 1932 film 'Blonde Venus'. Both were considered daringly sexy at the time. Thanks for enlightening me, that's now totally clear(!) Anna Goryachova really was fantastic in her house debut - as well as having a superb voice she is a great actress and dancer too. I'm actually feeling more positive about it 24hrs on. However, the first night proper is Tuesday and I fear the critical knives will be out... |
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Post by tonyloco on Feb 8, 2018 14:16:43 GMT
Thanks for enlightening me, that's now totally clear(!) Anna Goryachova really was fantastic in her house debut - as well as having a superb voice she is a great actress and dancer too. I'm actually feeling more positive about it 24hrs on. However, the first night proper is Tuesday and I fear the critical knives will be out... You were not wrong, tmesis, and the reviews that I have seen are generally lukewarm. For me personally, I think it is a shame that for such a bread-and-butter popular repertory piece like 'Carmen' at the Royal Opera House we have to have a 'reimagining' that apparently eschews the Spanish/Gypsy elements which are so strongly presented by Bizet. Although I am not greatly enamoured of it, the current production of 'Cav and Pag' reimagines the two operas in certain significant ways but they are still recognisably what Mascagni and Leoncavallo wrote. Oh well, I suppose in 2018 we can't expect the first act of 'Carmen' to be set in a square in Seville outside a cigarette factory where Carmen, a feisty gypsy girl, happens to work. That would be just too, too boring! How lucky are we that Mr Kosky knows better than Meilhac, Halévy and Bizet what to put on the stage under the name of 'Carmen'. |
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Post by tmesis on Feb 9, 2018 13:49:00 GMT
I'm quite surprised tonyloco the reviews haven't been even worse. Most of the 'quality' papers give it 3 stars and The Times gives it 4. I assume this production was commissioned in the old Kasper Holten regime - it will be interesting to see how many wild and wacky productions the new Director of Opera Oliver Mears gives us. There have been some truly awful productions at The Garden in the last few years. Wagner in particular has been particularly badly served (I await with breath baited the forthcoming Lohengrin) although the prize for the Worst Production ever of an Opera must go to their crass, and baffling Idomeneo. |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Feb 9, 2018 15:40:02 GMT
Eugh. The Mozart was one the worst things I’ve ever seen
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 7, 2018 23:49:00 GMT
I've just been to the Friend's Open Rehearsal of this new production. Frankly I'm still making my mind up about it as it is so different from any other version of Carmen I've seen. First of all there's no spoken dialogue, instead there is a recorded 'narration' done by Carmen herself. These bits are mercifully short but not short enough and by the end you've really had enough. The set is a massive staircase that covers the entire width of the stage. This moves backwards and forwards but never allows for an acting space that is much larger than say The Donmar. Obviously a lot of the action takes place on the steps but this inhibits any true interaction. At the end of 3hrs 30mins you are really ready for a change of scene but that never happens. There's a lot of really excellent dancing and movement in a broadway/street style that strangely works very well. It was also incredibly polished for a rehearsal. Quite a lot of extra music has been added, not always to great effect - the Habanera has a whole extra section. The performances though, were all excellent, the four principals very strong - Francesco Meli a terrific Don Jose (his taxing aria beautifully done) and Anna Goryachova was one of the best Carmens I've seen. The chorus were on stonking form. In the end I enjoyed it more than was irritated by it - Carmen is not one of my favourite operas so I can take a less reverential approach than in some other works. Oh and I almost forgot, Carmen makes her first entrance as a Matador and her second one as King Kong - go figure!
I watched the live cinema screening last night and more or less agree with everything you said, but most of the audience were less than thrilled and some didn't come back after the interval. I'm ashamed to say I laughed when Escamillo tripped up the stairs and again when Don Jose tripped over Carmen's ridiculously long dress/train. I'm such a philistine.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2018 2:00:59 GMT
I saw it at the ROH
Tuesday evening
Hated the first act
So much
Was shaking in my seat
However I was being won over by act 2
And I LOVED act 3
The dancing worked really well in this
Act 4 was okay
Overall it was an achievement for the cast
It’s quite demanding on the leads
As they have to do quite a bit of movement
Whilst singing
Hats off to Carmen
Frasquita
Mercédès
All did a great job
Some of the dancing was quite humorous
Tongue in cheek
Certainly it was something different
And the tunes are so catchy in this opera
Almost to the point they are vulgar
Why not have stylised dancing??
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2018 20:57:55 GMT
I never go to the opera. (Should that be ‘Opera’?) But I couldn’t resist another of your posts, parsley, thinking I could predict exactly what you’d do at the interval... But you didn’t!  I commend you staying after the shakes in Act One. And you liked the catchy tunes. (I’m sure I wouldn’t have lasted the first five minutes!) |
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Post by Mr Snow on Mar 9, 2018 6:38:40 GMT
Frankly I'm still making my mind up about it as it is so different from any other version of Carmen I've seen. In the end I enjoyed it more than was irritated by it - Carmen is not one of my favourite operas so I can take a less reverential approach than in some other works. That sums it up for me, thank you. I very much doubt this production will be revived more than once or twice. The legacy of Kasper Holten will be very expensive, with numerous recent productions that just have curio value. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2018 0:02:46 GMT
I never go to the opera. (Should that be ‘Opera’?) But I couldn’t resist another of your posts, parsley, thinking I could predict exactly what you’d do at the interval... But you didn’t! I commend you staying after the shakes in Act One. And you liked the catchy tunes. (I’m sure I wouldn’t have lasted the first five minutes!) The whole stage jumping up And down To Toreadors song Priceless |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2018 0:05:28 GMT
Frankly I'm still making my mind up about it as it is so different from any other version of Carmen I've seen. In the end I enjoyed it more than was irritated by it - Carmen is not one of my favourite operas so I can take a less reverential approach than in some other works. That sums it up for me, thank you. I very much doubt this production will be revived more than once or twice. The legacy of Kasper Holten will be very expensive, with numerous recent productions that just have curio value. I would not be so sure The entire run was sold out more or less And it was a relatively long run With many performances |
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Post by Mr Snow on Mar 11, 2018 8:11:40 GMT
That sums it up for me, thank you. I very much doubt this production will be revived more than once or twice. The legacy of Kasper Holten will be very expensive, with numerous recent productions that just have curio value. I would not be so sure The entire run was sold out more or less And it was a relatively long run With many performances I'm pretty sure Carmen is the worlds most performed/popular Opera. It isn't hard to sell it out (sic). Is this a production the traditionalists will want to see twice? I don't think so. |
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Post by tmesis on Mar 11, 2018 8:37:08 GMT
I would not be so sure The entire run was sold out more or less And it was a relatively long run With many performances I'm pretty sure Carmen is the worlds most performed/popular Opera. It isn't hard to sell it out (sic). Is this a production the traditionalists will want to see twice? I don't think so. But Holten's awful, garish, hyperactive Don Giovanni keeps being revived. In that he even had the temerity to cut the very end of the opera, thereby ruining Mozart's immaculate structure. |
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Post by tonyloco on Mar 11, 2018 14:09:00 GMT
SEE ABOVE for what tmesis said – [Quick Quote] is misbehaving! Don't forget Da Ponte! Just joshing, tmesis. But that ensemble at the end of 'Don Giovanni' is indeed a miraculous piece. When I worked with Ken Hill on finding operatic material to put into his version of 'Phantom of the Opera' he wanted something to round off the show and I suggested the end of 'Don Giovanni' – and it worked perfectly. Bravo Mozart and boo Holten!
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Post by tmesis on Mar 12, 2018 11:58:00 GMT
Yes tonyloco you are quite right to 'big-up' Da Ponte *. Mozart was SO fortunate to have collaborated with him on three of his masterpieces and the finales to the individual acts to all of these operas are a masterly synthesis of their respective talents. The finale to act two of Figaro is often lauded as the great musical/dramatic example to which later talents rarely come close but I love, and revere the two finales each to Cosi and Don Giovanni just as much. * what a fantastically interesting life he led too! |
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Post by tonyloco on Mar 12, 2018 19:15:34 GMT
Yes tonyloco you are quite right to 'big-up' Da Ponte *. Mozart was SO fortunate to have collaborated with him on three of his masterpieces and the finales to the individual acts to all of these operas are a masterly synthesis of their respective talents. The finale to act two of Figaro is often lauded as the great musical/dramatic example to which later talents rarely come close but I love, and revere the two finales each to Cosi and Don Giovanni just as much. * what a fantastically interesting life he led too! I couldn't agree more with everything you say. And your comments have made me realise that I have never before thought just how good all those finales are in a way that few, if any, other composers ever managed to equal. Sorry, but we have strayed a bit from 'Carmen', so I might now comment on Parsley's statement that 'Carmen' is the world's most performed/popular opera. That was certainly true throughout the twentieth century when it took over from 'Faust' but I do wonder whether that is still true when I see how many productions of Wagner operas take place all over the world with, even what should be the daunting prospect of mounting the whole of the Ring does not seem to deter even the most provincial companies. And Puccini's main operas seem to be done more and more frequently, including 'Turandot' because of 'Nessun dorma', and if anybody would like to go to Sydney in the coming months they can see 'La bohème' performed by Handa Opera on a floating stage in Sydney Harbour. I can hardly think of a less suitable piece to do in this way, which is more suited to 'Carmen', 'Aida' and 'Turandot' (all of which have been done in previous years) and yet there is 'Bohème' being done in the open air under the stars on a floating pontoon! |
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Post by n1david on Mar 20, 2018 18:08:13 GMT
They're obviously very excited by this production given it's coming back for 8 performances at the end of the year and another 10 next summer.
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Post by RedRose on Mar 21, 2018 10:58:04 GMT
They're obviously very excited by this production given it's coming back for 8 performances at the end of the year and another 10 next summer. It was widely well received when this production premiered in Frankfurt in 2016. Mostly sold out. I was devided. I hated the stairs but liked a lot of other things of it. No wish to see it again but I would recommend it as a version of Carmen. |
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I commend you staying after the shakes in Act One. And you liked the catchy tunes. (I’m sure I wouldn’t have lasted the first five minutes!)
