Tragedie De Carmen La Tragedie

Tragedie De Carmen

La Tragedie de Carmen

La Tragedie de Carmen is a reworking of the French composer Georges Bizet's famous opera by the great, radical theater director Peter Brooks. The Chicago Opera Theater staged Brook's production at the Harris Theater in a modern-dress adaptation, set during the Spanish Civil War. The production was designed to be more accessible to modern audiences, and to replicate the intensity of the first staging of Carmen. The problem with staging Carmen is twofold -- on one hand, many audience members know the music very well, particularly the "Toreador Song." On the other hand, some people are so unfamiliar with the conventions of opera they may see the medium as irrelevant and be reluctant to come, see, and enjoy the work, even though it was originally meant to be a popular work of entertainment. La Tragedie de Carmen tries to make opera seem as gripping and vital as a suspense film, and takes the passions and the violence of the work seriously by stripping the opera to its bare bones. The chorus numbers are eliminated to bring the psychology and the relationships of the main characters to the forefront, and all but the most essential, plot or character-driven songs are cut or radically shortened.

For example, the love song of Jose, Carmen's lover, is punctuated by his murder of Zuniga, the military office who ordered Jose to take Carmen to prison. When Escamillo enters and sings his "Toreador Song" the music seems ironic and ghoulish at the same time, not simply a showpiece tune about the glories of boxing. Also, by emphasizing the violence of the soldiers, and the boxers, this production makes Carmen herself seem like less of an exotic gypsy and part of a generally violent world -- it takes her story seriously, in other words, instead of just making it seem like the story of a bad gypsy who seduces a 'good' man. No one is 'good' in this production -- even the virtuous country girl who loves Jose, Micaela, is feisty when she fights for her man.

Instead of focusing on spectacle, the music is taunt and lean. The "Toreador Song," sung without a chorus, seems more like Escamillio's anthem of defiance than an exotic piece of Spanish culture. The musical staging of the work feels more realistic because it does not deploy a large orchestra. With only fourteen instruments to bring the songs to life, the audience really feels as if it is in a tavern, watching the passions of a real world unfold. The music seems to grow organically from the situations. In many operas, the music seems as if it is being imposed upon the story, or as if the story is highly artificial and only a showcase for the music. This production is about people who sing, for whom music is a part of their lives while they go through a variety of doomed couplings. They sing to unburden their hearts in a harsh world, to seduce one another, and to enjoy life while they can. Even though Carmen is a very showy character, this extends naturally from her quality as a performer: as a character, she is always putting on a persona. When she sings "L'amour est un oiseau rebelled" she is performing and seducing Jose at the same time.