January 27th, 2010

I just came back from seeing Carmen – an opera at the Canadian Opera Company (COC). I have seen Carmen about 5 times in the past: a few times in St. Petersburg, a few times in Moldova, and once before in Toronto. Because of my previous experience and considering that Carmen is one of the most popular and recognizable operas of all time I sort of assumed that the COC was going to make it “the show” of this season…boy was I wrong! It not only failed to live up to my expectations but the first three acts were just painful to watch. Aside from the mediocre singing, the lead and the costume designer managed to completely shatter my perception of Carmen as a character. I always thought of her as this exotic, gypsy seductress who exudes both confidence and charm; whose beauty and strength makes her irresistible. But their Carmen was non of those things. For the first half of the performance she looked more like a bum than a coquettish temptress that she was intended to be. I’m not sure if it’s a budget issue but the COC needs to reconsider their costume approaches. Their modern takes on the period pieces is getting stale. Don’t we go to the opera partially because we want to be taken into the wonders of some other world? Quit trying to rejuvenate this art form by modernizing the costumes. Or is it realism that the COC is striving for? I hope not because the constant singing kinds of breaks the illusion anyway. Seeing Escamillo (a toreador) in a blazer and Gap pants is not going to magically make the story more relevant to today’s society. Let us have the enjoyment of the escape and please stop butchering the classics.