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Bizet: Carmen Orquestra de la Comunitat ValencianaChorus de la Generalitat Valenciana, Conductor: Lorin Maazel. Palau de Les Arts de Valencia. 6.11.2007 (JMI)

New Production Palau de Les Arts and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Director: Carlos Saura.
Sets: Laura Martínez
Costumes: Pedro Moreno.
Lighting: José Luiz López Linares

Cast:

Carmen: Julia Gertseva
Don José: Miroslav Dvorsky
Escamillo: Carlos Álvarez
Micaëla: Alexia Voulgaridou

Carmen: Julia Gertseva and Escamillo: Carlos Álvarez

The newspapers are full of reports just now that the inauguration of the Valencia opera season had to be postponed due to flooding.  This was surprising considering that the beautiful Palau de Les Arts de Valencia building is hardly three years old yet and that the river no longer runs next to it. All kind of arguments are front page news in Valencia and it is clear that the incident cannot be considered simply as an Act of God. Something structural seems to be wrong in this situation and it is not easy to believe that the current flooding  is just another 'accident'.

The Palau de les Arts inaugurated its first opera season with an all star Fidelio, a cast difficult to assemble in any top opera house anywhere in the world. In one year however,  many things have changed and the cast announced for this Carmen is far away from last year's quality. The comparison brings an evident nostalgia to Valencians:  casting  a  big star as Escamillo is welcome, but never a guarantee for a wholly successful Carmen. In the end, Escamillo is rather a secondary role in this opera.

High expectations were raised by the engagement of Carlos Saura to direct the  new production, because  Mr. Saura has dealt with Carmen before both on stage and in the movies. The result this time disappointed to a great extent, since the production is focused once again mostly on aesthetics, with an evident lack of stage direction. Except for the cigar girls' fight in the first act, there is almost no attempt to move the members of the choir around, which is particularly deplorable in Carmen. Too few rehearsals?  It could be. Mr Saura’s hand was also noticeably absent  too in  directing the  principals, which ended up purely routine and with very little interest. Overall, it was hard to belive that such a competent  Director as Mr. Saura could offer so  lifeless  a  seduction scene as that which Carmen portrayed in the second act.

Don José: Miroslav Dvorsky and Carmen: Julia Gertseva

Forgetting the poor direction though, the production has much more interest visually. It is worth mentioning the curtains in each act, which show beautiful  Gustave Doré pictures. The staging is very simple with mobile elements in the form of screens, through which  black shadows of the characters can be seen in  motion: perhaps it's rather repetitive though, as the screens and the shadows are on stage continually, except in the third act. The sets leave room for a lot  empty space, which Mr Saura only fills with the constantly static chorus. Lighting acquires an enormous prominence in this production, due to the stage concept,  and it is truly a great work. Costumes are rather timeless, mixing up epochs and styles, in an attractive exhibition of colours, particularly during the last act. Escamillo is dressed all the time (even in Act III) in bullfighter clothes and he wears more gold than most central banks actually carry. For the first time though we saw the complete fight between Escamillo and Don José, finally making  sense of  Escamillo’s remark: “Et nous jouerons la belle”.

Writing about Lorin Maazel’s conducting is difficult because there have been  few times I have heard such an uneven interpretation. It had bits of everything in it: very good, fair, mediocre and even very poor. The first two  acts, particularly the second, were taken at incredibly slow tempi, almost funereal at times. While slow tempi can sometimes result in great dramatic and moving atmospheres, this was not the case here. Mr. Maazel seemed almost bored and full of routine, and he succeeded in transferring those feelings to us. His interpretation of Carmen's opening scene in Act II “Les tringles des sistres tintaient” was worthy  of the  Guinness book of records.  What happened after the second interval? I don’t  know the answer, but then Mr. Maazel was a different conductor. The Third Act Prelude was just magnificent, followed by a thoroughly  good interpretation of the whole act, although not all of  it was  exceptional. Finally, we arrived at the last act and it was as if Mr. Maazel had remembered that he used to be a great conductor.  And he did it,  giving  us an exceptional finale. Somehow, I have the feeling that he 'woke up'  too late so that we came away with  only a clue of what Mr. Maazel can do with Carmen. He's a great conductor when he does not show this kind of apathy and  this  Orchestra is by far the best in any opera house in Spain, competing  easily with the best in Europe. The chorus gave a fine performance throughout,   allowing for a problems early on.

 

Don José: Miroslav Dvorsky and Carmen: Julia Gertseva

The Carmen was the  Russian mezzo Julia Gertseva, whose presence in this cast was surprising for those who have seen her before. She is young and attractive, but her interpretation is still routine, not supported very well by Mr Saura's direction. She had breath problems (nerves?) during the Habanera, which she sang without much appeal but was  better in  the  Seguidilla. The second act was  routine with  too many open sounds in the  'Card Song'  bur was much acceptable in the finale. Ms  Gertseva's voice shows some good qualities in the mid-range but as yet she  lacks many colours, and her  higher register is tight and not too attractive. This Carmen was saved by her her appearance and better direction would have taken advantage  of what she looks like on stage.

No less of a surprise was to see Miroslav Dvorsky as Don José.  His is a lyric tenor - of not much distinction it has to be said -  and he  pushed his voice too hard and suffered pitch problems as a consequence. There were many such problems in his duet with Micaëla  and gave us a fairly routine Flower Song with a failed high B. He cracked in again in the third act, and he should thank Mr. Maazel for the volume he offered at the end of Act III.

Carlos Alvarez was Escamillo and he gave had a good performance, but nobody can expect that the toreador saves this  opera but I do not believe that Escamillo is a role for him. In fact, I am not sure that Escamillo is good for most singers: it's too high for basses and too low for baritones.

Sadly, Greek soprano Alexia Voulgaridou was a poor Micaëla.  Though acceptable in the middle range  and with a good appearance on stage,  this was all she could offer.  She had continuous pitch problems in the duet with Don José – who was having his own at the time – and the combined result was unsatisfying. In the secondary parts, much  praise is due to  Mikhail Petrenko as Zúñiga and  to Fabio Previati (Dancaire) who was  a real luxury in this part. Vicenç Esteve was a completely correct Remendado, Silvia Vázquez (Frasquita) showed facility in the much needed high notes and  Adriana Zabala (Mercedès) offered an attractive, although rather small voice.

This was another packed house in which a warm but not too excited audience, offered not a single cheer during the performance. For the curtain calls, there was  decent and polite applause for everybody but the only bravos went to the orchestra.

 

José M. Irurzun

Pictures © Palau de Les Arts de Valencia 2007

 

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