COLLECTIONS magazine's A Gypsy Tale

A Gypsy Tale

The Canadian Opera Company presents Carmen

by Jacqueline Nunes

Bryan Hymel as Don José and Rinat Shaham as Carmen in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Carmen, 2010. Photo: Michael Cooper

W

hether you realize it or not, you know the story of

It embodies Ivany’s take at Against the Grain, the theatre

Carmen. It’s been retold in countless movies and

company he founded in 2010, which takes opera out of the

reimagined in many popular TV shows, cartoons and ad campaigns.

opera house and into untraditional venues, while reimagining

It’s been referenced by Looney Tunes, The Simpsons, and Family

and modernizing the classical pieces. Over its next season, his

Guy. It’s been sung in Sesame Street by a stop-animation orange

company will perform a collection of Mozart operas, including

(as in the fruit) with a walnut nose and an elastic band for a mouth.

The Marriage of Figaro, which has been translated into English

Even Beyonce has had a turn. In 2001, she made her acting

and recast in a wedding venue, with the audience attending as

debut as the star of Carmen: A Hip Hopera, which was produced

wedding guests.

by MTV and takes place in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, with mostly original hip-hop and R&B replacing the classical score.

Ivany was first captivated by opera during his undergraduate degree, when he was trying to figure out how he would combine

This season, the Canadian Opera Company (COC) will bring to

a talent for music with a love of theatre. Someone invited him

stage their own version of the gypsy tale, written by French

to be a “super” — the opera version of an “extra” — in a

composer Georges Bizet and first performed in 1875. The

production being performed on campus. As it turns out, that

masterpiece will be directed by young Canadian director Joel

opera was Carmen. “I’ve come full circle,” he says. Watching

Ivany, who hails from Toronto’s cutting-edge theatre collective,

the opera night after night, Ivany fell in love with the title

Against the Grain Theatre. Carmen will be Ivany’s COC

character, who he describes as “the most fiery, free, beautiful

mainstage debut. “This is the biggest thing I’ve ever done,”

woman of all characters in all of opera.”

Ivany says. “It’s like being called up to the majors.”

Carmen is “the most fiery, free, beautiful woman of all characters in all of opera.”

When Neef describes Carmen as “one of the most famous operas but also one of the best,” he too hones in on the title character, who he says is, “one of the few characters in opera who is completely independent, a freedomseeker.” The only other character in opera that Neef would describe in that way is Don Giovanni, the title character in a Mozart opera

“He’s a very talented young director,” confirms Alexander Neef,

that premiered in 1787. “It took 70 years for

the General Director of the COC. “He’s someone who should be

opera to imagine a freedom-seeking woman,”

associated with the COC.” Ivany’s imagination and creativity in

says

the classical art form fit beautifully with Neef’s own priorities

audiences’ expectations. They didn’t expect

for the 66-year-old company, the largest producer of opera

such a strong, unruly female character.” He

in Canada and one of the largest in North America. The COC

foreshadows the opera’s ending by pointing

mounts six operas a year, and Neef says his most important

out, “Even by the end, Carmen is not ready

thought is giving audiences an idea of how diverse an art form

to compromise her freedom, even to the

it is. “We’re talking about 400 years of opera, different time

point of risking self-destruction. That’s

periods, languages, musical styles, and we think about bringing

what makes it so breathtaking.”

Neef.

“Carmen

completely

defied

them to stage in different ways,” Neef says.

The COC’s production of Carmen is set against the colourful, sun-baked landscape of 1940s Latin America, and follows the tragic love affair between a seductress and a young soldier who, in the thrall of consuming jealousy, attempts to tame her. Ivany is cagey with details about his production, revealing only that he’s tried to be innovative with his take — “The action won’t just be confined on stage. I’ve tried to think about how the action can spill out, how can we involve the audience, how do we get the performers to reach across the orchestra, both literally and also artistically.” He wants audiences to have an intimate experience, to have moments where they connect with the performers. With that in mind, he adds, “This isn’t just another Carmen. This is our Carmen, right now.”

Above: Rinat Shaham as Carmen and Alain Coulombe as Zuniga; Below, (centre) Rinat Shaham as Carmen in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Carmen, 2010. Photos: Michael Cooper.

The storytelling of Carmen also introduced a new tradition to the opera, called verismo, which translates from the Italian vero, meaning “true.” It sought to portray the world with greater realism, incorporating subject matter that had never entered into opera before, such as the lives of the poor, romantic tangles and violent encounters. “Real people on stage in real situations, often involving a lot of blood,” says Sue Elliott, who lectures for the COC and was previously the Director of Education for Seattle Opera. Carmen, in particular, grapples with the universal struggle of fate versus choice. The largerthan-life characters and vibrant, memorable score just enhance its popularity. “The music is almost too memorable,” Elliott says. “You often get a bad case of ‘earworms’ after hearing it.” Add to that what Elliott calls, “one of the most dramatic resolutions in all of opera at the end of the last act,” and you have an opera that has captivated for centuries.

Toronto audiences will be hooked.

productions, in order to appeal to what Neef sees as two distinct audiences: newcomers to opera, who will be enticed by big-name productions, and a very loyal, core audience, many of whom are subscribers and are looking to the COC to show them something new. Carmen will be paired with what Neef describes as a completely unknown opera by the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, who is best-known for his comedies, like The Barber of Seville (1816). COC will mount one of his more serious operas, called Maometto II, the historic tale of a great Turkish sultan and his quest to conquor the Holy Roman Empire. The tagline for the production is, “Love and war collide in Rossini’s epic drama.”

As for Ivany, he just wants Torontonians to realize what they have: “Toronto audiences will see a level of opera production that is equal to all those great stages around the world. The music is going to sound fantastic, the performances, the acting is going to be world-class. They’re going to be blown away.” He adds, “Toronto doesn’t just have opera. It has dynamic opera and provocative opera, and sometimes dangerous opera. We stand out on a world level.”

But Carmen didn’t start out an audience favourite, not even close. Elliott describes what it was like when the opera opened in Paris in 1875: “These audiences would go to the opera house and see very light repertoire, happy stories. You brought your whole family; opera was a family outing. But this time, on stage, you see a love quadrilateral. Not even a triangle.

You see criminals on stage. You see working women. You see women rolling cigarettes. And most shocking of all for audiences in 1875 was the ending — it was scandalizing.”

The opera ended after a very short run and wasn’t mounted again for a decade. During that first run, the composer died suddenly of heart disease at age 36, with no taste of the success that would follow.

Neef knows that Toronto audiences will be hooked. And he hopes they’ll want to see more. Every COC season strives to balance very popular operas with lesser-known

Teiya Kasahara as Frasquita, Rinat Shaham as Carmen, Justin Welsh as Le Dancaïre, Lauren Segal as Mercédès and Adam Luther as Le Remendado in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Carmen, 2010. Photo: Michael Cooper

Bizet’s Carmen will be performed at the Canadian Opera Company from April 12 to May 15.

To learn more, visit: www.coc.ca Left to Right: Alexander Neef, General Director of the COC. Photo Credit bohuang.ca. Joel Ivany, Director. Photo Credit bohuang.ca.