Tysons Corner, VA—Before column inches devoted to the arts started shrinking for all of us in the newspaper biz, I used to cover some of the DC area’s many small music ensembles. While they tend to lack big budgets, showy sets, and superstar vocalists, they provide terrific opportunities for young singers and instrumentalists to develop their respective crafts.
As an added bonus, they give suburbanites on both sides of the Potomac a chance to hear great and sometimes forgotten works at reasonable prices and generally without the traffic hassle that a trip to DC can entail.
One of these small organizations is Bel Cantanti, a little opera company I last reviewed when they were still trying to make a go of it in the sanctuary of a suburban Maryland church. Happily, they seem to have found a pair of more spacious homes, performing at the new 1st Stage Theatre space in Tysons Corner, Virginia and at Rockville’s Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington in Maryland.
Founded in 2003 and still under the direction of its founder, Dr. Katerina Souvorova, Bel Cantanti’s primary goal is to provide a chance for primarily young local vocalists to perform fully staged operas, helping to advance their careers.
Bel Cantanti’s current offering—Georges Bizet’s Carmen—is just the right choice for drawing an audience in these economic times. It’s shot through with tunes still so popular that most people know them even if they’ve never attended a single opera.
Carmen's (MyeongSook Park's) sexy dance at
the smuggler's favorite pub.
Oddly for such an enduring hit, the opera was a flop at its 1875 premiere, albeit mostly for theatrical and political reasons. Unfortunately, Bizet, only 36, died of a heart attack shortly after Carmen opened. He never lived to see his masterwork become one of the most popular operas ever, today rivaling even Puccini’s La Bohème in annual number of performances.
Like most operas, Carmen is built on a relatively simple story, in this case, a tale by Prosper Mérimée via Alexander Pushkin’s original material. The opera follows the fortunes and misfortunes of its eponymous anti-heroine, an amoral gypsy girl whose scandalously outsized appetite for sex and adventure causes nothing but trouble.
Carmen encourages and then discards lovers seemingly by the dozen. Her latest is the hapless Don José (the "J" is pronounced like an English "J" in the French here), a low-level soldier who’s a decidedly dim bulb when it comes to the psyche of predatory females.
Micaëla (Angela Marchese)gives José
(Hansu Kim) a letter from mom.
(And who gave you that flower, Jose?)
Without much reflection, José abandons his mother, his fiancée, and the military to follow her into a life of crime as a smuggler. His reward? Getting unceremoniously dumped, of course, when Carmen falls for hunky toreador Escamillo. For Carmen, however, this latest tryst is a bad career move—increasingly obvious as the distraught Don Jose plots his revenge.
Extreme catfight at the cigarette factory.
Carmen (back to camera) in trouble again.
As Carmen, mezzo-soprano MyeongSook Park turned in a fine, saucy performance with a sultry voice and demeanor that breathed new life into her already lively character.
As Don José, the hapless corporal who’s Carmen’s latest target of opportunity, Hansu Kim’s mature, fully developed tenor voice provided just the right counterpoint to his feisty love interest although he occasionally lacked subtlety in his attack. His acting skills proved considerable, as he believably embodied his character’s decline and fall.
Baritone Robert Burner’s swaggering toreador, Escamillo, radiated alpha-male authority and sexual maturity with his strong, self-assured, and well-supported voice. And as Micaëla, the opera’s “good girl” and Jose’s discarded fiancée, soprano Angela Marchese nearly stole the show with sweet, mature, beautifully nuanced performances of her two signature arias.
The remaining cast members did well in their brief solo turns and also subbed ably as the opera’s chorus when required.
Carmen discards José. Very bad career move
for both. (All photos courtesy Bel Cantanti.)
The production itself was bare bones featuring few props on its sparse sets, compensating, however, with colorful costumes and a cast that was generally able to conjure up each scene as if they were actually there.
For whatever reason—probably a combination of time, budget, and available resources—plus an understandable emphasis on soloists rather than choral work—this Carmen had plenty of cuts. But nearly all of the good stuff was still there.
What was trimmed? The opera usually opens today with some form of Bizet’s original Prelude, or with one of the later-constructed “Carmen Suites” that contain many of the work’s popular tunes. This production launched right into the action.
A number of scenes and songs were also snipped, notably the Act I children's march, the frisky trio sung by Carmen and her gal-pals Frasquita (Caitlin Bundy) and Mercedes (Katherine Sanford), the full confrontation between José and Escamillo, and the boisterous, primarily choral parade and bullfighting music that begins the final act.
A surprisingly good string section, buttressed by a fine oboist and an excellent clarinetist, provided the orchestral accompaniment in this production. Ms. Souvorova conducted and augmented out the ensemble’s sound via dual electronic keyboards, which she played with great skill.
The original version of Carmen used spoken dialogue to advance some of the action. For much of its history, these were changed into vocal recitatives. Recently, however, more productions, finding that the spoken dialogue actually improves the opera’s pace, are reverting back to Bizet’s original concept.
That was Bel Cantanti’s choice this weekend. Their spoken dialogue, however, was translated from the original French into colloquial English. That’s quite helpful for non-French speakers, even if the transitions back to sung French seemed occasionally jarring. A further aid was provided by the company’s generally decent surtitles.
Bel Cantanti’s Carmen travels back across the Potomac this upcoming weekend, where they will stage their final performances at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington.
Rating: ** (Two stars.)
Tickets and information: Bel Cantanti’s Carmen will be performed twice this coming weekend, March 13 at 7:30pm and March 14 at 3pm at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington, 6125 Montrose Rd., Rockville, MD. Tickets are $35 for adults and $25 for students, with discounts for groups of 10 or more. Call 301-266-7546 for details or email tickets@belcantanti.com. Further details and driving directions can be found at Bel Cantanti’s nicely revamped website here.
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