Carmen sf opera1/7/2023 Szot brings his movie star good looks and a certain swagger to the role but not much else. Carmen’s new lover, the dashing bullfighter Escamillo, is sung by Tony-Award winner Paulo Szot (“South Pacific”). His voice even improves his Act II “Flower Song” is well delivered and, by the distraught finale, he effectively holds his own against his beloved nemesis, the gypsy who has led him astray. If a little wimpy in the beginning, he comes back from a brief jail stint a changed man. Not to slight her leading man, Brazilian tenor Thiago Arancam. In the opening act she looks like she could eat Don Jose for breakfast and, by the third, she effectively has. Her lustrous tone and smoldering stage presence dominate every scene she’s in. Rachvelishvili - who looks a little like a younger, slightly heftier, version of Cher - owns this role. She comes to San Francisco straight from a triumph in “Adriana Lecouvreur” at Carnegie Hall. The Georgian mezzo ( pictured, right), who shares the role with former Adler Fellow Kendall Gladen, has sung Carmen at La Scala, the Met, in Munich, Berlin, Verona and beyond. Santa Barbara Opera artistic head José Maria Condemi’s direction leans to the static in Act I, as soldiers hang out in front of the barracks and cigarette girls come out from the factory on break, and to the ridiculous in Don José and Escamillo’s knife fight in Act III.īut, from the first moment that Anita Rachvelishvili sashays onstage in the title role, we are aware that we are in the presence of a thoroughbred. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s sets, nothing to rhapsodize over when they were new, are showing signs of age. The incarnation now on stage at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House hasn’t exactly thrown a shoe, but it’s a little tired. According to opera house ledgers, it’s money in the bank. According to Operabase, it’s the third most-often performed work in the repertoire. San Francisco Opera, War Memorial Opera HouseĪs warhorses go, Bizet’s “Carmen” runs with the best. The ensemble in Act II of San Francisco Opera’s “Carmen”
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