If you’ve never been to an opera and want to try one, Carmen is the perfect first choice. Why? Well, it’s very melodic and you will undoubtedly recognize some or most of the melodies. The story is easy to follow—even without subtitles—even though it’s sung in French. The opera has inspired a multitude of versions, including the movies Carmen Jones (with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Bllafonte) and a hip hop movie, Carmen: A Hip Hopera, starring Beyoncé and Mekhi Phifer.
A quick summary: The opera opens with Carmen—an independent woman who loves to smoke, drink, flirt, and always get her way—and her fellow cigarette-factory workers leaving at the end of their work day. Local men surround and start to flirt with the women, but Carmen explains her heart can’t be tied down (“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”). When she is arrested for attacking another woman with a knife, she seduces a soldier, Don José, to help her escape. The pair becomes lovers and Don José ends up running away from the army to be with Carmen.
Two months later, Carmen has tired of Don José and has turned her attention to the bullfighter Escamillo. In a fit of jealousy, Don José follows Carmen to where the bullfighters are about to perform and stabs her to death. She dies in the arms of the toreador Escamillo.
Carmen’s composer Georges Bizet knew that he’d written something great. He wrote in a letter to a friend that he had “absolute certainty of having found my path.”
That makes it even sadder that the opera wasn’t a success when it was first performed in 1875. One critic noted that the audience in Paris was “shocked by the drastic realism of the action.”
Bizet died just three months later, at the young age of 36. He’d never know that his opera would go on to become one of the best known and best loved pieces of music of all time.
It’s interesting to note that during rehearsals Bizet repeatedly had to alter the music to accommodate the singers who wanted to have a show-stopping tune. As a consequence, each principal singer ends up with a great song.
The New Orleans cast features soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano as Carmen, tenor Rafael Davila as Don José, baritone Zachary Nelson as Escamillo, The complete listing of cast and crew is available at the New Orleans Opera’s website.
The two performances of Carmen are scheduled for Friday, October 4, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 2:30 p.m. Single tickets start at $30 and subscription packages start at $78. The “After the Curtain Falls…” opening night celebration is on stage immediately following the Friday performance. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased online or by phone; opera tickets are required to attend this special event. The party features music by Julio and Cesar, passed hors d’oeuvres by Ralph Brennan’s Catering and signature cocktail thanks to Seven Three Distilling.
